Are you reading any "Manga" lately? Now, I wouldn't call myself a huge bookworm, and my Manga consumption is probably just average, so I shouldn't speak too boldly. But because I've spent so much of my life living and breathing succulents, I've held a certain realization for a long time.
And that is: "There are surprisingly few Manga that center around plants."
Or so I thought! Within the last few years, at least three "Plant Manga" have sprouted up one after another. What's more, every single one of them takes a slightly different path than the conventional image of what a "Plant Manga" should be. Perhaps this shift itself is a reflection of the current "zeitgeist."
In this article, I’d like to dive deep into these underlying themes and try to decode the "spirit of our times."
The other day, I stumbled upon a new title called "Blue Planter" at Village Vanguard. It piqued my interest, and upon digging a bit deeper, I realized that several plant-themed works have been released back-to-back over the last few years. In fact, when I tried listing "Plant Manga" regardless of the era, I found that almost all of them were recent releases.
And here’s the kicker: none of them are just "gardening Manga" that explain how to grow things, nor are they "heartwarming slice-of-life stories" focusing on the cuteness of familiar flowers. Far from it. These stories depict plants simply existing, while humans confront them, struggle to understand them, find use for them, fail occasionally, and yet continue to maintain a relationship. It feels more like "plants exist as the primary foundation of the world, and humans are merely exploring how to relate to them."
Interacting with succulents every day, I certainly recognize this feeling. Plants truly couldn't care less about human convenience. They might lose their vigor over the slightest thing, or suddenly thrive for no apparent reason. After all, the Japanese climate—and even our gardens or rooms—isn't their original home. In the end, all we can do is get to know them, observe them closely, and gradually adjust *ourselves* to fit *their* needs.
Plants aren't there just for healing or decoration; they are essential to life, yet they are also beings that won't necessarily stay the same forever. That specific sense of "distance" we keep from plants has perhaps finally begun to surface in the form of words and stories over these past few years.
"Nonohana Katarazu (Wildflowers say nothing)" is a manga centered around the theme of what we often call "weeds." Speaking of weeds, the great Makino Tomitaro famously left us with the words, "There is no such thing as a plant named 'weed,'" and devoted his life to classifying and naming countless species.
However, this book doesn't take that kind of encyclopedic approach. What’s depicted is a simple repetition: noticing a small wildflower nearby, looking up its name, thinking, "Oh, I see," and then returning to daily life as if nothing happened. There are no major incidents, nor are there life-changing discoveries. It’s a very quiet, steady story.
And yet, for some reason, the aftertaste of reading it is wonderful. It might sound cliché, but it feels like it cleanses your soul or boosts your sense of self-affirmation. It’s that quiet realization of: "Ah, I really do love these kinds of things." It’s a feeling that isn't dictated by anyone else, nor is it something you feel the need to broadcast to the world—a certain, solid emotion that stays within you. This book gently reaffirms that it’s perfectly okay to keep it that way.
One of the biggest reasons I feel this way is because this work is thoroughly committed to "silence." The protagonist, Nonoko, loves plants, but it’s not because her plant-loving grandfather drilled it into her... not at all. She barely learned anything directly from him while he was alive. It was only after he passed away that she noticed them on her own and grew interested—a slightly misaligned plot (this point stands in stark contrast to "Blue Planter," which I’ll mention later).
The story doesn't progress through dialogue. Instead, it unfolds through Nonoko’s monologues as she lives alone, interspersed with her grandfather’s words—almost like lingering thoughts left behind in his botanical reference books. Of course, Nonoko doesn't notice them. Their messages are one-way streets, moving forward without ever truly crossing.
What’s even more striking is that the protagonist almost never voices subjective opinions about plants. The author has even testified that "I haven't let her say 'it's pretty' once." Beyond that, words like "cute," "interesting," or even "I like it" are never used. When a friend looks at a flower from the Solanaceae family and says, "It’s so fluffy and cute, like a starry sky," her only blunt reply is, "You think so?"
Yet, this doesn't mean her interest in plants is shallow. Even without judgmental adjectives, the depth of her curiosity remains the same. In fact, the intensity of that interest is an emotion truly worthy of being called "friendship."
As the title suggests, the theme of this work is "Plants do not speak." Therefore, the only thing we humans can do is to know them, learn about them, and befriend them.
In the same way, Nonoko herself doesn't say much. The people around her naturally accept that, interacting with her without overstepping boundaries. A relationship can still be valid with few words—or even no words at all. While this kind of comfortable distance might be a relationship dynamic that's hard to establish in reality, I think the wonderful aftertaste of this work comes from how it quietly shows us that ideal way of being, without ever feeling preachy.
The series began its run on Web Action in July 2022. It continued its journey after moving to Comic Nettai, steadily building its story until its long-awaited physical release in June 2025. It’s completed in a single volume (It’s such a shame—I honestly wanted to read so much more).
"Blue Planter" is a work that depicts people striving to research and design environments where plants and humans coexist, set against the backdrop of space and closed ecosystems. The story unfolds in a fictional "Department of Space Agriculture," focusing on the interactions between a high school girl studying there and a young man working as an assistant.
Hearing "Space" and "Agriculture" together might sound like sci-fi, but the setting is contemporary. It tackles a challenge that is being researched in the real world right now: "How can we grow plants in a closed space where almost no natural conditions exist?"
Now, many of you might think, "Well, space has nothing to do with me..." But the core challenge of space agriculture—"How do we grow plants in a non-natural environment?"—is essentially the same thing we do in horticulture when we grow succulents in artificial settings. In that sense, among the three works, "Blue Planter" is the most "gardening-focused" book and offers the most to learn.
What’s fascinating is that the ultimate theme of horticulture—"How to grow plants ideally in an artificial environment"—is identical to the themes tackled by cutting-edge science like space agriculture. In other words, even with today’s science, a definitive answer hasn't been found.
That is exactly why a "model for success" doesn't appear easily in this work. The fundamental stance when facing the unknown is the repetition of exploration and failure. The premise itself is that things won't always go well.
On the other hand, it’s not as if we’re just fumbling in the dark. We shouldn't forget that a vast amount of technology and insight has been accumulated through scientific research like space agriculture. Let’s honestly lean on the knowledge and research that already exists.
Rather than just learning "how to grow plants," this is a book that makes you think about "what the act of learning how to grow—the act of exploration—really is." I believe anyone who loves gardening, not just succulent enthusiasts, will find something to learn from this work.
Serialization began in Monthly Sunday in May 2024. I'm eagerly looking forward to the release of Volume 2 this month, February 2026!
Shifting gears completely from the heartwarming atmosphere of the previous two works, "Phytopathology Wishes for Your Tomorrow" is a serious piece that explores themes like plant diseases, epidemic prevention, and quarantine in a suspenseful format. It’s officially branded as a "Crime Suspense." Rather than focusing on home gardening, the story dives into a larger world—agriculture, botanical gardens, and the front lines of plant research—crafting a drama that digs deep into how humans and plants are interconnected, and just how indispensable plants are to our survival. While it is fiction, it deals with real-world plant diseases and systems, making the issues feel incredibly grounded and immediate.
The art style is quite unexpected—a retro shojo manga aesthetic with a dramatic "Gekiga" touch that you wouldn't typically expect in a seinen magazine like Big Comic Spirits. However, the exaggerated, opera-like dialogue and gestures that match this art style successfully turn the quiet theme of "plant research" into something dynamic and dramatic, pulling you right into the story.
In our daily lives, we rarely think about the world of "phytopathology" (plant pathology). We hardly hear about it in the news (more on that in the next paragraph), and honestly, it’s hard to grasp the idea of it being a "risk." But as this work points out, most of the food we eat every day comes from just a handful of plant species. If something were to happen and they could no longer grow, it would lead to a global catastrophe—which is a sobering truth. It also makes you realize the constant, invisible effort put in by farmers and agricultural cooperatives to prevent such a thing. This is exactly why thorough "epidemic prevention" inspections are required when importing plants (Personally, this part resonated with me on a whole other level). By the way, the series has actually collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), and there’s even an official epidemic prevention poster.
＃ And on a simpler note: those pests and diseases that just seem to pop up out of nowhere when you're growing succulents. I reflected on the fact—or maybe I didn't (just kidding!)—that I shouldn't just brush them off with a "Oh, here they are again, typical," but instead must be thorough with treatments and countermeasures to ensure a total succulent wipeout doesn't happen.
Serialized in Big Comic Spirits since late 2022. It’s a certified hit with 7 volumes currently in print.
Just a little tangent here. Mad cow disease, swine fever, bird flu... Outbreaks in animals and livestock are often reported heavily in the news because the risk of them jumping to humans isn't zero. On the other hand, you don't hear much about plant or agricultural epidemics in the news, do you? However, if you look into it, they happen quite frequently. A recent example was in 2015 on Amami Oshima, where an outbreak of the Oriental fruit fly led to the disposal of nearly 2,000 tons of citrus fruits. Also, Sweet Potato Foot Rot, which is featured in this work, was first confirmed in 2018 and has since spread across various regions. Just last year, in November 2025, Ibaraki Prefecture even issued a state of emergency because of it.
There are also instances where we have completely lost the battle against such diseases. Take the banana, for example. Actually, almost all bananas you eat in Japan today are of the "Cavendish" variety, but before 1950, "Gros Michel" was the mainstream. It’s said that Gros Michel suffered catastrophic damage from "Panama disease" that swept through in the 1950s; it vanished from the market because it could no longer be grown on plantations. While Cavendish became the standard because it was resistant to that specific strain, a "New Panama disease" (Tropical Race 4) that can infect Cavendish has been confirmed in recent years. Some experts are pointing out the possibility that bananas could disappear from our dining tables in the future.
If you ask what has changed in recent works, the biggest reason is undoubtedly the "Corona Shock." Back then, it felt as if the world almost came to an end—or rather, the doomsday scenario of human extinction, which had always just been a vague "risk," suddenly became something we consciously perceived as a reality. We were reminded that humans are not the masters of the Earth, but small beings allowed to exist within nature. I feel like this humble yet firm attitude—a desire to understand and get closer to nature—became the fertile ground for these stories to sprout.
Since these aren't exactly recent works, I’ll introduce them here as a little extra.
At the very beginning, I suddenly said that "plant manga are rare," but I can't wrap this up without mentioning that there’s actually a "succulent manga." In this story, cute succulents chatter away nonstop thanks to the power of a fairy, training a complete amateur who was suddenly put in charge of a garden shop. It’s the kind of work where you can learn the basics of succulent care or just smirk at the "succulent enthusiast problems" we all face.
Honestly, this is the kind of work that deserves its own dedicated column titled "Introducing Succulent Manga!" The reason I’ve been ignoring it until now is... because it’s a bit embarrassing! (lol). It’s just, you know, a little itchy-feeling for someone like me to introduce it at this late stage. Just read it and you'll see what I mean! (lol)
This is one I found while searching for various titles for this special feature. It was originally a novel published in 2016, and the manga adaptation by the original illustrator followed in 2018 (it seems to be out of print, so new copies might be hard to find). The story follows a college girl living alone who becomes malnourished from her busy life, only to be saved by the "balcony garden" of the handsome guy next door. While it features so many mouth-watering dishes that it feels more like a gourmet manga, the depictions of realizing your balcony is suddenly full of plants, or buying even more new arrivals at the nursery despite having no space, are so relatable to any gardener that you can't help but grin.
These two works are the "royal road" of what you'd expect from "plant manga" or "gardening manga." Any plant lover will definitely enjoy them, so I highly recommend these as well. It might be fun to compare their atmosphere with the more recent works I mentioned earlier.
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