Nicole. Cinderella Closet volumes 1, 2, and 3 stacked on a shelf.
Sweet Stories That’ll Warm Your Heart!
This list consists of only super sweet and wholesome romance mangas and webtoons—those that have heartfelt plots and genuine characters! Some of these wholesome reads may be more lighthearted, whereas others take on more serious topics. Regardless, they are sure to touch your heart. Check them out below!
You can read my full review for each series by clicking the manga titles!
Wholesome Romance Mangas
1. Veil
Author: Kotteri (Ikumi Fukuda)
Number of Chapters: 4 volumes, 45 chapters in English so far
Ongoing
Veil is an absolutely lovely full-color manga series that definitely belongs on this list. It follows the lovely relationship between a runaway heiress and a kind police officer. The manga is a collection of daily experiences or slice-of-life events between these two, showcasing their beautiful relationship that tiptoes between “best friends” and “lovers.”
Despite their relationship never seeming to officially pass the latter label, the way they interact and care for each other feels incredibly romantic and wholesome.
You’ll easily fall in love with these characters, the story, the setting, the amazing art style, and their incredibly beautiful relationship. This manga really makes you appreciate the littlest things in life, and is sure to warm your heart with the unique relationship portrayed within.
2. Kijima San to Yamada San
Author: Hoshimi SK
Number of Chapters: 25
Completed
Read Kijima San To Yamada San with MangaUp!
This wholesome romance manga is a josei story about a man who can hear other people’s thoughts. This man, Takayuki Kijima, is an office worker who can’t help but notice his coworker’s thoughts about him.
His coworker, Yuna Yamada, has a massive crush on Kijima and “loudly” fangirls (internally) about their interactions! Poor Kijima has no idea how to handle this situation, as he unintentionally discovered her feelings for him via his strange power.
Kijima San to Yamada San is a lighthearted romantic comedy that’s easy to finish with only 25 chapters—I really recommend it if you need a cute adult romance to make you smile! The characters are very sweet, and the story overall is fun, wholesome, and romantic. I hope you enjoy it!
3. Cinderella Closet
Author: Wakana Yanai
Number of Chapters: 8 Volumes, 32 chapters
Completed
Cinderella Closet Seven Seas Entertainment page
This story follows a young woman named Haruka, a hardworking university student that finds herself stuck between school work and working her part-time job. This unfortunately goes against her university-debut plan of dressing up, wearing makeup, having fun, and dating during her first year.
She tries to meet up with her crush once, but it didn’t really turn out how she hoped due to a misunderstanding. As she is feeling down about this, Haruka desperately asks for help from a gorgeous woman named Hikaru, whom she met by coincidence.
Unexpectedly, Hikaru turns out to actually be a man who works in the beauty industry! These two become quick friends, despite their differences in personality. Hikaru is blunt, sassy, and sort of a tsundere; whereas Haruka is a gullible, clumsy, and down-to-earth girl.
I absolutely love their friendship! Haruka accepts Hikaru for who he is and his passions, while Hikaru helps Haruka out of the goodness of his heart. Everything about this story is wholesome. The story beautifully approaches the topic of makeup and the many reasons people choose to wear it; it also portrays different types of beauty and love throughout its fantastic plot.
4. Insomniacs After School
Author: Makoto Ojiro
Number of Chapters: 13 Volumes, 125 chapters
Completed
Insomniacs After School Viz Media page + Viz digital reading
Insomniacs After School is a masterpiece of relaxing imagery. It delivers a beautiful story that will hit you with some unexpected feelings of nostalgia and calm. This wholesome romance manga explores the daily school life of two high school students who happen to both have insomnia.
The reasoning behind this insomnia is different for each student, but they learn to cope with this struggle together! This manga is filled with beautiful photography and environmental art, often showing the two students living life and simply enjoying each day.
I love the way this story portrays the negative parts of life. These students have past, current, and future experiences that are worthy of negativity and uncertainty, but that doesn’t stop them from smiling, trying new things, planning the future, and enjoying life together. The romance is so raw and sweet, even adorably awkward in this cute manga.
Insomniacs After School definitely deserves to be in this list of wholesome romance mangas, and is one of my favorite mangas to recommend.
5. A Sign of Affection
Author: Suu Morishita
Number of Chapters: 12+ volumes, 56+ chapters (digital)
Ongoing
A Sign of Affection Kodansha page + Kmanga digital reading
A Sign of Affection is another one of my top-favorite stories. This wholesome romance manga follows college student Yuki Itose, who was born deaf. This story explores the unfair struggles Yuki faces in society, and also portrays some common experiences of the deaf and hard of hearing community.
In this story, Yuki meets Itsuomi, a fellow college student who has travelled to many parts of the world, and who is also capable of speaking a variety of languages. Itsuomi’s explorative personality and unique experiences helps open Yuki’s world to new things.
On the other hand, Yuki’s experiences as someone who communicates with people in different ways and experiences the world differently also opens Itsuomi’s eyes. These two have an amazing chemistry, and adapt to each other so well.
I wanted to recommend this as a wholesome romance manga because the love between these two just seemed to click so perfectly! They both create new experiences for each other, and the romance itself is very sweet. They compliment each other so well, even though separately they are both lovely characters.
I especially love how this manga sort of normalizes life, hobbies, interests, and love for Yuki. Even though there are characters in this story who unnecessarily over-sympathize for her, Itsuomi treats her properly as just another human with a different preferred language; just as he has learned other languages during his travels.
Their relationship is adorable, sweet, and a little mature; and their fantastic relationship is what makes A Sign of Affection one of my top favorites.
Wholesome Romance Webtoons
1. Spirit Fingers
Author: Han Kyoung Chal
Number of Chapters: 162 + 4 extra chapters
Completed
Spirit Fingers is a lovely webtoon about a young girl learning to be herself and understand others better. Amy Song is a reserved, shy girl who is often compared to her two seemingly perfect brothers.
She has low self esteem and is not very confident in her own abilities. However, she meets some eccentric people by chance, and takes a very brave step into learning more about them.
From there, this wholesome romance webtoon explores a variety of topics such as self-love, romantic love, familial relationships, careers, friendships, and more. Spirit Fingers has a beautiful message about acceptance and discovering oneself, wrapped up in a silly, colorful, and artistic story. The characters are goofy and lovable, and overall the story is very touching!
Like the other recommendations in this list of wholesome romance mangas and webtoons, Spirit Fingers touches on some important life topics, but it also has its fair share of goofiness and humor. It makes the entire story a bit more lighthearted and extra enjoyable!
2. Morgana and Oz
Author: Miyuli
Number of Chapters: 96+
Ongoing
This adorable webtoon follows a sort of Romeo and Juliet style romance—but one that is more cute and wholesome. It follows the main character, Morgana, who comes from a family of witches.
Her family has a long, historical feud with a group of vampires, the Red Vampire Clan. On the day that these two groups meet to try and appease their long-standing bad blood, things quickly turn for the worse with a chaotic fight erupting inside the meeting place.
As the two groups turn on each other, Morgana tries to protect herself with her magic… but her magic skills aren’t very polished, and she accidentally turns one of the vampires, named Oz, into a cute little cat. Although things start off on the wrong foot, Morgana and Oz work together to turn him back to normal, and figure out what exactly is going on between their two families!
The characters in this series are what really boost the wholesomeness of the plot. Many of the characters have good intentions, kind personalities, and a determination to help others. I love that two unexpected enemies, Morgana and Oz, team up to solve their family conflict. It’s such a cute and romantic story, I think anyone who reads it will enjoy it!
3. Swimming Lessons for a Mermaid
Author: Yongchan
Number of Chapters: 96 chapters + 5 spin-offs
Completed
Swimming Lessons for a Mermaid Webtoon page
This super cute webtoon series follows a young girl who, as you may have guessed, is a mermaid. Choa Shin originally lived in the ocean with her mother and sisters, but could not swim properly.
So, her family helped her move on land with their human father. Choa attends school as normal, but has always wanted to return to the ocean eventually.
One day while running an errand for a teacher, Choa slips and falls into the school pool. Only one person was there to witness it: the swim club’s Soo Lee, who jumps in to save her—discovering that Choa is a mermaid.
Luckily, Soo is a kind person who not only promises to keep her secret, but also offers Choa swimming lessons! This unexpected meeting starts a very sweet and wholesome story (and romance, of course).
4. To the Stars and Back
Author: Peglo
Number of Chapters: 208
Completed
To The Stars and Back Webtoon page
To the Stars and Back is an incredibly cute and wholesome BL webtoon about two people who are complete opposites. First we have Kang Dae, a university student who is a bit of a lone wolf. He’s not super fond of being around a lot of people, and mostly keeps to himself.
One day, he gets a new neighbor at his apartment complex: a fellow student named Bo Seon. Bo Soen is a huge ray of sunshine that loves making new friends.
Obviously, these two don’t become besties immediately. However, this lovely romance follows their slow-growing relationship as they learn more about each other and discover that they may not be so different after all. It’s a very wholesome and romantic read that I really enjoyed. I hope you love it as much as I do!
5. Gourmet Hound
Author: Leehama
Number of Chapters: 166
Completed
The last review in this list of wholesome romance mangas and webtoons is the series Gourmet Hound. It is a very sweet webtoon that has very light romantic elements compared to the rest of the titles on this list. It actually shows love in more ways than just romantic, and is an incredibly enjoyable read!
This story made me cry more than once, as it tackles a variety of real life situations such as the loss of loved ones, loss of friendships, burnout, careers, passions, family, and more. This story has an amazing variety of personalities and a diverse range of characters; all of whom you will come to love.
This webtoon has a beautiful story of exploring passions and finding forms of fulfillment in life in a variety of ways. It accurately shows how different people handle their struggles in life and process emotions differently, as well as how understanding others is extremely important even during difficult times.
It has an adorable food theme and colorful, expressive characters each with their own story. Gourmet Hound is really touching and not talked about enough in my opinion, so I hope you enjoy it!
Final Thoughts
Wholesome stories hit a bit differently than your typical romance or action genre. They often touch upon realistic and relatable life topics that make you feel something a bit different as you read them.
I tried to include a good mix of wholesome stories in this recommendation list—I hope you enjoy them as much as I have! Feel free to leave your own favorite recommendations below.
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