obscure dystopian sci-fi and/or psychological horror manga recommendations?

[iamsonder]

hey, looking for some less known manga recommendations. specifically looking for those of the dystopian and/or psychological genre. some clean, pleasing, and more readable art is a big plus.

 

[Eicosan]

Dunno about the popularity, but here my takes: (excuse the Formatting)

Psycho:
'Sonna Kazoku nara Sutechaeba' - Mc is kinda neurodivergent; you'll get mad at him a lot.
https://mangadex.org/title/609ccb17-fd83-4126-876a-5bf8c037b065/sonna-kazoku-nara-sutechaeba

psycho:
'watashi ga 15 - sai de wa nakunatte' - just got updated; father tries compensated dating with high schooler; ruining their lives in the Process
https://mangadex.org/title/fd37e322-3032-4fa4-89d9-f22d7f43c27c/watashi-ga-15-sai-de-wa-nakunatte-mo

Psychological:
'Yoarashi ni Warau' - Teacher bullied by class; student 'reverse' psychoing the bullies
https://www.mangaupdates.com/series/gex3uqr/yoarashi-ni-warau

psycho:
'Route End' Was really good but i forgot what it was about; i think crime scene cleaner teams up with police to find murderer

'Goodnight Punpun' - old but gold

Not on MD:
'The Creepy Obsession of an Internet Sugar Daddy' - short read; Girl thinks she gets easy money from her sugar daddy; things turn sour
'Takopi's Original Sin' Alien want's to spread Happiness; Spreads Suffering instead

I guess you want more bad vibes so these are not your taste probably:

For dystopia maybe:
"Yokohama Station SF" Japan gets swallowed by a self-building train Station; Has 3 Volumes and the Last one just came out.
https://www.mangaupdates.com/series/sv915ur/yokohama-eki-sf

"Usuzumi no Hate" is Post Apocalypse but thats near enough. - Girl cleans up Dead world
https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=196596

 

[PantsMan]

From that description, I'm assuming you've already read Homunculus, Ultra Heaven, Eden and SOIL, but are looking for more. If you haven't, any of those four fit what you're looking for nicely.

I haven't come across much dystopian stuff myself that isn't just post-apocalyptic (or borderline so), satirical or dwelled on too much, outside of a few very well-known ones.

Ikigami has a fairly standard dystopian set-up where Japan establishes a very questionable death-roulette system. It's broken up into several "random people find out they're about to die" arcs with an overarching plot. No scifi elements though.

Scientia is a reverse-dystopia, featuring a different take on a lot of standard "scifi dystopia" concepts.

 

[techie410]

These are mostly award-winning oneshots, so maybe not super obscure, but I'll keep it under 2000 follows. These are the most thought-provoking out of the ones I've read:

1. And So, I Said: God gives a girl the decision on whether or not humanity should exist anymore. To help her make a decision, God shows her the future. The art is pretty good imo, looking forward to more from the same author.
2. Any of Fujiko F. Fujio's oneshots published in SF magazine between the late 60s- late 70s. Here are the ones available in English
   1. The Meeting of Myself: If I knew myself in the future, what would I do now? Die, maybe.
   2. The Draw of Cambyses: Humanity's last remaining two people have to pull two sticks. One short, one long.
   3. A Dish For The Minotaur: Are humans really inherently better than any other animal?
3. Rain's Head: A taxidermist adopts a girl who is going to die. He does it to harvest her head for his collection. The art is clunky.
4. There was something that I put down as "A Machine Sees The Future" but evidently that's not the one I was thinking of...
5. Deus: God does weird things. God does not care (or does he?)
6. Yorubenai 60 Days: Do aliens really want to end us all?
7. Downfall is one of Asano Inio's (author of Punpun from Eicosan's post above) illustrated rantings on life. Didn't make much sense to me, but felt strangely profound in a way I couldn't quite get. Inio's art can be jarring to some.

And since no one mentioned it yet, here are some popular ones:

1. Girls' Last Tour. Love this one, honestly. seems to fit your criteria. Scifi dystopian. Calming. Prolly psych horror because of its beautifully depressing scale. I'd be surprised if you haven't read this yet.
2. In the same vein as GLT, Yokohama Shopping Log.
3. Sayonara, Eri.
4. Sachiiro no One Room.
5. Chi no Wadachi.
6. Happy Sugar Life is basically just pretty-looking sufferporn, but I know people who are into that stuff.

I have to go, so I'll update when I have time. Hope this helps!

 

[iamsonder]

thanks for the recommendations i’ll look thru them all properly tomorrow