Neeko wa tsurai yo comes to mind. im reading this one as well, but i have a hard time thinking of any others that quite match up to it

Did you pick up this one up after reading >>4038? Quite a coincidence, I just started reading it myself. It's adorable and painful, quite a combination. The art is weird but attractive, probably one of my favorite titles currently being released.

There's a lot of manga centered around socially inept characters and/or NEETs. For this post I'll equal social outcast with socially inept. I don't know how much outcastness you guys want on your outcast characters, but since OP posted about Itai and she can hold a job and have a decent relationship with her family, I'm guessing outcasts who are not completely fucked up and beyond repair is allowed. >>4040 is one, then you have the two well known Watamote and Welcome to NHK but everybody knows about those. There's also >>4035, it's pretty good, give it a shot. It's a very "NEET and proud" gag manga, I don't know how it's not more well known, it's been consistently good now for almost a decade. Shissou Nikki is another very, very good one about an exhausted mangaka who decides to abandon society a live a homeless life for a year. IMO one of the best manga out there and it's a short read, you can finish it in one sitting.

Fukumoto Nobuyuki's works is pretty much always about social outcasts, every title centered around Kaiji is about a social outcast trying to win at life by gambling because he can't handle normal life and normal employment. Then you have Strongest Man Kurosawa, definitely my favorite by the author. The attention given to Kurosawa's mental state and how he sees the world as an outcast is brilliant. Besides, the situations he gets himself to is that of hilariously painful type, really good read.

If you want something more lighthearted and cute, there's Hitoribocchi. If you want something more depressing, there's Ressentiment and Debusen. If you're looking for outcast and socially inept characters but with a story that's still about friendship then there's Kuragehime, it's a very good and fun read.

Then you have stuff like Nijiiro game maker, Watashi ni tenshi ga maiorita, Yankee shota to otaku oneesan and Rozen Maiden where the main char or one of the main characters is a very socially inept individual but it's not centered around that specifically. Nijiiro is about a girl who is a genius at designing video games, Watashi ni tenshi is about cgdct, Rozen is about magical dolls and Yankee is more centered around a boy who fell in love with a socially inept older woman, still, they use socially ineptness in its plot and it does surface in the story a lot.

There's also those who quit life and then eventually have to crawl (or don't) their way back to society like Net-juu no susume and ReLIFE. And those are just the ones I remember out of the top of my head. I think a lot of authors realized by now that socially inept characters are good material for gag and drama, so there's a lot of it now. Actually now that I think about it, this is a genre that is currently branching out. Being a NEET or a social outcast is not enough, there's types of it you can go for. The school dropout, NEET as a youngster, NEET as an adult, all sorts of 'hikis'. There are titles where the main char is a loner and there are titles where there's a bunch of loners put together (sorta burying its own case I know, still fun).

Anyway, if anyone read any of those let me know what you think.

>>4041
I can't remember how I found Itai. I never saw that post, funny coincidence lol.

I never read the Watamote manga since the anime was boring, I will try to read it though. I haven't heard of most the manga you mentioned.

Hatarakanai Futari looks very good. It sounds like an adorable manga. I'm surprised I've never seen it before.

Thank you for the suggestions, I have never heard of most of those. I will get to reading them soon.

Asper Girl is great.

And it's not a manga, but the Chaos;Head VN hit me right in the feels (the anime adaptation isn't very gooe, unfortunately)

Nande Ikiteru ka Wakaranai Hito Izumi Sumi 25-sai
Just about a woman who dislikes her job and can't connect with others. I found it a bit boring and can't really recall what happens, but it seemed to resonate with many other people.
>>4054
Asper Girl is one of my more recent favorites, too. It felt eerie reading about the main girls experience, like someone had me under a looking glass. I haven't kept up with English fan translations in a while. There's an official English translation too, but I don't know how well it holds up.

>>4041
I've read Shissou Nikki this evening because of your post.
It was quite interesting. I always thought about how it would be to become homeless. The way it's presented it almost makes it look fun, but I think beyond the lighthearted tone there was a deep darkness. Also I could feel the whole filthiness of it. I sometimes smoked cigarette butts as a teen and it's quite disgusting, along with the rotten blanket, the dirty clothes and food from trash cans made me feel all itchy and uneasy.
But somehow it still seemed better than the chapters were he slaved himself as a mangaka or worked in that dead-end job.
The alcoholism chapters were painful to read. I always despised alcoholism. I'm adicted to other substances, but at least, even if they can kill you, they don't fuck you up and degrade you like alcohol does or don't cause an abstinence syndrome that can literally kill you.
Azuma seemed to have had an interesting life... at the age he became homeless he already had two kids who aren't even mentioned in the manga. I find incredible how the same person could be an absolute mental mess, an alcoholic, a father, an slave for the manga industry and the "father of lolicon".

>>4056
I'm glad you liked it. Yeah his life was an odd thing wasn't it? He also did a lot of sci-fi manga during the 80s and I gotta say, it's kinda uninspired on the sci-fi part, it was probably an editorial thing and really you get the impression all he wanted to do was to draw cute girls. I think he's best when just reminiscing about his life or just exploring his thoughts freely, he did put out lots of manga diaries with weird gags or just cute girls doing weird things, you can download some of it on the thread dedicated to him here on /ma/.

>>4055
Really enjoyed this one when i read it a few years back.

I'd also suggest Miss unemployed 34 year old as a good fit for this. You spend quite a good few chapter on her daily life as it is now before it goes back and shows how she ended up at this point.

>>4072
Thanks for recommending this one, what a beautiful title, it resonates with me a lot. For example this page right here. The feeling of satisfaction and lassitude after cleaning your living space. The author is very good at capturing little moments like this, quite something.

>>4073
Its good. I also like that the mc is someone who is like that because they actively fucked things up. A lot of the non Fukumoto title's about reject are people who never stood a chance.

It also interesting that she isn't outright rejected by her old family and friends. Her ex-husband and daughter still engage with her in a positive way while implicitly acknowledging things can never go back to the way they were.

>>4041
Finally read Jobless Siblings and outside of a few side characters which are a bit too one note it really is excellent. I enjoy the contrast between the brother and sister where the brother is almost NEET as a life choice whereas the sister seems to legitimately have severe social anxiety.

I've recently read Yugami-kun ni wa Tomodachi ga Inai, and while Yugami is not the typical kind of person you see in these types of manga, I feel like it still qualifies. It's about a female transfer student who sits next to the titular no-friend-haver in class and starts to see why upon interacting with him for more than a few sentences. The manga is hilarious and refreshing, almost entirely due to Yugami being a conscious egoist and causing funny situations with his refusal to consider anything other than self-satisfaction, I really like it and highly recommend it.

Starring cats.