Manga like The Climber: 5 series to read in English

The Climber follows Buntaro Mori. He is a loner who has just transferred to a new high school. He barely speaks and expects nothing from anyone. The series sits in the Adventure, Drama, Psychological and Sports genres.

The picks are the series on Mangainfo that share the most themes and genres with The Climber in AniList's tags and have English volumes out. A more popular series won any close call. All volume counts below are as of October 2026.

Real

Real shares Fitness and Coming of Age with The Climber. It also carries a Philosophy tag. Its genres are Drama, Psychological and Sports. The Climber has all three of those too.

This is Takehiko Inoue's drama about wheelchair basketball. It centers on the people who play the sport. Tomomi Nomiya has dropped out of high school.

Japan has 17 volumes so far. The series is still releasing there. English readers have 16 of them. No next English volume is listed yet.

Vagabond

Travel and Survival link Vagabond to The Climber. Both series also count Outdoor Activities among their themes. Vagabond is filed under Action, Adventure and Drama.

Miyamoto Musashi was a real swordsman of the early Edo period. Takehiko Inoue reimagines his early years. His starting point is Musashi, the novel by Eiji Yoshikawa.

All 37 Japanese volumes are out in English. The series is still listed as releasing in Japan. So the English edition is not complete. No next English volume is listed.

Berserk

Like The Climber, Berserk is tagged Psychological and Adventure. Its shared themes include Survival, Philosophy and Coming of Age. It also adds Fantasy and Horror to the mix.

Kentarou Miura and Studio Gaga are the credited authors. Berserk is a dark fantasy of castles, mercenary armies and monsters. Guts wanders alone. He hunts demons.

The Japanese release stands at 43 volumes and is still going. In English there are 42. No next English volume is listed yet.

Vinland Saga

Here the overlap is Travel, Philosophy and Coming of Age. Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura is an Action, Adventure and Drama series.

The story is set in the early eleventh century. Danish Vikings are fighting for control of England. Thorfinn is a teenager. He serves in a band of Viking mercenaries.

This is the one pick you can read start to finish today. It has finished in Japan at 29 volumes. All 29 are out in English. The English edition is complete.

Witch Hat Atelier

Kamome Shirahama's Witch Hat Atelier meets The Climber on Travel and Coming of Age. Philosophy is a shared theme as well. Its genres are Adventure, Drama and Fantasy.

The series imagines magic as something you draw. A spell is a design. It is made of special symbols drawn in magic ink.

Japan has 16 volumes and the series is still releasing. English has 14 so far. Volume 15 comes out in English on 8 December 2026 from Penguin Random House.