The best manhwa like Your Lie in April depend on which part hit you. For grief, read The Horizon. For a romance built around a secret, Orange Marmalade. For a relationship with something off under the surface, Cheese in the Trap. For a story told from inside someone's head, Yumi's Cells. For a lead hiding her real self, True Beauty. All five are marked COMPLETED on WEBTOON. None of them is about classical music, so treat these as matches for the feeling, not the premise.
What Your Lie in April is, and what you're chasing
Your Lie in April is Japanese manga, not manhwa. Naoshi Arakawa's series ran in Kodansha's Monthly Shōnen Magazine from April 6, 2011, to February 6, 2015, and fills 11 volumes. Kodansha's synopsis, via AniList: "Kosei Arima was a piano prodigy until his cruel taskmaster of a mother died suddenly," and he now lives "in a monotonous, colorless world" until he meets "Kaori Miyazono, a violinist with an unorthodox style."
A-1 Pictures adapted it as a 22-episode anime that aired from October 10, 2014, to March 20, 2015, per AniList. Wikipedia notes the manga won the 37th Kodansha Manga Award in the shōnen category and had "over 5 million copies in circulation" by June 2017. Aniplex USA's English trailer:
So what carries over to a Korean webtoon? Grief that drives the plot, a secret one person keeps from another, and a lead learning to be seen. Each pick below covers one of those.
Manhwa like Your Lie in April, for the grief: The Horizon
The Horizon. Cover via AniList.
The Horizon by JH is the pick if the grief is what stayed with you. WEBTOON's synopsis: "An apocalyptic event has wiped out most of the population. A young boy meets a girl in the sea of dead bodies. Bound together by their shared trauma, they keep walking forward in hopes of finding a safe haven." It's short. AniList counts 21 chapters, and Yen Press prints it in three volumes.
Readers rate it very high. An r/manhwa post titled "[The Horizon] Arguably the best manhwa ever" drew this top reply: "the impact it had with so few chapters shows the author's ability to illustrate something so beautifully." Another reader in the same thread: "I was bawling my eyes out reading this." In a January 2026 r/manhwa vote for 2016's best manhwa, it won with 172 votes.
The catch: there's no romance and no music. It's a bleaker read than Your Lie in April. WEBTOON shows 4.6M views and 322,092 subscribers.
For a romance built around a secret: Orange Marmalade
Orange Marmalade. Cover via AniList.
Orange Marmalade by Seokwoo is the closest match for the hidden-secret romance. WEBTOON's synopsis: "People are no longer afraid of vampires but that doesn't stop humans from discriminating against them. Can Mari Baek hide her identity when she falls in love with a popular boy who hates vampires?" Like Kaori, she's keeping something from the person she's falling for, though her secret isn't an illness.
AniList dates the Korean run from February 2011 to December 2013, at 120 chapters and 8 volumes. WEBTOON shows 129.4M views and 1M subscribers.
More romance picks across every tone, from light to heavy:
Best Romance Manhwa 2026 →
For a relationship with something under the surface: Cheese in the Trap
Cheese in the Trap. Cover via AniList.
Cheese in the Trap by Soonkki is the pick for a relationship you can't quite read. WEBTOON's synopsis: "model student Seol finds herself caught up with Jung, a senior who's also known as Mr. Perfect. Seol feels like her life took a turn for the worse since Jung came into her life... but is he intentionally turning her life upside down?"
It's a slower, more psychological read than Your Lie in April, with no illness and no music. WEBTOON bills it as "Now a major (K-Drama) adaptation" and shows 161.9M views and 1.1M subscribers.
For the inner life: Yumi's Cells
Yumi's Cells. Cover via AniList.
Yumi's Cells by Donggeon Lee is the pick if what you loved was being inside a character's head. WEBTOON's pitch is one line: "A story of Yumi and her brain cells." Where Your Lie in April puts Kousei's feelings into music, this one puts Yumi's into her cells.
It's the long one. AniList counts 511 chapters running from April 2015 to October 2020. It's lighter and funnier than Your Lie in April. WEBTOON bills it as "Now a major (K-Drama) adaptation," with 204.3M views and 744,847 subscribers.
For a lead hiding her real self: True Beauty
True Beauty. Cover via AniList.
True Beauty by Yaongyi is the warmest pick. WEBTOON's synopsis: "a shy comic book fan masters the art of makeup and sees her social standing skyrocket as she becomes her school's prettiest pretty girl overnight." Then the question: "How long can she keep her real self a secret? And what about that cute boy who knows her secret?"
Kousei hides behind his past; True Beauty's lead hides behind makeup. The stakes are lower, which makes it the gentlest place to start. It's also the biggest series here. WEBTOON shows 1B views and 7.5M subscribers, and AniList counts 257 chapters from April 2018 to April 2023.
If True Beauty is the one that clicks, here's what to read after it:
Manhwa Like True Beauty →
Our take: which manhwa like Your Lie in April to start with
Start with The Horizon if you want to feel something close to Your Lie in April's ending; it's 21 chapters, and readers back up the tears. Pick Orange Marmalade if the romance and the secret mattered more than the loss. Pick Yumi's Cells or True Beauty if you want something gentler. No manhwa on this list replaces the music. These five come at the same feelings from different angles.
How We Checked This
We checked 26 facts on October 13, 2026 against WEBTOON, AniList, Wikipedia, Yen Press, YouTube and Reddit, with a quoted line for each in our sources table. This pass corrected the platforms and counts: Yumi's Cells is on WEBTOON, not Kakao Webtoon or Tapas; The Horizon is printed by Yen Press, not Drawn & Quarterly; True Beauty's episode count is now AniList's chapter count; and the old chapter and page counts for Cheese in the Trap and The Horizon had no source. We also removed claims about how each series ends, two images from other series, the FAQ, TL;DR and key takeaways.
Last reviewed: October 13, 2026
Related Reading
- Manhwa Like True Beauty: more picks in True Beauty's lane.
- True Beauty Review: our full verdict.
- True Beauty Reading Guide: where to start.
- Best Romance Manhwa 2026: the wider romance field.
- Best Slice-of-Life Manhwa: quieter stories like Yumi's Cells.
- Best Manhwa on WEBTOON 2026: all five picks are on WEBTOON.
