Manga’s a medium that’s always been close to my heart. I love nothing more than to read an excellent book, but I’m also a big fan of manga. There’s something enticing about the medium. I guess it’s because manga don’t just tell a story, but enrich it with stunning and creative visuals. Over the years, I’ve read countless manga. I’m usually more drawn to the seinen genre and more mature stories, but there are quite a few shonen series I hold dear. That’s the reason I decided to share my personal list of the best shonen manga with you.
I know well that some popular or acclaimed series might not be part of this list. The reason is that I either didn’t enjoy them all too much or I haven’t read them.
As always, I’d like to give a spoiler warning. I’ll try not to give too much of a manga’s story away in my review, but it might be unavoidable.
Here’s my list of the best shonen manga anyone should read.
Air Gear by Oh! Great is a weird manga, one I wasn’t sure I should include in this list.
To say I have a bit of a hate-love relationship with this manga would be an understatement.
Air Gear is the story of Itsuki Minami, the toughest kid at Higashi Junior High School. One day, he leads his school to victory over a group of punks connected to gangsters. With trouble brewing, the Noyamano sisters come to his aid and teach him a powerful skill. This skill should introduce him to a terrifying new world, the world of Air Treck.
Air Gear is a mix of various genres. Those who are familiar with Oh! Great will know what they are in for. It can be best described as an action shonen with a focus on sports and gratuitous fan service.
I personally think Air Gear shines most in its earlier parts. The introduction to Air Treck as a sport is well handled and interestingly done. What I especially enjoyed was the formation of AT teams and the various challenges our protagonists had to overcome in earlier chapters. It’s simple, mindless fun, coupled with over-the-top action.
The best part about Air Gear and the sole reason I’m including it in this list is the outstanding art. Few manga can compare to Air Gear when it’s at the top of its game.
Environments are detailed, characters have a distinct look and many of the skills and techniques are rendered in stunning detail. The high point of the series is without a doubt the many battles. It’s a glorious delight to watch them unfold in all of their madness.
The characters in Air Gear are a mixed bag. While they are almost all likeable, most of them are rather bland. The best thing one can say about them is that they are all pretty cool. There are some, however, like Kazu who develop over the story, but those are rare exceptions.
Air Gear, however, has some serious flaws. The first is the gratuitous fan service. It’s something to be expected from a series categorized as Ecchi, but Air Gear went a bit too far. Almost any woman in this manga is sparsely dressed and rendered in provocative details.
By far the worst part of Air Gear, however, is the story. It starts out as a typical battle shonen focusing on fights between AT teams. Over the course of its run though, the story becomes more complex and turns into a convoluted and nonsensical mess. While this might be typical for the shonen genre, Air Gear becomes downright ridiculous.
The same is true for the many techniques. This is a series about roller-skates. Yet, characters can use all sorts of superpowers, going as far as to resurrect the dead using their Air Trecks. Even worse, the author tries to explain it all via science and ends up making things even more ridiculous.
Now, as nonsensical as the story is and as crazy as the powers are, I still enjoyed Air Gear for most of its run.
The art is outstanding and the battles are action packed and over the top. Those are the reasons anyone should read Air Gear for.
Overall, I think Air Gear is worth a look, especially for fans of Oh! Great’s work. For the art alone, it deserves an addition to this list of the best shonen manga.
Fire Punch by Tatsuki Fujimoto is a manga that’s many things. It’s weird, unique, ridiculous, but most of all its miserable.
The world of Fire Punch is a frozen wasteland. All this was caused by the Ice Witch. This new ice age brought out the worst in humanity, leading to cults and violence.
Agni and Luna are two orphans, blessed with powerful regenerative powers. What little peace they have ends when an army commander named Doma passes through their small community and incinerates the village and its inhabitants.
Doma’s flames, however, can never be extinguished. Because of his regenerative powers, though, Agni isn’t incinerated, and instead remains alive. After conditioning himself to withstand the flames pain, Agni travels the frozen wasteland to get his revenge on Doma.
Anyone familiar with the works of Tatsuki Fujimoto will know what they are in for. As mentioned before, Fire Punch is ridiculous. It’s not because of Agni’s special condition, though. The plot of the manga itself as well as the many characters Agni encounters are as weird.
Yet, Fire Punch is a story that thrives on misery. Especially the earlier parts of the manga are ripe with cruelness, making it feel edgy and almost nihilistic.
That’s until we encounter Togata, one of the weirdest manga characters of all time. Togata is a movie maniac who grew up with and lives through movies and the stories they told. The moment Togata encounters Agni, she decides to shoot her very own movie with him as the main character.
What happens now is that the manga turns meta, poking fun at its plot and events. Togata becomes almost a stand-in for the writer, explaining plot points and developments and how they should go. The story becomes twisted, clichés are dismantled and the entire manga becomes an anti-thesis and a joke of itself.
While Togata’s arc makes up only part of the manga, it’s here where Fire Punch is at its strongest and at its weirdest. It feels almost like a satire.
In later parts, however, Fire Punch returns to its roots and we return to a miserable story in a miserable wasteland.
Overall, the plot of this manga is all over the place. Its part dark revenge story, part satire, part deeper musing on the human condition all held together by Agni’s quest for revenge.
I felt that especially in later parts; the manga wanted to be deeper, more philosophical, but it didn’t succeed. Instead, it felt dark for darkness’ sake before it culminated in one of the strangest endings I’ve ever witnessed.
The art is clearly the high point of the manga. Fujimoto has a unique and sketchy style that lends itself perfectly to the frozen, desolate wasteland the manga’s set in. It helps to bring forth the prevalent, dark and somber atmosphere of the manga.
All in all, Fire Punch is one of the weirdest, most unique manga I’ve ever read. It’s as experimental as a manga can be. It’s dark, edgy and completely ridiculous, but also one of the best shonen manga I ever read.
Should you read Fire Punch though? I’d say yes. While it’s a story that will most likely make you miserable, it’s also fantastically unique.
If you’ve checked out my list of the best 75 manga of all time, you know I’m a big fan of samurai manga.
Gamaran by Nakamaru Yousuke is a samurai manga that’s all about action and battles.
Set in the Edo period, it focuses on a succession tournament held by the Daimyo of the state of Unabara. The contestants are his sons, each given the task to find a martial artist to represent them in the tournament. These martial artists are then to fight until only one survives to decide who will become the new Daimyo.
Naoyoshi Washitsu, one of the Daimyo’s sons, sets out to find the legendary thousand man slayer Kurogane Jinsuke. Arriving at the dojo, he finds only his son, Gama. After witnessing him fight, however, Naoyoshi asks Gama to fight for him. Gama agrees, but, of course, he’s got his own reasons to partake in the tournament.
The story of Gamaran is as easy as it can be and centers entirely on the tournament.
I read Gamaran a couple of years ago and enjoyed it for what it was. It’s one thing and one thing alone, action. There are no complex plot points, no romance, there are only fights. It makes Gamaran almost an archetypical shonen battle manga, but an enjoyable one. The best thing about Gamaran is that’s sincere about what it is and doesn’t try to be more.
The art in Gamaran is good, but overall, not outstanding. Where it truly shines is during the many battles. Fights are drawn neat and clean and you always understand what’s going on.
The fights in Gamaran are intense, but more realistic than those in other, similar manga. There are seldom unnecessary long fights, instead they are over quickly. It makes this much more intense, but also allows for many fights, styles and weapons to be showcased.
And there’s a lot of them. All together 31 martial artists take part in the tournament, each using different styles and weapons. I love that the author explained the ins and outs of all of them, without ever bringing the action and intensity to a hold.
The weakest point of the manga is the story. For the first part it’s almost non-existent and follows Gama as he wants to be stronger.
There are some developments in later parts, but none of them are outstanding or surprising. It almost feels as if the story is merely a vessel to convey fights.
Gamaran, at least to me, is still one of the best shonen manga featuring samurai and swords fights. While the story’s not too deep, and almost non-existent, the action and the battles are excellent.
If you’re looking for an action-packed battle shonen that doesn’t want to be anything else, I recommend reading Gamaran.
Imagine you’re not only framed for murder, find yourself in a violent prison power struggle, but you also have to survive a zombie apocalypse.
That’s the premise of Apocalypse no Tori by Yuu Kuraishi and Kazu Inabe. Our protagonist Yoshiaki Maeda thought his life couldn’t get much worse when he was convicted and sent to Shouran Academy Juvenile Detention Center. While the detention center is amid a violent power struggle, a zombie apocalypse has thrown the outside world into chaos. Soon enough, however, a van carrying infected humans crashes into the prison and brings the threat to the unsuspecting inmates and employees.
In my opinion, Apocalypse no Tori is one of the best zombie manga and one of the greatest shonen manga out there.
While the manga might sound clichéd and not too interesting from the premise, I was surprised by how unique and fresh it was.
The art is pretty good, well above average. All the main characters look unique and have distinct personality and style.
Where the art stands out though, was in its depiction of the zombies. Apocalypse no Tori wasn’t satisfied by portraying walking corpses. Instead, it twists them into nightmarish creatures more akin to ghastly monsters than the zombies we know from other media. This fresh take on the zombie genre makes the manga so much better, much more disturbing and also rather unique.
The characters in this manga, especially our four main characters, are great throughout the board. While Yoshiaki might be a rather clichéd protagonist, his three companions are all fantastic characters. I came to enjoy all of them uniquely and they make for some great interactions.
We also learn more about them throughout the story and every character grows throughout the manga.
Unfortunately, Apocalypse no Tori was cut short and one can see it. It was clear that the manga was set up for a longer run and thus the ending feels rushed and rather unsatisfactory.
Another criticism is the dialogue. While the interactions between our main characters are enjoyable, it could get a bit tiring and boring.
Overall, Apocalypse no Tori is one of the best shonen manga out there, not only for its fresh take on the zombie genre but also because of its fantastic characters. Read it, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
Getbackers by Shin Kibayashi and Rando Ayamine is another manga I read years ago but enjoyed immensely. To me, it’s one of the best shonen manga I ever read.
Our two protagonists Ban Mido and Ginji Amano are two young men working as a retrieval team, the titular Getbackers.
Over the course of the manga, the two of them take on various tasks and missions to get back items lost by their clients.
GetBackers starts off in typical shonen fashion and might appear like another, run-of-the-mill shonen manga. This is especially noticeable during the first two arcs, which merely introduce our protagonists.
Things get much more interesting when Dr. Jackal appears. He’s not only the first worthy adversary our characters encounter but also a twisted and insane individual that should become a reoccurring character.
The manga really takes up steam, however, when the Infinity Fortress is introduced.
The art of Getbackers doesn’t start out too good. While it gets much better and more detailed over the course of the series, it never reaches the quality of other series. Still, I thought it was rather pleasant to look at.
What I came to enjoy the most were the various settings, especially the ominous Infinity Fortress.
While Ban and Ginji were interesting characters, I often found myself more interested in the secondary characters. One example is the crazy, over-the-top Dr. Jackal or the people of the Infinity Fortress.
GetBackers is of course foremost an action manga, and I came to enjoy the battles and the action a lot.
As many other series though, GetBackers is not perfect. The first problem is the many historical and mythological references in the series. While I usually enjoy different takes on these topics, here they felt shoehorned into the plot and only there to make it appear deeper and more complicated than it is.
The biggest offender in GetBackers is a trope typical to shonen manga I’ve grown to dislike a lot. It’s antagonists of earlier arcs becoming friends or allies as soon as the arc is over. It always feels cheap. Characters taunt, threaten and fight each other over multiple volumes only to end up forgiving each other and becoming friends in the end. It’s, frankly said, frustrating and lowered the emotional value of one of the best arcs in the manga.
Even though, I still consider GetBackers a worthy addition to this list of the best shonen manga. It’s a great action-packed series with a cast of interesting characters and some truly fantastic settings. If you’re looking for a long-running action series, you could do worse than to pick up GetBackers.
Before there was Hunter x Hunter, Yoshiro Togashi made a name for himself with his supernatural fighting manga Yu Yu Hakusho. While the lesser known of the two series, I still consider it one of the best shonen manga of the 90s.
The series revolves around fourteen-year-old Yuusuke Urameshi who’s brought back to life after a tragic accident. From then on he works as a spirit detective, tasked with solving various paranormal mysteries. From here on out, Yuusuke battles and befriends various demons.
Yu Yu Hakusho was clearly inspired by Akira Toriyama’s shonen masterpiece Dragonball. Yet, I came to enjoy Yu Yu Hakusho in its own right. While Dragonball focused on popular mythology and martial arts, Yu Yu Hakusho was more about the occult.
While I enjoyed Yuusuke’s character and his troublemaker-like nature, my favorites were Kurama and Hie. Still, I came to like most of the characters in this manga.
The story of Yu Yu Hakusho is as typical as it can be for a shonen. The spirit detective arc starts of rather slow before it pits Yuusuke against various demons with increasing stakes.
Yu Yu Hakusho truly shines during its Dark Tournament arc. As a fan of tournament arcs in shonen, I came to really enjoy this one. I especially loved Toguro, who I think is by far the best antagonist in the entire manga and also one of its best characters.
The most interesting part of Yu Yu Hakusho is its world. While most shonen of the time were rather uninspiring clones of more successful series, Yu Yu Hakusho focused on the occult and demons and created a rather compelling setting.
Yu Yu Hakusho is not perfect, however, and its age shows mostly in the art. The art is merely average, and it doesn’t improve much throughout its run.
While the manga’s art and its slow beginning might not make it look like much, if one gives it a chance, one gets to experience one of the best shonen manga of the 90s.
Well, Bakuman is here to show you how! It’s created by no other than Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba who are the duo behind Death Note.
It’s the story of two young men, Moritaka Mashiro and Akito Tagaki who decided to draw manga together. The story of Bakuman chronicles their success and their struggles to get serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump.
In its essence Bakuman is a battle manga, a battle manga about who can draw the best manga and make it to the top.
Bakuman’s story is simple, yet compelling. Two young men want to make it to the top of the manga world. As simple as it sounds, the complicated it is. There are twists and turns, as well as different adversaries that stand in the way of our protagonists.
Bakuman is a fantastic manga, and I especially liked to learn more about the intricacies of the manga industry. We learn right from the outset that the manga industry is a tough industry. So hard, in fact, that Mashiro’s uncle died from overworking himself just a few years before the outset of the story.
This theme stays for the rest of the manga. Bakuman is an optimistic, positive manga, but it’s not shy to show the harsh reality of the manga industry. Weekly schedules are hard to keep, the danger of being dropped is always looming and other mangaka can easily outshine you.
Yet, it’s those intricacies that make Bakuman so interesting. As a writer myself, I was drawn in instantly and wanted to learn more about the ins and outs of the manga industry.
The cast of characters in Bakuman is fantastic. While it’s a story about Takagi and Mashiro’s quest, the manga dedicates a lot of time to all the other characters. Two of my absolute favorites were the eccentric genius Eiji Niizuma and the weird Kazuya Hiramura.
Another thing that makes Bakuman out is the art. Each character is rendered in beautiful detail and looks distinctly different from the rest of the cast. The settings, too, are beautifully crafted. We see the crowded, chaotic workspaces of mangaka, the offices of Shonen Jump and various parts of Tokyo.
The art impressed me the most, however with the different manga the cast of Bakuman are drawing. Those manga are presented to us readers and they are all unique and showcase various art styles. It’s incredible and truly shows Takeshi Obata’s mastery of the craft.
Yet, all is not well with Bakuman. One of the major problems for me was the love story between Mashiro and Azuki. It’s the typical ‘love at first sight’ cliché that I’m not fond of. While it develops into a compelling romance, I was never truly invested in it.
Another problem is Azuki herself. She’s a major character, yet she’s relatively flat and uninteresting and seems to serve as nothing but a pretty face and our protagonist’s love interest.
Overall, Bakuman is an extremely unique and extremely interesting manga with an equally interesting cast of characters. It’s this uniqueness, the story it tells and especially the outstanding art that makes it one of the best shonen manga.
The Promised Neverland is not only one of the most popular but also one of the best shonen manga of recent years.
I discovered it a couple of years ago when it was still relatively new and I absolutely loved it.
The story features on a young girl named Emma who lives at an orphanage with all her other foster siblings. Life’s happy. The caretaker is kind, but there’s a single rule that’s set in stone: the kids aren’t ever allowed to leave their home.
The truth about the orphanage is quickly revealed, however, when Emma follows one of the other children that’s supposedly been adopted. She learns the orphanage is a farm, created to raise human livestock as food for demons.
From here on out, Emma and her foster siblings make plans on how to escape the orphanage and the demons.
As the story continues, we learn much more about the lore of the world and the demons who control it.
The art in Promised Neverland is fantastic. I especially loved the contrasting design between the children and their home and the ominous, terrifying demons.
The characters in this manga are well rounded and likeable. While Emma was not a bad protagonist, I came to enjoy Rei the most by far.
The biggest problem I had with the manga was the extensive cast of characters who all seemed important but were never truly developed.
Another problem of the series was the steady decline after its first arc. The story was clearly at its best during the Jailbreak arc. Everything that comes afterwards feels like an afterthought. The plot seems incoherent because of too many time skips and especially the ending feels rushed and even illogical.
Now it doesn’t make for bad reading, but it’s just not as good as the first arc of the manga.
Overall, I still came to enjoy Promised Neverland as a whole and I still think it’s one of the best shonen manga of recent years. However, the later parts of the story are nowhere near as good as the first arc. Still, it’s worth a read.
Devilman by Go Nagai is the oldest manga on this list. Released in the early seventies, the manga will soon be fifty years old.
While Devilman is old, it’s a strange and dark series and even received a new adaption by Netflix in 2018.
Devilman is the story of Akira Fudo. In the world of Devilman, powerful demons exist who are far stronger than any human. Akira’s friend Ryo Asuka, who learned of the existence of devils, reasoned that a person with a good heart might control a demon possessing them. His plan works and Akira becomes possessed by the powerful demon, Amon. From then on, Akira is the only one standing against the hidden demons who plague humanity.
To be honest, I was wary when I first found Devilman. The old-fashioned art style and the rather simple premise made it seem like a run-of-the-mil manga featuring superpowers. It turned out, however, that I was wrong, and Devilman proved far weirder and better than I expected.
The story of Devilman is dark. While it earlier focuses on Akira fighting demons, its themes soon shift, to show that not only demons are capable of evil.
However, Devilman’s story is weird. The manga’s tone shifts throughout the work and makes it seem that even Go Nagai wasn’t sure what he wanted Devilman to be. It’s a strange, beautiful mess that must be experienced. It’s the type of story one shouldn’t look at too deeply. Devilman’s plot is weird, makes no sense or goes completely overboard. This, however, is something that is both positive and negative.
The weakest part of Devilman is the outdated, simple and cartoonish style. It’s a strange art style that takes some time getting used to, but it shines in certain regards. Yet, the art is never good, it’s just less bad at certain times.
The characters of Devilman are as simple as its premise, and rather stereotypical. Akira is your typical shonen hero who suddenly finds himself with superhuman powers. Ryo on the other hand, is his darker, mysterious friend. There’s also Miki, Akira’s love interest, but she as much merely there to serve this position and less a character in her own regard.
Another glaring issue in Devilman is the pacing. The earlier chapters happen in sequence and tell a relatively simply story. In later parts, however, Devilman often includes time skips, sometimes with no exposition, making it hard to follow the story. It almost feels as if Go Nagai wanted to convey solely the major events of his story.
One of the major points of discussion in terms of Devilman and the reason I rate it so highly is the ending. The sheer weirdness and craziness the story goes to is absolutely fantastic and makes for one of manga’s most memorable endings. Be warned, however, it’s the type you either hate or love.
Overall, Devilman is pure madness. While it starts out normal, it soon develops into a mess that has to be witnessed. However, as crazy as it is, there are moments of brilliance here.
If you enjoy older manga and you enjoy weirder, more experimental plots that go far off the rail, Devilman might be for you. In my book, at least, it’s one of the weirdest and best shonen manga I ever read.
Goth by Kenji Ooiwa is a manga based on the novel by Otsuichi. It was one of the first horror manga I ever read.
Goth is the story of two high school students, Itsuki Kamiyama and Yoru Morino, who are both fascinated by gruesome murders.
Overall, Goth is a relatively short manga, no longer than five chapters, but it still holds quite a few surprises for its reader. It mostly features various murder cases that our two protagonists become involved with.
What makes Goth stand out from other, similar manga, are its characters. In horror manga, we usually encounter normal people who are thrown into horrible situations. In Goth, our two protagonists are far from normal, not just because of their fascination with the darker things of life.
The art in Goth isn’t bad, but not outstanding. Where I think it shines the most is in the depiction of the outlandish and gruesome scenes of violence. Goth isn’t for the faint of heart and isn’t shy from depicting its violence in glorious detail.
However, Goth is relatively short, and the manga suffers for it. Itsuki is an apathetic, twisted person, but we never learn more about him. It makes him appear shallow and edgy, more so as the story continues.
The same is true for the overall plot. Each chapter tells a different story, giving each individual story and the characters it features almost no room to breathe and develop.
Overall though, Goth is very enjoyable, especially for people who enjoy darker tales and manga that stay a bit from the norm.
While I’m sure feelings of nostalgia are involved, I still consider Goth one of the best horror and best shonen manga I ever read.
Dragonball by Akira Toriyama is probably the most popular shonen manga of all time and is by many fans seen as the godfather of shonen. Having watched the Dragonball anime as a teenager, I recently read the manga.
Now Dragonball was a favorite of mine back in the day, but its appeal has waned since then.
Dragonball follows the adventures of Son Goku from childhood through adulthood. In his adventure he searches for the seven Dragon Balls who can summon Shenlong, the whish-granting dragon and battles stronger and stronger adversaries.
Dragonball is a typical battle shonen manga and if it were to be released today, it most likely wouldn’t have the same cultural significance. Back then though, Dragonball was fresh and was one of the first manga that would popularize the shonen genre.
Yet, when most people think about Dragonball, they think of Dragonball Z, of energy blasts and super powerful enemies. This wasn’t always the case, though. Dragonball started off with a young Son Goku going on wacky adventures with Bulma in search of the seven Dragon Balls.
Especially in earlier parts, Dragonball was much more reliant on wacky humor on gags. It was only over time the series got more serious.
The characters in Dragonball are also very typical for the shonen genre, especially Goku. Goku loves to fight and eat, is naïve and not very smart.
The rest of the cast, while charming, hold little in terms of character and development. They serve either as friends and companions to Goku, gag-characters or adversaries. One of the worst things to me was that many characters that one came to like throughout the series, like Tenshinhan or Kuririn, were relegated to nothing but extras in later arcs.
The art of Dragonball was the high point of the series for me. The world of Dragonball is beautiful, characters all have great and unique designs and it’s all brought to life by Toriyama’s personal style.
The art shines especially during the many battles, who are all well drawn, and the action is always fluid. It’s downright fantastic.
Now Dragonball, as I outlined before, has its flaws, some more grating than others.
The first is the evolution of the story. The grander and more epic in scale the series became, the more of its original charm seemed to be lost. Dragonball starts off being about adventures, but soon focused on battling strong and stronger antagonists. Even the fights changed and relied less on pure martial arts and more on planet destroying energy blasts. While the series was still exciting, I grew to miss the earlier parts, like the various World Martial Arts Tournaments.
The biggest flaw of the series, however, were the Dragon Balls themselves. They can grant any wish, even bringing the dead back to life and thus, death, as dramatic as it’s depicted, has little to no consequence in later parts of the series.
Another flaw, at least in my opinion, is the last arc, the Buu Saga. While it has some interesting elements, the arc is by far Dragonball’s weirdest. Some might enjoy the wackiness and strangeness of it, but to me, there were many parts I didn’t enjoy, and it left me with very mixed feelings.
Overall, Dragonball as a whole is a very enjoyable manga, especially in earlier parts. The biggest problem is that Dragon Ball was a pioneer of the genre and one of the most influential manga of all time. It was new at the time of its release, but is now dated, has often been replicated and even surpassed.
Still, Dragonball, with all its flaws, is still one of the best shonen manga of all time and anyone who likes shonen manga should read it.
Aku no Hana, also called The Flowers of Evil by Shuuzou Oshimi, is a psychological manga I read only recently, but enjoyed immensely.
It’s the story of Takao Kasuga, a shy middle school student with a love for books, especially Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal.
One day, Takao forgets his book at school and finds the fleshy worn gym clothes of his crush, Nanko Saeki. Acting upon impulse, he steals them.
The event, however, was witnessed by Sawa Nakamura, an insolent and unpleasant girl who now threatens to reveal his secret.
Aku no Hana took a bit to grow on me, but the more the story developed and the more outrageous Sawa’s demands became, the more I was drawn in by the story.
I’m usually not the biggest fan of high school settings. They are all too common and often feature similar plotlines. Yet, Aku no Hana showed me it was an entirely different story right from the get go.
Aku no Hana is a coming of age story, one about puberty, but most of all, one about being lost in society. What starts out as a story of psychological bullying soon gets out of hand, turns bizarre and eventually outlandish.
What I liked most about Aku no Hana were the characters and the way they interacted. It becomes clear quickly that this is a story about flawed characters. All three of our protagonists suffer from their own problems and the manga presents them to us in beautiful detail.
Yet, Aku no Hana isn’t just a story about characters. It features a lot of deeper themes, deeper discussions. It’s about grief and longing, about puberty and love, but also about society and what it means to be a part of it or stepping away from it.
The world of Aku no Hana is beautiful. The art is one of its biggest selling points. Characters are rendered in beautiful, yet realistic detail. Where the art stands out the most, however, is in the showcasing of emotions and atmosphere. There’s a strange beauty to the mad and despairing characters.
It’s also interesting to see how the world grows darker and more twisted, the darker the story becomes.
One of the most divisive points about Aku no Hana is its second part. Some people don’t seem to enjoy it very much. It’s less outlandish, less fleshy and more mature, centering more about the consequences, trauma and making sense of the world. To me, it was a beautiful continuation and eventually conclusion to the story.
The only point of criticism I have for the manga is the way things spiraled out of control. Things started off with bullying and demands, but they went out of hand and, at least in my book, went a little too far. It was strange and unrealistic.
Overall, Aku no Hana is a fantastic psychological manga and one of the better manga I read in recent years.
If you’re looking for a deeper, more symbolic manga, I highly recommend it. Aku no Hana is definitely one of the best shonen manga with deeper themes out there.
Do you like manly man and action? Do you like blood, gore and martial arts in a post-apocalyptic setting?
Well, then First of the North Star or Hokuto no Ken by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara, might be exactly right for you. It’s probably the manliest manga of all time.
Fist of the North Star is set in a world that has been devastated by nuclear war. In this post-apocalyptic world, the weak are ruled by the strong and the only thing of value are the dwindling reserves of food and water.
In this world, we get to know Kenshirou, a mysterious wanderer who travels the land and fights evil using the deadly martial art Hokuto Shinken.
Fist of the North Star is one of the most influential shonen manga of all time and one of the most popular manga of the eighties. Similar to Dragonball, it set many standards that are still used today.
However, Fist of the North Star, has been far outshined by other series, namely Dragonball, as well as the series it inspired, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. But make no mistake, First of the North Star is still one of the best shonen manga of all time.
The art in Fist of the North Star might seem typical for its time period, but it’s not bad and improves throughout the entire run. It’s well shaded and detailed.
Action and violence are rendered in glorious detail, making it a delight to watch Kenshirou’s many battles.
What I came to enjoy the most was the rendering of the desolate, post-apocalyptic setting and the outlandish characters who populate it.
And as I mentioned before, Fist of the North Star is a manly manga. Almost all the men are rendered as testosterone fueled masses of muscle who do many things and occasionally shed manly tears. It’s glorious for what it is.
Yet, the manga is not solely about manly man fighting grandiose battles. While the manga seems simple, even shallow at first, the storyline soon becomes deeper and more ambiguous.
However, the series never feels like a full, coherent story, but more like episodes that are loosely related. This becomes especially prevalent in the later parts of the story which feel almost unnecessary and needlessly overblown.
Now First of the North Star is predominantly an action battle manga so a good part of the characters are nothing, but one-dimensional extras.
Some characters stand out, like Rei and Mamiya and also the antagonist Raoh, who proves to be an excellent foil and a very interesting character.
The one character who stands out the most is Kenshirou, but he does so oddly. He’s more vessel for the story than true character. Most of the time the consequences of his actions are only depicted by how they affect other characters. Kenshirou himself remains stoic for most of the manga. He seems to fight his way through the wasteland, taking care of evil and is often depicted as an ideal figure and a sort of savior of the wastelands. It doesn’t ruin the manga though.
Overall, I enjoyed Fist of the North Star a lot. I’m a big fan of post-apocalyptic settings and the world of First of the North Star is one of the best depictions I’ve seen in manga.
While I’m usually a fan of deeper, more complex stories, Fist of the North Star is just all around fun. It’s glorious to follow Kenshiro and see him take out the scum of the wasteland with his outlandish martial arts.
First of the North Star is not as popular as other shonen manga from the same period, but it’s definitely one of the best action manga and of the best shonen manga of all time.
If you like action, manly men and manly tears, give this one a try, you won’t be disappointed.
I’m a big fan of science-fiction and cyberpunk and Tsutomu Nihei and his works have always been close to my heart.
Aposimz is his newest work, set in an artificial world by the same name.
After the people lost their war against the inner core of the planet, they were left behind on the surface, where they struggle against aggressive automatons and the terrible frame disease.
Our protagonist is Etherow, a young man who encounters Titania, a young woman in pursuit of soldiers of the Rebedoan Empire. After helping Titania escape, Etherow’s home gets destroyed, and he gets badly wounded. However, he soon finds himself transformed into a regular frame, a sort of highly advanced cybernetic organism. From then on, he vows to help Titania and to take revenge on the Rebedoan Empire.
The story feels rather formulaic, but it stands out by Nihei’s way of telling it.
While many of Nihei’s earlier manga, especially Blame! and Abara heavily used shadows and darker colors, Aposimz seems to be the polar opposite. The entire manga is mostly held in white and lighter, whiter shading. This makes it both an entirely new, yet strangely familiar experience.
The strange world of Aposimz is more resembling a nuclear winter than the dark, grim technological labyrinth of Blame!. Yet it shares the same feeling of isolation so prevalent in Nihei’s work.
However, the focus on lighter colors and shading and the wide, empty spaces so common Nihei’s work might take some time getting used to.
I also love the world Nihei created. It’s a land of legends and traditions, of tribalism, but also a vast empire. It’s this world and its rendering that’s clearly the high-point of the series.
Yet, as is so often the case with Nihei, many, if not all, elements of the world are never truly explained. Their origins are mysterious and we as readers are left in wonder similar to the people who populate the world.
However, all is not well with Aposimz. It falls in line more with Nihei’s newer work Knights of Sidonia than his older, grittier work.
With the world of Aposimz is dark and hopeless, the story and characters make it feel less so. It feels more like a shonen adventure set in one of Nihei’s worlds than a story by Nihei.
The characters are rather weak, too, which is nothing new for a manga by Nihei. Yet, Aposimz continues the trend of Knights of Sidonia in being more character driven than world-driven like Blame!
Ether, as well as Titania and later Keisha, all feel rather one-dimension. They want revenge against the empire and that’s it. The same is true for most villains. Many of them are blank slates, who serve as foils for our protagonists.
It makes it hard to feel for them and relate to any of them.
Overall, I still enjoy Aposimz, but not as much as Nihei’s earlier, grittier and darker stories. It’s a manga that stands out for its unique and detailed art, its complex and strange world and its action. In that way, it’s a typical Nihei manga and for that I love it.
If you’re enjoying Nihei’s work, or strange science-fiction worlds, read Aposimz. While the story and characters aren’t its biggest selling point, the art and world alone make it one of the best shonen manga of recent years.
Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki is one of the best shonen manga in the samurai genre. It tells the story of Hitokiri Battosai, who’s infamous for being a killer during the Bakumatsu War.
This, however, is not a story of the Bakumatsu War. Rurouni Kenshin starts of years afterwards and Hitokiri Battosai is now known as Himura Kenshin, a wandering samurai. He turns out to not be a bloodthirsty killer, but a kindhearted soul, haunted by guilt for what he’s done. He’s sworn to never kill again and thus wields a reverse blade katana.
The route to redemption is never an easy one and Kenshin repeatedly runs into people who hold a grudge against his alter ego Hitokiri Battosai.
The manga features multiple arcs, beginning in Edo where the story is more episodic, slowly introducing us to the main cast. Where the series truly becomes one of the best shonen manga of all time, is during its second arc, the Kyoto arc. It also introduces us to one of the most notable antagonists in the entire samurai manga genre, Shishio Makoto.
Rurouni Kenshin stands out most for its deeper themes. Kenshin is a man who seeks redemption and who wants to escape his past, yet seems unable to do so. The central question is if he’ll ever be able to bury his alter ego as Hitokiri Battosai.
The first thing one notices about Rurouni Kenshin is the art. It can appear simplistic and old-fashioned and might take some time getting used to.
Rurouni Kenshin is a fantastic samurai manga, featuring some fantastic action and a wide cast of interesting and memorable characters.
The series is a great read for those who are not only looking for a good samurai manga, but for a deeper shonen manga, featuring some complex characters.
How weird can a series by the Chainsaw man be? Well, it can be seriously weird. It’s another manga created by Fujimoto Tatsuki, the man behind Fire punch, so you already that you’re in for a crazy manga.
Denji is a man who fights devils. For that he transforms into a creature whose head and arms resemble chainsaws.
He started out working for the yakuza as a devil hunter, but was soon scouted by the Public Safety Bureau and became a licensed devil hunter.
Chainsaw Man might be ridiculous, even stupid, but it’s still one of the best shonen manga I read in recent years.
Now what makes Chainsaw Man so interesting? First there’s the sheer uniqueness and creativity that went into it. There’s of course the devils, demons who escaped hell and wreak havoc on earth. Their design is often nothing short of stunningly horrific.
The plot might start out simple, but as you read on, it becomes more complex and you ask more questions. However, this manga is by Fujimoto Tatsuki, so the overall atmosphere is dark, unforgiving and even depressing.
As surreal and weird as Chainsaw Man is, it’s a strangely enticing read. You’re slowly drawn in by the plot, by the devils, the characters and the general madness that is Chainsaw Man.
Denji, our protagonist, might appear simple and dumb at first, but we actually see him change in later parts of the story. Other characters, including Power and Higashiyama, are both complex in their own right.
Yet, the most intriguing character of all is Makima, the beautiful intelligent leader of their team who seems to be surrounded by more mysteries than anyone else in the manga.
What truly made me consider Chainsaw Man as one of the best shonen of all time, was the unique art. Chainsaw Man’s world and the characters are rendered in gritty detail. Fujimoto Tatsuki’s style has an odd charm really fits a story as abstruse as Chainsaw Man. Yet, it’s still very sketchy and it might take some time getting used to.
And now I want to come to the best part of Chainsaw Man, the fights. Chainsaw man features some of the most brutal and stylish fights in all of shonen manga. There’s blood, violence and carnage, as one can imagine given the nature of our protagonist. However, it’s not just Denji who stands out, there are also the devils and their various and outlandish powers.
Chainsaw Man can be best described as a work of beautiful madness. It’s fun, others emotional and at others it fills you with a sense of despair.
Reading this manga was a unique experience. It’s different from almost any other manga out there. I urge anyone who’s interested in weird shonen manga to give this one a try. However, it might not be for everyone.
Dr. Stone is one of the more recent additions on this list, but man is it great. It’s created by Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi and its premise couldn’t be simpler. Rebuilding human society from the Stone Age with all the modern knowledge. It’s this premise alone that makes Dr. Stone unique and in my book one of the best shonen manga of recent years.
The story begins with a mysterious light petrifying every single person on Earth. Thousands of years later our protagonists Taiju Ooki and Senkuu awaken from this state.
Senkuu is a genius who knows pretty much everything about science and makes it his goal to restore the world to what it was like.
Dr. Stone stands out not only because of its premise though, but because of its art. Boichi is an amazing artist, and it’s a marvel to look at anything in Dr. Stone. Be it characters, animals, the world or even Senkuu’s creations, they all look stunningly beautiful.
Where Dr. Stone truly shines and what makes it one of the best shonen of recent years is the focus on technical progression. It’s a lot of fun and also interesting to see Senkuu create pretty much anything from scratch. It’s one of the most enjoyable and satisfying reads I had in a while.
Yet, Dr. Stone goes further than many other similar manga. While most other manga featuring a similar premise focus on survival, Dr. Stone focuses on establishing society and on technological progress. Technology outshines everything here. The characters, the world, even the plot are all there for us to marvel at Senkuu’s many creations.
At first Senkuu only builds tools and weapons, but before long he creates electricity and even automated factories.
There are, however, two major problems I have with Dr. Stone. The first are the characters. While they are all likeable, none stood out too much to me or were too interesting. They are almost all defined by a single trait, a single skill that makes them important for the progression of the story.
Another problem is the humor which I also didn’t enjoy in Boichi’s other work, Sun Ken Rock. It relies mostly on two things, facial expressions and comical renderings of the characters. While it was funny at first, the repetitive nature soon made it annoying.
To sum it up though, those are only two minor flaws of one of the best new shonen manga. Dr. Stone is still a lot of fun, and the focus on scientific advancement makes it stand out among many other titles.
I love manga about mind game and Tomodachi Game by Mikto Amaguchi and Yuuki Satou is one of the best shonen manga in this genre.
Our protagonist Yuuichi Katagiri and his four friends are kidnapped one night and are forced to take part in the titular game. It’s revealed that one of them stole the class money to enter the game to rid themselves of a massive debt that has now been put on all of them.
While Tomodachi Game starts out simple and generic, it takes up steam after its second game when a bigger, more complex plot is revealed. The same is true for the games. They start out relatively generic, but soon get much more interesting.
What made Tomodachi Game stand out the most though, was its protagonist Yuuichi. He’s not your typical good-hearted protagonist, no, he’s a much darker, more twisted person doesn’t shy away from ruthless methods to win.
It’s Yuuichi’s unique character and the art that renders his psychotic facial expressions in great detail that make this series stand out so much.
Tomodachi Game might take a while to truly shine, but when it does, it becomes an interesting manga with a different type of protagonist and some great games. Read it, but don’t give up too early. It might not appear as much early on, but it gets much, much better.
There aren’t many manga out there that are as fun as Tokyo Manji Revengers by Ken Wakui. It was one of the most enjoyable and best shonen manga I ever read.
Our protagonist Takemichi Hanagaki has hit rock bottom. Thinking things couldn’t get any worse, he learns that his childhood sweetheart, Hinata Tachibana, was murdered by the Tokyo Manji Gang.
He’s still wondering where things went downhill when he suddenly travels twelve years to the past. Back then, he was still in a relationship with Hinata and he realizes that he’s now got a chance not only to save her life but to change the future altogether.
Tokyo Manji Revengers already gives us an interesting premise. Namely, that of going back in time and being able to redo your regrets. What makes this such a great shonen manga though isn’t the plot but the characters.
Each character in this manga is unique and likeable, apart from the obvious antagonists.
It’s also interesting that everyone except our protagonist is a badass and skilled fighter. Unusually, it’s the protagonist of a shonen manga who’s the top fighter or becomes the top fighter, eventually. Not so Takemichi, he’s the polar opposite. He’s weak, he cries a lot, and this never changes throughout the manga. However, it also made Takemichi a more grounded and more realistic character. His position is not so much to be another fighter, but to be the heart of the group, its voice of reason.
While I think it’s the characters that make this manga, the plot is by not. Especially Takemichi’s time travel shenanigans make it much more enjoyable. There are also a lot of twists and turns in this manga, but it was never something that annoyed me. I stand by my opinion that this is easily one of the best shonen manga out there, featuring cool characters and a lot of fantastic action scenes.
The art of this manga is pretty good too, but where it truly stands out is in terms of characters. Each character has his or her own design and they all stand out among one another. This is especially prevalent because Ken Wakui gave each one a different hairstyle, style of clothing and accessories.
My only problem with the series was the age of the characters. Most of the plot takes place when Takemichi is a teenager, no older than fourteen. However, these young teenagers, still from violent street gangs, fight each other and even end up killing one another. I understand shonen characters are often young, but Tokyo Manji Revengers goes a bit too far.
Overall, this is the only problem I have with this manga. I consider Tokyo Manji Revengers one of the best shonen manga out there. Any fan of shonen manga who just wants to have a series with fantastic characters that’s all around fun should read it.
Darwin’s Game by Ginko and Yuki Takahata is another shonen manga that features death games. To me, however, it stood out amongst a plethora of other, similar manga.
Kaname Sudou, our protagonist, signs up for a mobile game called Darwin’s Game. Before long a man dressed as a mascot follows and eventually attacks him. Things only get more interesting as we’re introduced to more characters and Kaname learns more about Darwin’s Game.
What made this manga so great was our protagonist. Kaname might start out typical, but he soon becomes much more ruthless. It’s enjoyable to see someone going all in who’s not afraid to kill.
While the rest of the cast is likeable enough, some characters are underdeveloped and almost none of them are as interesting as Kaname.
And now we come to the major part of a death game manga, the games itself. At first, they seem to be nothing more than standard death matches, but as the story continues they become much more interesting. The same is true for the plot.
While the plot might not seem too innovative, it’s still fun to read and gives you enough to think about. Especially newer arcs extend the world of Darwin’s Game and its story, making the manga far more interesting.
Darwin’s Game also features some good art which truly shines during death games and battles. These battles are intense and rip with action. What adds a lot of suspense during battles are the so-called Sigils, special powers characters receive the moment they enter Darwin’s Game.
While Darwin’s Game doesn’t redefine the genre, I still think it’s a great read and one of the best shonen manga out there. It adds enough unique elements to a common setting to make it fresh, fun and engaging.
If you want to read a shonen manga about death games, you could do much worse than to read Darwin’s Game.
Crows by Hiroshi Takahashi is one of the older manga on this list, but I still consider it a fantastic read.
It’s a martial arts manga about delinquents and its one thing before anything else: fun.
As a fan of Takashi Miike’s movie Crows Zero and Crows Zero 2, I was delighted that the movies were based on a manga, albeit featuring other characters.
The story starts off with Harumichi Bouya’s transfer to Suzuran, a school filled with delinquents and known as Crows High.
Bouya soon learns that many people tried to conquer all the gangs in Suzuran but no one ever succeeded. Of course, from this day onward Bouya sets his sight on nothing less. Things, however, never go as they are planned and as the plot continues warfare between various gangs in the area breaks out.
As a martial arts manga, Crows’ focus is clearly on one thing and one thing alone, the fights. What surprised me, however, were the characters. They are all unique and all stand out in their own, unique way.
The thing I appreciated most about Crows was that it did exactly what it promised. It’s a great delinquent battle manga that doesn’t try to be more than that. It’s refreshing to find a series that’s simple and fun.
The art in Crows might not be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s an older series, and it has a typical 90s look to it. While it’s not bad, it’s different and takes some time getting used to.
Another thing that annoyed me about Crows was the complete absence of, well, all authority figures. Delinquents clash in the middle of the city, beat each other senseless and no one intervenes. There’re no teachers, no police, nothing.
Overall, Crows isn’t a deep series. Sure, it has its tragic and dramatic moments, but it’s a series about delinquents who beat the living hell out of each other.
On that note, Crows delivers, and it delivers well. It’s one of my favorite delinquent manga and one of the best shonen manga out there. I especially recommend it for people who are looking for a more lighthearted fighting manga about delinquents.
Claymore by Horhiro Agi is a dark fantasy manga. It tells the story of Clare, one of the titular Claymores.
The manga is set in a medieval world, populated by Yoma, monstrous beings with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. It’s the Claymores who are tasked with killing them.
As usually the case with manga, Claymore starts out in episodic fashion before the main plot is slowly introduced. Clare’s tragic past and her relationship to Teresa and the ominous being known as Priscilla are revealed.
The story, while intriguing, isn’t the manga’s biggest selling point. What makes Claymore one of the best shonen manga of all time is its world and the monsters populating it.
Landscapes are rendered in beautiful detail, cities look stunning and the monster design is among the best and most creative I’ve ever seen. Claymore stands among the best manga in terms of art.
Claymore features a lot of battles, however, they can be hard to follow and their locations can feel uninspired. The beautiful world of Claymore is hardly ever used.
Another thing I found rather uninspiring was the prime antagonist. Priscilla is made out to be an impossibly strong being, but we never see much of her. She’s nothing but an ominous presence out there and only becomes important in a few select parts of the manga.
The biggest problem of Claymore is its ending. Some revelations felt questionable. They explained the world and the existence of Yoma, but it all felt a bit too much like a Deus ex Machina device.
Nonetheless, Claymore stands among the best shonen manga and is one of the best dark fantasy manga out there. While it’s not without flaws, it’s well worth the read, especially for its breathtaking art.
Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama is one of the most popular shonen manga of all time.
The story similarly to Claymore is set in a dark, fantastical world. All humanity is restricted to a single city surrounded by multiple, concentric walls. This city is the last bastion of humanity. All other humans have been eradicated by the titans.
Eren Yeager, our protagonist, is a young military recruit who gets the power to turn into a titan. From then on Eren and his fellow recruits join the survey corps and try to find a way to the defeat the tians for good. This, however, is only the premise of a story that becomes much grander in scale.
I absolutely love the setting of this manga. I’m a big fan of stories set in confined or restricted spaces. The idea of all of humanity constantly under siege in a single city is extremely interesting.
While the premise of Attack on Titan is relatively simple, the story gets much more interesting as it goes on. The more we learn about the titans, the more we learn how they are connected to the city and also the rest of the world.
Attack on Titan’s art is a divisive topic. The manga starts out as subpar in quality. Hajime Isayma, however, improves tremendously and from volume six onward it becomes one of the better drawn manga out there.
The landscape as well as the wide shots of the city are nothing short of gorgeous. The art truly comes to shine during the battle scenes, though. They are intense, especially do to the unique weapons used by the survey corpse. The action is brutal and fast-paced, but never confusing and drawn with a lot of attention to detail. This makes Attack on Titan one of the best shonen manga in terms of battles.
What I really loved was the appearance of the titans. They aren’t twisted monsters, but look more like dim-witted, simplistic humans. It’s their empty, smiling faces and their lack of emotions that make them so outlandish and creepy.
One of the major problems I had with the series, was the tonal shift in the later half after certain revelations happened in the series. While the scale of the story increased a lot, I felt that the sense of mystery and survival that was so prevalent earlier get lost unfortunately.
Attack on Titan is a long manga, but it’s well worth the read. It’s an interesting and intriguing story with a cast of memorable characters. It’s these elements that made Attack on Titan shine and elevate it to one of the best shonen manga I’d wholeheartedly recommend to anyone.
If you’re looking for a complex, action-oriented manga in a fantastic setting, Attack on Titan might be what you’re looking for.
Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi is one of the longest, most popular and best shonen manga out there.
To be honest, Hunter x Hunter had to grow on me a bit. I enjoyed the first arcs, but it was much later that I truly came to enjoy it.
Hunter x Hunter is a manga about hunters, who are basically treasure hunters with a lot of privileges. To become one, you have to pass the Hunter Exam, a series of hard challenges that only one in a hundred thousand can pass.
Gon Freecss is a young boy who wants to become a hunter to find his father and signs up for the Hunter Exam. Over the course of the exam, Gon meets various other participants who soon become Hunter x Hunter’s main cast.
The Hunter Exam arc was a typical shonen arc. Things got much more interesting when Togashi introduced the Nen system, which allowed people to manifest superhuman powers. Introducing this system made Hunter x Hunter much more interesting.
The divers cast of character in Hunter x Hunter is likeable throughout the board. What I came to love was the dynamic between Gon and Killua. Their adventures together solidified Hunter x Hunter as one of the best shonen manga for me.
I also really loved the antagonists, especially Hisoka who’s one of the most bizarre characters ever. The phantom troop, and notably Chrollo, their leader, are another group of extremely interesting characters. Later on, during one of Hunter x Hunter’s most celebrated arcs, we’re introduced to one of the greatest antagonists in shonen manga history.
While I consider Hunter x Hunter one of the best shonen manga, it’s not without fault.
A divisive topic is the manga’s art. I’m surprised how Yoshihori Togashi can be both extremely good, but also extremely bad. The manga features some incredibly stunning panels while others are almost scribbles.
The quality of the arcs is another problem. Some arcs, like the York New arc and the Chimera Ant arc are outstanding while others feel rather boring and dragged on for way too long. Hunter x Hunter felt like a strange mixture between brilliance and boredom.
The biggest problem to me, however, was the exposition and the dialogue. I have no problem with dialogue-heavy manga, but Hunter x Hunter’s dialogue often felt unfocused and even unnecessarily long.
The problems with the exposition are most prevalent in the newest arc, the Succession Contest arc. While I’m stunned by its complexity, the sheer amount of explanation and exposition can be overwhelming. I didn’t struggle to make sense of what was going, but there might have been better and more concise ways of conveying it.
Overall, Hunter x Hunter is one of the most enjoyable and best shonen manga I’ve read. While it has its weak moments, it more than makes up for them by some other, brilliant parts.
If you want to read one of the most fun and best shonen manga out there, give Hunter x Hunter a try.
This changed when I stumbled upon Blue Lock by Muneyuki Kaneshiro. At first I was skeptical, but after I read the first few chapters I was intrigued and soon came to absolutely love it.
Blue Lock is one of the best shonen manga I’ve read in the last year.
Blue Lock’s story is relatively simple. After an analysis it’s revealed that the Japanese National Team misses one thing, a great striker. An eccentric coach named Jinpachi Ego is hired by the Japanese Football Association and puts together a program held at Blue Lock, a prison-like facility.
It’s there that three hundred talented strikers from all over Japan will fight against one another. The sole winner of Blue Lock will then become the new striker of the national team.
Our protagonist, Yoichi Isagi is one such striker who enters Blue Lock.
Now Blue Lock is a soccer manga, and I’m neither a fan of soccer nor of sports manga, so why did I like Blue Lock so much? The characters, the art and the sheer amount of tension so prevalent throughout the manga’s various games and tests.
The art by Yuusuke Nomura is absolutely breathtaking and can rival the best shonen manga in the arts department. It’s sharp, vivid and highly engaging. Some panels and pages are simple exceptional.
What I came to love the most was the rendering of raw emotions and power. Characters are shown with distorted faces, with glowing eyes and auras around them. It’s the type of art you usually see in over the top battle manga. It’s this art that makes Blue Lock so great.
What I also enjoyed were the characters. They are across the board likeable and unique. My favorite is Meguru Bachira, who’s such a quirky, yet amazingly likeable character.
While Blue Lock’s a plot-driven manga a lot of focus is put on Yoichi and his quest of self-discovery at Blue Lock. Yoichi isn’t your typical overpowered shonen protagonist. Instead he’s often worse than others and the story focuses on him catching up to them. It’s a prevalent theme in Blue Rock that Oichi has to discover more about his unique play style and inherent talent. This only serves to make the manga more interesting.
One thing one might want to criticize about Blue Lock is the sheer level of play many of the characters showcase. They are high schoolers, yet they can showcase world class plays. While it’s unrealistic, it didn’t deter my enjoyment at all.
Blue Lock is definitely one of the best shonen manga released in recent years, be it sports or otherwise. It’s not just the plot, or the characters, but especially because of the exceptional art. Even if you’re not a fan of sports manga, check out Blue Lock.
Alice in Borderland by Haro Aso is a manga featuring death games in my opinion one of the best shonen manga the genre offers.
Ryohei Arisu, our protagonist, does anything he can to avoid thinking about the future. One night when he’s hanging out with his friends Karube and Chota, they see fireworks. A sudden, blinding explosion follows and soon they find themselves in a different world, the Borderland. Here they are forced to either take part in deadly games or die.
I’m a big fan of clever death games, but the manga still exceeded my expectations.
The manga’s so interesting because of the nature of the death games. There’re various types of games that vary in difficulty. This makes the games more suited to certain people than others. Some games rely on physical prowess while others require intellect.
These games are, throughout the board, interesting and enjoyable to watch and can be quite brutal and unforgiving.
Alice in Borderland’s art is fantastic. The Borderland itself and the various game locations are stunning to look at. The most attention, however, was given to the characters. All of them look unique and are well developed.
The one I came to enjoy the most, however, was our protagonist Arisu. The primary reason was because of how realistic he was. While he’s smart and resourceful, he’s not a genius. Arisu’s also not the type to fight his enemies in ruthless fashion. No, he’s more of a somber character and there’s a deep-set melancholy surrounding him. Yet, that only makes him more interesting and complex.
The side-characters are also interesting in their own right and almost everyone has their own backstory and develops over the course of the story.
In later parts, the manga can get a bit out of hand when the story is told more from the point of view of various individual characters. While they are all interesting, it makes the manga almost episodic in fashion.
The only problem I had with Alice in Borderland was the ending. I think it worked well enough, and there really wasn’t a better way to end it. Yet, it felt slightly anti-climactic.
Overall, Alice in Borderland is probably one of the best manga for anyone who’s interested in death games. I always think back to it and consider it one of the best shonen manga of all time.
And here we have another manga about death games, Kamisama no Iutoori by Kaneshiro Muneyuki and its sequel. With death games, this manga is as good as it gets, but it’s also very weird.
Kamisama no Iutoori Ni is one of my favorite manga of all time and also one of the best shonen manga ever.
Takahata Shun is a normal high school student who’s utterly bored with his life. That changes when his teacher’s head explodes and a Daruma doll appears. This sets in motion the very first of the many death games in this manga.
Over the course of the series, we’re introduced to other interesting characters and often very odd games.
The sequel series introduces us to a new set of characters, but it eventually ties in with the first part’s story.
The one thing I enjoyed the most about the manga was that it wasn’t shy killing of characters. We’re often introduced to new characters, are shown their backstory only for them to die soon after.
One of the strongest points of the series is the protagonists. I truly came to love all of them, especially the more deranged members of the cast. It’s these characters that truly cemented the manga as one of the best shonen of all time. My favorite character without a doubt is definitely Ushimitsu.
While mana of the games in the series are rather simple, their execution makes them so enjoyable. Yet, the games differ from those in other manga. Kamisama no Iutoori’s games are nothing but surreal, but that also makes them more exciting.
In the first part, the art by Akeji Fujimura might not be all that great, but it truly comes to shine in the second part. Especially the later parts of the series are absolutely gorgeous.
The artist can also render suspense fantastically. This is especially prevalent in one of the best, if not the best, chapter in the entire manga when Shun Takahata’s plotline is brought to an end.
The second part is much longer than the first, but this also means there’s more time spent on the individual games. In most cases this is a fantastic thing, but sometimes they can drag on a little too much.
One thing I often hear criticized is the ending. I guess it’s the type you either love or hate; I loved it.
Overall, I had an absolute blast with this series and enjoyed it immensely. It’s without a doubt one of my favorite manga of all time and probably one of the best shonen manga out there.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki is one of the most popular manga of all time, especially because of its recent, outstanding anime adaptions.
It’s one of the longest running manga series with over one-hundred volumes and is currently in its eight story arc.
The series started out rather typical and the first part featuring Jonathan Joestar was reminiscent of other popular manga of the time, for example Fist of the North Star.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure truly came to shine in its third part, Stardust Crusaders. It wasn’t just the story; it was the introduction of Stands. Stands are a physical manifestation of a character’s life force, taking on the form of an ethereal figure who possesses various superhuman powers.
While my favorite is Part 7: Steelball Run, one can’t deny the genius of Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable.
The earlier parts of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure were all set on the grand stage, about saving the world from the dangers of Dio Brando and the Pillar Man. Diamond Unbreakable, however, is set in the small town of Morioh.
Our protagonist is Josuke Higashikata, the illegitimate child of Jospeh Joestar.
The story begins with Jotao Kujo, the previous arcs protagonist showing up in town in search for an artifact called the Bow and Arrow which can create Stands.
However, this quest is only the beginning of Part 4 and serves as nothing but an introduction. It’s only after the first act of Part 4 that the story’s real antagonist, the ominous Yoshikage Kira is introduced.
Diamond is Unbreakable is without a doubt one of the best shonen manga of all time. What makes it so interesting is the intimate setting. Gone are the days of grandiose, global adventures and instead all of Part 4 is set in a small town.
It’s this intimate setting that makes Part 4 stand out. Another fantastic thing are the characters, most of them either normal people or high schoolers.
Yet, what truly makes Part 4 is the principal antagonist. Yoshikage Kira is a fantastic and well-written character and one of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s most notorious antagonists.
The art in Diamond Unbreakable is also fantastic and stands apart from earlier story arcs. It’s here that we can see the evolution of Araki’s art style. It starts out similar to Part 3: Stardust Crusaders, but slowly evolves and becomes more unique, bizarre and feminine, an art style that should dominate later parts of the series.
It’s also in Part 4 that Stands are truly used to the best of their ability. Pure combat Stands are seldom used, instead Araki presents us with a wide variety of the weirdest powers, making battles much more interesting.
Overall, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the best and longest running manga series of all time and Part 4: Diamond Unbreakable is one of the best if not the best shonen manga of all time.
Stephen King is a master of horror and one of the most popular and most successful horror writers of all time. Over the course of his long career, he’s written over sixty novels and two hundred short stories.
I’ve been a fan of Stephen King ever since I was a teenager and read the first four entries of his Dark Tower series. Yet, over the years, I never fully explored his work and only read some of his more popular novels, like the Dark Half or The Stand.
Stephen King
Since I’m a horror writer myself, I recently decided to read more horror literature myself. After I devoured the works of H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King seemed like a logical next step.
Over the past months, I read every single Stephen short story collection. While I enjoyed most of his short stories and each one of his collections, I found some of them more impressive and worthwhile than others.
That’s the reason I created this short list. It’s not only to rank but to also share my thoughts on each Stephen King short story collection out there.
If you are, however, more interested in a more detailed list of short stories, I urge you to check out the list of my favorite Stephen King short stories. It’s a list of the stories I consider best as well as my individual thoughts on them.
But now, let us continue on with my ranking of the six Stephen King short story collections.
Just After Sunset is not a bad collection, but it’s the weakest one of the six Stephen King short story collections out there.
It differed from what I was looking for. I was looking for horror and Just After Sunset, felt different and more literary. I recognize that it’s a more ambitious collection and I appreciate Stephen King’s efforts. It’s just that I didn’t care too much for most of the stores in Just After Sunset.
It starts off great with Willa, a beautiful, melancholic little tale about love and life’s fragility, followed by the suspense-filled novella Gingerbread Girl.
There are other stories that I enjoyed, especially Stationary Bike and N., one of Stephen King’s greatest novella of all time. I absolutely loved this one and the eerie, uneasy and Lovecraftian atmosphere so prevalent in the work.
It also brings us one of the weirdest stories Stephen King ever wrote with The Cat from Hell. Even now, I’m still divided on what to think about it. I’m not sure if I love it or hate it, but I guess that says something about the story.
Overall, Just After Sunset is not a bad collection of short stories. Apart from N. and Willa, however, nothing truly stood out to me.
After reading all six Stephen King short story collections, I encountered many memorable short stories. The ones in Just After Sunset, however, aren’t part of it and are, for the most part, forgettable.
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, published in 2015, is the most recent Stephen King short story collection on this list.
While I enjoyed this collection, many of the short stories suffer from similar problems the ones in Just After Sunset do.
Stephen King’s writing is stronger and much more mature in this collection. Yet, I have to admit that I miss the pulpy horror and the weirdness of his earlier collections.
While some stories, such as The Dune, Obits and Drunken Firework stand out, many others didn’t.
I felt the strongest entries in this collection were the two novellas, Ur and Morality. Especially Morality was an incredibly powerful piece with its nuanced discussion of morality, guilt and sin.
As for short stories, The Dune was a delightfully short tale, while Obits was a lengthier tale about deadly obituaries. I was most surprised by the humorous Drunken Fireworks, which featured a firework arms race on the Fourth of July.
The Bazaar of Broken Dreams isn’t as horror centric as his earlier collections, but features a wider variet of stories. It’s a collection about life, death, morality, guilt and regret.
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams is not a bad collection, and it might be his most polished one, but it’s also not the best collection for those readers who are looking for a true bone-chilling experience.
To Reads: The Dune, Morality, Ur, Obits, Drunken Fireworks
I enjoyed Everything’s Eventual a great deal, but it’s still a middle-of-the-road Stephen King short story collection.
Some entries in this collection are fantastic, yet there’s also a fair share of stories I didn’t care too greatly about or that didn’t stand out to me.
There are some truly terrifying and suspenseful stories in Everything’s Eventual. The fantastic Autopsy Room Four and the terrifying 1408 come to mind. Yet, it felt lacking when compared to other Stephen King short story collections.
Once more I most appreciated the two novellas in this collection, the titular Everything’s Eventual and Riding the Bullet. They are both fantastical, but once more, they differ from what I expected from Stephen King.
Overall, I really enjoyed Everything’s Eventual, but it felt lighter and less scary than the other Stephen King short story collections.
Don’t get me wrong, Everything’s Eventual is a good collection, just not as good as the following three.
To Reads: Autopsy Room Four, Everything’s Eventual, That Feeling You Can Only Say What It Is In French, 1408, Riding the Bullet
Nightmares and Dreamscapes is an odd collection and probably the oddest amongst all Stephen King short story collections.
I don’t think all the stories in Nightmares and Dreamscapes are great. Yet, it features some of my favorite stories of his.
It starts of fantastic with another one of Stephen King’s novellas, Dolan’s Cadillac. It’s the story about a man taking revenge on a crime boss, but also serves as an homage to Edgar Allan Poe.
Stories such as Sneakers and Dedication don’t seem to get a lot of love. Yet I came to enjoy those two a lot, and I’d wholeheartedly recommend them.
Other great stories include Suffer the Little Children, My Pretty Pony and The Ten O’clock People. My favorites, however, were the Lovecraft inspired Crouch End and The Moving Finger.
One thing I was surprised about was Stephen King’s decision to include Head Down. It’s a nonfictional essay about the Bangor West Little League baseball team. I’m not one for baseball and neither know a lot about the game or the rules, yet Stephen King’s writing made it a very enjoyable experience.
Overall, Nightmares and Dreamscapes was odd. It had its share of silly stories such as Chattery Teeth, but all in all it was a great read and none of the stories were terrible or forgettable.
Another thing I came to enjoy a lot was the switch of format and tone. Nightmares and Dreamscapes is truly the broadest of all the Stephen King short story collections, including a variety of genres, formats and narrative choices.
To Reads: Dolan’s Cadillac, Suffer the Little Children, The Moving Finger, My Pretty Pony, The Ten O’clock People, Crouch End
Night Shift is Stephen King’s very first collection of short stories. It was exactly what I was looking for when I think of a Stephen King short story collection.
It’s a fantastic collection of all out and pulpy horror.
Sure, Night Shift might not be as refined and lack the finesse of his later work, but I still loved many of the stories in this collection.
However, it features not only horror stories. There are the deeply emotional stories The Last Rung on the Ladder and The Woman in the Room.
Yet, it’s also full of goofy and weird stories that I really didn’t care for. Trucks, Battleground or The Mangler are examples of those.
Night shift has also one of the strongest starts with the great Jerusalem’s Lot and Graveyard Shift, two of the best stories in the entire collection.
What follows, however, are the weaker entries of the collection, the stories who are sillier and almost nonsensical.
Overall, The Ledge, Quitters Inc. or Children of the Corn more than make up for the weaker entries. They elevate Night Shift to one of the best Stephen King short story collections out there.
The main reason I didn’t rank Night Shift as number one is first the sillier stories in this collection, and second, that Skeleton Crew is a stronger collection overall.
To Reads: Jerusalem’s Lot, Graveyard Shift, I Am the Doorway, Gray Matter, Strawberry Spring, The Ledge, Quitters Inc., Children of the Corn, The Last Rung on the Ladder, The Woman in the Room
Skeleton Crew was the very first Stephen King short story collection I read, but one that should prove my favorite.
This one really has it all. It includes a plethora of true horror stories, but also several more interesting and fantastical entries.
We are already off for a fantastic start, with Stephen King’s the Mist. It’s one of his most popular and famous novellas, about a town engulfed by an otherworldly mist and the creatures that come with it.
The stories that stood out to me the most were Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut and The Jaunt, incidentally two of the more fantastical entries in this collection.
However, many of the true horror stories were also fantastic. The Monkey, The Raft, The Reaper’s Image and the suspenseful Gramma are all great reads.
Yet Skeleton Crew also has its share of weirder stories. Survivor Type is one of Stephen King’s most disturbing stories, and his story Nona is nothing short of a trip down into insanity.
The one story that surprised me the most, however, was The Reach. It’s the most heartfelt and beautiful of all of Stephen King’s short stories.
There might be one or two stories I didn’t care too much about, but those are easily brushed aside by the many strong entries. Skeleton Crew, like Night Shift, is not as refined or well-written as some later Stephen King short story collections. The stories felt stronger, more rough and creepy, and made me far more uneasy than some of his more recent ones.
Skeleton Crew is as full of horror as Night Shift. Yet, it doesn’t shy away from experimenting and including different stories like Everything’s Eventual and Nightmares and Dreamscapes. It never feels too broad though, and is mostly a pure horror collection. One with no silly, over-the-top stories like the ones we found in Night Shift.
Skeleton Crew was the very first and, in my opinion, also the best of the six Stephen King short story collections out there. I think it’s one of the greatest entry points into the world of Stephen King.
To Reads: The Mist, Cain Rose Up, Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut, The Jaunt, The Raft, The Reaper’s Image, Nona, Survivor Type, Gramma, The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet, The Reach
Stephen King is one of the most successful fiction writers of all time. Over the course of his career, he’s written over sixty novels and over two hundred short stories. While he’s most famous for his novels, many Stephen King short stories are also fantastic works of fiction.
Stephen King
Stephen King was a name I’d heard long before I ever read any of his works. Even in the 90s in Germany, his popularity was enormous, even among those who’d read none of his books. I guess this was because of the many movie adaptions of his works.
The very first book I ever read by Stephen King was The Gunslinger. I still remember how impressed and fascinated I was by it. It differed from anything I’d read before. I was a young teenager, and until then most of what I’d read comprised folktales, fables, fairy tales or books I had to read for school.
Stephen King’s The Gunslinger was full of bloody action, cursing and set in a world so strange and vast it blew my mind. After The Gunslinger, I devoured the rest of his Dark Tower series, comprising four books at the time. I loved it.
Over the years, though, I only read a few more of Stephen King’s novels. I read his entire The Dark Tower series, The Stand, The Dark Half and the Bachman novels Thinner and The Long Walk.
As a horror writer, I recently decided to read more horror literature. Last year, I read all the works of H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. After that, I checked out the works of Stephen King.
Since I’m mostly a writer of short stories, I started off with his short story collections. Over the last couple of months, I read all six of them and it was a very enjoyable experience. There’s a reason Stephen King is as popular and as well-liked as he is.
After I finished his most recent collection, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, I put together a list of my favorite Stephen King short stories.
Something worth noting, though, is that Stephen King is a much more prolific writer than I’d thought. I’d expected his collections to comprise horror and suspense literature, but found quite a few stories that were different. While I enjoyed almost all of his stories, what I was looking for was tales of horror and suspense. Yet, some Stephen King short stories differ from what I’d expected, and I felt somewhat disenchanted with them.
This list won’t include any of Stephen King’s novellas though, for those I created yet another list which you can find here.
But now, on with the list of my favorite Stephen King short stories.
Cain Rose up is a story that you’d probably not see published in this day and age because of its controversial subject. It’s one of shorter Stephen King short stories on this list about a university student Curt Garrish.
We follow Curt as he walks back to his room, interacts with some of his fellow students before he shoots people with a sniper rifle from his dormitory room.
It’s a story that’s unsettling and disturbing. The most disturbing aspect of the story was how normal Curt’s interaction with other people was, and that none of them suspected a thing.
Sure, Curt’s mind was disturbed as we saw from his thoughts, but he could put on a facade, pretending to be just another student. I’m not sure if King had this specific idea in mind, but I felt the story showed strongly how normal psychopaths like Curt Garrish can act in public.
Another interesting part of the story were the things the narrator sees and his images and that he thought it didn’t matter if he killed people. It was truly chilling.
Cain Rose Up might be an earlier effort of Stephen King’s but it’s still a disturbing story, more so because of how believable it is.
Stephen King wrote he likes his stories to be grisly, but this one might have gone a bit too far, even for him.
I have to agree with him, but that’s also a reason Survivor Type stands out so much. It’s more gruesome and absurd than almost any of the other Stephen King short stories I’ve read.
The story is written as the diary of a surgeon, Richard Pinzetti. He was aboard a cruise ship, attempting to smuggle a sizeable amount of heroin when the ship sunk. He escaped via lifeboat and finds himself on a tiny island with limited supplies and no food.
The diary reveals Pinzetti thinks of himself as a survivor. Determined to hold out until rescue arrives, he goes to horrifying lengths to survive. Desperate for food, he eats insects, kelp and seagulls. After breaking his ankle and a subsequent infection, he self-amputates it. Yet, he doesn’t waste it. This, however, is barely the beginning.
What made this story so much more interesting was the detailed backstory Stephen King created for his protagonist. It’s for this reason everything else works out so well and makes sense, at least in a way.
The diary format, too, works incredibly well as it showcases the narrator’s descent into madness brought forth by drug abuse, blood loss and starvation.
Truly one of the most disturbing Stephen King short stories out there, one that made me quite uncomfortable. Yet, it’s interesting, if only to show how far King can go.
King suggests that hell is not “other people”, as French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, but repetition and enduring the same pain repeatedly without end.
That’s what this story is about. A woman named Carol is on her second honeymoon, yet as she and her husband drive along the road, she gets this strange feeling. It’s a feeling, she knows, that you can only say what it is in French. She knows the place they’ll pass by, the things she sees, and eventually, it all ends with the same outcome.
It’s never explicitly stated what happened to Carol and her husband, but we get enough information to figure it out.
What I enjoyed the most about this tale was the brief hints and the strange feeling you get throughout the story. We all know the feeling of a déjà vu and how unsettling it can be. The idea of not having it once, though, but constantly, is really unsettling to me.
It’s downright creepy and I have to agree with Stephen King. His version of hell is one that’s truly terrifying. Yet, this is a different type of horror, one that we’re not used to from usual Stephen King short stories. It’s one that’s entirely existential.
Willa is an odd little tale, but one that I enjoyed a lot. It’s different from the truly terrifying and gut-wrenching Stephen King short stories I became so used to. Instead, Willa is a nice, almost cozy little tale.
It’s about a man who finds himself at a train station with a few other passengers. He’s unable to find his fiancée Willa and sets out to find her at a nearby town. The others warn him that the train will arrive any minute and it takes a three-mile hike to get to the town. Even worse, it’s through deserted terrain inhabited by wolfs. He ignores their advice and heads out anyway, having a close encounter with a wolf.
Eventually, he finds Willa at a club, sitting alone in a corner booth. He tries to convince her to come back with him, but as the two of them talk, he realizes something he’s known all along.
Willa is a nice little tale, one that’s almost a romance story if not for the haunting ending. I don’t know what made me feel so strong for this tale. Maybe it’s because it’s not just a tale about love, but one about life’s fragility.
As I said, this tale differs from the usual Stephen King short stories, but it’s a good one and well worth the read.
The Reaper’s Image is a story about an antique collector, Jonson Spangler. He visits a museum to buy a legendary Delver’s Mirror. The museum’s curator, Mr. Carlin, recounts the mirror’s infamous history and that anyone who looked into it mysteriously disappeared.
Supposedly the Grim Reaper appears in the mirror, standing close to those who look into it. Spangler, of course, doesn’t believe any of the rumors and looks into the mirror himself.
The Reaper’s Image is as typical as Stephen King short stories can be, but it’s by no means a bad one. It has all the hallmarks of a great horror story. What I liked the most, however, was the history of the mirror and how it sets the mood for the rest of the story and hints at what’s coming.
While it’s not the most original or groundbreaking one among the many Stephen King short stories, it’s well worth the read for how unsettling it is.
What I really enjoy about most Stephen King short stories is that they are not happening in a vacuum. Stephen King always puts together a nice, alive setting before he slowly introduces the horror.
Sneakers is the story of a recording studio executive named John Tell. One day, he notices a pair of dirty old sneakers in a stall in a restroom at work. At first he assumes the shoes belong to an employee or a delivery person. However, when he visits the bathroom again, the sneakers are always there, haven’t moved and are surrounded by dead flies and other bugs. It dawns on him that there might be a body in the restroom, or something even worse.
What made this story so great wasn’t just the unsettling imagery of the sneakers surrounded by dead flies and bugs. It was the framework narrative at the recording study. The minor details and intricacies about recording and editing Stephen King mentions made the story just a tad it more interesting.
Stephen King once mentioned that people are naturally interested in the work and the jobs of others, and I have to agree that it’s true. While the mystery of the sneakers lured me in, the events at the recording studio also fascinated me.
The Dune is an interesting and gripping little tale. Stephen King mentioned The Dune features one of the favorite endings he ever wrote, and I have to agree. What makes this tale so good and the reason it stands out so much is the ending.
The Dune is the story of a retired Judge named Harvey Beecher, who has a lifelong obsession with a mysterious dune on a small Florida island. As a child he ventured there for the first time, looking for buried treasure, only to find the name of a person he knows written in the sand. Before long, he discovers that any person who’s name he discovers written in the dune’s sand will die within a month.
He confides this story in his lawyer Anthony Wayland, who he visits to help him with his last will.
The Dune was one of the shorter Stephen King short stories I read, but it was one I enjoyed immensely. I have to agree with King though, what makes this story is clearly the ending.
Stephen King once planned to write a Richard Bachman novel about a group of hitmen. Eventually he grew disenchanted with the project and scrapped it. Yet, one part survived, a flashback in which the protagonist, as a child, talks to his grandfather.
In this story an elderly man, whose death is approaching, gives his grandson a pocket watch. After he gives it to him, he talks to him about time.
He tells him that when you grow up, time moves faster and faster, slipping away if you don’t hold on to it tightly. He ends by telling him that time is a pretty pony with a wicket heart.
My Pretty Pony is a fantastic one among the many Stephen King short stories. Both characters, the old man and his grandson, feel alive and realistic. Yet, what makes this story so great is the topic matter. It’s something that many of us realize. As we grow older, time moves faster.
It’s a melancholic topic, one to muse on and one that hits a little too close to home.
Strawberry Spring is one of the most visual unsettling Stephen King short stories out there.
The unnamed narrator reads the words ‘Springheel Jack’ in the newspaper and recounts his memories from eight years back.
At the time he attended New Sharon College. On the 16 of March 1968, the strawberry spring arrived. It brought thick fog covering the campus at night and also Springheel Jack, a serial killer.
The narrator describes the dark mood it cast over town, the various victims of the killer, the rumors spread about them, and the toll it took on the entire community. Even worse, he states, no suspect was ever found, and the case remains unsolved.
Now, eight years later, a new strawberry spring arrives and so does Springheel Jack. Another victim was just discovered at New Sharon College.
It’s a very creepy and visual unsettling story. As the thick fog envelops the small town, fear and trauma envelope its inhabitants. It’s one of the darker and more melancholic Stephen King short stories, but it still packs a punch. It’s well worth the read, not only for its eerie and somber atmosphere but also for its great ending.
Dedication differs from other, more typical Stephen King short stories. It’s less a horror story, but a weird genre mix.
Now, full disclosure here, this story gets mentioned quite a lot because of a certain… deed, the protagonist commits. It’s frankly said, disgusting.
While this scene made me shudder, the rest of the story was incredibly well written and deeply interesting to me. Who knows, maybe it’s because I’m a writer myself, so stories about writers are inherently interesting to me.
Dedication is the story of a black maid named Martha Rosewell. One day she arrives at work, showing her friend and colleague Darcy Sagamore that her son’s first novel has arrived.
At the end of their shift, the two woman meet up to have a few drinks and Martha reveals the truth about the dedication in her son’s novel.
While Dedication is not a horror story, it’s still one of the darker Stephen King short stories. It involves a violent husband, a gifted, yet hateful and racist write, and black magic. Yet, Stephen King molded all of those elements together into an interesting mixture and a great story, apart from one little detail.
What’s interesting to note is that Stephen King wrote this story to explore the idea gifted and famous people can be utterly horrible in real life.
Dedication is honestly one of the weirder Stephen King short stories, yet somehow I came to enjoy it and hold it dear.
The Raft is one of the more simple and straightforward Stephen King short stories. Yet, I enjoyed it quite a lot.
A group of college students go to a lake and swim towards a wooden raft. One of them, Randy, notices a mysterious black substance floating on the lake’s surface and that it chases the last of them as she makes her way to the raft.
Soon after, one of them, Rachel, states that the strange substance’s surface sparkles in various beautiful colors and leans forward to touch it. When she does, she’s pulled into the water and torn apart by the substance.
From here on out, the story continues as the remaining three deliberate what to do and how to escape from the raft and the mysterious creature.
As I said, it’s a rather typical monster story, but Stephen King can still make it more interesting in various ways. There’s the setting, the titular raft. There’s something about confined spaces that makes things so much more interesting.
Even though this is one of Stephen King’s earlier works, he’s still able to populate it with interesting characters and make us feel for them. During the first half, we learn much about their relationship and its superficial nature. This makes the dynamic between the characters much more interesting and makes us feel for them once the horror hits.
While The Raft is a simple story, I all around enjoyed it. Stephen King’s at its best in this. It’s gory, it’s violent, and it’s scary.
Autopsy Room Four is one of the most suspenseful Stephen King short stories of all time. The premise is downright terrifying, and it makes for some delightfully unsettling reading.
It’s about a man who wakes up in an autopsy room and is paralyzed after an incident during a golf game. While he’s conscious, his body appears to be entirely lifeless.
Soon enough, the medical person present prepares for an autopsy to learn what caused his supposed death. All the while, the narrator tries to get their attention via the smallest minute signals.
What makes this story is the palatable tension, the idea of just lying there while people talk about which part of yours to cut open first. And Stephen King renders it in acute and minute detail.
Autopsy Room Four was one of the tensest readings I ever had, and the sheer idea of being in this situation made me shudder. My only problem with the story was the rather humorous ending, but I guess there are different ways to relief tension. And I might say it was rather unexpected.
Stephen King has written his share of science-fiction short stories. While I enjoyed him switching to different genres and topical matters, I wasn’t too big a fan of most of them.
I Am the Doorway stood out to me though.
It’s the story of a crippled former astronaut, Arthur. After being exposed to some sort of extraterrestrial mutagen during a space mission to Venus, he notices strange changes to his body.
It’s tiny eyeballs push from his fingertips, allowing an alien species to see into our world. Yet, as the story continues, we learn that it’s not all they can do.
I Am the Doorway is one of the stranger and more surreal Stephen King short stories. I’m a big fan of body horror, and the idea of alien eyeballs sprouting from your own body is utterly unsettling and revolting to me. And as so often, Stephen King describes them in intricate detail, making things so much worse.
Overall, I Am the Doorway is one of Stephen King’s stranger stories, but one that lured me in with a scenario both fascinating and terrifying.
Good old Quitters, Inc. a story I first got to know from the anthology movie Cat’s Eye.
Quitters, Inc. is the story of Richard Morrison. One day he meets an old friend at the airport. His friend used to be a heavy smoker, but has now given up on the habit and enjoys a better life. Before he leaves, though, he hands Richard a business card for Quitters, Inc. a company who helps people to give up smoking for good.
Unhappy with his life, he eventually pays them a visit and learns of the unorthodox methods the company carries out to get its clients to stop smoking.
Quitters, Inc. brings forth one of the most interesting and bizarre concepts. Of course such a company would never work in real life, but the story itself works damn well. It’s such a strange concept, one that grows more terrifying as the story continues.
The story resonates with me especially. As a former smoker, I know how hard it is to give up the habit and how easy it is to slip back into it.
Quitters, Inc. is one of my favorite Stephen King short stories and one that I enjoyed immensely.
1408 is one of the most popular Stephen King short stories of all time and for a good reason.
The story begins with Mike Enslin’s arrival at the Dolphin Hotel in New York City. He’s a writer of books about haunted places. His books are very successful, but Enslin himself is not a believer in the paranormal. For his newest book, he plans to spend a night in the hotel’s most infamous rooms, 1408.
As he learns from the hotel’s manager, Olin, there have been 42 deaths and 12 suicides in the room over the last 68 years.
Olin tries his best to convince Enslin to give up on his idea, but he eventually agrees to lead him to the room.
From here on out, the story takes up steam, as Enslin himself comes to experience the horror of 1408.
What made this story so great, as the slow build-up and Olin’s tale of the incidents related to the room. It not only unnerves Enslin, but us readers as well and prepares us for what to come.
What happens in the room itself is pure nightmare fuel and Stephen King describes it in great detail, using stunning imagery. The horror that happens in 1408 is utterly surreal.
I think it’s one of Stephen King’s best pure horror short stories. The only problem I have is that the time Enslin spends in the room is rather short, barely taken up half the story.
What an interesting and strange story The 10 O’clock People is.
Our protagonist, Pearson, is an office worker in Boston who tried to give up smoking before and cut down on his habit.
During his 10 o’clock smoke break, he witnesses a strange bat-like creature on his way into the office building. A young black man, Duke, keeps him from screaming and calms him down. He explains that if he doesn’t want to die, he’s got to act normal and go about his day as usual.
The two of them meet up after work and Duke explains to him it’s the unique chemical imbalance caused by nicotine withdrawals that allows them to perceive the creatures as what they really are.
Duke is quick to invite Pearson to a meeting of his group and Pearson gets along, to learn more about the strange bat-creatures.
I really enjoyed this story of monsters lurking amongst us and disguising themselves amid society. It’s a premise that’s always interesting and The O’clock People delivers.
Children of the Corn is another one of the most popular Stephen King short stories. It’s another story I knew about because of its movie adaption. While I enjoyed the movie for what it was, I was impressed by how good the original story was.
The story follows a couple, Burt and Vicky, as they are on their way to California for a vacation hoping to save their failing marriage.
While driving through rural Nebraska, they accidentally run over a young boy. They soon discover that the boy’s throat was slit and he must’ve tumbled into the road as he was dying. They decide to report the incident to the police and make their way to the nearest town, a small, isolated community called Gatlin.
When they arrive, they find the town deserted. The only building that’s still maintained is the church. While Vicky stays in the car, Burt explores it and finds hints of a strange cult. Soon after, the two of them encounter the titular children.
What made this story so interesting was in large parts because of the characters. Stephen King is always great when writing realistic characters and his portrayal of Burt and Vicky’s failing marriage, and the tension between the two is incredibly well done.
Yet, it’s the rich setting that makes the story. Stephen King provides us with beautiful descriptions of an abandoned town, religious subtext, crazy pagan children, endless cornfields and the terror lurking within.
Children of the Corn is without a doubt one of the best Stephen King short stories out there.
Gray Matter is another one of the earlier Stephen King short stories.
The story is told from the perspective of an older man who sits together with his friends at a convenience store during a heavy snowstorm.
Soon a young boy, the son of a local man named Richie Grenadine, arrives. They all know the boy because his father sent him to the store frequently to buy his beer.
Henry, the store owner, takes the terrified boy aside and speaks to him privately. Eventually, Henry, the narrator and a few of the other man, decide to bring the beer to Richie themselves. On the way, Henry tells them the terrifying story the boy told him.
Gray Matter is typical among the many Stephen King short stories out there and does exactly what it’s supposed to do, terrify us and gross us out.
What made this story so great was the creeping horror, the disgusting imagery and the body horror. It’s a fantastic, unique story that I truly enjoyed.
Here we have another different one among the many Stephen King short stories. The Woman in the Room is less a horror story and more a heart-wrenching tragedy.
It’s the story of a man who’s burdened by deep remorse and pain because of his suffering and terminally ill mother. The story details the last time he visits her at the hospital.
The Woman in the Room might not be a horror story, but seeing our loved ones wither away and die is horrible. It’s a poignant read, a tale rooted in the real world and horribly realistic and relatable. While it’s essentially a simple story, the intimate way it’s told, the details and the description make it so good.
What truly stuck to me was the description of the narrator getting drunk throughout the day before he made his way to the hospital. It’s a fantastically sad tale with one of Stephen King’s strongest finals.
We all have to say goodbye to our loved one’s one day, and this story tackles it in the most heart wrenching of ways.
Another one dark and tragic one among the many Stephen King short stories, but one that’s fantastically told.
The story regards a man named Larry, who discovers that his sister has committed suicide. He recounts how the two of them often played in the family barn when they were children. They’d climb on top of a very tall ladder and leap into a huge haystack. However, the ladder was old and unsafe. Finally, on the last turn, the ladder breaks and his sister is left clinging to the last rung.
This intense scene, though, is only part of the story and Stephen King ties it together with the rest of the story, showing the impact the incident had on both Larry and his sister.
The Last Rung on the Ladder is a deeply and stunningly emotional tale. What made it so great was the tie-in between past and present. everything about this raw and emotional tale is great, but the final is truly devastating.
The Ledge is another early Stephen King short story. Similarly to Quitters, Inc. I first came to know it from the anthology movie Cat’s Eye.
Our protagonist is a man named Stan Norris, who’s currently held at the penthouse of Cressner, a wealthy crime boss. Cressner intends to get revenge on Norris because he had an affair with Cressner’s wife.
Instead of killing him, though, Cressner proposes a wager. If Norris can circumnavigate the small ledge surrounding the building in which the penthouse is located, he can have both Cressner’s wife and $20,000.
Should Norris refuse, he’ll be framed with heroin possession and never see his lover again. With no other option, Norris accepts the wager and makes his way outside.
As someone who’s afraid of heights myself, The Ledge disturbed me immensely. I was anxious throughout the entire story, and it didn’t help that Stephen King painted such an impressive picture of the small ledge and the view down onto the street. It was an incredible, never-wrecking read, but one that came to a very satisfying conclusion.
The Ledge is one of the best Stephen King short stories in his collection Night Shift and stands out because the horror is entirely realistic.
Graveyard Shift is one of my favorite Stephen King short stories. It’s such a dark, visual tale of horror it’s amazing.
It’s the story of a young man named Hall who’s been working at a textile mill in Main. Warwick, his foreman, recruits him and others to clean the basement of the mill. It’s been abandoned for decades, and over the years it’s gotten infested by rats.
As the men make their descent, they notice how severe the rat infestation is. Eventually they discover its source, a sub-basement which Hall and Warwick descend to investigate.
There’s something about cleaning an old, abandoned basement in the middle of the night. Adding in a rodent infestation only serves to make things worse.
Yet, King isn’t satisfied with just this and he makes the story much worse and much more nightmarish.
I truly loved this story. Once more, Stephen King, as so often, makes his characters realistic and interesting.
The best part about this story, however, is the visuals. The dark decrepit tunnels and rooms of the mill’s basement and later the sub-basement are rendered in intricate detail, as are the rodents who infest it.
Graveyard shift is a true treat for any horror fan out there.
There are horror stories that only allow us a glimpse at the true horror or only a small part of it. The Moving Finger is one such story.
It’s the story of a man named Howard Milta. One day when he goes to the bathroom, he finds a human finger poking out from the bathroom sink.
At first he denies the finger’s existence, but when he returns to the bathroom, the finger’s still there. Eventually more and more of it pushes from the sink and even attacks him.
Finding a finger pushing out from the drain in the sink is already creepy and surreal enough, but the image of the finger growing and extending makes it so much worse. Yet, as I mentioned above, there’s a deeper horror about this story, a finger can’t exist on itself and is always part of something…
It’s one of the more outlandish Stephen King short stories out there, but a great one.
Crouch End is one of the Stephen King short stories inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. As a Lovecraft fan, I absolutely loved this story.
The story starts off with two police constables in London, Ted Vetter and Robert Farnhame who work at a small station in the London suburb of Crouch End.
The two of them discuss the case of Doris Freeman, an American woman who reported the disappearance of her husband and spoke of monsters and other supernatural occurrences.
Doris relates how she and her husband got lost in Crouch End while searching for the home of a potential employer. As they wandered the neighborhood, it becomes strangely deserted and alien, and things get weirder and weirder.
I really love the idea of places in which the dark of the universe can slip through easier than in others, and where the influence of otherworldly entities is stronger.
What made this story was the warping of Crouch End and the descriptions of the outlandish place it became, as well as the strange things going on there.
Crouch End is a fantastically creepy story that works so well because it’s not only about being lost at an unknown place, but a place that’s truly alien and surreal.
There’s a fair share of wholesome or sad Stephen King short stories, and The Reach might very well be the best among them.
It’s the story of Stella Flanders, one of the oldest residents of Goat Island. She’s never crossed the reach, the water separating the island from the mainland. She states she never had a reason to go.
Stella has visions of the dead people of the island and realizes her time to go is approaching. Dressed in her warmest clothes, she finally makes her way across the frozen reach towards the mainland.
The Reach is a story that’s both sad and beautiful. It’s a tale rip with emotions and one that made me tear up at the end.
I highly recommend people to read The Reach. While it might differ from Stephen King’s usual work, it’s fantastic.
As I mentioned before, I’m a big fan of H. P. Lovecraft, and Jerusalem’s Lot is the closest Stephen King ever came to writing a true Lovecraft story.
It’s an epistolary short story written as a series of letters and diary entries by a man known as Charles Boone and his man servant Calvin McCann.
The story details what happens after Charles and his manservant arrive at Chapelwaite, the ancestral home of Charle’s dead cousin. Many of the people in the nearby town consider them mad for taking residence in the mansion because it has a history of strange events, disappearances and mysterious noises.
Eventually they discover an old map of a deserted village called Jerusalem’s Lot. Thus starts their exploration of the decrepit village, and the two soon discover how the Boon family line is related to it.
While the format and style of the story might not be for everyone, I enjoyed it. The plot of this story was close to what one’s used to from Lovecraft’s works. It’s a slow, deliberate uncovering of an old family mystery and its relation to otherworldly, lovecraftian powers.
As a Lovecraft fan, I absolutely loved this story. The writing, the atmosphere and the archaic vocabulary make it feel more akin to Lovecraft’s work than the other Stephen King short stories.
One of the best, if not the best story from Stephen King’s collection Night Shift, albeit I’m biased here.
Gramma might be the most suspenseful short story Stephen King has ever written. While there are other Stephen King short stories ripe with tension, there’s something about Gramma, about the intimacy and the narrative voice that made it stand out to me.
The story details what happens one day when an eleven-year-old-boy named George Bruckner has to watch over his grandmother. His mother has to leave because George’s thirteen-year-old brother has broken his leg playing baseball and she has to drive to the city that’s an hour away.
The rest of the story details not only what happens that day but also events George witnessed earlier in his life regarding his grandmother.
Before long, George hears strange noises from his grandmother’s room and eventually realizes that she’s died, but this is only the beginning.
What made this story so enjoyable was the narrative voice. The entire story is told from the perspective of a young boy who’s clearly freaked out about what’s going on. Stephen King nailed the voice and the thoughts of a young boy perfectly. It makes you wonder if Stephen King ever was in a similar situation, left alone with an invalid relative as a young boy.
The story is also fantastically well written. It’s told in a way that never releases the tension, and instead, the suspense just keeps growing and growing.
Gramma is definitely one of my favorite and one of the best Stephen King short stories of all time. I absolutely loved it.
I stated before that many of the Stephen King short stories in the genre of science-fiction were hit or miss for me. The Jaunt was definitely a hit. I think it’s one of the absolute greatest short stories he’s ever written.
The story is set in the future in which a form of instantaneous teleportation called ‘The Jaunt’ was developed, allowing humanity to colonize the solar system.
The story begins with Mark Oates and his family at one of the jaunt terminals in New York City. While the family waits for their turn to be jaunted, Mark relates them the history of how Victor Carune, an eccentric scientist, discovered the Jaunt.
What I really enjoyed about this story was the pseudo-history about the Jaunt and its creator, Victor Carune. I don’t know why, but I really enjoy these pieces of pseudo-history in fiction and Stephen King tells it masterfully. Yet, there’s more to this tale. The Jaunt is not merely a fictional history lesson, as we soon learn when Mark reveals the biggest problem about the Jaunt.
It’s an absolutely fantastic story, masterfully told and containing a concept that’s both fascinating and utterly terrifying.
I can’t recommend The Jaunt highly enough. It’s clearly one of the best Stephen King short stories of all time.
Mrs. Todd’s shortcut is my favorite Stephen King short story of all time.
The narrator, David, meets his elderly friend Homer. The two of them talk about Mr. Todd’s new wife and how she differs from his former wife, who vanished years ago.
Homer relates his experiences with the former Mrs. Todd and her habit of finding shortcuts. At first things are normal enough, as she explains her different routs, their length and the time she saves following them. Soon enough, though, the tale gets stranger as Homer realizes her shortcuts shouldn’t be possible.
The entire concept of the story is incredibly unique and told in such an interesting way, I couldn’t stop reading.
I think anyone who’s used to driving certain distances frequently has tried to find a shortcut before. Mrs. Todd’s habit, however, borders on an obsession, but it’s what makes the story so interesting. The meticulous way she explains things to Homer, the minute detail Stephen King goes to in describing her routes. It’s simply fascinating. Even before any of the weird elements were introduced, I was drawn in by this story and wanted to learn more about Mrs. Todd’s various shortcuts.
I don’t know what it was, but I was absolutely blown away by this story and the idea behind it. There’s something about this among the many other Stephen King short stories that made it stand out to me so much.
Even though it was one of the first of Stephen King’s short stories I read, I think back to how good it was constantly. That’s the reason I think that Mrs. Todd’s shortcut is the best of the over two-hundred Stephen King short stories out there.
As a writer, I’ve always been a big fan of storytelling. While I love to read books and stories published online, I’m also a big fan of manga. It’s a medium I’ve always held dear. There’s something special about it. I guess it’s because the best manga aren’t simply telling a story, but it’s also providing you with stunning visuals.
I can’t say what makes manga stand out so much to me. While I’ve read hundreds of manga, I’ve never gotten much into the medium of comic books. It might be the cultural difference, or the stunning variety of different stories told. Whatever it is, I feel that the best manga out there are stunning works who can tell unique stories and bring them to live with fantastic art.
That’s the reason I created a list of the best manga of all time that I uncovered throughout the years. While there are some vastly popular titles on this list, I’m sure there are some hidden gems that few people might have heard about.
However, this is a list of manga I’ve read and enjoyed, so some of the most popular or most acclaimed manga might not be part of this list because I haven’t read them yet or I didn’t enjoy them as much as other people.
I’d also like to give a spoiler warning. I’ll try to not go too much into detail about the plot points, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.
So, here’s my list of the 75 best manga of all time anyone should read.
Let’s start this list with a samurai manga. Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki is one of the best samurai manga and one of the best manga of all time.
Rurouni Kenshin chronicles the story of Hitokiri Battosai, a man who’s infamous for his deeds as a killer during the Bakumatsu war.
He’s now known as Kenshin Himura, a wandering samurai. As opposed to the rumors, Himura is not a bloodthirsty killer, but a man who did what he did because of his own convictions. Now that the war is over, he’s haunted by guilt and has sworn never to kill again. Kenshin wishes to atone for the lives he took. If he’s forced to fight, he does so with a reverse blade Katana in order to not kill his enemies.
The route to redemption, though, is not an easy one and, Kenshin often runs into people who are interested in his past or who hold a grudge against him.
Rurouni Kenshin is a manga with multiple arcs, starting out in Edo where it follows a more episodic nature, introduce a wide cast of characters.
The series truly shined in its second arc, the Kyoto arc which introduces Rurouni Kenshin’s most notable antagonist, Shishio Makoto.
What makes Rurouni Kenshin one of the best manga and makes it standout between other, similar manga are the deeper themes it features. It’s Kenshin’s drive for redemption and his wish to escape the past he can’t seem to.
The manga centers on whether Kenshin will be able to keep his vow. Can he bury his past as Hitokiri Battosai? And as more and more adversaries are introduced, we come to worry that it might never be possible.
One of the biggest downsides for me was the art which, at least in my opinion, looks a bit old-fashioned and simplistic, at least when compared to other manga on this list.
Overall, Rurouni Kenshin is a great samurai manga with some fantastic action and interesting characters. That’s where Rurouni Kenshin truly shines and is elevated to one of the best manga of all time.
Rurouni Kenshin is a great read for anyone who’s looking for a good samurai manga featuring complex characters and some deeper themes.
Blue Heaven by Tsutomu Takahashi is a short, two-volume thriller manga set on the titular luxury liner Blue Heaven. I’ve really enjoyed this manga and I think it’s one of the best manga at what it does.
The manga starts with the departure of the Blue Haven, but the story begins when a wrecked ship is discovered in the middle of the ocean. On board are signs of horrible bloodshed and only two survivors are discovered. One of them is in terrible condition, the other, Ri Seiryuu, seems fine, considering the circumstances.
Soon enough, the latter of the two escapes his confinement, mingles among the passengers, and starts killing them indiscriminately. Before long, things spiral out of control when another set of ominous characters learns about the murderer on board. From here on out, things get brutal and Blue Heaven turns into a violent hell.
I already mentioned that I enjoyed the setting, but I also like the crazy characters in this manga. Especially a certain rich family of psychopaths make the playing field onboard quite a bit more interesting.
Blue Heaven is rather simple in terms of story. There’s a murderer aboard a cruise ship and things get out of hand. This might be the reason the manga’s so short. It’s regrettable because I enjoyed everything about it. There was such great potential to the setting. I feel this manga could’ve been much longer and the escalating nature of the plot was a bit too rushed.
The thing that makes Blue Heaven one of the best manga in my book is the pacing, the simple, yet twisted story line and the many intense moments it has. There’s never a dull moment in this manga.
Blue Heaven is a manga I’d recommend to fans of thriller stories and those who are looking for a fast-paced, action-oriented story that still offers some depth.
7 Seeds by Yumi Tamura is a post-apocalyptic manga set in the distant future after humanity was wiped out when a giant meteorite collided with earth.
To make sure humanity would overcome this calamity, the 7SEEDS project was created by the government. Five sets of seven young man and woman were selected, put into cryogenic sleep and awoken long after the catastrophe was over.
7 Seeds’ story follows the members of each of the five teams, showcasing their experiences and how they manga to survive in this new, dangerous world.
I read 7 Seeds many years ago. While I had some initial doubts, I came to love it and regard it as one of the best manga I ever read. What I enjoyed the most was the setting and the premise of having to survive in a world that’s completely different from your own.
What makes 7 Seeds one of the best manga is the survival aspect. It’s well done and handled realistically. Characters have to search for water, work to get food, and find shelter. It’s the simplest, yet most important things that are always overlooked in other, similar manga.
Another great thing are the characters. They are very divisive and realistic. Over the course of the story, many of them show significant character development and it’s enjoyable to watch them grow under the circumstances.
However, those divisive characters are the first problem I had with 7 Seeds. This program was designed to make sure humanity would survive, but this bids the question why our characters were chosen. Why did the government chose random teenagers suffering from depression and anxiety issues over hardened survivors or scientists? Well, for the sake of the plot of course. It’s a big plot hole, but one I was willing to overlook as the story continued.
The huge cast of character in 7 Seeds is a double-edged sword. As outlined in the premise, there are five sets of seven people. We get to know all of them, witness their struggles, survival and even death. This means there are a lot of different characters and a lot of different plotlines. While it serves to tell unique and interesting storylines, it also can get a bit overwhelming. Later on, the manga also focuses more on the interaction between these characters and less on the initial problem of survival. However, things never reached the point of setting up a new society. I’d have loved to see that.
The biggest issue I had with 7 Seeds was the art style. It’s rather simple and in my opinion, a bit old-fashioned and reminiscent of older manga. It takes some time getting used to and to some it might be a deal breaker, since the art doesn’t improve throughout the course of the manga.
Overall, 7 Seeds is a great complex survival and one of the best manga in this genre, but it can be a bit overwhelming. I’d recommend anyone to check out the first few chapters or the first volume. If you enjoy those, you’re sure to enjoy the rest.
Most of the time we see manga from the point of view of the good guy, or at least someone who’s morally gray. That’s not the case in Shamo by Akio Tanaka, and this serves to make it one of the best manga at what it does.
At age sixteen our protagonist Ryo Narushima snaps and brutally murders both of his parents. After this event, he’s convicted and set to a reformatory.
There Ryo learns karate from a jailed man sent to the reformatory. This man, Kenji Kurokawa, recognizes Ryo’s talent and starts teaching him the specifics of self-defense.
Since Ryo was a minor at the time of his crime, he’s released after only two years. After his experiences in prison, he swears to survive, gain more strength and never be a victim again.
At the core Shame is a martial arts manga and one of the best manga of the genre. However, it differs from others regarding its protagonist. Ryo is a deprived and despicable character, essentially the villain of the story. If he needs money, he takes it. If he fights, he fights dirty. That’s what makes Shamo so interesting. The best way to describe Ryo would be as a gangster or street thug.
Yet, Shamo doesn’t glorify the life of an outcast. No, it shows that Ryo’s life isn’t a good one. He doesn’t have many friends or acquaintances, and the few people that surround him are shady and gladly take advantage of him.
At the end of the day, he can’t do much about it because of his past and because society seldom gives criminals a second chance. That’s why Ryo has to do what he has to do, and he isn’t shy about doing it.
The art in Shame is pretty good. It’s gritty, it’s raw, and it’s often realistic. However, while it’s good, it’s not outstanding, at least compared to some of the best manga in that department.
My biggest problem with Shame is the later part of the story. The first half of the manga is fantastic and showcases Ryo’s despicable character and the things he does. However, it loses steam in the second half. The introduction of concepts such as Ki and sword fighting makes it a very disjointed experience.
Shamo is at its best during the first half. It’s here that it shines as one of the best manga in the martial arts genre, especially because of its unique protagonist. After that, though, it’s unfortunately a steady downwards path.
It’s still worth a for its unique perspective, but don’t be afraid to put Shamo aside once you don’t enjoy it anymore.
Rating and describing City of Darkness was tough. While I enjoyed it immensely, it has some glaring issues I can’t ignore.
It’s one of the few manhua on this list, but I still think it serves to be mentioned in a list of the best manga of all time.
The title of the manhua comes from Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, which was also known as the City of Darkness.
City of Darkness is the story of a young man, Chen Luo Jun, who’s a member of the triads. One night, he’s betrayed by his boss and loses everything. From here on out, he makes his way to the City of Darkness.
Over the course of the story, Chen makes new allies, fights new enemies, and we’re introduced to a large cast of characters populating the underground world.
The biggest selling point of City of Darkness and the reason I’m including it in this list of the best manga, is the fantastic, detailed and colorful art. There’s few manga or manhua that can compare to it. It’s this art that makes the battles in this series so enjoyable, and since this is an action manhua, there’s a lot of them.
Those battles are the second reason I recommend people to give this series a look. They are suspenseful, stunning and extremely well drawn.
As good as the presentation is, however, there are quite a few flaws as I’ve mentioned above.
The story is, overall, very simplistic and typical for a manhua like this. It doesn’t deter my enjoyment though since City of Darkness is foremost a pure action manhua.
My biggest problem with the story is that it follows one of the most annoying concepts in fiction. Enemies of former arcs often become allies in the succeeding one. This always feels like a sort of cheat, almost as if all the emotions, the tension and the battles of prior arcs were meaningless. It gets especially bad when we learn about the sympathetic backstory of a character we thought of as nothing but a crazy psychopath before he joins the main cast.
While most of the characters in this manga look cool and are badass, there’s not much in terms of character development. What little there is, barely scratches the surface.
Another personal issue I had with City of Darkness was the pacing and the way the story is told.
The pacing in this manga is all over the place. At times the story is rather slow before it goes into overdrive, jumping right back into the action and introducing new developments before you know what’s going on.
The story in City of Darkness is often told via a narrative voice that explains what’s happening in the story. This makes reading it a strange experience. It feels almost like reading a novel. Often it’s even the case of telling us what characters are feeling or thinking instead of showing it via the visuals.
Now, all of this might paint City of Darkness in a poor light, but it’s far from it. It’s inclusion in this list of the best manga is well deserved.
Overall, I had a blast and enjoyed City of Darkness tremendously. It’s an action manhua that pitches cool and badass characters against each other, presented in outstanding art. If it comes to action and art, City of Darkness delivers and it delivers well.
Dead End is the first manga by Shohei Manabe on this list and a manga I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s also one of the weirder titles on this, but still one of the best manga I ever read.
Dead End introduces us to Shirou, an ordinary construction worker living a mundane life. All that changes when a naked girl, Lucy, falls into his life. He decides to introduce this mysterious woman to his buddies, but has to leave the apartment for a few minutes. When he returns Lucy is gone, his friends are slaughtered and a strange man is waiting for him in the middle of the carnage.
The stranger saves Shirou from an explosion and urges him to flee into the sewage system. Down there, Shirou meets yet another mysterious stranger.
From here on out, the story centers on Shirou’s attempts of figuring out what’s going on, as he gathers a rag-tag group of characters he supposedly knows from his past.
As if this premise is not already strange enough, things only get stranger over the course of the manga. Dead End starts out like a thriller story, but soon introduces more fantastical elements. That’s what makes reading Dead End such a weird and surreal experience, but that also makes it so interesting.
What makes Dead End one of the best manga are the characters. They are across the board portrayed as over-the-top badasses that can do insane feats.
The art, as so often in the works of Shohei Manabe, is unique and takes time getting used to. The backgrounds and surroundings are gritty, but where it truly stands out is for the characters. They are drawn strangely and uniquely. While it makes them more realistic, it also makes them uglier than usual manga characters. Yet, this only serves to make Shohei Manabe’s art stand out so much.
Overall, Dead End is a weird and surreal read, but at least to me, it clearly deserves a place on this list of the best manga. If you want a raw, gritty and surreal thriller manga, give this one a try.
Usogui by Toshio Sako is one of the best manga that focuses on mind games and gambling. However, not the type we usually see in manga like this.
Our protagonist is Baku Madarame who’s know as the Usogui, the Lie Eater. The story centers on the many deadly gambles that Baku takes part in.
Related to those games is the powerful organization known as Kagerou, whose referees make sure that the games are carried out satisfactorily and that all bets paid once the game is over.
The one thing to know about Usogui is that it gets crazy right from the start. We’re treated to a brief introduction of our protagonist, cementing him as a genius gambler and a man who knows what he’s doing. Right after those initial chapters the very first true death game begins and from here on out things only prove to get crazier.
What makes Usogui one of the best manga in this genre is the games themselves. While they can be quite complex, they are not impossible to wrap your head around. No, most of the time you understand what’s happening well enough and the manga centers more on psychological tricks and mind games related to the games.
Another thing I enjoyed was the characters. Baku is a fantastic protagonist, one who doesn’t shy away from death games and who doesn’t seem to get scared when confronted with overwhelming odds. Yet, there’s also Kaji, a normal guy who runs into Baku at the outset of the series. He starts out as more of a stand-in for the reader, but throughout the series he develops quite a bit and becomes a talented gambler in his own right.
One point that might be a bit of a let-down is the art. The art in Usogui starts out as rather simplistic and doesn’t stand out much. However, it improves a lot over the course of the story and truly shines in later parts.
A word of warning though, Usogui is one of the longest manga on this list with more than over 500 chapters in total.
In the end, I had a great time reading Usogui and I think it’s one of the best manga about gambling and mind games out there, even if some games and scenarios depicted can be a bit unconventional.
Chainsaw Man by Fujimoto Tatsuki is weird, seriously weird. It’s probably one of the strangest manga on this list, yet it’s still one of the best manga I’ve ever read.
Just imagine, if you will, a man who can transform into a creature whose head and arms resemble chainsaws. That’s Chainsaw Man.
His name is Denji. He’s a simple man, living in a small shack, killing devils for the yakuza to pay off his debt. Devils are, for simplicity’s sake, demons who escaped from hell. He’s fighting them by using his pet devil Ponchita as a weapon.
When he outlives his usefulness, the yakuza decide to get rid of him. Unexpectedly, Ponchita fuses with Denji’s body, keeping him from dying and giving him the powers of the chainsaw devil and allowing him to transform into Chainsaw Man.
He soon catches the eye of official devil hunters and is forced to work for the Public Safety Bureau killing devils.
Chainsaw Man is ridiculous, at times even stupid. Especially Denji, our protagonist, appears to be nothing but an idiot. Yet, there’s something about this manga that makes it interesting. It’s the sheer uniqueness and creativity that makes it one of the best manga of all time in my book.
There’s of course the devils, creatures who escaped from hell and who wreak havoc on Earth or grant humans their powers. Some of their designs and powers, especially in later parts of the manga, are stunningly creative and horrific.
The plot of this manga is simple at first, but the longer you read on, the more complex and interesting it becomes. There’s an overall dark and unforgiving atmosphere about this manga which seems to be an overarching theme of Fujimoto Tatsuki’s work.
Yet, as surreal and dark as Chainsaw Man is, it’s a strangely enticing read. As you continue reading, you’re drawn in by the overall plot and you want to witness more of the madness that is Chainsaw Man.
The characters in Chainsaw man are all quite interesting and unique. While Denji seems to be simple and dumb, he grows on you, especially in later parts of the manga. His companions Power and Higashiyama are both interesting in their own right.
The most interesting character, however, is Makima, the mysterious, intelligent and beautiful leader of their team.
The fights in Chainsaw Man are stylish and brutal. There’s a lot of blood and violence, as one can guess from the unique nature of our protagonist. What makes the fight in this manga so interesting and great are the various different devil powers.
Where Chainsaw Man’s elevated to be part of this list of the best manga is because of its unique art. The world, the characters and devils are rendered in beautiful, yet gritty detail. It’s a style that’s unique to Fujimoto Tatsuki and oddly fitting for the abstruse story you’re about to witness. However, it’s a very sketchy style and needs some getting used to, as is often the case with manga who are rather unique.
Overall, Chainsaw Man can be best described as beautiful madness. At times it can be funny, at others emotional, but overall it’s a crazy, surreal and brutal ride. While Chainsaw Man is crazy, though, it’s also damn good. It’s gory, painful, and it will leave you with a burning feeling of despair.
Reading this manga was an entirely unique experience. It’s something that I haven’t read before and that I have to include in a list of the best manga. I urge anyone to try it, but it’s the type of manga that’s definitely not for everyone.
Blood and Steel by Jingfu Qiao and Meng Ma Gong Zuo Shi is a manhua about martial arts, one that I enjoyed immensely and just have to include in this list of best manga.
Our protagonistis a young martial artist called Yan Heng who’s a member of the Qincheng group of martial arts. One day, the Qincheng are attacked and destroyed by a member of the Wudong group. Yan Heng is saved by a man named Jing Lie, known as the Wudong Hunter.
Bound by a similar motif, the two men set out on a road of revenge against the Wudong.
Blood and Steel is a typical martial arts manga of the Wuxia genre. What made it stand out to me wasn’t so much the characters, but the amazing art.
Blood and Steel is beautiful, the characters are gorgeous and fight scenes are rendered in extreme detail. I was honestly surprised by how well the series looked and it’s easily among the most beautiful works on this entire list.
What made me add Blood and Steel to this list of best manga were the fight scenes and the way they are done. In many martial arts, manga fights are presented in an over-the-top way and drawn out to last forever, but not in Blood and Steel. Fights are brisk and quick. It makes them much more realistic and at the same time more interesting.
However, there are also problems with Blood and Steel, namely with the characters and in terms of story progression. This is a story of revenge. However, many times, it seems morals and proper conduct of fights is held as the highest motif. It gets to the point of letting enemies escape instead of getting revenge because fights didn’t start on fair footing. It can get a bit frustrating after a while.
To me personally, though, it didn’t deter my enjoyment of Blood and Steel much. While the story might not be the greatest and most unique, it’s the art and the fights that made me read on.
If you’re looking for one of the best manga or manhua in the martial arts genre, you could do much worse than pick up Blood and Steel.
The core premise of Dr. Stone by Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi is simple, rebuilding humanity from the Stone Age with all the knowledge of the modern age. That alone is what makes Dr. Stone so different from anything I’ve read before, and a great addition to this list of the best manga.
The manga starts off when a mysterious light shines on Earth and petrifies every single person. After thousands of years, Taiju Ooki and his friend Senkuu are among the first to reawaken from this state.
Senkuu is a young man with a vast knowledge of pretty much everything related to science, and he soon sets out to restore the world to what it used to be.
The art in this manga is top-notch and it can be ranked among the best manga in terms of art alone. Characters, animals and the entire world are all rendered and drawn in beautiful detail.
The character’s in Dr. Stone, however, isn’t its selling point. Especially Senkuu and Tsukasa, who serves as the antagonist throughout the first part of the manga seem almost too defined in their stance. However, they are both likeable and interesting enough.
Where Dr. Stone truly shines is in the development of various tools and the technological progression. While I’m sure things are simplified and results happen too quickly, it’s still a lot of fun and very interesting to see Senkuu create pretty much anything from scratch. It’s satisfying and enjoyable.
What sets this up as the best manga in my book is the premise and the way it was realized. There’s a lot of survival manga out there, but none focus on the establishing of society and technological advancement. In Dr. Stone, however, it’s the major theme of the manga. Technological development outshines everything else. The characters, the world, and even the plot all seem secondary and merely a means for us to witness Senkuu’s steady progress.
In the course of the manga Senkuu starts out building small tools and weapons, but soon he experiments with chemistry, sets up electricity and even a factory.
The only major problem I have with Dr. Stone is one I also found in Boichi’s other works, for example, Sun Ken Rock. It’s his type of humor. His humor is simple, over the top and childish, most reliant on facial expressions and comical renderings of characters. It gets old quickly and after a while; I didn’t find it funny anymore. Instead, it grew to annoy me.
Overall though, Dr. Stone is clearly one of the best manga in recent years. It’s a lot of fun, and the focus of scientific and technological progress makes it stand out a lot.
Keep on Vibrating by Jiro Matsumoto is the only truly adult themed manga on this list of best manga, and boy is it a piece of work.
It’s a collection of one-shots, some interconnected, others standalone depicting explicit sex, violence and all sorts of sheer and utter insanity. So a word of warning, this is not for the faint of heart and those easily disturbed.
The very first story should show you what you’re in for. It’s all about explicit sex and a fair share of violence. Needless to say, the plot of the individual stories is abstruse and makes almost no sense.
Yet, there’s something about Keep on Vibrating, about the sheer surreal insanity of it that makes it so enticing and one of the best manga I’ve read.
The art is shoddy and unique, gritty and dark. The backdrops are often disturbing, depicting a grim world, while the dialogue in this harsh world is often as mundane as can be. It creates a rather unique experience.
The plot, at least what little there is, is downright weird. Yet, there are some rare glimpses of genius here and there. It’s the sheer creativity and imagery the author brings forth in this work that makes it so outstanding.
Keep on Vibrating is one of the weirdest and most graphical, but also one of the best manga I’ve read. It’s also vastly different from anything else. It’s an experience for those who are looking for something more explicit and surreal.
Ikigami by Motoro Mase is a manga set in a dystopian future in which a strange law, the National Welfare Act, is in effect. Under this law, certain citizens between the age of eighteen and twenty-four are selected to die for their country.
Twenty-four hours before they die, they are informed via a notification, called an Ikigami, from government messengers.
Our protagonist Kengo Fujimoto is one such government messenger.
The story of Ikigami is mostly episodic, but it has an overhanging plot about Kengo’s own doubts of the law.
Most of the screen time, however, is spent with the people who receive an Ikigami, showing us how they react to this terrible news and how they spent their last day. Some accept, others rebel, and yet others throw themselves into despair and try to change their destiny desperately.
It’s an interesting and, frankly, terrifying concept, but it also made Ikigami one of the most thought-proving and one of the best manga I’ve ever read. Yet it’s so interesting to see the different scenarios and types of people Ikigami presents to its readers. There are some truly great storylines in this manga, some heartfelt and beautiful, others poetically tragic.
To me it was those different episodes that made Ikigami so good and made me add it to this list of the best manga.
One problem, though, is the characters. It’s obvious that most of the characters in this manga will only be around for a few chapters at most. While some are extremely well done, and we can feel for them, the time we spend with them is, ultimately, cut short.
The art is average, but realistic. It’s serviceable and does what it needs to do, but for the most part that’s it. There are some beautiful scenes during pivotal moments, but those are rare and in-between. However, they create a pleasant contrast, showcasing the emotional weight and importance of these scenes.
Overall, Ikigami is one of best manga out there, one that I enjoyed a lot and that’s worth reading for pretty much anyone. It’s interesting to read those little scenarios, and it makes you wonder how you would spend your last day.
The Horizon by Ji-Hoon Jeong is one of the most depressing and sad manhwa I’ve ever read, yet it’s also beautiful. Even though it’s a manhwa, it makes a great addition to this list of the best manga.
The Horizon is set in a world ravaged by war. A young boy witnesses his mother’s death. Lost and confused, he walks the road towards the horizon.
When he enters an abandoned bus, he meets a little girl and from then on then two of them travel together, always towards the horizon.
The Horizon is honestly one of the most depressing works I’ve ever read. It shows the gritty and unforgiving darkness of war and its aftermath.
The story is dark and I feel at times it gets a bit too dark for the sake of being dark, but that’s my opinion.
As dark and unforgiving as most parts of the story are, it ends on a positive note, showing us that there’s always hope as long as there’s love.
What made The Horizon stand out to me though, and why I added it to my list of best manga, was the art. It’s raw, it’s gritty, yet beautiful. At times it’s simplistic, at others detailed. There’s a lot of brutal content here, but it’s never glamorized, never there for any other reason than that to showcase how bad the world of this manhwa has become.
What I love the most was how the artist can convey emotions via the art. The art becomes grittier, rougher, and distorts all together when a character’s emotion spiral out of control.
At only 21 chapters, the Horizon is a quick read. However, I think it’s the perfect length for this story. If it would’ve been any longer, it would’ve most likely dragged out the gloomy atmosphere and weakened the story’s emotional impact. As it is, it’s the perfect length for the story, it wants to tell.
Overall, The Horizon is a hidden gem, that’s very fitting for a list of the best manga. It shows us a world at war from the perspective of those least involved. It’s dark, brutal, unforgiving and most of all, sad. I’d urge anyone to read it, but if you don’t like sad or depressing content, you better skip this one.
I started reading MPD Psycho by Eiji Otsuka and Shouu Tajima a long time ago. Back then I only read part of it, but the manga stayed on my mind because of its graphical imagery.
It was only a year ago that I continued reading it, and I loved it as much as I did when I first discovered it. That day, it had solidified itself as one of the best manga of all time. Yet, this manga’s not for everyone. It’s complex, confusing, and it features many scenes of shocking violence.
MPD Psycho is the story of Kazuhiko Amamiya who’s suffering from multiple personality disorder.
The manga starts out as a more episodic detective story in which Amamiya or one of his many personalities solve violent crimes and sick murder cases.
That’s where a lot of the graphical and shocking imagery comes in. Many of the cases are odd, twisted, and their results are quite sick to look at.
The art in this manga is clean and detailed. Much of the violence and many of the crime scenes are rendered in intricate detail. It can make it a stomach turning pleasure to look at them.
Another great thing is the realistic character design. Japanese people truly look like they are Japanese.
Yet, MPD Psycho is not a slaughter fest and not a collection of mindless gore. Instead, it’s a highly psychological series and one of the best manga in the genre. As the story progresses, things slowly come together. The story develops from episodic cases to and an overarching, complex plot related to Amamiya’s past is slowly revealed.
The more complex the plot becomes, the more confusing it gets as well. There’s of course the overarching mystery of the plot, but also the nature of our protagonist. At times it can be tough to keep up with his different personalities and what they are aiming for.
This is the biggest problem with MPD Psycho. The shifting personalities can make you unsure what is going on and who’s in charge at a time.
Another thing that can be off-putting to some readers might be the sick, gracious violence depicted. People are dismembered, cut apart, twisted or tortured, and the results are presented to us.
Overall, MPD Psycho is a twisted, dark manga with a complex plot and deep psychological themes. If you’re interested in dark, complex thrillers, MPD Psycho is clearly among the best manga the genre offers.
You sometimes read something and once you’ve finished it, you have no idea what you just read, but you enjoyed it immensely. This is exactly the case with Soil by Atushi Kaneko, and that’s why I think it’s one of the best manga of all time.
There are many weird manga out there, and then there’s Soil. This manga differed from anything I’d read before.
Soil is set in the town called Soil New Town. One day a normal family vanishes without a trace. Two detectives, Yokoi and Onoda, are sent to investigate what happened. While the case looks like a routine one, things soon get stranger and weirder as more details about the town and events taking place there are revealed.
The art in Soil is quite unusual and takes some time getting used to. It might appear simplistic or even amateurish at first. If one’s willing to invest the time, though, one realizes that the art is unique. The characters are rendered in detail and all stand out from one another. Yet, where the art in Soil shines is when things get stranger. As the entirety of Soil New Town becomes more and more surreal, so does the art.
Soil’s characters are realistic and complex. There are no clichéd characters to be found. Instead, most of the characters we encounter act like actual people. Yet, while the characters are realistic, they are also heavily flawed. This is especially the case with Yokoi, who comes up as an extremely unlikeable human being.
One has to wonder what Atsushi Kaneko’s choice was to present us with such characters. Maybe he wanted to add some more eccentric characters to his cast, or they were created to add to the overall atmosphere and oddness so prevalent in this manga.
As I mentioned before, Soil is different and quite refreshing. There are so many weird things in this manga one has to be impressed by the mangaka’s creativity. Soil is such a surreal and unique experience, it’s one of the weirdest, yet best manga I ever read.
This weirdness though leads us to the biggest problem with Soil. It’s more an experience in sheer and utter weirdness than a coherent story. Especially the latter half of the manga just keeps getting weird and weirder. There’s still a story left, but Atushi Kaneko keeps adding so many new, weird elements that you’ll give up on trying to understand what’s going on.
This also shows in the ending which doesn’t seem to be much of an ending or at least, it’s too confusing to make sense off. One can find some explanations on the internet, but they are merely guesses and interpretations.
Overall though, Soil is worth picking up and a great addition to a list of the best manga of all time. It’s such a weird and surreal manga that can’t be compared to anything. The only other manga I can think of that comes close to it might be Uzumaki by Junji Ito.
So, if you’re looking for something surreal and different, give Soil a try.
At first I wasn’t sure if I would include Oyasumi Punpun by Inio Asano in this list. Yet, when I thought about it, I had to admit that Oyasumi Punpun is one of the best manga and one of the greatest, dramatic coming-of-age story of all time.
It’s written by Inio Asano, and if you’re familiar with his work, you should know what you’re in for. His work is dark, depressing and raw, and Oyasumi Punpun is no exception.
Oyasumi Punpun tells the story of Punpun Onodera, who’s a normal eleven-year-old boy at the outset of the story.
All seems well with Punpun, but we soon learn how much is wrong with his life. At the outset of the story, Punpun meets Aiko, the new girl in class. It’s here that he has to learn just how fickle relationships can be. However, we learn more about Punpun, his parents and family and have to witness how a shy little boy becomes reclusive and turns down a dark path.
In the course of the story Punpun’s life is filled with family issues, romantic problems, sex and alcohol and of course depression and anxiety.
To state that Punpun is depressing is an understatement. While Punpun was one of the best manga I read, it was also one of my toughest reads. There were so many parts, so many raw, gritty details that showed just how much someone can be influenced by even the smallest of things. All this makes Oyasumi Punpun so realistic and relatable. We all have experienced dark things and we all can relate to Punpun on a personal level.
The story of Oyasumi Punpun is told via different arcs, giving us glimpses into his life as a boy, during high school and finally a young adult.
The art in Punpun is beautiful, especially because of Inio Asano’s unique style. It’s drawn more realistic, but also grittier and gloomier than other manga. It’s this art that adds so much to the overall atmosphere and solidifies Punpun as one of the best manga ever.
What’s interesting is that Punpun and his family are not drawn as people, but as comical, bird-like beings. Yet, it’s only us, the reader who sees them as such. It was an obvious choice, most likely to have a better way to convey Punpun’s emotions and reactions and to make him and his family stand out from others.
Oyasumi Punpun is also a very mature manga, containing nudity, but never as fan service. It’s only there to make you uncomfortable and to increase the overall dark and gloomy atmosphere.
Many of the characters in Punpun are, for lack of a better word, damaged in their own ways. They aren’t presented to us likeable, but to be real. We aren’t perfect and none of us would be an ideal protagonist, and neither are the characters in Punpun.
Of the different parts, I enjoyed the earlier parts of Punpun the most. There was a certain innocence to it, and the feeling that things would only go downhill from here. Yet, it wasn’t as overdrawn as in the last arc. It was this arc that was a bit too dramatic. The story always felt part real and part relatable, but everything got too out of hand and became too crazy to identify with anymore. So, I felt that the final arc of the manga was the weakest.
Another thing I didn’t enjoy was the time spent with other characters. While I thought Punpun’s friends were all interesting, it felt almost like filler content that moved us away from the more interesting narrative related to Punpun.
For all its psychological, deeper and more complex themes, Punpun can feel a bit self-indulgent and pretentious. I guess it comes with the topic matter and the mangaka’s wish to discuss, give insight and convey his own reasoning. At times, though, it fell flat and seemed to be there just for the sake of being there.
Still, Oyasumi Punpun is one of the best manga and worth reading for anyone who’s looking for a deeper, more depressing and realistic story.
Oyasumi Punpun is among the best manga out there at what it does, at making you feel uncomfortable and depressed. Yet, it’s still a great read, thought-provoking read, just don’t expect it to be joyful experience.
Tomodachi Game by Mikoto Yamaguchi and Yuuki Satou is one of the manga mind game manga on this list, a genre I absolutely enjoy.
The story starts off with Yuuichi Katagiri, a young man who values friends over everything. He works hard to save money for a high school trip, but soon after the class money is stolen and suspicion falls on two of his friends.
That same night, Yuuichi and his four best friends are kidnapped and forced to play the titular game. It’s revealed that one of his friends has a massive debt and stole the class money. The reason was to get into the Tomodachi Game and to win money.
Tomodachi game starts out very simple, and especially during the first few chapters it might appear as rather generic. The first game, and even the second game, doesn’t stand out too much. It’s during the aftermath of the second game, though, that the manga takes up steam and reveals a much bigger plot.
That’s where things become interesting, and the manga becomes one of the best in its respective genre. It’s not only the plot, though, that gets more interesting, it’s also the games.
The art in this manga is pretty well done and enjoyable. Where it stands out is the rendering of Yuuichi’s facial expression at various moments.
And here we’re at the core of this manga, its protagonist Yuuichi. He isn’t your typical goody-two-shoes protagonist, but a much darker person than originally thought. He doesn’t shy away from twisted or ruthless methods to win, making him stand out against other protagonists. I think it’s much thanks to Yuuichi’s personality that this manga is among the best.
Overall, Tomodachi game is an interesting and unique manga with some great games and a unique protagonist. It might not appear all too interesting early on, but if you give it some time, it gets better, a lot better.
Shin Angyo Onshi by In-Wan Yoon and Kyung-il Yang is a dark fantasy manga and of the best manga the genre offers.
Angyo Onshi are government agents charged with killing corrupted government officials and bringing justice to the people of Jushin.
The story revolves around Munsu, one such agent who still keeps up his work even after the destruction of Jushin.
Similar to other manga, Shin Angyo Onshi starts off more episodic, as Munsu travels the land, continuing his duty. After a while we learn more about Munsu, the Angyo Onshi, and what caused the destruction of Jushin. An overall plot is revealed and we learn that there’s more to Munsun’s travels.
The biggest selling point of the series is the outstanding art, the fantastic characters and the great story.
The art throughout the entire series is nothing short of amazing and rivals the best manga out there. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful work.
Almost all the characters, protagonists and antagonists are interesting and their motifs are understandable. The manga even takes a step back from painting any of the characters as either good or bad. Instead, it makes us understand both sides.
Standing out the most is Munsun. He’s more of an anti-hero who doesn’t shy away from using questionable methods to fulfill his goals. He’s a complicated character and might seem cruel and ruthless, but overall it’s enjoyable to follow his journey.
Shin Angyo Onshi is among the best manga the fantasy genre offers, and it’s a delight for anyone who enjoys gritty, dark fantasy.
Tokyo Maji Revengers by Ken Wakui is one thing above all else, a lot of fun. It’s one of the most enjoyable and best manga I read in recent years, featuring some cool characters and an interesting premise.
It’s the story of Takemichi Hanagaki, a young man who’s at an all-time low. When he thought it couldn’t get much worse, he learns that his ex-girlfriend from his youth, Hinata Tachibana, was murdered by the Tokyo Manji Gang.
While he wonders where his life went all wrong, he suddenly travels through time and ending up twelve years in the past. During that time he was still in a relationship with Hinata and he realizes that he’s now got the chance to change the future and save her.
The premise of the manga is already interesting, if a bit odd. It’s an idea, however, that many people can relate to in theory. It would be fun, or at least interesting, to go back in time with the knowledge of how the future would turn out.
What made this one of the best manga to me wasn’t the plot, but the characters. They are across the board likeable, except for the obvious antagonists.
Pretty much everyone, except for our protagonist, is an absolute badass and a great fighter. Takemichi, on the other hand, is almost their polar opposite. He’s weak, and he cries a lot. Yet, this creates a bit of diversity between him and the other members of the cast. It makes him more realistic and more grounded.
However, this might not be for everyone. A lot of criticism of the series stems from Ken Wakui’s characterization of Takemichi. Now, weak characters are a popular trope in shonen manga. Yet, those characters often grow throughout the series and, ultimately, become the strongest. Takemichi, though, doesn’t get stronger in a typical sense. He never becomes a good fighter, but he’s an extremely sympathetic and likeable character. His position in the group is not that of another fighter, but its heart and voice of reason.
The overall plot of Tokyo Manji Revengers is interesting and enticing. The adventures of our band of character and Takemichi’s time travel shenanigans are a lot of fun.
There’ are a lot of twists in this manga, but it was never something that deterred my enjoyment. I stand by my opinion that this is one of the best manga, featuring cool characters with a lot of fantastic action and fight scenes.
The art of Tokyo Maji Revengers is also fantastic. Every single character has his or her own design, making them stand out among others. Ken Wakui’s made it a specific choice to give each character a different hairstyle, clothing and accessories to make them all individual.
Backgrounds and general world design are also well done, and the world looks alive and realistic.
The only problem I have with Tokyo Manji Revengers is the age of the characters. Most of the story is spent when Takemichi is a young teenager, no older than fourteen. Yet, our characters form violent street gangs, fight each other and even end up killing each other. It’s not believable at all. We even get flashbacks of them forming the Tokyo Manji Gang when they had just entered middle school.
I get that shonen characters are often pretty young, but Tokyo Manji Revengers is taking it a bit too far.
However, that’s my only real problem with the story. As I said though, it’s a common trope in shonen manga and it didn’t take away from my enjoyment.
Tokyo Manji Revengers is one of the best manga out there because of its unique time-travel plot and its fantastic characters.
Just be warned, the protagonist Takemichi is more of an emotional, grounded character and not a badass.
The movie Battle Royal is one of my favorite movies of all time. I’ve also devoured the novel and when I found out there’s a manga, I had to read it too. While there’re some flaws with it, it still holds up as one of the most disturbing and best manga.
The manga by Masayuki Taguchi and Koushun Takami is a retelling of the novel, but it goes even deeper, exploring the back story of each student and adding additional details here and there. It also takes some liberties and alters the source material to make certain events more dramatic or add additional developments.
Battle Royal is the story of the titular program. Each year a class is randomly selected, placed in a remote area, and the students are forced to kill each other until only one remains. It’s, in essence, a survival of the fittest.
Our protagonist Shuuya Nanhara and his class are forced to take part in this very program. Instead of fighting, he makes it his goal to get off the island without playing the game.
Battle Royal is a great retelling of one of the most disturbing settings ever. Being forced to kill your classmates and friends to survive is nothing short of sick. The manga doesn’t sugarcoat things. Instead, it gives you a glimpse into the insane situation and shows us how different people react to it. Some throw themselves into despair, others choose to give up right away, and then there’s those who will play to win.
I enjoyed this retelling of the story and the many additional details we learn about the characters. While the movie and the novel conveyed events realistically, the manga is often overdramatized.
Many of the fights are shown in an over-the-top fashion and last entire chapters. Yet, I didn’t mind it in the least because they were well done.
The art in Battle Royal does well to show us the gruesome reality of the situation, showcasing emotions, breakdowns and of course gore in glorious detail. At times it feels almost a bit too copious. The same can be said about the sexually charged imagery. Overall, the art of this manga is great and is one of the reason I think this is one of the best manga of all time.
While I enjoyed the manga immensely, I also have to admit that it has its flaws.
The first and most notable problem is the inconsistency in character representation. All the students are supposed to be in the same class and about fifteen years of age. Yet, some of them are drawn as if they are no older than ten, while others, most notable Kawada, appear to be in their thirties.
Another thing is the rather formulaic approach of storytelling. Battle Royal follows a simple concept. We’re introduced to a new character, we witness their backstory and their demise. While it’s nothing too frustrating, it gets old.
As I mentioned before, things are a bit overdramatized. In the novel and movie, most confrontations lasted mere moments. After all, those were kids going against one another and not battle-hardened veterans. Yet, somehow, these kids can survive being shot, disemboweled or terribly hurt and can fight on.
However, it doesn’t mean that Battle Royal is a bad manga. On the contrary, I still consider it one of the best manga I read.
I’d recommend Battle Royal to anyone who’s fan of the movie and who wants to dive a big deeper. However, the manga is also a great read for any fan of death games, survival manga and kill or be killed situations.
I started to read Tower of God by SIU years ago, but I come back to it again and again to see more of the characters, learn more about the world and find out how the story continues. While it’s a manhwa, I still added it to this list of the best manga.
Tower of God starts out simple. We get to know our protagonist Twenty-Fifth Bam who was all alone until he met Rachel, a girl set on climbing The Tower.
After Rachel vanishes, Bam enters The Tower on his own to meet her again. He learns that his entry in The Tower is not normal and that he’s deemed an Irregular. Thus starts the story of Tower of God.
Climbing The Tower is no simple feat. Each floor has tests that Bam has to pass if he wants to continue his climb. However, this is not only the story of Bam, but a vast cast of characters.
In later arcs, the story is expanded, as we learn more about the different factions populating the tower, the people at its top, and of course The Tower itself.
At the start the art of Tower of God is decent enough, but as time goes on, it gets much better. By now, the art is still simple, yet beautiful and somehow different from what one’s used to and gives the manhwa a unique beauty.
What I enjoyed about Tower of God were the characters, at least initially. They were all unique and likeable. However, later on there are a few too many characters and it’s easy to get lost among the gigantic cast. It seems the author isn’t so much interested in character development, but increasing the cast and throwing in new characters.
It didn’t detract from my enjoyment, but it can get a bit overwhelming and, ultimately, leaves you unattached to most of them.
The biggest issue I have with Bam. He starts out as a likeable underdog, but soon becomes your typical, overpowered shonen-archetype. It was a bit of a shame.
Another glaring issue I have with Tower of God is the plot. While it seems contained and simple early on, it keeps growing and growing and getting more and more complex. This wouldn’t be a problem, but in Tower of God, it seems almost a bit too unrestrained. With each new floor and each new arc, we get to know new characters, fresh developments happen and new mysteries come up.
Sure, the series is still very entertaining and I still consider it among the best manga or manhwa I read, but a lot of times, you feel almost a bit lost what’s going on and where the story is going.
Still, Tower of God is a great read. I enjoyed the earlier parts, called Season 1 the most because here things were simpler and our protagonist appeared to differ from other shonen protagonists. All this changed in season 2.
I guess to me, the most interesting part in Tower of God is The Tower itself, the different floors, the tests and not the overarching plot. I’m a big fan of detailed settings and to me, many of the best manga have great world-building.
Overall, Tower of God is fun, interesting and unique, but not for everyone. Still, I urge you to give it a try and see if you’re enjoying it.
Pluto by Naoki Urasawa is a retelling of Osamu Tezuka’s manga Astro Boy. Astro Boy itself is one of the most popular classical manga of all time, and its influence on the entire medium cannot be overstated.
When I first read Pluto, I had no idea that it was inspired by Astro Boy. This made it an different experience for me.
The story begins with the murder of the popular and world-famous Swiss robot called Montblanc, one of the seven most advanced robots in the world.
The robotic Europol detective Gesicht, another one of the seven most advanced robots, is sent to investigate. He soon uncovers evidence of a mysterious entity only known as Pluto and a plot to destroy all the world’s most powerful robots.
Things get much more interesting when Gesicht realizes that the murder couldn’t have been committed by a human.
Before I read Pluto I knew Naoki Urasawa from his famous work 20th Century Boys, another one of the best manga of all time, and he has lost none of his talent since. Pluto is a great mystery, seinen manga, one of the best manga in the genre, that follows our protagonist Gesicht, as he tries to uncover a world-wide plot.
At the center of Pluto is the relationship between AI and humans. Yet, in Pluto, a world in which humans and robots co-exist is already a reality, making those questions much more pressing. Especially since our protagonist Gesicht is a robot himself.
Not all is well in Pluto’s futuristic world. We see many examples of anti-robot hate; we see robots being mistreated or even destroyed. At the same time, however, the boundaries between humans and robots, between living, feeling being and inanimate object, aren’t set in stone anymore.
What makes Pluto one of the best manga I’ve read are the story and the characters. I was stunned by how well the plot was developed. It’s a gripping mystery that keeps you guessing and wondering what’s going on.
Naoki Urasawa is a master in terms of plot development and storytelling. In other manga, the plot is moved by introducing new characters and by new events happening. Pluto, however, is a more solemn, more intimate story. Here it’s the dialogue, the interaction between characters, that drives the plot forward.
As typical in the works of Naoki Urasawa, our protagonist Gesicht is complex, not just because he’s a robot, but because he’s got his own problems and is haunted by his very own demons.
The only problem, as is often the case with Naoki Urasawa’s work in my opinion, is that the story peaks around the middle point.
The series in its entirety is a great read, but I feel the last volumes can be a bit lacking compared to the earlier half of the manga.
At only eight volumes, Pluto is much shorter than Naoki Urasawa’s other works, but it s a great read.
Pluto is an amazing manga, one of the best manga in the science-fiction and mystery genre. It presents us with a dark, futuristic world, great characters and an intriguing mystery plot. If you’re a fan of Naoki Urasawa, Astro Boy or science-fiction mystery, I urge you to read Pluto.
Darwin’s Game by Ginko and Yuki Takahata is another one of the best manga featuring death games that stood out to me among a plethora of similar titles.
It starts out when Kaname Sudou signs up for a mobile game called Drawin’s Game, unbeknownst to what he’s getting into. Soon enough, he’s followed and attacked by a weird person dressed as a mascot. From here on out things only get more interesting as Kaname meets new characters, learns more about Darwin’s Game itself and decides to fight, rather than hide.
What made this manga so enjoyable was Kaname himself. He started out rather typically, and during his first encounter with another player he flees rather than fights. Soon enough Kaname accepts the game and becomes quite good at it and also quite ruthless. It’s enjoyable to see someone going all in like that.
The rest of the cast is also quite likeable. There was almost no character that I didn’t like, however, some characters are quite underdeveloped. All of them have their own unique design, though.
The games in Darwin’s Game start out as death matches, but soon they become more interesting and grander in scale. The same is true for the story.
And here we have another good point about the series, the story. While it might not be innovative, it’s still an enjoyable read and leaves enough mystery to keep you guessing what’s going on.
The art in Darwin’s Game is detailed and well done, but truly shines during battle scenes. The battles in Drawin’s Game are ripe with action, intense and suspenseful. I think it’s because of the addition of Sigil’s, special powers that characters receive that made this one of the best manga I read.
Overall, Darwin’s game doesn’t redefine the genre, but it adds enough interesting elements for it to be fresh, fun and engaging. The story itself is also interesting. Especially the newest arcs add a lot of new developments and make you wonder what direction the manga is going to.
If you’re looking for a great death game manga than Darwin’s Game is exactly what you’re looking for.
Holyland by Kouji Mori was a manga I found by accident some years ago, but I was thrilled I found it. It’s one of the best manga in the martial arts genre out there.
It’s the story of Yuu Kamishiro, a boy who’s abused and bullied by his peers and doesn’t seem to fit in with society. Out of desperation, Yuu stops going to school and starts training a single boxing punch all on his own.
Once he’s ready, he goes out into the streets in search for his very own Holyland. Out there, he’s fighting street thugs and builds a reputation for himself as the ‘Thug Hunter.’
However, he soon learns that this new name has stirred quite a bit of attention and soon many people seek him out.
What makes Holyland so great, is that it’s entirely realistic. There are no superpowers or unrealistic attacks. There’re only fists, kicks, and blood.
Where Holyland truly shines and what I think makes it one of the best manga are the characters and how the story is conveyed by them. You can feel how lost Yuu is, how desperately he wants to carve out his own little place in the world.
In its essence, Holyland is a coming of age story. Yuu makes new friends, but also new enemies as the story continues. Yet, Holyland isn’t a one man story. There are a lot of characters all as carefully developed as Yuu and all equally interesting, notably Masaki Izawa and Shougo Midorikawa. Every single character in Holyland has their own reasons for being out in the streets, to linger at night and all have been shunned by normal society.
Holyland isn’t perfect, however. At times the author goes a bit too in-depth with explanations of techniques during fight scenes. It can stop the flow and keep you from being truly invested in the fight scenes.
Another problem is the story’s premise. Holyland focuses on character development, so the overall plot is rather thin. It’s a story about street fights and action scenes. After each fight, a new enemy awaits and more fights are to be had.
It didn’t deter from my enjoyment and I still consider Holyland one of the best manga of all time, but it can get a bit repetitive after a while.
Another thing is the art. While it’s unique, it’s also a bit old-fashioned, which you’ll notice right away. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once one does, it develops its very own charm. Where the art stands out is during the fight scenes. They are all fluid and well done and a joy to read.
Overall, Holyland is a great, character driven martial arts manga. The story might not be too deep, but it makes up for it because of it’s amazing characters and a deep-routed familiarity and relatability. We can all understand the dilemma of trying to find a place to fit in.
Holyland is one of the best manga on this list in terms of character development, and I urge anyone interested in martial arts to check it out.
Crows by Hiroshi Takahashi is yet another one of the best manga in the martial arts genre. While Holyland was realistic and character-driven, Crows is one thing and one thing foremost: fun.
I first got interested in Crows after watching Takeshi Miike’s movies Crows Zero and Crows Zero 2. It was years later that I uncovered that the movies were based on a manga, albeit featuring a different set of characters.
Crows is the story of Harumichi Boya, who transfers to Suzuran. Suzuran is a high school filled with delinquents and known as Crows High.
From here on out, Bouya wants to conquer the school and become its number one fighter. Of course, things don’t go as planned and soon enough warfare between all the gangs in the area breaks out.
The best thing about Crows are the fights and the characters. All the characters are unique and stand out in their own way and are a lot of fun.
What I appreciate most about Crows is that it does what it promises. It delivers a fun delinquent manga, but doesn’t try to be more. It’s refreshing to find a series that’s simply fun.
One of the lower points of the series is the art. Begin an older series it has a typical 90s look and feel to it. It’s not bad by any means, but it has a style that takes some getting used to.
Another thing I always found weird about Crows is the complete absence of teachers or any sort of law enforcement. Delinquents simply clash in the middle of the city, beat each other senseless and no one intervenes, no police is called, nothing.
Overall, Crows isn’t too deep a series. It has its tragic and dramatic moments, but most of all it’s a series about delinquents, brawls and street fighting.
On that note Crows delivers and delivers well, making it one of the best manga to read if one’s looking for a more lighthearted manga about delinquents.
Dragon Head by Minetaro Mochizuki is an apocalypse manga, and it’s a crazy ride from beginning to end.
It all begins with a violent train wreck. Teru, our protagonist, has to watch many of his classmates die right in front of his eyes before he discovers two other survivors, Ako and Nobu.
They try their best to escape the tunnels, but the lack of light and food starts to impact their fragile psyche.
When they make it out, they realize that the outside world has changed and might hold even more dangers than the tunnels.
Dragon Head stood out to me because of its realistic characters. They seem like living, breathing humans with genuine emotions and act how normal people would act during a disaster. They panic, they are afraid, might lash out or go crazy. That’s simply realistic given the situation they are in.
Another great point is the story, the dire hopelessness that hangs over it all as our characters strive on and on. The longer you read on, however, you wonder if there’s even anything left to strive for.
Dragon Head is a thrilling experience, and probably the best manga in depicting a real apocalypse. There’s no moment in which the manga takes a break. Instead, there’s constant suspense hanging over our characters as the world seems to go crazier and crazier.
It’s without a doubt the art in Dragon Head that makes it one of the best manga, though. While one can see that the manga’s from the 90s, the art style is great. The most amazing accomplishment, however, is the world, the backgrounds and the general destruction. It renders a destroyed, hapless world in all its terrifying, depressing glory. It’s a detailed, beautiful rendering of a destroyed world that stands out amongst many other similar manga.
The only problem I have with Dragon Head is that things drag a little the longer it goes on. There wasn’t much focus on an overall plot anymore, instead we got more and more introspection about the characters. Maybe all of this was done on purpose, though. After all, if the world’s ending, where do you go? What do you do? Maybe this hopelessness, this aimlessness, was at the core?
Claymore by Norihiro Yagi is a dark fantasy manga and the story of Clare, one of the titular Claymores.
The manga is set in a medieval world in which Yoma exist, monstrous beings with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. It’s Claymores like Clare who are tasked with killing them.
Clare, however, is a low-ranking Claymore out on a quest of personal revenge.
The story starts off in episodic fashion with Clare dispatching Yoma before we’re slowly introduced to the main plot. We learn about Clare’s past, her caretaker Teresa, and the ominous being known as Priscilla.
This story, while intriguing, isn’t the manga’s biggest selling point. It’s the world and its monsters that make Claymore one of the best manga of all time.
The landscape is rendered in beautiful detail, cities look amazing and the monster design is among the best and most creative I’ve ever seen. Claymore clearly stands among the best manga in terms of art.
As an action-based manga Claymore features a lot of battles, however, they can be a bit hard to follow, and the locations in which the battles take place are a bit uninspired. The world of Claymore is breathtakingly beautiful, but all these locations are hardly used.
Another thing I didn’t enjoy too much was the principal antagonist. She’s made out as an impossibly strong being, yet we don’t see too much of her. She’s almost nothing but an ominous presence that looms out there and only becomes important near the ending.
And here we have one of the biggest problems with Claymore, the ending. Some revelations at the end of the manga were a questionable choice. They explain the state of the world, but to me they were nothing but a cop-out.
Nonetheless, Claymore stands among the best manga in the dark fantasy genre and features some of the best art out there. It’s well worth the read.
Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama is one of the most popular and one of the best manga of all time.
The story’s set in a dark, fantastical world. All of humanity is crowding together in a single city protected by massive walls. This city is the last bastion of humanity who’s been eradicated by the titular titans. These titans feed on human beings and kill them indiscriminately.
Our protagonist Eren Yeager is a young military recruit who gets the powers of turning into a titan himself. From then on, Eran and his fellow recruits and members of the survey corps fight the titans and try to defeat them for good.
What I enjoyed most about this manga was the setting. I love stories that are set in confined spaces. I really like the idea of humanity restricted to a single city constantly under the threat of being destroyed.
The premise of Attack on Titan is simple, but the story gets more interesting as time goes on. We learn more about the titans, their history, and how they are connected to the city.
The art in Attack on Titan is one of the most divisive topics.
During the very first chapters, the art isn’t pretty. It’s in all honesty, barely average if that. Yet, Hajime Isayama improved a lot and in volume three the art improved and from volume six onward it became one of the better drawn series out there.
The scenery, especially the wide shots of the city, are gorgeous. Where it really shines, similar to other action-oriented manga, is during the battle scenes. They are beautiful to look at, intense and unique because of the unique weapons employed by the survey corps. The action is brutal and fast-paced, yet drawn fluidly with a great attention to detail. This makes Attack on Titan one of the most unique and one of the best manga in terms of battles.
What I enjoyed the most was the appearance of the titans. They aren’t ghastly, twisted human beings, but look more like dim-witted, almost simplistic humans. It’s their lack of emotions, their empty, smiling faces that make them so outlandish and creepy.
Still, the art in the early volumes of Attack on Titan is definitely a weak point.
Attack on Titan is also another, longer manga, but it’s well worth the read. It’s an engaging and interesting story that features its share of memorable characters. These elements made Attack on Titan one of the best manga out there and one I’d recommend to everyone.
If you’re looking for a unique and complex action-oriented manga with a fantastic setting, Attack on Titan might be what you’re looking for.
Annarasumanara by Ha Il-Kwon is another manhwa, and one of the most beautiful and heartfelt stories I’ve ever read. Even though it’s a manhwa, I wanted to include it in this list of best manga to shed some light on it.
The story centers on a magician living in an abandoned theme park. His magic’s supposed to be real, and whenever people visit him, he shows it to them. Yet, he’s always asking if they believe magic is real beforehand.
Our protagonist is Yoon Ah-ee, a high school student who doesn’t believe in magic anymore. She’s living in poverty and her life comprises nothing but studying, working and taking care of her younger sister.
One day, he stumbles into the abandoned theme park and eventually visits the mysterious magician. From here on out, her life changes forever and one of the best manga or better manhwa begins.
Annarasumanara is a great, heartfelt story that ponders on quite a few different topics.
A central theme is that of growing up and living up to your own expectations and those of the people around you. Another theme is the question of what life and happiness are truly about.
There are other themes the manhwa touches on as well. It’s those of social expectations, parental pressure, understanding yourself and what you want in life or what you’re willing to give up to be happy.
While magic is a central theme in this story, we soon learn it’s not so much about magic tricks, but more about the magic of life itself. It’s the beauty we see as children, the magic that seems to get lost when we grow up and wish to get back.
The art in Annarasumanara is strange, almost abstract, yet unique. However, it’s not just there for the sake of being different. It has also meaning to the overall plot.
The characters in Annarasumanara are all very believable, even if they might not appear so at first. It’s a story of actual people and genuine emotions, and maybe just real magic as well.
With only three volumes, Annarasumanara is one of the shorter reads on this list of best manga, but one I’d recommend to anyone.
Another interesting point is that this manhwa inspired me to write one of my most popular and well received stories to date I Catfish a Different Girl Each Night. It wasn’t so much the plot, or the central themes that inspired me, but part of the initial premise.
Chi no Wadachi by Shuuzou Oshimi is one of the best manga I read in recent times. It’s a psychological manga about drama, abuse and manipulation.
The manga is the story of Seiichi Osaba. He’s a typical young boy. He’s got friends, a crush, and he’s got loving parents. His mother, however, is extremely overprotective, and he’s often made fun of for their close relationship. While strange, and a bit extreme, it doesn’t seem too big a concern.
This all changes during a certain incident that puts in motion a series of events that will change Seiichi’s life and the view he has of his mother forever.
The series starts out simple, but quickly spirals out of control and just keeps getting crazier and crazier.
However, the pacing of this manga is slow and slow for a reason. Chapters seldom include many events. At times they show us nothing more than the interaction between two characters. Yet, it’s this slow progression, this stifling movement that adds so much to the tension and suspense.
At first the suspense might seem a bit oppressive. There were many slow shots, many glimpses at something, but the more I read the more interesting I got. Eventually I got used to this specific style of storytelling. It’s this focus on even the smallest details that makes Chi no Wadachi one of the best manga I’ve read.
The art in Chi no Wadachi is another reason I consider this among the best manga out there. It’s absolutely stunning, focusing on intricate facial details, a lot of them being smiles. The art can be sparse at times, dense at others, but it always conveys the mood of the story. What’s truly beautiful though are the many big page spreads.
While the story doesn’t seem too deep, it’s the way it’s told, the way we experience it that makes you feel what’s going on. A lot of times I was disturbed by the portrayal of an insecure young boy trying to please his mother. At other times I was stunned at her toxic manipulation and just how far she took things.
The biggest problem with the manga might be the slow, gloomy and solemn atmosphere. The overhanging suspense and tension so prevalent in this manga can be a bit oppressive, especially in the earlier chapters.
However, if one reads on, and gets used to the unique slow style of storytelling, one is in for one of the best manga in recent years.
I discovered Ouroboros by Yuuya Kanzaki only recently, but the moment I started reading it I was drawn in by its great storyline. Once I was done, I couldn’t deny that I’d just read one of the best manga of all time.
Ouroboros is the story of Ryuuzaki Ikuo and Tatsuaya Danno. While Ryuzaki is an investigator for the Shinjuku Police, Tatsuya is a member of the yakuza.
Long before the start of the story, the two of them lived happily in an orphanage under their caretaker, Yuiko. All this ended when the two boys witnessed her tragic murder.
The manga starts of simple and more episodic with the two of them are working together to solve various crime cases.
This episodic nature continues for most of the manga’s story, but the overall plot tightens and becomes more prevalent as the two of them learn more about the man who they are after.
I really enjoyed Ouroboros. It’s one of the best manga about crime and conspiracies. While it develops slowly, it never gets boring.
The overall plot is interesting and engaging and it’s also the strongest point of Ouroboros. Yukio’s murder is a mystery, one with many twists and turns that will throw you off again and again.
The art in Ouroboros was very enjoyable. It’s good enough to be interesting, but never truly outstanding. What I enjoyed the most was that many of the characters were drawn more humanlike. It’s something I enjoyed, and that helped a more grounded story like this.
I also came to like our two protagonists. Both of them are very interesting and complex. I wished, however, there would’ve been more of a focus on Tatsuya Danno since he’s, at least in my opinion, the more interesting of the two.
There’s also a fair share of side-characters who are all interesting and either likeable or detestable.
The only real quarrel I have with the story is that the twists became a bit too much near the end and some revelations were rather clichéd. It didn’t deter my enjoyment of the series, though.
Overall, Ouroboros was a manga I found really engaging and had a lot of fun with, but that’s also because I enjoy settings about crime and the underworld.
The episodic nature of Ouroboros might be daunting to some, and the beginning of the manga is a bit shy to give us more about the overall story. If you enjoy those parts, though, I’m sure you’ll love the rest.
Ouroboros is clearly one of the best manga about the police, crime and deep-routed conspiracies.
Sanctuary by Buronson and Ryoichi Ikegami was one of the best manga I ever read and exactly to my liking. It’s a fantastically dark thriller and yakuza manga.
Sanctuary is the story of two men, Akira Houjou and Chiaki Asami, who want to change the course of the nation of Japan. In their opinion Japan is stagnant, corrupt and ruled by old men who’ve accepted the status quo. The two of them set out to push Japan into a new age and to create their very own sanctuary.
To accomplish this, the two of them aim to conquer Japan through two different routs. Houjou ventures into the underworld to seize control of the yakuza while Asami aims to become Prime Minister.
What makes this manga such a great read is the alternation between the two major plots, one centered on organized crime, the other on politics.
There’s of course an extensive list of adversaries both Asami and Houjou encounter. These reach from ambitious hot-shots and fellow yakuza bosses to diet members and champions of the establishment.
This dualism makes the manga so much more enjoyable. Whenever one story loses a bit of steam, the writers switched to the other one and throw in a fresh development, new ploy or twist.
To me Sanctuary was a suspenseful, but fun ride. I really enjoy stories about power fantasies, and Sanctuary is among the best manga featuring those. What makes it even better, is that it’s grounded in reality. I was very intrigued to follow our protagonists’ climb to the top.
There were enough conflicts to keep me reading and to keep the plot interesting. Overall though, what Sanctuary is most of the time is really cool. We have a ton of characters who are just absolutely amazing.
The art in this manga is on point as well. While it has a typical 90s feel to it, characters look both extremely professional and badass at the same time. Wide shots, backgrounds and even rooms are often rendered in beautiful detail.
My biggest issue with Sanctuary, however, is realism. While the yakuza plotline is a rather typical climb to power that is farfetched, but albeit realistic, Asami’s political rise wasn’t. Yet, while the political shenanigans, the intrigues, plans and twists, were unrealistic, I still had a great time reading them. Especially Isaoka was one of the best character in the entire manga and an outstanding adversary.
However, things spiraled out of control the closer the manga got to the end. I was still enjoying things for what they were, wanting to see how Sanctuary would play out. By then, however, I’d long abandoned the idea of realism.
Another fact that some readers might not enjoy is the depiction of women in this manga. There’s really only one important female character, and she serves as Houjou’s love interest. Almost all other women depicted are prostitutes or sex objects.
Overall, Sanctuary was still a lot of fun in the way certain over-the-top polit-thrillers or gangster movies are. It might not be too realistic and it might not make sense all the time, but man is it a great read. There’s a lot of suspense, a lot of action and a lot of badass characters, making Sanctuary one of the best manga I’ve read. If you’re into crime stories or political intrigues, give this one a read.
Tokyo Ghoul by Sui Ishida is another long running and vastly popular series and by many considered one of the best manga of all time.
It’s the story of Ken Kaneki, a reserved young college student who loves to read. At a café he encounters Rize, a beautiful young woman who seems to share his love for books.
Rize, however, is a ghoul and driven by her hunger for human flesh, she soon attacks Kaneki. Ghouls are creatures who look just like humans and mingle between them. However, they have almost superhuman powers and need to feed on humans to survive.
After his encounter with Rize, Kaneki is rescued by Dr. Kanou but soon learns that he’s now part ghoul and can’t stomach normal food anymore. He seeks refuge at a café called Anteiku, which is a safe house for ghouls.
As the story progresses, we learn more about ghouls, different members of Anteiku, and other groups of ghouls.
The story starts out slow, focusing on Kaneki and his new life, but we’re slowly introduced to more characters and their relationship to one another. Eventually, the story gets more interesting as new threats are introduced. Especially, the sequel Tokyo Ghoul:re ends up expanding the plot and the world of Tokyo Ghoul vastly.
The art in Tokyo Ghoul was the biggest selling point for me and made me appreciate it as one of the best manga of all time. Tokyo Ghoul is beautiful and comes with both great character and monster design, fantastic backgrounds and an overall gloomy and dark atmosphere. I can understand that this art style is not for everyone, though. It’s especially the inky panels that help in setting the mood and make for some beautiful scenes.
I also loved the battles in Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul:re. I loved the attacks, the brutality, and especially the design of the kagune. However, I have to say that battles can be a bit confusing. This is most prevalent in later parts, especially in Tokyo Ghoul:re. Battles are on a larger scale, with large numbers of people being devoured, beheaded or disemboweled before the bigger players step in. These battles tended to not only be confusing, but became a bit repetitive in the long run.
The characters are interesting enough, with quite a few bing likeable, while others are not. One of the prime offenders to me was Kaneki. He starts off as a shy, reserved boy, but after a certain significant event he gets a huge power-boost and is suddenly a force to be reckoned with. Now Kaneki had his share of horrible things happening, and it’s clear that he went through some serious trauma. However, this feels like a mixed bag between honest characterization and edginess for edginess’ sake. I felt strongest for some of the supporting characters. Arima was great, and so were Urie and Amon.
One of the most prevailing themes in Tokyo Ghoul is that of a tragic past. Almost everyone of the main cast suffers from this trope. The world of ghouls and the CCP is a dark and brutal one. Yet, it ultimately grew old and lessened the impact. I felt myself invested in the characters in the first part, but later, instead of making you feel for characters, you sort of shrugged their tragic backstory off as more of the same.
There are, however, a lot of fantastic themes in Tokyo Ghoul. I enjoyed the dualism of the two sides. Neither ghouls nor the CCP are innocent, but they are also not truly bad.
The story of Tokyo Ghoul was overall enjoyable, but I still found it to be at its best in the early parts. It was here where the difference between the world of ghouls and humans was still an important plot point. While Tokyo Ghoul:re started out similar, it later dissolved into a different story before it came to a rushed ending.
Now, all of those flaws don’t make Tokyo Ghoul a bad series. No, I had a great time reading it, and think it’s one of the best manga. But for that reason, I also felt it necessary to discuss some of its flaws.
To me Tokyo Ghoul stood out for its fantastic art, the battles and the creative design of the members of the CCP and the ghouls. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a darker, more brutal and complex horror manga.
I’m usually not a fan of gag or comedy manga. Most of the time they don’t click with me. One Punch Man by Yusuke Murata and ONE, however, is different. Based on the web comic by the same name, it’s one of the best manga at what it does.
One Punch man is foremost a manga centered on a single gag. What if a character was so strong, he could defeat every enemy with a single punch?
This character’s name is Saitama. He joins the Hero Organization to put his strength to good use. Before long, however, he becomes bored with it all and throughout the manga hopes to find a real challenge.
That’s mostly it for the story, at least early on. However, as silly and simple as it sounds, as much fun it is.
Later on, the story focuses more on the various side-characters and their individual struggles, which adds a nice contrast to Saitama’s power.
What makes this series shine is the art, especially during battles. It’s easily one of the best manga on this list in terms of art alone. The various monsters are rendered in gorgeous detail and look impressive.
Battles might not sound like much, but they are often extremely interesting because they focus more on the effort of other characters before Saitama takes action and ends things in a single blow.
The characters are another thing that adds so much to this manga, mostly comedy. A favorite of mine is King, the world’s strongest man. Every scene involving him is outstandingly funny and often makes me laugh out loud.
Yet, there’re more characters, some serious, others comical as King, but throughout the board they are all enjoyable, fun and unique. Garou is another example of a fantastic character.
The biggest selling point in One Punch Man, however, is the humor. With so simple a premise, one would think it loses its charm quickly, but it never does. The art also adds a great deal to it, often depicting Saitama as a small, unimportant bystander. That is until he takes action. Then he’s rendered as an absolute badass and depicted in glorious detail.
One Punch Man is one of the greatest action and comedy manga out there and to me one of the best manga of all time. While the story’s not the deepest, it’s insanely entertaining, a lot of fun, and comes with some of the best art the medium offers.
20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa is one of the greatest mystery manga of all time and has become vastly popular.
I read this manga years ago, but it was one of the first manga that came to mind when I thought of creating a list of the best manga of all time. It’s easily at the genre’s pinnacle in terms of storytelling.
20th Century Boys is the story of Kenji Endo and his friends. The story begins shortly before the end of the 20th century. Our protagonist Kenji Endo works at the family’s convenience store and is getting by. Things change when he learns about the suicide of one of his childhood friends, Donkey.
Things turn stranger when a new cult led by a figure only known as Friend becomes increasingly popular. It’s not long before Kenji realizes that there’s much more to this cult and that it’s somehow related to his childhood. Kenji reunites with his childhood friends and together they try to figure out the truth about the cult, the figure known as Friend. and to stop the end of the world.
The art in 20th Century Boys might appear simple at first glance, but it’s because of Naoki Urasawa’s unique style. His mastery of the craft becomes especially prevalent when one looks at the characters. Every single one of them has a distinct personality, making them recognize even when the manga switches to different points in time. Backgrounds are very detailed and pleasurable to look at.
What makes this one of the best manga I ever read are the big mystery, the characters, their relationship, but most of all the way the story is told.
While a conspiracy plot and having to save the world is nothing new, the story is told so well that one can’t help wanting to know more. What stood out to me the most was the switching between different timelines. It’s done extremely well, reveals a lot more about our various characters, but never confuses you.
Overall, the story is told in three major timelines, first during the closing of the 20th century, then 2014 and during the 3FE, the third year of the Friend Era. However, there are also various flashbacks to the time when Kenji and his friends were children during the late 60s and early 70s. The third timeline, the Friend Era, was my least favorite part of the manga.
During the first two timelines, 20th Century Boys was easily my favorite mystery manga and one of the absolute best manga of all time. It was masterfully told and had enough twists and turns to keep you guessing what was going to happen. Yet, the story of the Friend Era felt a bit detached from it all. It felt strange and much too different from what was going on before.
Another minor problem is how many people seem to be in on the conspiracy. The story pits our characters against new troubles and fresh developments. It almost gives the story a feeling of our main cast fighting against the rest of the world.
It didn’t deter my enjoyment much when reading, but it makes you wonder a little. How is one mastermind able to conspire with and control so many people?
Yet, it doesn’t change my opinion of the manga. As a whole it was a fantastic work and while I didn’t enjoy the last part as much as those before, it wasn’t bad by any means.
20th Century Boys is a great mystery, seinen manga that stands out because of its complex plot and the fantastic way the story is told and presented. It truly deserves to be called one of the best manga of all time.
Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi is one of the longest, most popular shonen manga out there and also one of the best manga I ever read.
To be honest, Hunter x Hunter had to grow on me a bit. While I enjoyed the first arcs, it was much later in the story that I truly enjoyed it.
Hunter x Hunter is a manga about hunters who are, for simplicity’s sake, licensed treasure hunters with a lot of privileges. To become a hunter, you have to pass the so called Hunter Exam, several hard challenges that only one in a hundred thousand can pass.
Our protagonist Gon Freecss is a young boy who wants to become a hunter so he can find his father and signs up for the Hunter Exam. During the exam Gon gets to know many of the fellow participants who soon become the main cast of Hunter x Hunter.
As I mentioned before, the series took a while to grow on me. The Hunter Exam arc felt like a typical shonen arc. Things got much more interesting when Yoshihiro Togashi introduced the Nen system that allowed users to manifest superpowers. This Nen system is one of the most interesting parts in Hunter x Hunter since it serves as a foundation and a restriction for a character’s powers.
The protagonists in Hunter x Hunter are likeable throughout the board. What I enjoyed was the dynamic between Gon and Killua in the arcs they spent together. It was incredibly enjoyable to see those two friends go on adventures together, and it solidified Hunter x Hunter as one of the best manga.
I also greatly enjoyed the antagonists of the story. Hisoka is such a strange and weird villain. The phantom troop and notable their leader Chrollo are also an extremely interesting group of characters. And later on, during one of Hunter x Hunter’s most celebrated arcs, we are introduced to one of the greatest antagonists in manga history.
However, while I think Hunter x Hunter is one of the best manga out there, it isn’t without its flaws.
There’s first the art. I’m surprised how Yoshihiro Togashi can be so good at times and so bad at others. There are panels that are incredibly stunning, especially during certain fights. I couldn’t help but be awed by how detailed the art was. Yet, there are other panels or entire chapters that are almost nothing but scribbles. Overall though, the art is serviceable and decent, but apart from a few instances, it doesn’t stand out.
Another problem is the quality of the arcs. While some arcs are outstanding, like the York New and Chimera Ant arc, others feel rather boring and dragged on for so long I couldn’t wait until they were over. It almost feels like Hunter x Hunter is a strange mixture between brilliant and unique storytelling and boredom.
And now we come to the most daring problem I had with Hunter x Hunter, the exposition.
Hunter x Hunter often goes out of hand with explanations and dialogue. While I have no problem with dialogue-heavy manga, Hunter x Hunter’s plethora of words can feel a bit unfocused and almost unnecessary.
This is most prevailing in the newest arc, the Succession Contest arc. I was both stunned by the complexity, but also a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of explanations and expositions. I didn’t struggle to make sense of it, but I feel there would’ve been better and more concise ways of explaining things.
Overall, Hunter x Hunter is one of the most enjoyable shonen manga with some brilliant moments that more than make up for certain weaker parts of the series. If you want to read a good fun shonen and one of the best manga of all time, give Hunter x Hunter a try.
I’m usually not a fan of sports manga and not too big a fan of shonen manga.
I stumbled upon Blue Lock when I was looking for other manga writen by Muneyuki Kaneshiro since I enjoyed their other works. At first I was skeptical, but after I read the first couple chapters I was drawn in by this manga. After reading it for a while I came to absolutely love it and consider Blue Lock one of the best manga I read in the last year.
The story of Blue Lock is relatively simple. After an analysis, it’s found out that the Japanese National Team misses one thing, a great striker. The Japanese Football Association hires an eccentric coach named Jinpachi Ego. He puts together a program held at Blue Lock, a prison-like training facility. There three hundred talented strikers from all over Japan will be pitted against one another. The sole survivor of Blue Lock will become the new Striker of the national team, while anyone else will be banned from joining the team forever.
Our protagonist Yoichi Isagi is one such striker who enters Blue Lock.
As I said, I’m not a big fan of sports manga and I’m also not the biggest fan of soccer. So why did I continue reading Blue Lock? Because of the art, the characters and the sheer amount of tension during many of the different games and tests.
The art by Yuusuke Nomura is outstanding and can rival the best manga in the arts department. It’s sharp, vivid and highly engaging. Some panels and pages or exceptionally well drawn, especially during key events in games. The artist can render raw emotions and power in fantastic detail. The overall style of this magna is amazing. Characters are often shown with glowing eyes, auras and faces distorted by sheer physical strain. It’s the type of art you’d usually see during over the top battle manga featuring fights to the death. It’s simply amazing and makes the entire manga so much more enjoyable.
Another thing I loved were the characters. They are all extremely well done, have their own unique character, but are throughout the board likeable. My favorite might just be Meguru Bachira, who’s such a quirky, yet amazing character.
What I enjoyed the most, however, was Yoichi and his quest of self-discovery at Blue Rock. Yoichi isn’t an overpowered shonen protagonist, instead, he’s often worse than other characters and it’s up to him to catch up to them. It’s a constant theme throughout the manga, and Yoichi slowly grows as he discovers more about his own play style and inherent talent. It not only keeps things interesting, it also keeps you on the toes during many of the games.
Now, in a manga such as this, there’s bound to be some unrealistic things. In Blue Lock, it’s mostly the level of play the characters showcase. All the characters in Blue Lock are high schoolers, yet they showcase world class plays.
While it’s a bit unrealistic, it didn’t deter my enjoyment at all.
Overall, I think Blue Lock is one of the best manga that came out in recent years, sports or not. It’s because of its great cast of characters and especially because of the fantastic art. Even if you’re not a fan of sports manga like me, check out Blue Lock.
C.A.T. by Fung Chin Pang is a short manhua I found by accident a long time ago. It was, as far as I know, unfortunately never finished. Still, what’s there is just too good to ignore. I truly think C.A.T. is one of the best Manhua or manga out there.
The story centers on a young woman known only as CAT. She was taken in by a group called the SFP Project. While there, she was severely abused before she could escape. Trained by a group of assassins, she’s now out to take revenge on the men who abused her.
Another part of the story centers on a man known as Alvas, who’s become the head of the CIA and plays his very own game with the rest of the world.
The story isn’t fully fleshed out unfortunately because the manhua was never finished.
What makes C.A.T. so amazing is the absolutely breathtaking art which can rival the best in the entire medium. It’s reminiscent of Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura, another one of the best manga of all time.
Each panel is beautiful, and the author’s style lends itself perfectly to the many action scenes in C.A.T. They are rendered in fluid and dynamic motion and look simply stunning.
This art also shows in the characters. Every character is well designed and drawn with full attention to detail. Cat starts out as a typical killing machine out for revenge. However, as short as the manhua is, the author can still make her a rather complex character.
The adversaries she meets throughout the manhua have some impressive design of their own, but aren’t much more than typical adversaries.
The only other characters who stand out are Hao Long and Alvas, but unfortunately we don’t spend enough time with them.
Still, C.A.T is a refreshing little Manhua that I enjoyed immensely and that stood out to me because of the great art and the fantastic fights. With only two available volumes it’s relatively short, but I still consider it among the best manga I’ve read and think it’s well worth the read.
Hotel is a fantastic collection of one-shots all drawn by the artist Boichi, who’s one of the best manga artist out there.
Each of the chapters is beautifully drawn and features Boichi’s outstanding art, but the content of the stories varies a little. There were none I disliked, but some are better than others.
While the stories are standalone, there are some thematically links between them. The first two stories for example seem to be set in the same world.
Things get really strange in chapters three and four who are a lot more surreal and weird than what came before.
Chapter five was drawn in full color and is breathtakingly beautiful, however, there isn’t much of a story to be found there. Still, it stands out among the rest because of the stunning full color art.
My favorite chapter was the first one though, featuring the titular Hotel, and it made me tear up a bit near the end.
Hotel is one of the few collections of one-shots on this list, but I really think it deserves its spot as one of the best manga. Some of the stories featured in Hotel are emotion while others are surreal and funny, yet all of them are interesting.
Hotel is a great, quick read that stands out from other, similar collections because of Boichi’s outstanding art.
Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro is one of the best manga in the cyberpunk and science-fiction genre out there.
The story starts off with the scientist Ido, who discovers the remains of a cyborg girl. She’s lost all her memories, but he takes it upon himself to restore her. He names her Alita and gives her a new cybernetic body.
From here on out we follow Alita as she finds her way in this new world and develops from an innocent, childlike character into a battle-hardened badass.
At the start of the series, the art is merely serviceable, but it improves in later parts. The art shines especially during the many fight scenes. There are quite intense, but motions are always fluid and you know what’s happening at all times. This was most notable during the motor ball arc, which was fantastically done and one of the best manga arcs I’ve read.
The setting of Battle Angel Alita is also well done. I really came to love the gritty post-apocalyptic world and especially the city of Scrapyard who’s a gloriously mad cluster of machines, factories and rubble.
Scrapyard can be best described as a cesspool swarming with the worst criminals and cybernetic freaks imaginable.
As for characters, I have to say that Alita was a well-done protagonist, at least for the most part. I enjoyed her character arc and her development a lot.
What makes her so interesting is that she’s not your standard hero protagonist. The entire story is about her finding her way and her place in the world. While there’s of course a plot, Battle Angel Alita is more character driven than anything else, more about Alita herself.
Yet, other character are also well done. Ido for example is a complex character. His relationship to Alita can be best described as a sort of father-daughter relationship, but it’s not free of its flaws.
The villains in this manga are a lot of fun. The one who stood out to me the most was Zapan, a bounty hunter who later turns into a full blown psychopath.
There are also some deeper themes in this manga. What’s great is that they aren’t shoved into your face. There are clear themes like the meaning of life, finding your way and uncovering who you really are.
Battle Angel Alita is not free of flaws, though. The most blatant one is the art, which is decent at first. While the setting is grim and the city of scrapyard is well designed, the character design can be a bit unrefined. This causes many of the robots and cyborgs to look a bit cartoonish.
Another problem is that some characters can be a bit overdrawn, which is especially apparent with a character who appears later in the story.
The same is true for Alita. While his is a manga bout her growth and her changing throughout the story, she can be a bit immature and arrogant.
Overall though, Battle Angel Alita is a well-paced, entertaining cyberpunk, science-fiction story and one of the best manga I ever read. I recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of science-fiction, post-apocalyptic settings and, of course, cyberpunk.
There are some manga out there who stand out because of their intricate and interesting characters or the story they tell. Others stand out because of the world they created. Made in Abyss by Akihito Tsukushi is a stark representative of the latter.
The Abyss is one of the most captivating and beautiful places ever created in manga. I only found out about this manga recently, but it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with the abyss.
Made in Abyss tells the story of a young girl, Riko, who lives in the town of Orth. Orth was built around the edges of a giant chasm, called the abyss, which has never been fully explored.
Riko herself is the daughter of one of the most famous cave raiders, or White Whistles as they are called, who disappeared years ago. Riko herself dreams of becoming a White Whistle.
Her life changes when she meets a robot boy called Rengu. Believing this encounter to be caused by her mother, the two of them decide to descend the abyss.
Made in Abyss is a dark mixture of fantasy and science-fiction that features a fascinating setting populated with various strange and bizarre creatures.
What makes Made in Abyss one of the best manga of all time is clearly the art. It’s absolutely beautiful and insanely detailed. It’s no understatement to say that Made in Abyss is more beautiful than almost all other manga out there.
While the story of Made in Abyss appears lighthearted at first, especially because of its characters, it grows darker and more disturbing the further our protagonists descend.
There’s a feeling of dread related to the Abyss that can’t be understated. It’s an alien world, not only populated by alien creatures but also strange characters. And let’s not forget the ‘curse of the abyss’ which makes descent easy, but an ascent painful and almost impossible once a certain depth is crossed.
The biggest problem I have with Made in Abyss are the characters. Our protagonists are two kids who descend into an alien and dangerous world. I really can’t say I’m fond of the trend in manga to employ very young characters as protagonists. One has to wonder about this choice. Was it to rekindle the adventurous feelings we all had as children? Or was it done as a contrast to the alien world and to make the horror so much more horrible because it happened to children?
All in all though, while this choice was a bit strange to me, I still enjoyed the series immensely. Especially since the world and the world building were so interesting.
Overall Made in Abyss is easily one of the most beautiful and one of the best manga I’ve read. It presents us with one of the most unique and amazing settings ever. I urge anyone out there to read this manga, it’s truly worth it.
Jagaaaaaan is another manga written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro.
It’s the story of a young police officer known as Shintarou Jagasaki. He isn’t too fond of his life and is quite frustrated with how boring it is. This changes during a train ride when he’s escorting home a drunk man.
An office worker grows increasingly madder before he transforms into a twisted monster and starts tearing apart the other passengers. Jagasaki defeats the being by shooting a beam from his very own hand. He soon learns that the man was a fractured human being and that he himself is one as well. It’s now Jagasaki’s task to hunt down other fractured humans.
Fractured humans came into being when a rain of frogs descended upon Tokyo. These frogs infested humans with strong desires. While some of them give into their desires and are thus transformed into monsters, others, like Jagasaki, can resist temptation.
The story of Jagaaaaaan is crazy and continues to get crazier as it goes on, yet, as crazy as Jagaaaaaan is, it’s also one of the best manga I’ve ever read.
What I enjoyed was that people’s desires caused them to become monsters. It adds a bit of a deeper theme and shows that one shouldn’t blindly give into desire.
The first thing that stands out about Jagaaaaaan is the art by Kensuke Nishida. It’s fantastic throughout the board, and enough to warrant Jagaaaaaan’s addition to this list of the best manga. The faces of characters and their emotions conveyed via distorting them are amazingly done.
What’s also great is the character design and especially their transformation into twisted monsters.
The fights in Jagaaaaan are something to marvel at. Jagasaki’s own transformation becomes increasingly more powerful and impressive to look at as the manga goes on. It starts with a simple finger canon, but soon his entire arm turns into a weapon and later on things only turn to get more insane.
With characters, Jagasaki is really interesting. Anyone who read Kamisama no Iutoori and its sequel knows that Muneyuki Kaneshiro has a hang for weird characters. Jagasaki’s a weird as shown in the very first chapter. However, that also makes him much more realistic and unique. Who of us isn’t frustrated with their life at times? Over the course of the manga Jagasaki develops, going from a sort of loner with a rather twisted goal to someone who can appreciate and value the people by his side.
As for side-characters, there are some truly great ones, many of those being fractured humans like Jagasaki. While some are more normal, it’s the ones who are a deranged and crazy who are more interesting.
The first thing one should know about Jagaaaaaan is that it features its fair share of explicit content. There’s violence, there’s gore, and there’s nudity. While sex isn’t common, it’s still shown, and the manga isn’t shy to show sexual abuse committed by a certain, despicable character.
One little criticism I have is the pacing. Things take up more steam early on, almost as if the writer wanted to get as much of the crazy premise out of the way in the very first chapters of the manga. It works well and introduces us right away to the crazy world of Jagaaaaaan. However, it still feels a bit rushed.
Overall, Jagaaaaaan is a weird, twisted, but great manga if one’s willing to give it a chance. There are some depraved acts and some quite heavy gore during battles, but it never is there just for the sake of it. And, after all, Jagaaaaaan is horror manga and one of the best manga the genre offers released in recent years.
For all the disturbing and depraved things portrayed, it’s so much fun at others one can’t stop reading.
Try Jagaaaaaa, if you’re looking for something a bit weird. If you enjoy the first couple of chapters, stick to it, it will only get better.
Solo Leveling is a manhwa by Sung-rak Jang based on the web novel of the same title by Chugong. It’s recommended everywhere these days, and many people include it as one of the best manga or manhwa out there.
When I first started reading Solo Leveling, I was skeptical and couldn’t help but roll my eyes at it. The world-building seems almost too simple, and the story didn’t appear that great to me.
Yet, as I read on, there was one thing above all else that stood out to me and made me enjoy it: the art. Solo Leveling looks stunning.
The reason I love reading Solo Leveling so much is for the fights and the action, and there’s plenty of it.
The story is relatively simple. So-called gates appear around the world, connecting it to a world of monsters. At the same time, ordinary people were given superhuman powers and became known as hunters. From then on these hunters fought the monsters who appeared from these so-called gates.
Our protagonist, Jin-Woo Sung, is one such hunter, however he’s know as the ‘World’s Weakest Hunter,’ since he’s pathetically weak compared to others.
After a certain mission goes terribly wrong, he awakes in the hospital with a quest log in front of him. From here on Jin-Woo Sung can do quests, level up and become stronger, a feat only he’s able to do.
Solo Leveling is basically a typical zero to hero power fantasy. Yet, it handles this well enough, as we witness Jin-Woo changing from a weak underdog to a force to be reckoned with. Overall though, the story isn’t outstanding.
It was interesting to see Jin-Woo himself changing and becoming a bit of a darker character himself.
There are some fresh revelations and hints at a bigger, overarching plot in recent chapters. Still, the story feels more like a vessel to show us a cool protagonist and some outstanding fights.
And thus we come to the main part of Solo Leveling, the fights. Fights are the gist of Solo Leveling, and they are rendered in beautifully outstanding detail. As often in manhwa, Solo Leveling is fully colored. Yet, it goes beyond many others in terms of sheer detail. It’s no understatement to say that Solo Leveling can stand up to the best manga out there in terms of art.
As for characters, Jin-Woo Sung is likeable enough, but I felt his growth was a bit too fast. I’d have liked to watch him struggle and overcome challenges for a bit longer. However, he’s relatively powerful, relatively early on and from then on defeats almost all enemies with ease.
In later parts Solo Leveling also focuses more on other characters who are all interesting and a lot of fun in their own right. It also helps to expand the story and the world. Still, most of the time those characters are there to struggle against monsters before Jin-Woo comes in to save the day.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with this. Solo Leveling is fun, the art is fantastic, and the action is incredible. The plot, however, as of now at least, is pretty standard. If Solo Leveling is one thing, it’s fun and definitely among the best, if not the best power-fantasy series out there.
Fuan no Tane is an anthology of very short horror stories, never more than a few pages long.
It stands out among other horror manga by focusing entirely on being scary and creepy.
There’s no plot in Fuan no Tane. It’s a collection of creepy incidents involving ghosts or supernatural entities. Each chapter of the manga contains a few of these incidents, all centered on a specific theme. It might be a location, such as a school or a hospital, or a concept such as uninvited guests.
At first, it might appear strange that there’s no plot, but that’s also what makes Fuan no Tane work so great and one of the best manga at what it does.
It doesn’t waste any time on introducing characters, setting the scene or giving us a plot. Instead, we go right to the creepiness. That’s how it keeps up the scariness and creepiness factor all throughout without taking a step back.
The art in this manga is good and the unique, more sketchy style helps to underline the creepy moments, but it’s not outstanding as the art in some of the best manga in terms of art on this list.
Overall, Fuan no Tane is a special type of horror manga one that not everyone will like or enjoy. It’s the fact that the writer didn’t bother with a plot that might alienate some readers or make them downright frustrated.
If you’re, however, looking only for glimpses, only brief incidents or scenes of scares and creepiness, then this one’s for you.
Tsutomu Nihei is one of my favorite mangaka of all time.
Knights of Sidonia is his longest series to date and can be best described as a mecha-space manga. While it diverts from his usual style of storytelling, it still features his outstanding art and complex world-design. However, Knights of Sidonia feels more mainstream-friendly than his older series.
However, I still think Knights of Sidonia is one of the best manga in the science-fiction and space genre.
It’s the story of the titular spaceship Sidonia and a young man named Nagate Tanikaze.
The Sidonia fled into space after earth was destroyed by powerful aliens known as Gauna who are still in pursuit of the Sidonia, relentlessly attacking it.
Nagate Tanikaze has been living most of his life in the depths of the ship without contact to any other human beings. One day, however, he finds his way to the populated portions of the ship.
Because of his natural talent as a fighter pilot, he quickly becomes the pilot of one of the Gardes, giant mechs designed to fight the Gauna.
The first thing one notices about Knights of Sidonia is, like I mentioned before, that it’s more mainstream than his other series.
Blame!, Biomega, and many of his other works had been dark, gloomy, gritty and quiet.
Not so Knights of Sidonia, at least not overall. We still got the gritty, dark atmosphere when the stories about fighting the Gauna. However, there’re chapters in-between featuring more conventional storytelling. We’ve got normal conversations, people hanging out, joking around, falling in love and much more.
However, Knights of Sidonia still feels like a Nihei manga. We’re still presented with his grand architecture, the mega structures, the fascinating alien Gauna, and later on entities that remind us of the cyborgs in Blame! It’s because of these elements I consider Knights of Sidonia one of the best manga, especially in terms of art.
Of course, Knights of Sidonia is still a seinen series. While it has lighter elements, death is still an everyday occurrence and so are destruction and danger.
The biggest problem I have with Knights of Sidonia is the ending. Without spoiling too much, I felt Nihei wrapped things up in a too-happy and even somewhat cheesy way.
However, while I was a bit disappointed by the ending, the rest of the manga is still one of the best manga and space operas out there, especially in more recent years.
If you’re a fan of space manga, definitely check out Knights of Sidonia.
Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo is one of the most popular and influential manga of all time, spawning not only the Japanese cyberpunk subgenre but also one of the most influential anime of all time.
Many people hold the manga in very high regard and think of it as one of the best manga of all time.
Akira is set in the city of Neo Tokyo which was erected on the ruins of Tokyo after it was destroyed in 1988 by a mysterious explosion. Neo Tokyo is your typical dystopian cyberpunk hell that fuses future technology and giant skyscrapers with biker gangs, poverty and revolutionaries.
Our protagonists are Tetsuo Shima and Soutarou Kaneda, two bikers who are best friends and bitter rivals. When Tetsuo tries to pull a desperate stunt to prove he’s Kaneda’s equal, he sets in motion the awakening of Akira, a secret government project.
At the core Akira is a story about government conspiracies, secret experiments and megalomania.
The greatest point about Akira and what makes it one of the best manga is undoubtedly the art. While the character design is great, but where it truly shines is in the depiction of the shady dystopia that is Neo Tokyo. The dirty corners, the cracks in buildings and streets and even the rubble are all rendered in Katsuhiro Otomo’s unique and insanely detailed art-style. It’s a marvel to look at.
Especially in later parts, when the story turns into a full-blown apocalypse, the destruction is presented to us in glorious detail.
While the character design in Akira is great, the characters leave things to be desired and appear almost as arch-types than actual characters.
Kaneda is a badass biker boy and our protagonist, while Tetsuo is an edgy youth with anger problems who desperately wants to be at the top.
Of the two, Tetsuo is clearly the more interesting though. Especially in earlier chapters, he comes up as a scary, almost chilling character, while he remains somewhat tragic and even sympathetic.
Another problem is the story. It’s more style than anything. Don’t get me wrong, I love the clashes of psychic powers, the destruction of the city and everything that’s happening. Yet, powers are never clearly established. This is especially prevalent in later chapters when Akira dissolves into a power struggle between psychic superhumans.
I enjoyed the earlier volumes of Akira the most. It’s here that the story focuses more on biker gangs, drug orgies, and government conspiracies. This is also where the dystopian setting with all its cyberpunk elements truly shines.
Did the aforementioned flaws ruin Akira for me? Not in the slightest. Having read Katsuhiro Otomo’s other work Domu – A Child’s Drea and having watched the movie version of Akira, I didn’t expect it to be a piece of hard science-fiction. I knew powers would most likely be unexplained and not be set in stone. What I came for was the outstanding art, the setting, and a storyline about a crazy megalomaniac. And that’s exactly what I got.
Does Akira live up to the hype it so often gets and the high ratings it receives? Yes and no. Akira had a massive influence on the manga and anime genre. Yet, as with other works pivotal to subgenres or movements, they rarely live up to their reputation.
However, at least in terms of arts and setting, Akira holds up. It’s still beautiful and one of the best and most detailed manga of all time. If you can ignore the lackluster plot and the almost one-dimensional characters, you fill find some of the greatest art and one of the best cyberpunk dystopias in the entire medium.
Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida might be one of the weirdest manga I’ve ever read. It’s set in such a dark, grim and brutal world, yet it’s full of humor.
It’s a surreal tale set in the city of Hole, which is connected to the Sorcerer’s World, a world populated by magic users. Because of this connection, the city of Hole has become a testing ground for magic users who visit it and test their powers on the city’s denizens.
Murders, mutilations, transformations and other atrocities are a daily reality for the people of Hole.
But there’s Kaiman, an amnesiac with the head of a reptilian who’s immune to magic. Believing himself to be another victim of magic users, he goes after them relentlessly to figure out who he really is and what happened to him. In his quest, he’s helped by his female friend Nikaidou.
The premise of the story is already weird enough, but it only serves to get weirder and more surreal as the story goes on.
However, as grim and dark as the story appears, it mixes death and carnage with comedy and lightheartedness into a whole that just works. It’s this odd dualism that made Dorohedoro unlike anything I’ve read and elevates it to one of the best manga.
Yet, there’re more reasons to praise Dorohedoro. One of them is the art. It’s both outlandish and absolutely gorgeous. Both the run-down, decrepit city of Hole as well as the weird surrealism of the Sorcerer’s World are rendered in gorgeous detail.
The same is true for our cast of characters. On one side we have the transformed and disfigured inhabitants of Hole and on the other side the outlandish characters who populate the Sorcerer’s World.
What’s interesting is that no side is painted as good or evil. Both are simply there, in a morally gray mush, and all the characters are equally likeable and unique.
In the beginning the story centers on Kaiman and his quest, but the more we learn, the more we learn about an overall plot that connects Kaiman, the city of Hole and the Sorcerer’s World. Describing this plot and the world of Dorohedoro is a thing that’s almost impossible because of the sheer creativity and originality that went into it.
While Dorohedoro has a lighthearted, surreal and at times humorous atmosphere to it, it still doesn’t shy away from gore and blood. The further the story continues and the more outlandish it becomes, the more brutal and horrific the events featured are.
Overall, Dorohedoro is one of the most unique, original and best manga I’ve read. However, one gets the feeling that it’s often weird for weirdness’ sake and that the story is complicated for complication’s sake.
Dorohedoro is a manga that anyone should check out. Be warned though, it can be quite heavy on gore and even though its goriness is hidden behind a curtain of humor, it’s not for the faint of heart.
Still, it’s one of the best manga of all time and a series that anyone interested in horror, weird and surreal manga should check out.
Shigurui by Noria Nanjou and Takayuki Yamaguchi is one of the most brutal and best manga in the samurai genre.
It starts with the proclamation of the twisted daimyo Tadanaga Tokugawa to hold a martial arts competition with real swords featuring fights to the death.
The manga starts with the first fight which pits a one-armed man, Gennosuke Fujiki, against the blind and lame Seigen Irako. However, we don’t see the result of their fight just yet, instead, the entire manga features on the backstory of our two contestants.
The high point of the manga is the art. Shigurui looks fantastic and renders its gore and brutality in beautiful detail. Throughout the entire run of the manga, the art is outstanding. Characters, backgrounds and even nature are a joy to look at.
What makes Shigurui stand out as one of the best manga is not only the art, but the very real depiction of how brutal and unforgiving samurai culture really was. In other media, it’s often romanticized and depicted as honorable. Shigurui, though, doesn’t shy away from showing that it was in essence despicable and the cause of many lost lives.
What’s interesting to see is that Shigurui makes no clear distinction between protagonist and antagonist. Instead, the author focuses on the flaws of both characters and on the unforgiving nature of samurai culture.
The women in this manga are treated terribly. They are almost always abused and become nothing more than simple attachments to samurai to be exploited as seen fit. This is most evident in the characters of Lady Iku and Mie Iwamoto.
The entire story of this manga is overshadowed by a general atmosphere of depression. There’s nothing good here, there’s only the sword and the life it forces people into. It’s one of servitude and obedience shrouded in the guise of honor.
Shigurui is a manga that’s less plot driven and more character driven. It showcases our protagonists’ lives and their quest for revenge.
However, here the problems start. Things become a bit tedious later on, and the manga dragged on a bit too much.
There’s also an entire arc about two characters that have no relation to our protagonists that’ brought to no resolution. This, however, is because the manga’s based on a novel about the tournament held by Tadanaga Tokugawa. The novel itself features all the fights and backstories of the contestants. One has to wonder if the manga was cut short and was originally going to feature the entire tournament.
This might also explain the ending. While I thought the manga ended perfectly and conveyed its overall themes satisfactorily, one can’t help but feel that it was a bit rushed.
Overall, Shigurui is a fantastic, brutal story, featuring two great characters and giving us a realistic and unforgiving look at samurai culture without glamorizing it.
To me, Shigurui is one of the best manga of all time and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s interested in samurai manga and brutal fights. A word of warning though, this manga is not for the faint of heart and its story is as tragic as it is depressing.
Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima is one of the oldest manga on this list, but also one of the best and most influential manga ever created. This samurai manga is rightfully considered a classic of the medium.
Lone Wolf and Cub details the life of Ittou Ogami, who was once the Shogunate’s chief executioner. His life was ruined when he was framed for treason by the Yagyuu Clan to steal his position. Being forced to flee with his young son, he travels as an assassin for hire and thus they become known as Lone Wolf and Cub.
In the beginning the manga is told in episodic fashion featuring the different assassinations Ittou Ogami carries out. As the manga continues, we soon learn more about our protagonist, about his back story and that his travels serve one purpose and one purpose alone, to get revenge against the Yagyuu Clan.
What makes Lone Wolf and Cub one of the best manga is not only the overall plot, but that each of the individual, episodic stories stand their ground. They are conveying depth and emotion rarely found in other, much longer works.
Being from the 70s, the art of the manga might appear old-fashioned, but it’s still excellent done. It’s simple, yet gritty and realistic, giving it a unique style that’s very fitting for a traditional samurai story.
What stands out the most, however, are the action sequences. They are incredibly well done and look fantastic even today, making this one of the best manga in terms of sword fights.
What I also really enjoyed was the character of Ittou Ogami. While he might appear as a hardened assassin, almost like a demon, he’s shown as a father who cares deeply for his son. It was this dualism and the many other nuances we witnessed about him that showed me just how complex and multi-layered a character he was.
Overall, Lone Wolf and Cub might not be everyone’s cup of tea. The style is old-fashioned and the overall story and presentation are done realistically. It isn’t as flash as other samurai manga, and the art, while well done, is also simpler than that in modern manga.
Still, it’s without a doubt one of the best manga of all time and worth checking out for any fans of traditional Japanese stories and samurai manga.
I mentioned before that I’m usually not a big fan of comedy manga, but Gokushufudou by Kousuke Oono is pure gold.
It’s the story of Tatsu who was formerly known as Immortal Tatsu, a legendary yakuza who retired from his position and become a househusband.
Now, of course, mundane household tasks have their very own challenge, but that’s not all there is to Gokushufudou.
The entire manga is drawn and presented to us with the intensity of a usual crime or battle manga. Buying vegetables for dinner at a bargain is drawn with a suspense and tension usually reserved for life and death situations. Meeting old rivals is shown as a dramatic clash that might explode into violence only for them to engage in a cooking challenge and see who can garner more likes on Instagram.
I think the art is absolutely perfect and makes this one of the best manga coming out in recent years. Showing normal, mundane tasks and a daily household routine in such a suspenseful and over-the-top way is absolute genius. More so than that, the art is clean, well drawn and often beautiful.
There characters are fun and of course as ridiculously overdrawn as you’d expect them to be in a comedy manga. We run into various characters from Tatsu’s past, who are all similar to him and are trying to make an honest living. But whenever Tatsu meets any of them, it’s always depicted as if they were still out in the streets.
Gokushufudou is without a doubt one of the funniest manga I’ve ever read, and the fantastic art style helps so much to make this manga utterly ridiculous.
I highly recommend Gokushufudou to anyone who wants to have some good laughs and witness some incredibly stupid situations. It’s truly one of the best manga in the comedy genre of all time.
Ah yes, Ichi the Killer by Hideo Yamamoto, one of the most graphicl and most disturbing manga of all time. However, it’s also one of the best manga I’ve ever read.
Hideo Yamamoto has outdone himself. While he did some strange work before, Ichi the Killer is a story in which almost every single character is batshit insane.
Ichi the Killer is the story of the titular killer named Ichi, an ominous figure who always kills his victims brutally. His adversary is Kakihara, a deranged yakuza. After Kakihara’s boss vanishes, all hell breaks loose as he tries to find his boss. Once he figured out what happened to him, he searches for Ichi himself. This eventually leads to a confrontation between the two.
As I mentioned, Ichi the Killer is a mature and graphical manga. It features violence, torture, sexual abuse, rape and murder. To say this is not for the faint of heart might be an understatement.
But Ich the Killer is no mere gore feast, it’s a psychological story that explores various themes, making it one of the best manga of all time.
The most predominate one is that of sadism and masochism. Other themes include identity disorder, childhood abuse, manipulation and much, much more. All of those are mixed into one of the most deranged manga of all time.
But that’s what makes Ichi the Killer work. Ichi doesn’t filter. It shows us the deepest depth of human depravity and the darkest underbelly of society.
I really enjoyed Ichi the Killer. For both, it’s raw depiction of violence, for the over-the-top and insane characters, but also for its story and the many deeper themes. There are quite a few twists and turns as we continue to explore our two protagonists deeper. Especially Ichi is a vastly more complex character than we’d have ever thought.
The art in Ichi the Killer is somewhat simplistic, but unique. It often comes with overdrawn facial expressions that show the mental state of characters. It also features its violence in glorious detail.
The protagonists, Ichi and Kakihara, who are the driving force behind the manga couldn’t be more different. The two of them are almost polar opposites. Which helps to make the manga even more interesting than it already is.
We already talked about the violence which can be a bit much and even if there’s a reason for it, certain scenes can be rough. Another flaw is that a few details about the plot are left unexplained or are a bit unrealistic. It didn’t deter from the manga’s enjoyment, though.
Overall, Ichi the Killer is a mature manga that features quite a few disturbing scenes, but it’s also one of the best manga out there. If one’s up for a more disturbing and depraved story ripe with graphical content, Ichi is at its core an amazing, psychological, thriller manga.
Kingdom by Yasuhisa Hara is one of the most popular and highest rated historical and military manga out there.
Having heard about it for so long, I finally read it last year and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. By now, I consider it one of the best manga of all time.
Kingdom is set in the Warring States era of China and aims to detail the unification of China under the state of Qin.
Our protagonist is Shin, a young servant boy who becomes entangled in the matters of state during a rebellion against the soon-to-be king of Qin, Ei Sei.
From here on out, Shin sets out to become a Great General under the Heavens and help Ei Sei to fulfill his dream of unifying China.
Kingdom is a manga that aims to encompass a scope that’s almost unfathomable, and it shows in its sheer length. At over 600 chapters, the manga is still far from being done.
The focus of Kingdom is on the large-scale battles that took time during the Warring States era and it shows them in incredible detail.
We are treated to large-scale battles between armies numbering in the tenth or even hundreds of thousands. What makes Kingdom so great, though, is its showcasing of tactics and strategies. The manga does extremely well detailing the various engagements, tactics deployed, strategic finesse used and isn’t shy to show to overall brutality of the battles.
However, there’s another important plot happening, one that details the events at the court of Qin. It’s a power struggle between Ei Sei and Ryo Fui, the Chancellor of State who aims for the throne himself. While I enjoyed the immense battles in Kingdom, I grew to absolutely love the matters of state with its intrigues.
Kingdom also showcases, especially in later parts, the pivotal events happening in different states.
Overall, the scope of this manga is as grand as it gets, and the story and plot are told fantastically. For this alone, it’s well fitting for this list of the best manga of all time.
The art in Kingdom starts out merely average. Especially during the first arc, I thought it was decent enough, but not outstanding. However, this changes in later parts. The large scale engagements are rendered in stunning detail. Another thing is the giant, walled cities of ancient China who are absolutely impressive and a marvel to look at.
For characters, the manga features a large cast of diverse characters and some who are outstanding like Ei Sei, Ryo Fui, General Ou Ki and Riboku.
But that’s also where the bad parts of Kingdom start, with our protagonist Shin. He used to be a servant boy, raised together with another boy named Ri Hyou. The two of them had the dream of becoming the greatest generals in China and had countless sparring matches together.
This, and his natural talent, somehow made a young servant boy a force to be reckoned with. During the first arc, Shin can not only defeat hardened swordsman but also trained assassins.
This theme continues throughout the entire manga and Shin shows a level of martial prowess that’s, frankly said, unrealistic. He’s always at the center of the battle, always throwing himself into the fray, cutting through tens if not hundreds of enemies.
Another thing I didn’t enjoy about Shin was his clichéd characterization. He’s a young hothead who’s not smart and aims for the top because it’s the top. However, during the entire course of the manga, he’s always recognized by those amazing characters we encounter. It all feels a bit forced.
However, while Shin is the protagonist, the focus of Kingdom is clearly on the overall plot, the large-scale battles and the politics. Of course, we witness many of the battles from Shin’s point of view, or at least in large parts. The focus, however, is always on the overall battle.
Another thing I have to criticize are the first few arcs. They are, at least in my opinion, the worst part of the manga. It’s during the very first arc, the Sei Kyo Rebellion arc, in which Shin’s faults are most glaring. It’s also here that the story, while interesting, feels more like a shonen manga.
All this changes when we enter the very first, large scale battle and when Chancellor Ryo Fui appears at court.
Kingdom, while a historical manga, takes some liberties, however, this shouldn’t surprise anyone.
However, the problems outlined are mostly minor, and I enjoyed the bigger, overarching plot tremendously. If you decide to pick up Kingdom, you want to read on until the very first large scale battle. Those are what truly make Kingdom interesting and make it one of the best manga of all time.
The world of illegal money lending is a dark, dark place. In the world of Yamikin Ushijima-kun by Manabe Shouhei people get used, betrayed, tortured and even lose their life. This manga is dark, and it’s twisted. However, at times I enjoy stories that are darker and I think Yamikin Ushijima is as good as it gets. That’s why I believe it’s one of the best manga of all time.
Our protagonist Kaoru Ushijima is a money lender offering cash loans with an interest rate of fifty percent to be paid back within ten days. Who would take such an outrageous loan? As it turns out, there are quite a few people. It’s the dregs of society, those who are drowning in debt, or who gave into their various vices.
The story follows the antics of Ushijima as he makes sure people pay him back and take from them all they have. Ushijima isn’t shy to use prostitution, identity theft or extortion and even sets the occasional example for those who think they can get away without paying.
Yamikin Ushijima-kun is, mostly, a realistic, grounded story that shows us the worst of the worst. It’s showing just how deep you can fall and in how much trouble you can get. The dangers in this manga aren’t coming from monsters or killers, but from your own mistakes and your own desperation.
You seldom find hope in this manga. Most of the episodic stories end with characters in the worst place possible after having all their money taken from them. Still, there are a few glimmers of hope that might feel out of place in this manga, but that makes the experience even better.
Still, most of the stories can be described as tragedies, as misery and trouble pilling up on people until there’s no way out.
However, Ushijima isn’t the only scum out there, and in the manga’s course we get to know people who are far worse.
Yet, what makes it so much worse, is the realism of the tale. Making mistakes in life, accumulating debt or having terrible luck are a reality in our world and so are people who prey on the weak.
Yamikin Ushijima-kun is a manga that’s meant to be unpleasant. It showcases the dark underbelly of society and does so in a fascinating way. It’s this focus on the dark sides of society that make this one of the best manga out there.
Manabe Shouhei’s art is different and unique. It’s not as refined as other manga and can be best described as gritty and almost dirty. But for this type of manga, it’s more than fitting. It helps to set the tone. This is not a pleasant world, not a clean world, no, this is a dark, gritty and dirty world.
As in Manabe Shouhei’s other manga, the characters are unique, but aren’t necessarily the nicest to look at. But once more this helps to set the tone. Overall, the art serves to keep the manga grounded in reality.
As for characters, there’s seldom anyone who’s likeable. Ushijima isn’t a good guy, he’s all business, taking as much money as he can. Still, often, you come to root more for him than anyone else.
Things get a bit different in later, longer arcs when the focus shifts from Ushijima to other characters and outlines their journeys in this dark world. I felt the manga got even better in those longer stories. While I enjoyed the earlier chapters immensely, it’s these longer stories that truly made Yamakin Ushijima-kun one of the best manga of all time to me.
It’s a fantastic read to tag along and see the lives of different people and uncover the reasons that will eventually bring them to Ushijima’s office.
While one’s hard pressed to feel sympathetic to most of them, there are some fates that are truly heartbreaking. But as I said before, there are also some stories that end in happier ways.
Overall, this is a fascinating and dark manga that will keep you reading and wanting to see more of the underbelly of society.
There are many crime manga out there, but I feel none portray it just like Yamakin Ushijima-kun. While it can occasionally be more sensational than realistic, it’s still one of the best manga out there.
Gantz by Hiroya Oku is insane, but that’s also the reason I love it so much.
The manga tells the story of Kei Kurono. One day he and his childhood friend Kato die in a tragic train accident when trying to save a homeless man. Following this accident, the two of them awake in a Tokyo apartment in which a group of other people, as clueless as them, have gathered. The center of the room is taken up by a black sphere called Gantz. It explains to them it’s their job to hunt down aliens living among humans. Soon after, they get teleported to a different location and the first of many brutal alien hunts begins.
Gantz is another longer manga with almost 400 chapters, but it’s well worth the investment. It’s also a story high on action and, at least most of the time, low on dialogue. This makes Gantz, for its length, a relatively short read.
At its core, Gantz is a brutal, gritty series about people hunting aliens, presented to us in fluid action and glorified gore. And Gantz that’s what makes Gantz one of the best manga of all time. The alien hunts and the action, especially in later parts when the scale and the danger keep increasing.
One of the major reasons Gantz stands out among many other, similar action-oriented manga is not only the weirdness of the premise but also the amazing art. Characters are drawn detailed and all have their own style. The aliens, too, are unique and their design is fantastic.
Gantz is full of action and battles, and each one of those is drawn and illustrated amazingly. The action is fluid; the violence is brutal, and the enemies aren’t just cannon fodder. No, it’s almost always the opposite. It’s the people who are sent to hunt them down who are the cannon fodder. Death is normal in Gantz, and not just for the peculiar rival in Gantz room.
Another thing I really loved about Gantz were the characters. First and foremost, I like to mention Kurono. He starts out as an unlikeable, egoistic teenager that almost anyone will hate. Over the course of the story, though, he shows tremendous character development and changes into an entirely different reason. It’s a delight to see Kurono grow gradually and eventually become the leader of the Gantz team. Whenever I think about Gantz as one of the best manga of all time, Kurono’s character is one of the first things that comes to my mind.
Many of the other supporting characters are cool and unique and quite a few of them have their own special traits, way of fighting and powers.
However, Gantz isn’t free from problems. As much as I consider Gantz as one of the best manga of all time, I have to admit that it also has some serious flaws.
Gantz is a long manga, and I felt that Hiroya Oku loves to experiment with things and loves to add new things to his manga. The problem is that some of these things are left hanging. There’s an entire subplot about vampires who conflict with the Gantz team. For a while they are quite significant to the story, that’s until they aren’t and the entire plot point is dropped.
Another reason is the portrayal of the world in Gantz. While one expects the missions to be brutal, dark and unforgiving, the normal world in Gantz isn’t much better. We’re experiencing severe bullying, rape, brutal violence and in later parts even a mass shooting.
The most problematic thing to me, however, was the last mission and specifically the ending. I felt like things weren’t really planned out anymore and the author just came up with the story on the fly. Things turned very weird near the end, even for Gantz, with no proper explanation to what was going on. After that, the manga was brought to a close with a rushed final. I kind of understand what the writer wanted to go for, but it was all a bit too strange and happened too fast.
Overall though, Gantz is an amazing manga. It’s a weird, insane, brutal and gory mess that has some of the most exceptional action scenes I’ve ever seen in manga. It also features some of the coolest, most interesting monster design. Even though the plot can get a bit out of hand and sometimes makes no actual sense, I still consider Gantz one of the best manga of all time. At its core, Gantz is a series about people hunting down aliens, and that’s where the series is at its absolute best.
Liar Game by Shinobu Kaitani is my favorite mind game and psychological manga of all time, and I also consider it one of the best manga ever written.
It’s the story of an honest girl named Kanzaki Nao who becomes a contestant in the Liar Game, a game with stakes in the hundreds of million of yen. The goal of the game is to deceive or trick your opponent and steal their money.
Kanzaki gets promptly tricked and loses all her money. Upon hearing that a genius swindler, Shinichi Akiyama, is being released from prison, she sets out to enlist his help. After initially rejecting her request, he helps her. As it turns out, though, this was only the very first round of the Liar Game.
Liar game is so good because of the various different games. While they are simple in the beginning, things soon get much more interesting. Liar Game truly comes to shine in its later, longer arcs.
This is probably the best manga for anyone who’s looking for intelligent and clever mind games and psychological tricks.
What’s even more interesting than the games themselves is how well they are constructed. Even better than those are the various tricks and strategies employed by our protagonists. It’s a delight to watch them out-play and trick each other with nothing but the force of their mind.
The art in Liar Game is serviceable, but not outstanding. The locations and games, however, are nicely designed and the character all look unique.
One thing to notice though is the over-exaggerated reactions and emotions of characters. It feels unnatural and over the top.
Characters, apart from the protagonists, are often uninspiring and almost caricatures of themselves, only there to represent a certain character type. Most of the time they are rather simple and no match for Akiyama. That’s until we get to know some more clever adversaries like Yokoya or Harimoto. When they show up, Liar Game becomes so much more interesting and the games reach a new level of suspense and tension. The games featuring those characters are absolutely outstanding and solidified Liar Game as one of the best manga I ever read.
At times, though, Liar Game has some troubles, most of all with its many side characters. They aren’t just simple, but often act like utter idiots. Their reactions are often overdrawn to the extreme and panels with all of them gawking at Akiyama with wide mouths almost become the norm.
Another thing that might alienate some readers are the explanations of the games which can become a bit drawn out and overly complex.
There’s also the ending, which I thought was a bit simple and anti-climatic. It almost felt like the manga was cut short.
Overall, I had an absolute blast with Liar Game. While some earlier games are easy to grasp, things turned truly good when it was time for the Contraband Game. It was here that so many twists, turns and new strategies were introduced, my mind was blown.
Liar Game is truly one of the most thrilling and best manga out there.
Bokutachi ga Yarmashita was a manga I found when I had a look at the other works of Kaneshiro Muneyuki. At first I didn’t know what to think about it, but as I read on it turned out to be one of the darkest and best manga, I’ve ever read.
The manga is the story of Tobio Masubuchi and his three best friends Isami, Maru and Paisen. They spend most of their days leading an average, undisturbed life. One day, they get into trouble with some delinquents from a neighboring school. After Maru is beaten up, they decide to take revenge.
Once they’ve decided what to do, they put their plan into motion. What was meant to be a prank, however, turns into deadly reality. As a result, their normal, mundane lives end.
Bokutachi ga Yarimashita is a fantastic psychological manga bout guilt and redemption. It’s also one of the darkest, yet most realistic manga I ever read. There’s just this dark, gloomy and depressing atmosphere hanging over the entire work.
It was one of the most unique experiences I had in manga. There was an underlying tension throughout the whole manga that makes you uncomfortable on a deeply personal level.
The storytelling in this manga succeeds on every level. The pacing is fantastic, the plot is great and keeps you engaged from beginning to end.
In terms of art, this manga is pretty good, but I feel it’s fantastic and unique with facial expressions and using them to showcase the emotional state of characters.
However, it’s not the art that makes this one of the best manga of all time. The best part about it is without a doubt the characters. The entire story of this manga is driven by characters. These characters aren’t heroes, but are realistic and normal day people. If you want to go further, they are weak, immature and materialistic, the type who doesn’t think about the consequences of their actions.
It’s those people who somehow have to handle the situation they’ve got themselves in, and we can see the toll it takes on them.
While the characters are interesting and realistic, they aren’t necessarily likeable or sympathetic. However, I felt that’s not what Kaneshiro Muneyuki had in mind. No, he wanted to present to us with normal people.
The manga toys not only with the concepts of guilt and redemption, but also friendship, sanity, love and life itself.
There’s also no magic ending here. As with real life, people have to live with the consequence of their actions and some do better while others do worse.
Overall, Bokutatchi ga Yarimashita is a fantastic, dark, suspenseful and psychological manga. Reading this was an experience like any other, but it presented me with a deep look into the human psyche. It’s clearly one of my best reads last year and one of the best manga of all time.
Homunculus is another manga by Hideo Yamamoto, so you know what you’re in for. It’s not as brutal and disturbing as Ichi the Killer, but it’s way, way weirder.
It’s the story of a young man, Susumu Nakoshi, who lives as a homeless man in his car. He encounters a young medical student, Manabu Ito, who’s doing research about the process of trepanation, the drilling of holes into the human skull. He proposes to Nakoshi that he’s looking for test subjects on which to perform trepanation.
After a while, Nakoshi agrees to undergo the procedure. Once it’s over, Nakoshi learns he can now see distorted versions of humans when looking at them with his left eye. These are the titular homunculi.
Homunculus is one of the most unique and best manga I ever read. While it starts out interesting, it becomes very strange after a while.
It’s a psychological masterpiece which deals with a variety of themes, such as vanity, trauma, identity disorder, materialism and many other things.
There’s a fair share of disturbing scenes, both violent and sexual and even more scenes that are just uncomfortable on a different, much deeper, psychological level.
Overall, the story of the manga can be best described as a slow, but steady descent into madness.
Homunculus almost feels unpredictable. Even from the outset, one has to wonder what’s going on with Nakoshi. After the trepanation, after he sees visions, the manga appears more a character study than to follow a straight plot.
The greatest things about Homunculus are without a doubt the art and the weirdness of the story. It’s for those reasons alone that I’ll always consider it one of the best manga of all time.
The various humunculi, the symbolic representation of people’s trauma and Nakoshi’s very own madness are masterfully done.
The art can be abstract at times, disturbing at others, yet it’s always detailed and serves to brilliantly outline what’s happening.
Our two protagonists are very interesting. Nakoshi and Manabu are both complex and flawed characters. Their interactions and the things we learn about them are very interesting throughout the story. I can honestly say that neither of the two is in any way clichéd and the same holds true for any of the side characters.
However, near the end, the manga derails in a variety of ways and what felt as a controlled effort of a deeper psychological story turned into one of surreal insanity.
The biggest problem I had with Homunculus was the ending. It’s something that will stay on my mind for a long while, but I can’t say what sort of ending it was. It was, to say it in the best way, entirely ambiguous.
Overall, Homunculus is a very unique and surreal manga. It’s a psychological tale, one that presents us with some of the most complex characters, but that’s also unrestrained in its narrative.
Still, for the sheer creativity that went into it and for the psychological themes alone, I can’t think of it as anything else as one of the most surreal, yet best manga of all time. It’s absolutely worth reading.
Alice in Borderland by Haro Aso is another manga about death games and in my opinion one of the best manga the genre offers.
Our protagonist Ryohei Arisu does anything he can to avoid thinking about the future. One night when he’s hanging out with his friends Karube and Chota, they see fireworks.
After a sudden, blinding explosion, they find themselves in a different world. They are now in Borderland, a world in which people are forced to either take part in deadly games or die.
As a fan of clever death games, I knew this manga was right up my alley.
What makes this manga more interesting is that there are different types of games that vary in difficulty. Each type of game is specifically suited for different people. There are games that require intellect, while others rely more on physical fitness.
The reason I think this is probably the best manga the death game genre offers is this variety of games.
The games are throughout the board interesting and enjoyable to watch and quite brutal and unforgiving.
I really liked the art in this manga. The Borderland itself and the various game locations are all stunning to look at.
The most attention however was given to the characters. You’ll notice that all the characters look unique and are well designed. You can clearly see their emotions just from their expression.
I really enjoyed most of the characters in this manga. Arisu was a great protagonist since I thought he was rather realistic. He’s smart and resourceful, but he’s not a genius. There’s also a deep-set melancholy surrounding his character. He’s not the type to fight his enemies in ruthless fashion, and not the type who’ll keep fighting until it kills him. No, he’s a more somber character. Yet, it’s this that makes him more complex and interesting.
Most of the side character are also likeable and interesting, and almost every single one of them has their own backstory and many of them develop as characters throughout the course of the story.
The manga goes a bit out of hand in later parts when the story is told from the point of view of individual characters. While most of them are interesting, like I said, it also makes keeping up with them tougher.
The only problem I had with Alice in Borderland is the ending. I think it worked well, and there wasn’t much of a choice to do it differently. Yet, it still felt anti-climactic.
Another problem, like I mentioned before, is the number of characters introduced in the second half of the story. On one hand, it allows Haro Aso to explore how different characters handle the games, but it made the magna almost episodic.
Overall, though, those are merely minor complaints. Alice in Borderland is a probably one of the best manga for anyone who’s interested in manga about death games or general survival manga.
Freesia is another very weird, almost surreal manga. Yet, I find myself going back to it again and again because it’s one of the best manga I ever read.
It’s another manga by Jiro Matsumoto, the creator of Keep on Vibrating, so can already tell that this one’s going to be weird.
The story of Freesia is set in a dystopian Japanese society that’s at war and passed a law that legalizes retaliatory killings. Should a person you love be murdered, you are legally allowed to kill them or hire someone to do the job for you.
The manga centers on Kano, a man who specializes in these types of retaliatory killings, and the other members of his agency.
Freesia is not a pleasant story. It presents us with horrible people, insane people who are doing a job that’s not honorable.
There’s a dark, depressing feeling that lingers over this manga. Freesia’s Japan is a dark place, a gloomy place and most of all, a cruel place.
The art in Freesia is unique. It’s not pretty to look at, but it doesn’t want to be. The drawings are raw, gritty and unpolished. While the backgrounds are often detailed, faces are simplified. It brings forth an interesting contrast, one that’s very fitting for the entire story of the manga.
Freesia is a manga full of broken and damaged people, maniacs and utter madmen. It’s almost as if the writer abandoned the idea of having sane, well-adjusted people as members of his main cast.
Our protagonist Kano is insane, suffers from schizophrenia, hallucinations, delusions and memory failure.
Yet, throughout the story, Kano understands that it’s not the world, but he himself who’s crazy and tries the best to change himself. Other members of the cast suffer from similar ailments or turn out to be downright psychopathic.
Most prominent among all members of the cast are delusions and hallucinations. That’s the reason the manga appears so strange at times, and why scenes don’t seem to make much sense until we understand what’s really going on.
The manga’s premise makes it sound like it’s about the act of retaliatory killings, yet it focuses more on the personal stories of our main cast and the people they are tasked to kill. This can make Freesia somewhat episodic, but the mangaka can give us solid backstories and motifs for the targets of retaliatory killings. It makes them sympathetic, makes us feel and care for them. This makes many of the killings tragedies in their own right. This unique way of presenting them to us elevates Freesia from a black and white view and makes the entire manga nothing but a morally gray mush. This is one of the reason I consider Freesia to be so good and why I think it’s one of the best manga out there.
Freesia is set in a world that’s not safe. Japan is at war, atrocities are committed daily and our cast of characters are mentally ill and some might even snap in the story’s course. This also means that the manga can be heavy in violence and gore.
However, much of the setting isn’t explained. The war is never more than a backdrop, nothing but the reason for all the misery happening in Freesia’s world.
The same is true for most of the main cast. We near learn all too much about their past, only get glimpses here and there. Yet, it’s not a big problem, as we experience the story mostly from Kano’s point of view.
Something that might be tough on people are the mental issues, delusions and hallucinations so prevalent in the series. As I mentioned before, it can be quite confusing, irritating or downright surreal.
Overall, Freesia is a manga that’s not for everyone. It’s a dark, gloomy and depressing world, populated by people who suffer from various mental issues. However, that’s what makes Freesia such an interesting and unique read. The portrayal of Kano and his delusions and hallucinations make Freesia a truly surreal experience and one of the best manga out there. I’d recommend Freesia to anyone who’s looking for a dark and surreal story.
I mentioned before that I’m a big fan of manga about death games and Kamisama no Iutoori by Kaneshiro Muneyuki and its sequel are as good as it gets. It’s also really weird.
It’s one of my favorite manga of all time and I think it’s also one of the best manga ever.
The story starts with Takahata Shun, a normal high school student who’s utterly bored with his life. All that changes when his teacher’s head explodes and a Daruma doll appears. This strange event is only the outset of the very first death game in this manga.
As the series continued, we’re introduced to other interesting and often very odd games and some unique and fascinating characters.
The sequel series starts off with a new set of characters, but eventually ties in with the story of the first part.
What I enjoyed about this manga was that it wasn’t shy in killing of characters. Many times a new character is introduced or their backstory is revealed only for them to die soon after. No one is truly safe in the world of Kamisama no Iutoori.
One of the strongest points of the series are its protagonists. I came to like all of them, and especially the more deranged members of our cast. It’s these characters that cemented Kamisama no Iutoori as one of the best manga of all time.
Some of the characters also develop vastly over the course of the series. The most notable one is Ushimitsu who became my favorite character in the entire series.
The games throughout the entire series are often simple, but their execution is as weird as it is enjoyable. While other manga about death and mind games feature mostly realistic games, Kamisama no Iutoori’s games are almost surreal. What’s interesting is that many of the games have some sort of twist. There’s always a certain way on how to win them that our cast has to figure out over its course.
In the first part the art by Akeji Fujimura might not be that great, but in the second part of the series it becomes much better. Especially, the later parts of the series are absolutely gorgeous with some pages and spreads who are absolutely gorgeous.
I also love how the artist can create suspense only with the art. This has created one of the best manga chapters of all time, in which Shun Takahata’s plotline is brought to an end.
The second part of the series is much longer than the first one. This also means that there’s more time spent on the individual games, which is a fantastic thing, but sometimes things can drag on a little.
One thing I often hear criticised about the series is its ending. I think it’s one of those you either like or hate; I loved it.
Overall, I had an absolute blast with this series and enjoyed it immensely. It’s without a doubt one of my favorite manga of all time and one of the best manga ever.
When it comes to horror Junji Ito is my favorite mangaka of all time, and his horror collection is probably one of the best works of Japanese horror ever.
Ito’s horror collection comprises terrifying one-shots, but also includes one of his most celebrated works, Tomie, and an adaption of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. If you want to know more about Junji It’s work, you can check out my article on my favorite Junji Ito stories.
Tomie is the story of a high school student who was murdered and her body dismembered. However, this is only where the story starts. The next day, Tomie shows up to class as if nothing happened. We soon learn the true horror of Tomie. She can regenerate from any injury and replicate herself from even the smallest part. As if that’s not enough, she’s of entrancing beauty that drives any man to a senseless obsession over her that ultimately drives them mad.
Tomie is told in episodic fashion with each story featuring a different set of characters. The most interesting part here is that Tomie is never the protagonist. She’s always the enigma of the story.
There’s a plethora of other fantastic stories to be found in Junji Ito’s Horror Collection. There’s Lingering Farewell, Long Dream, My Dear Ancestors, The Lovesick Dead, Town Without Streets and my personal favorite Hanging Balloons.
What makes Ito’s work stand out so much is his unique, beautiful art style. He’s a master of the craft and a master of horror who’s created some of the best manga in the horror genre.
His stories are ripe with gruesome imagery, violence and gore. Body horror is a common theme in his work and people are distorted, twisted and changed into ghastly abominations. Yet, Ito’s horror truly shines in the reactions of his characters, their faces. We can see their wide eyes, their terrified expressions, their screaming, distorted faces are all rendered in fantastic detail.
Ito’s also a master of the page turn. He often ends a page with a character’s expression of sheer and utter terror, but only reveals the cause on the next page. It’s famous for these mini-cliffhangers.
Many of Ito’s stories feature people being driven mad, giving into their desires and obsessions or toying with things beyond their understanding.
What’s interesting about Ito’s characters is that they aren’t heroes. They are often mundane nobodies, going about their normal life before they stumble into horrific situations. Yet, Ito’s horror is seldom about monsters or killers. Most of his work features normal, mundane things like dreams, love, hair or even musical records who are turned into deadly enigmas.
Overall, I think Junji Ito’s one of the best, if not the best Japanese horror mangaka. If you are a fan of horror and want to experience the best manga in the horror genre, check out the works of Junji Ito.
There are sometimes short little tales containing a glance of absolute brilliance. Omoide Emanon by Kenji Tsuruta is one such tale and one of the best manga of all time. It’s a short, but beautiful little tale based on the novel by Shinji Kajio.
It’s the story of a young man who’s returning home from his travels on a ferry. He encounters a beautiful young woman who introduces her as Emanon. The two of them talk and have dinner together.
During dinner, she tells him an unbelievable story about herself.
I don’t know what makes this manga so special. There’s the atmosphere. It’s a warm, solemn atmosphere that’s so prevalent in the entire tale. Maybe it’s the way our two protagonists meet, or the reason the young man returns home. It all fits together perfectly.
Omoide Emanon is beautifully illustrated, presenting us with realistic characters and paints a beautiful picture of a beautiful story. Especially Emanon stands out, she’s rendered in beautiful detail, is a very charismatic, yet somewhat ominous character. The author could capture her perfectly while painting a realistic image of her.
What makes Omoide Emanon one of the best manga out there are the emotions it packs into its short, single volume. It had more of an impact on me than many other, longer manga.
It’s merely a glimpse into the life of our two characters, nothing but a chance meeting.
However, at times, it’s the smallest of things that stay on our mind the longest, and if you read Omoide Emanon, it might become one of these things.
Onanie Master Kurosawa or Masturbation Master Kurosawa by Katsura Ise and Takuma Yokota is a manga that has no reason to be as good as it is with a title like that. Yet, I consider it one of the best manga I read.
I first learned of this manga’s existence on an image board, and from the title I thought I had it all figured out. This was going to be nothing but a big, perverted joke. Being intrigued by the weird title and what I heard about it, I read it. Before long I noticed that I’d been entirely wrong and Onanie Master Kurosawa was one of the greatest and most heartfelt stories I’d ever read.
Our protagonist is the fourteen-year-old Kakeru Kurosawa. He’s an anti-social loner with a peculiar habit. Each day, after school’s over, he locks himself into a seldom-used bathroom at school and masturbates.
One day, he witnesses two of the popular girls in class bullying the timid and mousy Aya Kitahara. While he’s usually not riled up over such matters, he takes retribution into his own hands, by doing what he does best.
Eventually, though, he’s confronted by Kitahara, who figured out that he’s the culprit behind. From then on, she blackmails him to do the same to her other bullies.
It’s the start of one of the strangest, yet most heartfelt coming-of-age stories.
While Onanie Master Kurosawa starts out as a more humorous tale, it gradually changes into a more serious one. It’s a sweet, inspiring story that tackles a variety of serious topics.
The art in Onanie Master Kurosawa isn’t the best, but it does a good job at showing the characters’ expressions with its sketchy style and careful shading. However, while there’s a lot of emphasis on characters, the backgrounds are often rather simple and uninspired.
The best part about this manga is without a doubt its protagonist. Kurosawa is one of the best-rounded, believable and likeable characters ever. It’s crazy, how a character who’s referred to as the Masturbation Master can be so great, but it’s true. It’s mostly attributed to his character development. He’s an entirely different person by the end of the manga.
The best thing about him, however, is how relatable he is and how intimate the reader gets to know about him, no pun intended. The manga doesn’t merely tell you what’s going on, or how he feels, but it makes you truly understand him. This intimacy between reader and protagonist elevates this to one of the best manga.
Yet, it’s not only Kurosawa who’s a well done character. Almost all the side-characters who play a bigger role are complex and realistic. While they don’t develop as much as our protagonist, they too change or we get to know more about them.
One thing that might be off-putting to some readers are the depictions of Kurosawa’s fantasies, which can be a bit disturbing, but I guess he’s just a teenager. What’s great, on the other hand, is that apart from these few scenes there’s no cheap fan service.
Overall, Onanie Master Kurosawa was one of the biggest surprises in manga. What I thought of as nothing but a perverted joke turned out to be one of the best manga ever. It’s all-around great and I urge anyone to check it out.
Biomega is another manga by Tsutomu Nihei and can be best described as a mixture of science-fiction, cyberpunk and zombie apocalypse, at least during the first half. And yes, this manga is as weird and crazy as it sounds. That’s why I love it so much and think it’s one of the best manga of all time.
Biomega tells the story of Zouichi Kanoe and his AI companion, Fuyu Kanoe, who’s integrated in his motorcycle. The story starts out when they are sent by Toha Heave Industries to retrieve a human that’s immune from the N5S virus, which is spreading rapidly across the world.
The virus changes all who’re infected by it into disfigured zombie-like beings known as drones.
From here on out, however, the story takes up steam, as more characters with different agencies are introduced, notably the DRF under leadership of Niardi.
Biomega is a manga in the typical fashion and style of Tsutomu Nihei. It’s set in a futuristic world with characters who aren’t truly human and lots of cyberpunk madness.
The art, as in other works of Nihei, is gorgeous. Biomega is raw and gritty, with wide-reaching and detailed backgrounds, crazy architecture and crazy cybernetic monstrosities. It’s this art alone that elevates Biomega to one of the best manga out there.
The creature and character design in Biomega is done fantastically. The drones are clearly biological entities, yet their lifelessness becomes clear at first sight. The many cybernetic monstrosities are rendered in stunning detail, and their transformations are incredibly well done.
The same is true for our protagonists, especially Zouichi and Nishu, who are absolute badasses. They themselves as well as their motorcycles and weapons have an incredible design. Biomega simply looks badass and cool.
What makes Biomega different from other works by Nihei is the sheer pacing of the manga, at least in the first half. The manga consists almost entirely of action, and some of it is insanely fast-paced. However, the action is still fluid, you still know what’s going on even if it’s almost a bit too over-the-top.
As typical for his works, dialogue is sparse. Biomega, like Blame!, is told via visuals. It’s almost impossible to make a division between the art and the story of Biomega. One doesn’t work without the other.
What I enjoyed the most and the reason I think Biomega is one of the best manga of all time is the sheer craziness and creativity.
However, the fast pacing and overall storyline are a double-edged sword. Things are going a bit too fast and the story gets out of hand in later parts of the manga. The second part is set in an entirely different setting, and the atmosphere of the story changes completely.
It’s this division that makes Biomega such a weird manga. While the first part reads more like a fast-paced apocalypse set in a cyberpunk world, the second half shifts more towers a cyberpunk-fantasy story.
The ending is strange too. While it brings the story to a close, it’s also so different from earlier parts that it feels like a different manga.
Overall, Biomega has its problems. The characters are somewhat shallow and the plot tries to fit too much into a manga of only six volumes.
The art and the action, however, easily make up for those weaknesses. While the story is weird and at times lackluster, it never deterred my enjoyment. No, I was stunned and consider Biomega one of the best manga out there.
I wholeheartedly recommend it to any fans of science-fiction and cyberpunk.
Smuggler is yet another manga by Manabe Shohei. It is much shorter than his two other works featured on this list, but it’s also my favorite manga of his.
Our protagonist Yosuke Kinute is a failed actor with a serious debt problem. To pay off his debt, he has to work as a smuggler and become part of a corpse disposal crew.
Of course, there’s trouble brewing when the crew gets involved in a mob war and two deadly Chinese assassins join the fold.
When Yosuke makes a serious mistake later in the manga, he’s a terrible price to pay for it.
Smuggler is absolutely amazing and one of the best manga out there in the thriller and crime genre. It also features its fair share of fantastic action.
The characters are great throughout the board. There’s of course Yosuke who’s the most relatable, and one of the few people in this entire cast who isn’t a madman.
The characters I came to like the most, however, were the assassins and the leader of the corpse disposal crew. They are all absolute badasses in their own right.
There’s even the occasional scene with subtle humor which helps to lighten the mood, but never ruins the overall feel of this being a serious story.
Smuggler can be best described as a story akin to that in movies by Tarantino or Guy Richie. It’s a crazy crime story that features over-the-top characters, but also has scenes that pack a heavy punch.
The art in this manga is detailed and well done, but once again, features Manabe Shohei’s personal style. Characters are rendered unique and even strangely, with distinct facial features that make them look more realistic, but also a bit ugly.
As unique and interesting as the art in this manga is, it’s not for everyone there’ll be some who dislike it.
Overall, I think Smuggler is a gem of a manga that not many people know about. However, it’s not only for that alone that I featured it in this list of the best manga of all time. It’s an amazing and disturbing crime story that’s fantastic throughout the board and features a couple of truly memorable characters and some amazing scenes.
Smuggler also inspired me to write my story Express Delivery Service, which I admit is more an adaption of Smuggler than an original story.
The Climber by Shinichi Sakamoto is a beautiful, beautiful manga.
I’m usually not a fan of sports manga as I mentioned before, so I was reluctant about starting this manga, but the Climber is one of the most beautiful and one of the best manga of all time.
It’s the story of Buntarou Mori, a lonesome and solitary teenager.
His interest in climbing starts when he’s coerced by a classmate to climb the school building. Without hesitation, he begins and makes it to the top. From here on out, his passion is woken, and he’s always searching for new peaks and new goals.
Mori’s transformation right at the beginning is interesting to see. The moment he gets introduced, he gives off the feeling of someone who doesn’t care about anything. Then, suddenly, after he climbed the school building, his entire expression changed. He looks like an entirely different person. And, honestly, one can imagine how he feels at that moment.
Over the course of the story Mori climbs more and more mountains and gets to know other characters, but he still appears as a loner most of the time.
What I came to love about The Climber was the portrayal of dedication and perseverance. If you push and work hard enough, anything is possible, it seems to say.
Another was the story. As much as this is a manga about climbing, it’s also a manga about character development. The Climber is hugely character-driven, and it shows us how Mori develops as a person. He’s got his own problems, he can relate to people, but as he overcomes more and more peaks he also slowly overcomes his personal problems. It’s incredibly well done.
I also enjoyed how the manga portrayed death. Mountain climbing is dangerous and people die. Yet, The Climber never dramatizes it, never presented it in an over-the-top emotional struggle. Instead death is haunting, depressing and natural.
The art in the Climber is some of the best I’ve seen in the entire medium. It’s absolutely breathtaking. There are double pages of beautiful mountains rendered in excruciating detail, with snow and weather masterfully added to them.
What I found most impressive and what clearly makes The Climber one of the best manga of all time, were the brief glimpses of poetic beauty. Mori is a quiet person, he doesn’t talk a lot and many panels are spent watching him climb. But the manga can speak through art, showing us Mori’s psychological struggles with visuals alone. It’s a thing of beauty.
The Climber goes even further though, by adding metaphors, allusions and employing literary passages from poems and quotes. It gives the manga this feeling of joy, of character that one’s not used to in the medium. Yet, it never feels pretentious. The Climber, more so than most other manga and many of the best manga out there, is a piece of art.
However, while The Climber is an outstanding manga, it still has problems.
The first is the change in tone early on. Originally the manga was created by two people, but then the writer left and Sakamoto Shinichi, the artist, decided to continue it on his own. From this point on, there’s a clear change in structure going from a sport manga to an atmospheric and visual character study.
While there are some characters who are well developed, this is the story of Mori Buntarou, so while other people appear and join into his life, the focus is always on him. Which might be daunting to some readers.
The last thing that might be a problem to some people is the frequent time skips. Some might only be a few days or weeks long, others will skip years. It can be a bit confusing or it can make you wonder what happened in the meantime. It did little to deter my enjoyment, though, since they were generally well handled.
The Climber is a manga I’d recommend to anyone. It’s simply a work of beauty, a coming-of-age story nestled in the guise of a mountain climbing one.
And that’s the core of The Climber. It’s not solely a manga about climbing, but a psychological, character-driven one. It can make for some heavy reading, but in the case of The Climber, it’s not a bad thing.
It’s truly one of the best manga of all time, and I urge anyone to read it.
How could a retelling of the life of Robert Johnson set in the American South ever work in a manga? Well, absolutely fantastic!
Me and the Devil Blues by Akira Hiramoto is one of the best manga ever created.
It’s the story of Robert Johnson, a dabbling blues musician who wishes nothing more than to play the blues. However, he’s no good at it. He learns of an urban legend that states that if you play alone at a crossroad at night; the devil comes to take your soul. In exchange, however, you will become a genius blues player.
Unsatisfied with his life, he tries just that one night and his life changes forever.
Me and the Devil Blues is praiseworthy in many ways. The first is definitely the outstanding art of the manga. It’s one of the most beautiful manga I’ve read and comes with a very personal style. It’s gritty, but it also has a lot of attention to detail.
The next is the portrayal of the South in the 1930s. It’s well done, presenting us with a deep-seated division between white and black. The depiction of blues clubs seems very realistic. Overall, the entire manga has a very realistic and western feel to it.
Another thing I came to love were the characters in this story. RJ is a great protagonist who’s more thrown into events than choosing things himself. Clyde Barrow is a fantastic addition to the cast and in my opinion the best character in the entire manga.
Other side characters, especially Stanley McDonald, are also extremely well done. There are no wasted or shallow characters in this entire manga.
What I loved the most though, and what made this one of the best manga I ever read, was the feeling of suspense that hung heavy over the entire work. Especially in later parts, you almost can’t catch your breath for chapters at a time. This suspense and tension will keep you on your toes all throughout the manga.
The one thing that was a bit confusing to me was the beginning of the story, and even after multiple re-reads, I’m still somewhat confused about what happened.
Overall, Me and the Devil Blues is a hidden gem of a manga. Because of its themes and its western feel, it’s entirely unique. It’s an absolutely stunning piece of work.
Me and the Devil Blues is one of the most unique and one of the best manga of all time and I urge anyone, regardless of taste, to read it.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki is one of the most popular manga right now, most likely because of its outstanding anime adaptions released in recent years.
It’s also one of the longest running manga series of all time spanning far over one-hundred volumes and is currently in its eight overall story arc.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure started out relatively normal, and its first part featuring the story of Jonathan Joestar was reminiscent of other manga of its time. The art and overall style can be compared to that of First of the North Star, another vastly popular manga of the time.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure truly started to shine with its third part, Stardust Crusaders. Not only because of the story, but because it introduced Jojo’s most important and unique element, Stands. Stands can be best described as a physical manifestation of a character’s life force taking on the form of an ethereal figure and who possess various superhuman powers.
I enjoyed almost all parts of Jojo’s Bizarre Aventure unanimously and consider the entire series as one of the best manga of all time. My favorite, however, is Part 7: Stellball Run.
It depicts a cross-country horse race across the entire United States with a grand prize of five million dollars starting in San Diego.
Our protagonist is Johnny Joestar, a crippled former horse racer who comes to watch the start of the race. There he encounters a man called Gyro Zeppeli, a racer with two steel balls at his waist. After a dual in which Gyor uses fantastical powers, Johnny touches one of Gyro’s steel balls and feels power surging through his legs, allowing him to stand up again. Wanting to learn the secret of the steel balls, Johnny decides to compete in the race.
Stellball Run is the culmination of all that Hirohiko Araki has done before. It’s not farfetched to call it a masterpiece, and it’s without a doubt one of the best manga ever created.
The world of Stellball run is like the other parts of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, populated with some of the most amazing and unique characters in all of manga. Stands are once more a central concept, and Hirohiko Araki’s creativity shows by coming up with strange and creative powers.
Where Stellball Run stands out is not only in the battles but also in the entire scenario and the overall story. Battles in Jojo are often different from those in other manga. Stellball Run is no exception, and Hirohiko Araki comes up with utterly weird and creative adversaries and Stands.
What makes Stellball Run so unique even for Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is the setting, the horse race. While our characters fight adversaries, and have to uncover an overall plot, they are still continuing on their way to win the Stellball Race. This makes the manga so much more interesting and creates multiple layers of tension and suspense.
The art in Stellball Run is absolutely perfect in all fields. The characters and Stands are rendered in Hirohiko Araki’s usual style, and battles are amazing to look at. However, Stellball Run is, overall, much more detailed than former parts.
The characters are throughout the board interesting and complex and offer interesting depictions of well-known characters from earlier parts in the series, notably Diego Brando.
Overall, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the best manga of all time, and, at least in my opinion, Part 7: Steel Ball Run is its best part. There’s nothing that stands out in terms of negativity. It’s just this good.
I’d recommend it to any manga fan, regardless of preferences and interests.
Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura is without a doubt one of the best manga of all time. Be it the art, the story or the characters, this manga is fantastic throughout the board.
It tells the story of Thorfinn Karlsefni, son of Thor, whose part of a mercenary group led by a man called Askeladd. As we find out in the story, it’s Askeladd who’s responsible for Thor’s death and Thorfinn joined his group to one day get revenge against Askeladd.
The story takes up steam when Askeladd learns that the Danish prince Canute has been taken hostage. He hatches a plan that will change their lives forever.
Vinland Saga is a historical manga set in the 11th century Europe focusing on vikings and viking culture. As you can guess, it’s brutal. We see vikings pillaging villages, rape, plunder, and murder. There’s no mercy.
While there are some liberties taken in terms of characters and stories, Vinland Saga feels, overall, realistic.
The art in Vinland Saga is absolutely fantastic and can rival the best manga of all time. It starts out great in the first volume and only improves further. By now, it’s one of the most beautiful manga out there and absolutely outstanding. 11th century Europe never looked that good. I love the realistic and detailed look of all the towns, cities and farmsteads we see throughout the manga. It all brings the story to life and makes it more believable.
One of the best parts of Vinland Saga are of course the battles. They are as brutal as you can imagine. They are blunt, gross and at times gratuitous, but most of all, they are brutal. Yet, the battles always feel real, never unrealistic. I guess it’s what you can expect from a story centered on war and conflict.
However, Vinland Saga isn’t just a story about brutal wars and battles. For long parts the manga tells a calm, gloomy and quiet story. It’s often those quieter parts hat I came to enjoy the most. Examples are Thorfinn and Einar working hard and becoming friends, or the preparations for a large expedition. It’s during those parts that the story truly shines. It might also be because it’s a clear contrast to the brutal battles so prevalent in the story.
All the characters in Vinland Saga are great and might honestly be the best part of an already fantastic work.
There’s our protagonist Thorfinn who starts off as a quiet, efficient killer, more an assassin than a true viking. We can feel just how burned out and dead he’s inside. He’s there, witnessing all those atrocities and ignores them, not seeing them and not caring about them. All he cares for is revenge.
However, as the story progresses, he receives tremendous character development, and becomes one of the most complex manga characters I’ve ever seen.
Askeladd might be one of the best manga characters ever, and I simply can’t find enough praise for him.
There are other side-characters later on who are all well-developed and complex in their own right, like Einar, Hild or even Sigurd.
The only character I have a bit of a problem with is Thorkell. He’s enjoyable, no doubt, and seems to be based on an actual legendary viking. Still, his over-the-top antics and the way he’s acting make him almost a comic relief character.
Overall, Vinland Saga is outstanding. It’s a story I came to love for both its brutal violence and the later, quieter arcs. It’s throughout the board a delight to read, even if there are some parts that are over-exaggerated. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone.
Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue is a romanticized retelling of the life of Musashi Miyamoto, based on the novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. It’s one of the absolute best samurai manga and one of the best manga in general.
The story starts off with Shinmen Takezou, a wild, young man who wants to become a great swordsman. Together with his best friend Matahachi Honiden, he enlists as part of the Toyotomi army.
The two of them barely make it out alive. After returning home, he becomes a wanted criminal. After he’s captured, he’s strung up at a tree and left to die. Saved by a monk named Takuan Soho, he’s freed and given a new identity, that of Musashi Miyamoto.
From here on out he travels the land in pursuit of the sword with the goal of becoming ‘Invincible under the Heavens.’
Vagabond stands out from other manga in many ways.
The first is the art which is absolutely gorgeous and among the best the medium offers. Even among the best manga in terms of art, scarcely few can compare to Vagabond.
Another great thing are the stunning battles and since this is a samurai manga, there’s a lot of them. Many of them are brutal, gory, and even disturbing. Limbs, guts, and heads are sent flying in the heat of battle and it’s all rendered in stunning detail. However, this explicit content is never glamorized, but always presented in a matter-of-factly fashion.
Yet, there are also battles in Vagabond that aren’t so much about pure action, but comprises tension and suspense, about making the right move at the right time.
The art in Vagabond also comes to light in the character design. Every character in this manga is distinct from one another and they are all depicted detailed and realistically.
It’s those characters that add a lot to the enjoyment of Vagabond. It’s a delight to follow Musashi on his travels as he meets and defeats his various enemies. However, he’s not the only character we get to know. As much as Vagabond is the story of Musashi Myamoto, it’s also the story of Sasaki Koichiro, another great swordsman of the same era.
Still, it’s not merely the story of those two. There’s of course Matahachi, who comes up frequently and who’s out to make a name for himself as well, albeit in a less reputable fashion.
During Musashi’s and Koichiro’s travels we also get to know a plethora of characters who are mostly similarly complex and interesting.
What I really enjoyed was the introspection we got about each character. We get a glimpse into all of them, their emotions, desires, fears, but without painting them as good or bad. No, they are just people living by the sword.
I really enjoyed the storytelling in Vagabond. While we often follow Musashi, there’re long parts dedicated to Koichiro and others to Matahachi. This form of storytelling makes the manga more refreshing since we get to know every character’s unique path and learn more about them.
Another thing I enjoyed a lot was Musashi’s character development. He starts out as a brutal demon child who wants nothing more than to fight, but later becomes a calm man, questioning what it truly means to be invincible and wonder about the path he’s been following.
This coincides directly with the way he fights his battles. He turns from a reckless youth, to someone who learns how to pick his battles, to use finesse and his head to win, rather than relying on pure martial prowess. This turn from bloodthirsty and amoral, to an almost philosophical warrior and artist, is one of the most fascinating and engrossing developments in manga. It’s one of the many reasons I consider Vagabond among the best manga out there.
While Vagabond is great throughout the board, the story can drag on a bit. It’s especially noticeable in one of the later arcs.
Another problem is the spiritual and philosophical moments in the series. While I usually enjoyed them and found most of them insightful and beautiful, they can also come up as pretentious.
Overall, Vagabond is one of the greatest accomplishments in manga. The art is gorgeous, and it presents us with fantastic characters and some stunning character development.
This is a manga I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone, even those who might not be interesting in samurai culture or samurai manga. Vagabond is at the top of the entire medium and one of the best manga of all time.
Ultra Heaven by Keiichi Koike is an absolutely stunning piece of work and the psychedelic manga I’ve ever read. It’s an entirely unique experience and unlike anything I’ve read before.
Ultra Heaven is set in a dystopian future in which all feelings can be artificially created by just the right drugs.
Our protagonist Kabu is a man who’s addicted to these drugs. He stumbles upon a man who reveals a new, illegal substance, called Ultra Heaven.
From here on out, Kabu, and the reader, are in for a trip. Ultra Heaven is one of the craziest, most creative manga I’ve ever read.
While dystopian societies are nothing new, I loved the idea of artificially created feelings via drugs. It’s a concept I’ve only ever seen in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
What makes Ultra Heaven one of the absolute best manga I’ve ever read is the art. The locations are detailed, characters are realistic, and the setting is gritty and believable. Where Ultra Haven stands out though is during the trips and the hallucinations during meditation.
Panels in manga are usually rectangular and organized. Ultra Heaven breaks those conventions. When Kaub has a trip or suffers from another form of altered mind, the shape of those panels twists and distorts to accommodate the character’s mental state. We’re presented with sheer chaos, twisting spirals and panels running into one another. It gives you an almost surreal, disorienting feeling, but lends itself perfectly to what’s happening in the manga.
I’ve seen nothing like it, and I’m not sure there’s any other manga that can compare to Ultra Heaven’s sheer deconstruction of the medium’s visual rules.
Many themes come to play in Ultra Heaven. The most prevalent, however, is that of conciousness and the transcendence to different states of mind or being.
Drugs being one way to get there, but later in the manga, meditation is used in similar fashion.
There aren’t many important characters in Ultra Heaven. There’s Kabu, an addict and small-time dealer who’s trapped in his own world. His female friend is a perfect example of a neo-hippie who’s using new technology to reach a higher state of conciousness.
There are, however, some problems with Ultra Heaven. The first is the general plot. There really isn’t much of one to be found here. It’s almost a slice-of-life story about an addict.
The biggest problem, however, is that the manga was cut short or never finished. Yet, in the three chapters there are we’ve got so much going on, condensed and presented to us in a weird and confusing way. It’s not that it’s hard to understand what’s going on, it’s more that there’s so many things that come up without an explanation. Especially later on when the story’s set in the meditation center.
Those things, however, didn’t deter my enjoyment of the manga. After all, I feel that’s exactly what Keiichi Koike wanted it to be, a wild, uncontrolled ride down into the depth of one’s conciousness.
Ultra Heaven is a creative and visual masterpiece and one of the best manga of all time that unfortunately few people know about. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s interested in weird visuals, drug culture, or generally more surreal and weird manga.
Uzumaki is the most famous work of Japanese horror mangaka Junji Ito, an absolute horror masterpiece and one of the best manga of all time.
Manga can be a strange medium. There are many bizarre and disturbing tales out there, but few are as unique as Junji Ito’s Uzumaki.
Uzumaki is a three volume epic that tells the story of Shuuichi Saitou and Kirie Goshima and what happened to the town of Kurouzu-cho who’s infested by spirals.
In the story’s course they stumble upon one freakishly scary incident after another, all involving spirals.
The very first story details Shuuichi’s father’s descent into madness as his obsession with spirals grows more and more out of control until it comes to a terrifying conclusion in one of Uzumaki’s most popular pages.
What makes Uzumaki so great is not the story, it’s the art and creativity behind it.
Junji Ito’s imagination is incredible and disturbing. The townspeople of Kurouzu-cho are twisted, warped and changed until they represent the spiral in various ways, always with dire results.
Ito’s art is always great, but in Uzumaki he’s at the top of his game. His unique style, with its simple, yet clean black-and-white drawings, brings forth his strange and dark imagination with all its minute details.
Ito isn’t shy to present us the terrible results of the spiral’s curse. Blood, gore and twisted bodies are everywhere in this manga.
Uzumaki also comes with Junji Ito’s very unique character design. People often look gloomy and their facial features are over-exaggerated when they experience true terror or are changed in strange and grotesque ways. It helps to set the mood for the entire manga.
What makes Uzumaki stand out so much from other horror manga and makes it one of the best manga out there is its premise. There’re no monsters, no killers, no feasible antagonist. There’s nothing our protagonists can fight, nothing to run from. The only thing there is, is a concept that lingers over the town of Kurouzu-cho in the form of an omnipresent curse.
Uzumaki is mostly told in episodic fashion. The first two volumes are more akin to an anthology of strange, spiral-related incidents happening in Kurouzu-cho, all witnessed by the same characters.
We encounter hair, snails, someone twisting their body to resemble a spiral or doomed lovers. Yet each one of these incidents is unique and terrifying in their own right.
It’s only in its third, and ultimately weakest volume that Ito brings the entire story together and drives the narrative to a conclusion as the true Lovecraftian nature of the curse is revealed.
There are of course a few problems with Uzumaki. The first and biggest problem lies in Uzumaki’s protagonist. Kirie is less character and more vessel to give us insight into the surreal hell that Kurouzu-cho becomes. Thus, her actions and her continued presence in the town can appear strange.
Another problem can be the episodic fashion of the story. We often get to know new characters, but most of them will be gone by the end of the chapter. It makes it hard for the reader to get emotionally invested in them and might ultimately dampen the impact of their fate.
Lastly, the last volume is weaker than the rest. I often feel that horror, especially Junji Ito’s blend of horror, is best left unexplained, to be witnessed, not understood. In Uzumaki, Ito gives us an explanation, an ending, and while it’s satisfactory in its own right, it ultimately weakens the manga a bit.
Overall though, Uzumaki is a manga that I’d recommend to any horror fan out there. I think it’s one of the greatest accomplishments in manga and one of the best manga of all time, be it horror or not. Junji Ito’s way of storytelling isn’t for everyone, but his art and creativity are outstanding. For that alone, Uzumaki is worth reading.
Blame! by Tsutomu Nihei is without a doubt one of the best manga of all time and one of my absolute favorites.
It can be best described as a science-fiction, cyberpunk epic.
Blame! follows the character of Killy as he travels The City on his mission to find a human with net Terminal Genes. Such a person could access the so-called Netsphere, a computerized control network. This would allow them to end the chaotic growth of the city and stop the Safeguard from exterminating what remains of humanity.
The most amazing things about Blame! are the art and the world building.
The city is a labyrinth of concrete and steel of gigantic proportions. It’s a technological and architectural wasteland, made up of mega-structures of mind-boggling proportions. This size is showcased in many wide, distant shots in which Killy is barely visible amongst a backdrop of epic proportions. The city is vast and endless and Tsutomu Nihei showcases it in his many huge panels and page spreads. It gives off an overwhelming feeling of being lost and disoriented. Yet, our protagonist Killy travels on undeterred.
Yet, it’s not only the world that stands out but also the creatures populating it. Blame!’s world is populated by cyborgs, the Safeguard, the Builders and various other technological and cybernetic horrors, all unique and terrifying in their own right. The art and detail used to render those beings is absolutely outstanding. Sometimes I couldn’t help but stare at some of them for a while before reading on because I was so impressed by them.
Blame!’s art is among the best, if not the best I’ve ever seen. This art alone, with its mindboggling proportions and all its horrific creatures, makes Blame! one of the best manga of all time.
Blame! is a manga packed with action which is showcased in stunning detail, often featuring enormous explosions, but also intimate battles.
While Blame! features a lot of action, it contrasts it with the aforementioned calmer shots of Killy’s travels against the backdrop of the city.
Blame!’s storytelling differs from many other manga. There’s rarely any dialogue, rarely any semblance of a typical plot. Instead Blame!, as other manga by Tsutomu Nihei, uses his visuals to tell most of the story.
Blame!’s story is divided into several arcs, all held together by Killy’s overarching quest for a human with Net Terminal Genes. Yet, each of those arcs can stand on their own and feature interesting characters and antagonists.
Since the story is mostly told via visuals, Killy’s character lacks compared to other protagonists. He’s mostly quiet, steadily traveling through the city before he meets up with Cibo, our second protagonist.
Yet, there’s more to both of them and in the manga’s course we learn more about them, but it’s not much in terms of character development. Instead, it gives us a few more details about them and who they are.
Blame! of course isn’t free of problems. The action can be overwhelming. Killy’s Gravitational Beam Emitter is a weapon that causes mass destruction and giant explosions, which often causes battles to descend into chaos.
Another thing is Blame!’s story. Early on, the story focuses more on individual arcs, featuring various pockets of humanity. It’s only in its last part the story focuses on Killy’s quest. It’s here that the story gets confusing and we’re left with not so much a clear ending, but another mystery to add to an already huge list.
Even though Blame! can be lacking in the story department, it’s worth a read alone for the outstanding art and the world it’s set in. It’s an absolute visual masterpiece, and for that alone it deserves to be named as one of the best manga of all time.
There are very few manga who can compare to Blame! in terms of art and the unique world it depicts. This makes it a delight for fans of science-fiction, technological horror and cyberpunk.
I highly recommend anyone to give this manga a try.
Berserk by Kentaro Miura is probably the single best manga of all time. It’s not just in terms of art, or story, but Berserk’s themes and narrative that make it standout among a plethora of others. It’s a dark fantasy manga with lots of action, gore, incredible monster design, but also two of the most complex characters in manga history.
Berserk is the story of Guts, the so-called ‘Black Swordsman’ on a quest for revenge against demonic beings known as apostles and an ominous man known as Griffith.
At first glance, Berserk might appear to be a simple story. Our main character Guts is a man with a sword as tall as he is who fights his way through giant monsters and humans alike.
This might be true for the very first arc, the Black Swordsman arc, but soon we find out how much more there is to Guts and just what a complex and nuanced character he is.
It’s during the Golden Age arc we learn more about Guts, his backstory, and his connection to Griffith. Both Guts and Griffith are incredibly complex and unique characters, vastly different from one another, yet drawn to each other. The manga does a fantastic job exploring their relationship, testing and ultimately severing it.
I also love the dualism of their character, their symbolic representation, and how they appear to other people. It’s interesting to see that our protagonist Guts is shown mostly in black and titled the Black Swordsman, while the antagonist Griffith is always shown in white, appearing angelic and presented to us as a savior.
These two characters and their relationship alone elevates Berserk above most manga and is already enough to make it one of the best manga of all time.
The story of Berserk evolves and becomes more complex the longer we read on. What starts off as a simple revenge story becomes very personal as we experience the Golden Age. Later on, the story’s scope expands vastly, including foreign invasions, Christian fanaticism, and magical creatures and powers.
The world of Berserk, however, is a dark place, much darker than what we’re used to. It’s a world full of war and atrocities and Kentaro Miura isn’t shy presenting it to us in all its details. We don’t just witness wards and battles, we also witness murder, rape, torture and senseless slaughter.
However, the violence in gore is always greatest when Guts is involved. We can see him cut through anything it its path, be it monsters, humans or knights in full armor. We see guts flying, people being dismembered and decapitated or torn to pieces.
While Berserk shines in terms of character and story, its greatest part is without a doubt the art. Berserk almost transcends the medium, especially in later parts. It’s less a manga and more a piece of art. There are few manga that can compare to Berserk when Miura is at the top of his game. If you look at the art in Berserk, you can find more details in a single page or even panel than in an entire chapter of a different manga. That’s how outstanding and detailed the art is. For this alone, for its art, Berserk is nothing short than one of the best manga ever written.
My favorite part of Berserk is the monster design. The apostles in Berserk are absolutely gorgeous to look at and very unique. They are both beautiful, but also grotesque, disgusting, yet terrifying.
The one and only, but ultimately biggest problem with Berserk is the slow release time. Throughout the years, as the art in Berserk improved, the manga’s release also slowed down massively. In its earlier years, Berserk was released at a steady rate of two volumes per year. In recent years, though, we barely get a handful of chapters per year, if that. It’s a shame, really. Considering that the story of Berserk isn’t done by a long shot, one wonders if Kentaro Miura will ever finish the manga.
Another slight problem is the quality of the first arc. If we compare it to later parts of Berserk, it doesn’t hold up. It’s almost clichéd. We follow our anti-hero Guts, who’s almost a villain in its own right as he takes down apostles who are almost comically evil.
Yet, this only serves to elevate the Golden Arc age, which too many is one of the greatest arcs in manga history and ends with one of the most disturbing finals I’ve ever witnessed.
Overall, Berserk is nothing short of art. As dark as the manga can get, the story is masterfully told. And when Berserk is at its best, few manga can compare.
At first glance it might not appear the masterpiece it truly is, but if you read on, you will soon be blown away by how good it is.
I really can’t recommend Berserk enough, and it’s for this reason that I consider it as probably the best manga ever written. Anyone interested in dark fantasy, horror or manga in general should check out Berserk. It’s at the peak of the genre and as good as it gets.
Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura is my favorite manga and also one of the best manga of all time.
It’s an action packed battle manga that comes in the guise of a samurai manga, but it rarely explores themes such as honor or samurai code.
Blade of the Immortal tells the story of Manji, an infamous swordsman know as the ‘Hundred Men Killer.’ As punishment for his deeds, the eight-hundred-year-old nun Yaobikuni placed bloodworms in his body, rendering him immortal and making him capable of healing almost any wound.
To atone for his crimes, Manji resolves to kill one thousand evil men. Soon after his promise, Manji meets Rin Asano, a sixteen-year-old girl who asks Manji for help in revenge against the man who killed her parents.
That man is Kagehisa Anotsu, the leader of the Itto-Ryu sword school.
From here on out, Manji and Rin travel the land in search for the members of the Itto-Ryu and Anotsu.
The premise of the story is quite simple, but the plot gets more complex over time as new factions are introduced.
What makes Blade of the Immortal one of the best manga of all time is without a doubt the characters. There are of course our protagonists Manji and Rin. Both go through a significant amount of character development, and Manji is an absolute badass. However, Blade of the Immortal features a plethora of amazing characters. There’s Anotsu Kagehisha who’s one of the most interesting characters in the entire manga. Other fantastic characters include Taito Magatsu, Maki Otono-Tachibana, but also Shira. Many of the side characters in Blade of the Immortal receive the same amount of character development as we get to know more about them, learn more about their motifs and background. At times, I found myself more interested in side-characters than our protagonists. That’s how amazing the characters in this manga are.
The biggest testament to this is that there’s no clear division between whose good and whose evil. Each character has their own circumstances, ideals, goals and reasons to fight. It’s simply the fact that we follow Manji and Rin and their side of the story that makes Kagehisa Anotsu the antagonist.
Yet there’s one clear exception. There’s one character in Blade of the Immortal who’s one of the craziest antagonists I’ve ever seen in manga. Anyone who’s read the manga most likely knows who I’m talking about. For those who haven’t you’re in for a treat, a disturbing and insane one.
Another great point about Blade of the Immortal are the female characters. In many manga female characters are often relegated to the role of love interests or damsels in distress. Blade of the Immortal is, mostly, an exception to the rule. There are many female warriors in this series who are absolute badasses in their own right, especially Makie Otono-Tachibana and Hyakurin.
Overall, if one thing can be said about the characters, it’s that they are all badass and look damn cool. Hell, there are side characters who are only in for a handful of chapters whose backstory is more intense than your usual protagonist’s. That’s how good Blade of the Immortal is.
Now I want to have a few words about the setting. While Blade of the Immortal is a manga about samurai, ronin, and sword fighting, it’s not your typical samurai manga. As opposed to other samurai manga, Blade of the Immortal doesn’t ponder the samurai code, honor, or spend time on philosophical questions. Instead, it’s a raw, gritty and brutal revenge story.
While the story is set in the Edo period of Japan, against a historical backdrop, characters seldom speak in Samurai lingo. Especially Manji and the Itto-Ryu cuss, curse and insult one another in the way contemporary street punks or gangsters would.
The second big point that makes Blade of the Immortal one of the best manga of all time, is the outstanding art. Blade of the Immortal features some of the best art I’ve ever seen. The style is gritty and sketchy, but very detailed, and the characters all look great and unique throughout the board and absolutely badass.
The background and the world are fantastically drawn and show us a detailed view of traditional Japanese towns, cities and landscape.
Since this is a battle manga, I have to talk about the fights in this manga. They are probably some of the best I’ve ever seen. Fights are brutal. People get torn to pieces, blood and guts are flying. However, the violence is never just there for violence’s sake, with maybe the exception of one character. It’s always there to showcase the brutal nature of sword fights and fights in this manga.
However, the greatest thing about the battles is that they are never confusing. The flow of the action is easy to follow, and you’ll always understand what’s going on. This doesn’t mean that fights are simple. On the contrary, Blade of the Immortal showcases some of the best and most intense battles ever seen.
Now one might think that Manji’s immortality lowers the stakes in battles, but this is seldom in the case. One can’t argue that Manji has an advantage, but it never serves to make the fights easy. Manji often has to fight with all he got to even have a chance of making it out alive.
Blade of the Immortal is an outstanding manga, one of the best manga the entire medium offers.
The only problem some people might have with it is the pacing. The beginning of the manga is arguably its weakest point, and it takes a good thirty chapters before the main story really gets going. From then on, it’s an almost flawless ride throughout till the end. There’s one arc, however, that’s unrelated to the main story and drags on a bit too much. However, that’s nothing but a minor complaint against an outstanding work.
Overall, there’s nothing more to be said about Blade of the Immortal. It’s one of the best manga out there and one that will keep you reading until the very end. Blade of the Immortal stands out in terms of characters, as well as character developments and fights. It’s completely amazing. That’s the reason I decided to put Blade of the Immortal at the top of this list.
Anyone interested in manga should check this masterpiece out.
Yet Lovecraft was a name I learned of relatively late.
I grew up with the works of Stephen King, having read the Dark Tower and some of his other works as a teenager. There were many other horror writers I knew via pop-culture references or from friends and family, like Edgar Allan Poe, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Bram Stoker, or Anne Rice.
Somehow, though, Lovecraft was a name I never heard of during that time. I guess he might not have been too popular in my native country of Germany.
I even watched many of the movies that were based on or inspired by his works, oblivious to the stories themselves.
It was during my time at university, in the mid-2000s, that I first heard his name. At the time, I frequently listened to audiobooks. One I came upon was about Lovecraft and featured an abridged version of the Call of Cthulhu. I remember little about it anymore, and for a few more years, Lovecraft should stay nothing but a random name to me.
It was only when I started to write horror and read the works of other fellow writers that Lovecraft’s influence and popularity became clear to me.
The moment I read up on horror literature, Lovecraft was a name that came up frequently. Even more so was the sub-genre of Lovecraftian Horror which you could seem to avoid. It wasn’t long before I was intrigued and drawn to it.
At first, I thought Lovecraftian Horror was merely a genre about eldritch abominations and indescribable horrors who preyed on mankind. Only when I started to read his works did I learned just how vast his themes truly were.
However, I’d only read two of his stories. One was Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family, the other was Dagon.
When I finally decided to do a deep-dive into his works, I was in for quite a surprise, a big one, and I loved everything about Lovecraft’s work.
Lovecraft’s Work
Lovecraft is most famous for creating Cthulhu and the Cthulhu Mythos. He’s the father of the Necronomicon, a big that’s appeared in countless movies, games, and other media. Other creations include Nyarlathotep, The Deep Ones, The Elder Things, The Mad Arab, The Old Ones, and The Elder Gods.
He has, however, written many more stories, many of those only vaguely or not related to the Cthulhu Mythos at all.
Lovecraft’s body can be divided into three phases. The first phase was his macabre or horror phase, mostly inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The second phase, the so-called Dream phase or his Dream Cycle, which were inspired by the writings of Lord Dunsany. And lastly, the works he’s most famous for, his cosmic horror tales related to the Cthulhu Mythos.
I’m personally not a fan of his Dream Cycle work. Many of them don’t seem like actual stories to me. Instead, they feel more akin to exercises in world-building and imagery. Even his longest Dream Cycle work, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath seemed, at least to me, lackluster, strange and at times ridiculous. It was a colorful, creative, and weird story, but also one that was confusing and, most of all, bland. It was filled with beautiful imagery, but it felt less serious and a lot less refined than the works preceding and succeeding it.
I was most impressed with his last works. His blend of horror and science-fiction, two genres he fused into a weird whole that can only be described as Lovecraftian Horror. It’s a combination of supernatural terror inter-mixed with concepts of visionary science-fiction.
Lovecraft’s work is full of strange, beautiful ideas, weird images, and creativity much vaster than almost any other horror writer’s.
Before Lovecraft, horror consisted mostly of Poe-esque stories, ghost tales, and vampire novels.
Lovecraft expanded the scope of horror by shifting its focus from the more psychological horror of Poe, from the gothic horror to something grander. He’s nothing short of a horror fiction genius, one I might say was far ahead of his time. In a way, he’s the successor to Edgar Allan Poe and as influential as him in the entirety of the horror genre.
Stephen King once said that “[he was] the twentieth century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale.” Few refute that claim.
Lovecraft’s work, especially his later stories related to the Cthulhu Mythos, are terrifying on a different level, a level that hadn’t been seen before. They go far beyond the scope of horror at the time. These stories didn’t just feature creatures stalking mankind or revengeful ghosts. They didn’t merely feature ghastly incidents. No, there was something so broad, so different to them.
It’s called cosmic horror.
Cosmic Horror
Best Lovecraft Stories – Azathoth – Illustrated by Dominique Signoret
To bring forth this new sort of cosmic terror, Lovecraft included ancient civilizations, extraterrestrials, eldritch horror, occult lore far older than mankind itself, and even the entirety of the universe.
In many stories, the true horror isn’t the creatures his narrators encounter, but them having to face the triviality of not only their own existence but that of all of mankind. It’s the realization that there are creatures and entities out there, so old, so powerful and intelligent, that we, as humans, don’t even matter to them.
This bleak and unforgiving view is central to Lovecraft’s final and most famous phase.
Man is entirely insignificant, and he once stated:
“There are animals in the cosmos significantly more intelligent and effective than humankind.”
This fits well with another general theme of his work, one that has become central in cosmic horror as well. It’s the fear of the unknown. Lovecraft famously said:
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is fear of the unknown.”
It’s the idea that something unnamable, unspeakable, or indescribable is out there, something whose mere existence and knowledge might drive us insane.
That’s why Lovecraft so often writers about Elder Gods, entities far more hideous and different to anything we know or could even imagine.
And this, as well as his cosmic horror themes, is why so many of his characters succumb to insanity and give into madness.
Lovecraft’s Writing Style
Yet, Lovecraft’s writing can be dense, his style verbose, flowery, and at times even pompous and pretentious. It’s a style that’s rather antiquarian and even during his lifetime many people came to call it ‘old-fashioned.’
This use of language, however, helps to solidify his style. It helps to create an atmosphere that made his stories work so well. It helps to give them a pseudo-scientific feeling.
Even more so because his narrators are seldom normal, everyday people. They are often scholars, men of science, professors, or doctors whose thirst for knowledge drives them to discover a terrible truth.
Yet, his style might ultimately have been counterproductive and might have been the reason his work was unpopular with audiences.
We don’t know, however. His unpopularity might be attributed to the outlandishness of his ideas, his archaic style, or his personality, considering he was his own, harshest critic.
As influential as Lovecraft would one day become, he earned little from his writing and stayed, ultimately, almost completely unknown during his time.
In case you want to know more about Lovecraft’s life, I urge you to check out the Writers Mythos and their episode on Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
A List of the Best Lovecraft Stories
Best Lovecraft Stories – Cthulhu – Illustrated by Benoît-Stella
I said it before, Lovecraft’s work and style might take some getting used to. It took me a while as well. When I was used to it, however, I grew to passionately love his work.
That’s why I put together a list of the best Lovecraft stories.
I’m going to put up links to the electronic text for any of the stories featured at The H. P. Lovecraft Archive so you can read them at your leisure as you make your way through the list.
A word of warning though, there are spoilers ahead, since I want to discuss each of his stories in-depth.
But now, let’s get on with the list of the best Lovecraft stories:
We are starting this list with one of the best Lovecraft stories with one of his shorter works, his story Cool Air.
The narrator begins the story by stating that a ‘draught of cool air’ is the most detestable thing to him in the world.
It’s only after this that he details the reason for his fear.
Back in 1923, the narrator lived in a house in New York City. When he investigates a chemical leak from the floor above, he learns that the man living above him is a strange and reclusive physician.
When the narrator suffers from a heart attack, he climbs the stairs and meets Dr. Munzo. The doctor saves his life and from then on the two of them often meet for long talks. During those, the narrator learns that Dr. Munzo is obsessed with defying death by all means possible.
There’s one peculiarity about the man’s apartment. He constantly keeps it cooled down via a complicated refrigeration system.
As the story continues, the doctor’s health deteriorates. He becomes more eccentric, upgrading his cooling system in various ways until parts of his apartment reach sub-freezing temperatures.
When the system breaks, the doctor’s panic-stricken and begs the narrator to help him keep his body cold. Unable to repair the machine, the doctor stays in a tube of ice, but soon the narrator can’t get hold of enough of it.
He eventually finds a mechanic to carry out the repairs, but at that point, it’s already too late. As they enter the apartment they find the rapidly decomposing remains of Dr. Munzo and a letter addressed to the narrator.
From this letter, he learns that Dr. Munzo died 18 years ago and was able to postpone death by various methods of refrigeration.
I personally loved this short little tale because of the outlandish idea at its center and the disturbing ending.
The setting was also well done. There’s always something about strange, old apartment buildings that adds to the atmosphere in a horror story. The doctor’s apartment too, which is constantly cooled, is weirdly interesting. One can already tell there’s something amiss here, even before the doctor’s onset of panic when the refrigeration system breaks.
And of course, there’s the ending and its revelation which is an absolute gruesome treat. What’s interesting here is that the story, while not directly inspired by it, is very similar to Edgar Allan Poe’s The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. Both stories concern the postponement of death and end with the rapid decomposition of a body.
To me, Cool air, as short as it is, is the best of Lovecraft’s New York short stories and the only one I truly enjoyed.
If you’re a fan of Lovecraft’s pure horror stories not related to the Cthulhu Mythos, give this one a try, it’s great.
Best Lovecraft Stories – Dagon – Illustrated by Mario Zuccarello
Dagon is a short, maddening tale. It was one of Lovecraft’s very first stories and is incidentally one of the best introductions to his writing style. It features many elements that should come to dominate his later body of work.
Dagon recounts the experiences of a now heavily morphine-addicted sailor.
An attack of a German sea-raider sinks a cargo ship. The narrator, a survivor of the attack, drifts through the Pacific Ocean for three days before he winds up on a putrid island. He speculates it was lifted from the ocean floor because of volcanic activities.
He ventures out and reaches a mound at the edge of an immeasurable canon. As he descends it, he finds a white stone monolith, engraved with various unfamiliar hieroglyphs all depicting aquatic creatures.
While he studies it, a giant creature emerges from the depths of the ocean to pray at the monolith.
The narrator flees the island in terror and eventually finds his way back into society. No one believes his story, and there’s no hint of volcanic activity or islands lifted from the ocean floor.
The narrator is haunted by visions of the creature he saw and terribly afraid for the future of mankind. He believes there will come a day when those creatures rise from the depth to drag mankind down into the seas and when all land will sink back to the ocean floor.
The story ends with him lamenting running out of morphine and that he can’t go on without it. Just then, he hears the noise of what he assumes to be an immense, slippery body throwing itself against the door. After he catches a glimpse of a terrible hand, he decides to throw himself from the window.
Even in one of his first stories, we can already see Lovecraft’s interest in ancient history and old civilizations. The titular name Dagon is a reference to a Philistine fertility deity.
While the story has no direct ties to the Cthulhu Mythos and was written much earlier, it’s still Lovecraft’s first story to feature its elements. Interestingly enough, Dagon is referenced again in his story The Shadow over Innsmouth, albeit only in name.
If you’re looking for a great introduction to Lovecraft’s overall style and many of the elements that made his story so popular than Dagon is perfect. It might be one of his earliest tales, but it’s clearly one of the best Lovecraft stories. One could do much worse for a first story.
Pickman’s Model is another one of Lovecraft’s pure horror stories with no relation to the Cthulhu Mythos. It’s one of his last such stories before he fully ventured into his famous blend of horror and science-fiction and focused on his Mythos-related stories.
Pickman’s Model is a story regarding the titular artist Richard Upton Pickman. His works are brilliant, but they are so graphical and horrible that he’s shunned by fellow artists.
Eventually Pickman vanishes and the narrator, one of his friends, details what he found during a visit at Pickman’s home and a tour of his personal gallery.
Pickman presents him many of his works before he takes the narrator before a giant painting of an unearthly, vaguely canine, humanoid figure chewing on a human victim.
As Pickman rushes from the room with a gun, the narrator finds a small, rolled-up piece of paper attached to the painting. He hears multiple shots, but Pickman, upon returning, states that it was merely rats he shot at.
It’s only after the narrator left the artist’s home that he realizes he took the small piece of paper with him. As he unrolls it, he finds it to be a photograph. Not of the painting’s background, but the terrible creature depicted in it.
And thus, it becomes clear that Pickman’s inspiration, his model, was a creature that truly exists.
Pickman’s model is another fantastic Lovecraft story, albeit a simpler one when compared to most of his later tales. However, it’s yet again a prime example of Lovecraft’s theme of forbidden knowledge. The narrator states at the beginning of the tale he has an aversion to taking the subway. Only at the end do we find out why. It’s because the narrator now knows about the ghastly creatures that exist below the surface.
What I especially liked is the fact that Pickman vanished. It implies, while not stated directly, that the man must’ve found a dire end while trying to find more motifs for his art. One might also wonder if Pickman truly shot rats or if he was protecting himself from something different.
I also very much like the description of the painting and I can’t help but think of Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son.
Pickman’s Model is a tale that I rarely see mentioned among his more popular tales. It’s for this reason I included it in this list of the best Lovecraft stories and I urge any fan of Lovecraft to read it.
With over 50.000 words, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is Lovecraft’s longest work and his only novel. Lovecraft originally wrote it as a short story, but he realized he’d more to say and wanted to explore the theme of New England’s witch-haunted dark more.
The titular character of Charles Dexter Ward is a young man from a prominent Rhode Island family who’s disappeared from a mental asylum. He’d been admitted after he showed inexplicable, psychological changes.
For the most part, the novel details the investigation by the Wards’ family doctor, Marinus Bicknell Willet, in an attempt to figure out what caused Charles’ sudden changes.
Willet learns that the young man was obsessed with his ill-reputed ancestor, Joseph Curwen. The doctor slowly unravels the truth behind the legends surrounding Curwen. The man was supposedly an alchemist but turned out to be a necromancer.
During a raid on Curwen’s farm, strange discoveries were made, not-quite-human figures were shot, and all present vowed to never talk about what they saw.
During his investigation, Willet learns that Charles resurrected his ancestor via the use of magical formulae. After this Curwen murdered Charles, took his place, and resumed his activities.
Because of a striking resemblance to Charles, he could fool strangers, but not his family, who noticed the aforementioned psychological changes.
While Curwen’s locked up, Willet’s investigation lead him to a bungalow in a small village. It was purchased by Curwen and turns out to be the location of his old home.
During his journey through the catacombs, he sees deformed monsters and uncovers the plan of Curwen and his fellow necromancers. While there, he accidentally resurrects an enemy of Curwen’s faints and awakens in the bungalow. The entrance to the catacombs seems to be sealed as if they never existed. From a note left to him in Latin, he learns how to kill Curwen.
Willet eventually confronts the man, kills him, and later learns that Curwen’s co-conspirators met similar brutal deaths.
While The Case of Charles Dexter Ward doesn’t seem to get a lot of love among fans of H. P. Lovecraft, I enjoyed the novel. It’s, however, somewhat different from Lovecraft’s usual work. It leans more towards occultism and alchemy, forbidden arts, and necromancy.
What’s most interesting is the resurrection of people via natural salts. It’s a concept that was first proposed by French doctor and alchemist Borellus.
The most enjoyable aspect of the novel was the way it was told. While the novel is named after Charles Dexter Ward, it’s the story of Doctor Marinus Willet and his investigations, slowly putting together what happened to the young man.
While the novel isn’t part of the Cthulhu Mythos, it still includes some of its elements. Curwen is in possession of the Necronomicon, there are hints of strange cult activities, and it includes the first-ever mention of the entity Yog-Sothoth.
Yet Lovecraft wasn’t pleased with the novel and regarded it below his personal standards. As we know, the man himself was his harshest critic. However, over the years many critics and scholars came to like the novel, some regarding it as one of his finest works.
As I said before, I enjoyed the novel. It can, at times, be a bit slow and feel a bit too long, but it wasn’t something that bothered me a great deal. However, it might be a hurdle for some other readers.
If you want to experience Lovecraft’s longest work and only novel, don’t be discouraged. It’s worthwhile of getting into and one of the best Lovecraft stories.
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family was the very first and one of the best Lovecraft stories I ever read, and I absolutely loved it. Its placement here in the list is both because of appreciation for it as a story, but also for nostalgic reasons.
Still, the story holds an important place in my heart. It introduced me to Lovecraft, his style, and the twists that are often revealed at the end of his stories.
The story starts with a description of the ancestry of the titular character of Arthur Jermyn. He relates that his family has a peculiar physical appearance which first showed in the children of his great-great-great-grandfather, Sir Wade Jermyn.
The man was an explorer of the Congo region. His books about a strange civilization of white apes made him a laughingstock among peers. His wife was a reclusive Portuguese woman who he brought home from one of his many travels. He fathered a son before he was eventually confined to an asylum.
After this, the story continues to detail the life of the members of the Jermyn family line. Each member has their own peculiarities, and many of them are driven to the same regions Sir Wade explored.
After his father’s untimely death, it was Arthur who inherited the family’s possessions and moved to Jermyn House. Arthur is described as the strangest of Sir Wade’s descendants, having a very unusual appearance.
However, Arthur became a scholar, eventually visiting the Congo himself where he learns about the city of white apes, but also its destruction. However, he also learns of the stuffed body of their white goddess, which had supposedly gone missing.
When he returns to a trading post, a Belgian agent offers to obtain and ship the body to him. After several months, the body eventually arrives.
Arthur investigates the mummy only to rush from the room screaming before he commits suicide.
Lovecraft then, in the last part of the tale, reveals the contents of the goddess’ coffin. The ape goddess had a golden locket around her neck. On it were the Jermyn arms and it was of striking resemblance to Arthur Jermyn.
It’s thus revealed that Sir Wade’s supposed Portuguese wife was none other than the ape goddess. All his descendants were products of their union.
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family is at its core a story about tainted ancestry, unearthing knowledge that might better be left undiscovered, and the terror it brings. It’s one of Lovecraft’s major themes that is featured in many of his later stories, for example, in The Shadow over Innsmouth.
After reading many of Lovecraft’s other works, especially his later great texts, one can tell that this is one of his earlier efforts. Still, it’s a great story, especially because of its slow steady progression, the execution of the final reveal, and the many hints throughout the story pointing towards it.
It was this structure that made me enjoy the tale the most. There’s something interesting about following the peculiarities of each of Arthur’s ancestors as more and more details are revealed. One can almost tell that there’s something strange and uncanny about Sir Wade, his Portuguese wife, as well as the rest of the family.
What really impressed me about this tale was how well the final revelation at the end was handled. It revealed not only that Sir Wade’s wife was actually one of the apes, the ape goddess, but that also Sir Wade must’ve been the White God the apes worshipped.
I still remember the day when I first finished reading this tale. I sat there, amazed at how well the ending was executed, and how many hints throughout the story had pointed towards it. To get there, though, one has to read through the chronology of the Jermyn family. It was something I personally enjoyed, but that might not be for everyone, and some people might find it a dense and dry read.
Still, it’s a great tale and well worth the addition in this list of the best Lovecraft stories.
The Outsider is early Lovecraft at his absolute best. The story is another great introduction to Lovecraft’s style, but is also reminiscent of Poe’s. It is definitely one of the best Lovecraft stories of all time.
We can see Lovecraft’s descriptive and verbose style as we follow the narrator through a world of vine-encumbered trees, but the castle that’s infinitely old and infinitely horrible makes us think of Poe and his gothic imagery.
The Outsider details the miserable and lonely life of an individual that’s all by himself. His memory of others is vague, and he can’t recall anything about himself.
He lives in a dark decaying castle, amid an endless forest of high trees that block out the sun. He’s never left his home, and the only knowledge he has of the outside world is from the antique books that line the walls of his castle.
Eventually, determined to free himself, he climbs a ruined staircase to the castle’s highest tower. Once there, he finds a trapdoor in the ceiling.
Upon pushing it open he doesn’t find himself at a great height, but in a churchyard, in what he assumes to be another world. The narrator’s overjoyed for he can finally behold what he’s only read about so far.
As he wanders the countryside, he comes upon another castle, which he finds maddeningly familiar. At the castle, many people have gathered in revelry.
Longing for human contact he makes his way inside. The people suddenly become terrified, scream, and flee from the room. As he stands alone, he’s terrified of what must be near him and what scared everyone else. He crosses the room in search before he detects a presence approaching him.
It’s a terrible creature, one that has the ghoulish shades of decay upon itself, an abhorrent travesty of the human shape.
In shock, he loses his balance and touches the creature. Horrified, he runs and plans to return to his castle only to find the trap door long gone. He realizes then that he’ll forever be an outsider.
And in the last line, Lovecraft reveals the terrible truth, for when the narrator touched the creature, all he felt was the ‘cold and unyielding surface of polished glass.’
Undoubtedly one of Lovecraft’s finest works. It’s a beautiful and poetically melancholic story rip with the gothic themes so common in the works of his literary predecessor Edgar Allan Poe.
More so than in Poe’s stories, though, there’s an overall sadness to the main character, one that’s depressing, making The Outsider a beautifully sad tale.
One might wonder what the narrator’s strange, original world with its dark decaying castle and towering trees is. To me, it always felt like it describes the narrator’s afterlife, and the books that line the castle walls are the memories of his earthly life. When he eventually escapes, he finds himself in a graveyard as if he’s reawakened not from a different world, but the grave.
The Outside is a pretty unique story in Lovecraft’s body of work, for the narrator isn’t a scholar or man of science who discovers a terrible secret about reality itself. Instead, it’s a very personal story, and the narrator is nothing but a lonely figure longing for contact with others.
The Outsider is without a doubt one of Lovecraft’s finest works that presents is with beautiful gothic imagery and a feeling of almost palpable loneliness. It’s a fine addition to this list of the best Lovecraft stories.
Best Lovecraft Stories – The Music of Erich Zann – Andrew Brosnatch
The Music of Erich Zann is one of Lovecraft’s earliest examples of cosmic horror and one of the best Lovecraft stories. What’s especially interesting is that the story bears no connection to the Cthulhu Mythos. Instead, it’s a simpler, more intimate story.
The story features a university student who moves into a cheap apartment, in an old building. It’s located in a street in Paris named the Rue d’Auseil bordered by a giant wall.
Few people live at the place. One is the titular character of Erich Zann, an elderly German violinist. The man lives on the buildings top floor where the only window that allows a look above the giant wall is located. At night, the man can be heard playing strange melodies on his instrument.
Before long, the narrator, intrigued by the old man’s music, approaches him and asks if he can listen to his music. When he hums a specific tune, Zann urges him to move to a lower apartment, so he won’t hear his music anymore. He promises him, however, to invite him to listen to his other music.
Zann returns to his antisocial behavior and refuses to let the narrator listen. After this, the young man’s curiosity drives him to listen to Zann’s music in secret.
One night he hears the old man scream and when he barges into his apartment, Zann wants to explain everything and starts writing. Soon a distant sound is heard, and Zann continues playing his music frantically.
The music he’s now playing is horrible, and the student realizes it’s keeping something away. The sounds from outside grow louder, the window shatters and an unnatural wind blows Zann’s pages away.
At this moment the narrator’s finally able to see outside. Beyond the wall, he only finds a terrible black void, an infinite abyss of chaos.
The wind soon blows out the candles, leaving Zann and the narrator in absolute darkness. As he moves, he feels chilling things brushing against him. When he tries to bring Zann to follow him from the room, he discovers the old man’s dead, yet his body’s still playing the violin.
The narrator runs from Zann’s apartment, the building, and eventually from not only the neighborhood but also the Rue d’Asueil.
Writing about the incident now, the narrator could never find the street again. It does not appear in any maps and no one but him has ever heard about it.
Lovecraft considered The Music of Erich Zann one of his best stories. He wasn’t alone in this assessment though, because it was one of the few stories that found appreciation during his lifetime and which was frequently anthologized.
It’s another, shorter story, but one rip with a heavy atmosphere. The mysterious street, the apartment building, and the old German violinist with his strange music set a great tone for the terrible final.
It’s yet another one of Lovecraft’s stories in which a character is confronted and witnesses something far beyond his understanding.
Even more interesting, the narrator appears to be the only person to know about the Rue d’Asueil. It begs to wonder what place he was at.
The Music of Erich Zann is also a story I enjoyed a lot for a personal reason. It features of music as a major plot element similar to novel New Haven.
It’s an interesting and fantastically done tale and without a doubt one of the best Lovecraft stories.
We enter the top ten with another one of Lovecraft’s earlier works of pure horror. It’s also one of the best Lovecraft stories.
Our nameless narrator is a reporter who makes his way to Tempest Mountain after various reports cite the attack of an unidentified creature.
It all started during a huge thunderstorm. An entire village was destroyed and all of its inhabitants have since gone missing.
During his investigation, the narrator learns about the Martense Mansion, a century-old Dutch home, now long abandoned.
The narrator eventually visits the old mansion and brings along two of his friends. When another thunderstorm hits they are forced to stay the night at the mansion. While the place is entirely deserted, they still take precautions in case they are attacked. Eventually, they fall asleep. Upon awakening, the narrator realizes his companions are gone, but not before seeing a grotesque shadow.
The story continues as the narrator investigates the murders that have taken place as well as the sightings of the creature with a fellow reporter.
Before long he learns more about the Martense family, their isolated nature, including inter-marriage and their eventual disappearance.
Before long, as he investigates the mansion, he learns of the true, disturbing nature of the Lurking Fear and what became of the Martense family.
There’s much to be discovered in this story, and Lovecraft lures us into wrong directions multiple times before he gives us a fantastically done revelation.
The Lurking Fear is a story that comprises four installments, each detailing the narrator’s continued investigation and the slow revelation of the ghastly mystery of Tempest Mountain and the Martense Mansion.
It’s a story that’s very reminiscent of American Gothic and thematically, and stylistically similar to another one of his great, early horror stories, The Rats in the Walls.
The story’s setting adds a lot to the Gothic feeling it gives off, not only for the old, decrepit mansion.
There’s the isolated setting, but also the prevalent thunderstorms that hang as heavy over Tempest Mountain as the mystery the story contains.
While the Lurking Fear might be one of Lovecraft’s earlier works, it’s still one of his best pure horror stories. There are no Elder Gods here, no creatures from Cthulhu Mythos, instead, the horror is entirely man-made.
The Lurking Fear is one of my favorites and clearly one of the best Lovecraft stories.
Best Lovecraft Stories – The Dreams in the Witch House – Illustrated by Jens Heimdahl
The Dreams in the Witch House is one of Lovecraft’s later tales. With this story, we’re finally ready to jump into Lovecraft’s later, most famous body of work and the Cthulhu Mythos. It’s these works that are generally regarded as the best Lovecraft stories.
And what a jump it is. The Dreams in the Witch House is one of Lovecraft’s strangest, most weird stories. It can best be described as witches traveling to alternate planes of existence using the power of geometry and mathematics.
It’s exactly for this reason that the story stands out. The story is more in-depth with its use of science and mathematics than any of his other stories.
Our narrator, Walter Gilman, is a student of mathematics and folklore at Miskatonic University.
He rents the attic of a house in Arkham that’s rumored to be cursed and known as the ‘Witch House’. A woman named Keziah Mason once lived there, an accused witch who mysteriously disappeared from a jail cell in Salem in 1693.
Gilman soon learns that many of the occupants of the attic have died prematurely. Even stranger, he notices that the dimensions of the attic differ from those of normal geometry.
He theorizes that this structure could allow one to travel from one plane of existence to another. Gilman soon experiences bizarre dreams in which he floats through an otherworldly space of strange geometry, color, and sounds and notices various entities.
At other nights, he’s haunted by visions of the witch Keziah and her rat-bodied familiar, Brown Jenkins. However, he soon doubts that those are just visions.
In yet another dream, Gilman visits the city of the Elder Things and brings back evidence of actually having been there.
Eventually, his dreams escalate, as he signs the Book of Azathot under the command of Keziah, her familiar, and an unknown entity known as The Black Man. Gilman is then forced to be an accomplice in the kidnapping of an infant. Upon waking, he uncovers mud on his feet and soon learns of the news of an infant going missing.
On Walpurgis Night he dreams that the witch wants to sacrifice the infant in a bizarre ritual. He strangles the witch, but Brown Jenkins can complete the ritual by biting through the infant’s wrist.
He eventually details the entire story to a fellow boarder in the home. The man doesn’t believe the tale at first, but then bears witness to Brown Jenkins eating his way through Gilman’s chest.
Eventually, the house is abandoned and later razed. During this task, the workers find not only the skeleton of Keziah and Brown Jenkins but also her books on dark magic and, hidden between the walls, a space filled with the bones of children.
The Dreams in the Witch House is an interesting story, especially for its inclusion of science, mathematics, and geometry. Lovecraft was supposedly inspired by attending a lecture of Willem de Sitter, a Dutch mathematician, physician, and astronomer who talked about gaining a deeper understanding of the universe by a combination of geometry and the curvature of space.
While many of his later works can be categorized as a blend of science-fiction and horror, The Dreams in the Witch House still stands out as rather unique.
There’s of course many of Lovecraft’s usual elements of cosmic horror to be found in this tale. We see other races, including Elder Things, Nyarlathotep, and even Azathot.
Yet, all is not well with this story. While I loved the imagery, the ideas, and the grand cosmic landscapes conveyed, the plot itself was a little too weird to me. It seemed almost hackneyed and strangely convoluted because it includes so many different elements.
Still, it’s a good, strange story, especially because of its ideas and its imagery. Even if the plot might not be its strongest point, it’s still worth a read.
Best Lovecraft Stories – The Shadow Over Innsmouth – Illustrated by Taeyeon Kim
The Shadow over Innsmouth is a fundamental work of the Cthulhu Mythos, introducing us to one of his most iconic creations, the Deep Ones, a race of intelligent ocean-dwelling creatures.
The narrator of this story is an unnamed student on a tour through New England. Eventually, he decides to visit the small town of Innsmouth.
While he waits for the bus, he talks to the people in the neighboring town of Newburyport. Everyone there talks about Innsmouth only in superstitious tones.
Innsmouth turns out to be a mostly deserted fishing town, populated by people who walk with a distinctive, shambling gait, have strange narrow heads, flat noses, and bulging, stary eyes.
The only normal person seems to be a grocery clerk from nearby Arkham who hands him a map of the town and tells him about a local man named Zadok Allen. The man’s an alcoholic, and if the narrator gets him drunk enough, he might reveal a few things about Innsmouth. He also gets warned not to venture too deep into town. Outsiders aren’t welcome and have occasionally disappeared.
Upon meeting with Zadok, he learns that an Innsmouth merchant named Obed Marsh discovered a race of fishlike humanoids known as the Deep Ones. Obed established a cult, the Esoteric Order of Dagon, which offered them human sacrifices in exchange for wealth.
When Obed and his followers were arrested, the Deep Ones attacked the town and killed half the population. The survivors had no other option but to follow Obed’s practices and were forced to breed with the Deep Ones. The resulting offspring look like humans in their early life but eventually transform into Deep Ones themselves.
These ocean-dwellers also have plans to capture the surface world and use Shoggoths to shape it to their liking.
At the end of their talk, Zadok sees strange waves approaching and urges the narrator to leave town immediately. He’s unnerved by all this, but ultimately dismisses the story.
When the bus has trouble, the narrator has no other choice but to spend the night in the Gilman House, a musty hotel in town.
While attempting to sleep, he hears noises at his door, as if someone’s trying to force himself in. He escapes via the window and through the streets while a town-wide hunt for him occurs. At times he’s even forced to mimic the peculiar walk of the locals as he makes his way past several search parties.
Eventually, he makes his way towards railroad tracks. There he bears witness to a procession of Deep Ones whose appearance is enough to make him pass out in terror. He awakes unharmed and finally escapes the town.
Years later, after lots of research, he discovers that he’s a descendant of Obed Marsh himself and is now starting to change into a Deep One himself. He accepts his fate and is prepared to join the Deep Ones in their city.
The Shadow over Innsmouth holds a very special place in Lovecraft’s body of work. It’s the only one of his stories that contains scenes of genuine suspense and even action. The entire scene at the hotel and the subsequent flight of the narrator are uncommon for Lovecraft, but very well done.
Usually, the best Lovecraft stories focus on slow, deliberate investigations of mental surprises and slipping sanity.
That’s why The Shadow over Innsmouth is a rare gem. Lovecraft, however, wasn’t fond of the story and rejected it, calling it hackneyed and regarding it as one of his worst efforts. In my opinion, he succeeded very well in the tale itself, and in conveying action and suspense.
It’s not only these scenes that make the story work. It’s the general idea of a person alone in a mysterious, degenerative community that is inherently fascinating and lends itself perfectly to the horror genre. Yet, Lovecraft makes things even worse, by rendering his inhabitants not just backward or degenerate but by making them barely human creatures.
What helps to bring forth this atmosphere is Lovecraft’s descriptions of the gloomy, crumbling town of Innsmouth as well as the descriptions of his ghastly inhabitants. It’s this gloomy atmosphere that lures you in, and we know from the moment the narrator sets foot into Innsmouth that it’s far from a normal town.
Innsmouth also features another one of Lovecraft’s major obsessions, the theme of tainted ancestry and corrupted blood. It’s a theme that we also encountered in his stories Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family and Rats in the Walls. It’s interesting to note the narrator’s end especially which might describe Lovecraft’s own latent fears. Both his parents were admitted to and eventually died at mental institutions.
Another theme we see at work is that of man’s messing with powers and creatures far beyond their understanding. In his greed, Obed Marsh communed with the Deep Ones which ultimately have dire consequences for all of Innsmouth.
The Shadow over Innsmouth was also the only one of Lovecraft’s stories to be published in book form during his lifetime. However, the book was riddled with typographical errors, only a few hundred copies were printed and even less sold, making it a failure.
Yet, nowadays, The Shadow over Innsmouth is one of Lovecraft’s most popular and well-regarded stories.
The only problem I personally have with the tale is its ending. It feels too much of a coincidence for coincidence’s sake and Lovecraft’s attempt at bringing the narration full circle. The narrator was a man who accidentally, and out of curiosity, stumbled into the small town of Innsmouth. Yet, in the end, it’s revealed that he himself is a descendant of Obed Marsh and will eventually turn into a Deep One himself. It’s a bit of a stretch, one that’s a bit too long for me.
Apart from that, it’s a fantastic and unique tale.
Best Lovecraft Stories – The Call of Cthulhu – Illustrated by Sofyan Syarief
And so we finally come to the Call of Cthulhu, Lovecraft’s most popular piece of work and, without a doubt, one of the best Lovecraft stories of all time.
Robert E. Howard described it as a masterpiece, while French novelist Michel Houellebecq described it as the first of Lovecraft’s great texts. Many other writers hold it in high regard.
Yet, The Call of Cthulhu is not only popular, but it served as the basis for the entire Cthulhu Mythos, which makes the story even more popular and influential.
That’s the reason it’s another perfect introduction for anyone new to Lovecraft, the Cthulhu Mythos, or cosmic horror in general.
The Call of Cthulhu is written differently from most of Lovecraft’s other stories. It features a more fragmented way of storytelling. It ties together various incidents by a narrative framework which allows the horror to slowly creep in before the story comes to inclusion that includes even its narrator.
The narrator, Francis Wayland Thurston, details what he found in the notes of his great uncle, a prominent professor at Brown University in Providence who recently died.
As outlined before, the story details the various notes, each containing incidents related to some sort of entity.
The first chapter regards a bas-relief sculpture of a strange entity that simultaneously contains the picture of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings. The sculpture was created by a student who based it on a dream of great Cyclopean cities of titanic blocks and sky-flung monoliths, all dripping with green ooze and sinister with latent horrors.
It’s here that Cthulhu and the dead city of R’lyeh are first mentioned.
As the story continues we learn that there are strange cults who worship the same creature and who own similar sculptures.
It’s here that we encounter two of Lovecraft’s most famous quotes:
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn” (“In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”)
“That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.”
In the last chapter of the story, we learn of a sailor who eventually arrives at nothing less than R’lyeh, raised from the depth of the sea, and who encounters Cthulhu himself.
The narrator tries to meet up with the sailor regarding his experiences, only to learn that the man was murdered. It’s at this point that the narrator realizes that he’s in danger too, for he knows too much, and the cult still lives.
Best Lovecraft Stories – The Call of Cthulhu – Illustrated by Sofyan Syarief
The Call of Cthulhu is another fantastic story, written uniquely. It contains all the hallmarks of a typical Lovecraft and Cthulhu Mythos story: strange influences, non-Euclidean geometry, elder beings, and of course, people driven to insanity. What’s interesting though is that while Cthulhu, the immense Old One, slumbering within the non-Euclidian walls of the dead city of R’lyeh, is Lovecraft’s most famous creation, the being never appears in any other stories. It’s only mentioned by name, here and there.
While I enjoyed the story tremendously, I still have my problems with it.
Many people hail The Call of Cthulhu as Lovecraft’s best work. Yet, I can’t help to put it lower on the list. The reason is that the protagonist feels too removed from the story and the general action. This makes the story almost feel like an essay of strange incidents.
It’s this non-traditional structure that combines a traditional narrative with journals of various witnesses that make the story work in one way but doesn’t in another.
In essence, The Call of Cthulhu is a story within a story within a story.
It’s an intriguing and interesting tale. Each incident adds a little more to the general puzzle until we’re greeted with an appearance of Cthulhu himself. However, other stories by Lovecraft have a more finished feel to them and a tighter narrative, making them, at least to me personally, more satisfying.
This doesn’t mean it’s a bad story, by no means. It’s after all one of Lovecraft’s great texts and deservedly mentioned as one of his best by fans. I just feel there are other stories more worthy of praise while The Call of Cthulhu can be a bit overrated.
Still, I’d recommend the story to anyone interested in Lovecraft, the Cthulhu Mythos, and cosmic horror.
Best Lovecraft Stories – The Rats in the Walls – Nyarlathotep – Dominique Signoret
The Rats in the Walls is another one of Lovecraft’s pure horror tales and one of his earlier horror stories. Yet, it’s not only the best of those early horror tales, it’s also one of his best Lovecraft stories of all times.
The Rats in the Walls is the story of an old American, Delapore. After the death of his son in WWI, the man returns to his ancestral estate in England.
The home was abandoned when his only surviving ancestor fled the place. Delapore restores the estate, but after moving in, he’s frequently haunted by the sounds of rats behind the walls.
It’s not only the rats that trouble him. He’s also plagued by ghastly dreams, featuring a devilish swineherd and his disfigured livestock who are eventually eaten by a flood of rats.
Eventually, Delapore and a friend of his son named Norrys uncover a secret tunnel below the altar in the building’s basement.
With a group of explorers they descend and find a giant grotto. The buildings there reaching from ancient times until the time when his ancestor fled the building.
Human bones are everywhere, some even in cages. They realize they’ve found the dwelling of a cannibalistic underground society that raised human cattle.
And this is where Delapor’s dreams stem from. After his ancestor fled, the rest of the human cattle were left behind to be devoured by the rats inhabiting the cesspits of the city.
In one of those, Delapore finds a skeleton among the rest wearing a ring with his family badge on it. This proves that the cannibalistic society was no other than his own family.
Upon this revelation, Delapore snaps, attacks Norrys, and begins eating him. All the while, he rambles on in a mixture of Middle English, Latin, and Gaelic before his voice devolves into a cacophony of animalistic grunts.
Delapore’s eventually subdued by the rest of the explorers and placed in a mental institution. In there, he desperately pledges his innocence, stating that it was ‘the rats, the rats in the walls’ who ate Norrys.
And in this cell, Delapore continues to be plagued by the sounds of rats in the walls.
While the plot, with its old family mansion and the strange sounds behind the walls, it’s the ending that will surprise and even haunt you. It’s one of the best climaxes Lovecraft ever wrote, only topped by that of The Whisperer in Darkness and The Shadow Out of Time.
Delapore’s madness and his insane ramblings might almost suggest that he’s devolving, changing back to the way of his ancestors, committing the same deed, and speaking the same way.
The Rats in the Walls might be one of Lovecraft’s most depraved stories, especially for the narrator Delapore. There’s not only the knowledge of his tainted ancestry, but also the deed he committed. And in the end, he’s left in an asylum where he’s constantly tormented by the sounds of the rats.
An interesting tidbit is the idea that the story might be a nod to Lovecraft’s literary icon Edgar Allan Poe and his story The Tell-Tale Heart. Both narrators are haunted by sounds, and are, ultimately, driven mad by them.
The Rats in the Walls is a true masterpiece of horror literature. It’s the best of Lovecraft’s earlier horror stories, and one that will stay on your mind for quite a while after reading it.
Best Lovecraft Stories – The Dunwhich Horror – Illustrated by László Báti
The Dunwich Horror is one of the best Lovecraft stories and one worthy to open the top five with.
The story begins by describing the strange circumstances of the birth of the deformed son of an albino mother called Lavinia Whateley and an unknown father.
This child, called Wilbur, matures at an abnormal rate. He begins to read and write at an age far younger than other children and reaches adulthood within a decade.
The locals shun the family while animals fear Wilbur and despise his odor. Wilbur’s grandfather, on the other hand, is rumored to be a sorcerer who teaches him rituals and witchcraft.
The townspeople soon notice another peculiarity about the family. Wilbur’s grandfather buys more and more cattle, but the size of his herd never increases. Even worse, more and more cattle seem to disappear or are covered in terrible wounds.
It soon dawns on the townspeople that Wilbur and his grandfather house a strange, unseen presence in their home, one who requires the two to frequently modify their home.
Eventually, Wilbur’s mother disappears, his grandfather dies, and the strange entity seems to occupy the entire house.
Wilbur visits the library of Miskatonic University, requesting to rent their copy of the Necronomicon, so he can complete his rituals.
When he’s denied by the librarian, Doctor Henry Armitage, he breaks into the library at night but is attacked and eventually killed by a guard dog. When Doctor Armitage and two of his colleagues, Professor Warren Rice and Francis Morgan arrive, Wilbur’s corpse melts before their eyes.
After Wilbur’s death, no one’s left to care for the entity in the farmhouse. It eventually breaks free and rampages across Dunwich. The entity seems to be an invisible monster and in the course of the next several days, two families and several policemen are killed by it.
Eventually, Armitage, Rice, and Morgan learn what the entity might be and how to fight it. They use a magic powder to render the creature visible before destroying it with a spell.
Before being destroyed the creature babbles in an alien tongue before it screams for Yog-Sothoth, its father to help him. It’s then revealed what the creature truly is, Wilbur’s twin brother, though it took more after his father.
Best Lovecraft Stories – Yog-Sothoth – dominique Signoret
The Dunwich Horror is a story that was written a few years after The Shadow over Innsmouth. Yet, it follows a similar thematic, namely that of human-monster offspring.
It’s not only this thematic but its many reoccurring elements, Arkham, Miskatonic University, the Necronomicon, and the entity Yog-Sothoth, make it a core story of the Cthulhu Mythos.
The Dunwich Horror is a story written in Lovecraft’s usual delightful style. It lends itself perfectly to the first half of the story. It’s here that Lovecraft focuses on Wilbur, his deformities, the old farmhouse, and everything that’s going on in his over-descriptive and flowery vocabulary.
What’s so great about this story is the slow and deliberate development. The first half of the story is dedicated solely to Wilbur and his family. It might be one of Lovecraft’s most effective, drawn-out works of horror.
After his introduction, and for the first half of the story, one’s inclined to think that Wilbur’s the protagonist of the tale. Only when he suddenly dies are the real protagonists revealed. It’s also the same time that the Dunwich Horror finally breaks free.
One thing that makes the story stand out among Lovecraft’s body of work is that it ends in a far more optimistic tone than his other stories. It’s only in the Dunwich horror that mankind wins over the dark entities they are confronted with. Wilbur, the terrible half-breed is unceremoniously killed by a guard dog. The titular Dunwich Horror, a spawn of Yog-Sothoth itself, is destroyed by men of science-
The Dunwich Horror is a fantastic story, one that stands out in various ways and that’s clearly one of Lovecraft’s most celebrated works and one of the best Lovecraft stories of all time.
Best Lovecraft Stories – The Colour Out of Space – Illustrated by Ludvik Skopalik
The Colour Out of Space is Lovecraft’s most original story and features his most original creation. It was also Lovecraft’s personal favorite among his body of work.
The story has frequently adapted, most recently as a movie by the same name starring Nicolas Cage.
The Colour Out of Space was also the first of his later, most popular blends of science-fiction and horror.
Lovecraft’s motif when creating the story sprang from his dissatisfaction with how aliens from outer space were portrayed in fiction at the time. What he wanted was to create an entity that’s truly alien and doesn’t resemble a human being or any other earthly creature.
The Colour Out of Space is told by an unnamed narrator. He wants to uncover the secret behind a place known as the blasted heath.
When he gets no information from any of the townspeople, he seeks out a supposedly crazy man named Ammi Pierce. From this man, the narrator learns what happened to a farmer named Nahum Gardner and his family who used to live on the cursed property.
It all started when a meteorite crashed on Gardner’s land in June 1882. The meteorite puzzled scientists who weren’t able to discern its origin. As it shrinks, it leaves behind globules of color which are only referred to by analogy since their color itself is outside the visible spectrum.
In the following season, Gardner’s crops grow unnaturally large and abundant but are discovered to be inedible. Gardner becomes convinced that the meteorite poisoned his soil.
The infection soon spreads to the surrounding vegetation and animals altering them in unusual ways.
When Gardner’s wife goes insane, he slowly isolates himself from the rest of the farming community, only corresponding with Ammi Pierce who becomes his only contact to the outside world.
At this point, the vegetation outside Gardner’s home erodes into gray dust and the water becomes tainted. Soon after the livestock turns gray as well and dies, their meat becoming inedible.
One of Gardner’s sons first goes mad and dies. Another one, Merwin vanishes after being sent to retrieve water from the well.
After two weeks without contact, Ammi Pierce makes his way to the farm and learns of the terrible horror that happened there.
Zenas, Gardner’s lost son has disappeared. In the house, he stumbles upon Gardner’s wife who’s been infected by the color. He puts her out of his misery and upon fleeing the house he stumbles upon Gardner who succumbs to the influence of the color.
Pierce later returns to the farmstead with others, including a doctor to identify Nahum’s remains. As they investigate, they discover the skeletons of both Merwin and Zenas at the bottom of the well.
As they reflect on their discovery, a light shines from the bottom of the well. Before they can react, the color emerges from it and spreads over everything in the vicinity.
As they flee, they bear witness to the color finally vanishing into the sky. It’s Pierce alone who turns back. He notices that a small portion of the color fails to follow the rest and sinks back to the well.
Thus Pierce knows that part of the alien entity is still on Earth, which disturbs him deeply. In the time following the Gardner family’s demise, all neighboring families abandon the area.
The Colour out of Space is always included among Lovecraft’s most popular and in lists of the best Lovecraft stories.
Interestingly enough, the story was in part inspired by the construction of the Scituate Reservoir in Rhode Island. Large parts of the town of Scituate were flooded, forcing most its residents to dislocate. One can easily see the similarity, namely numerous people being forced to leave their homes. Only in Lovecraft’s stories, it’s not because of a flood, but because of an alien entity.
There’s an overwhelming, dark atmosphere that hangs over The Colour Out of Space from beginning to end. It gives the reader a sense of dread that only worsens as the story continues.
There’s a slow lurking horror that starts to spread when the color influences everything around Gardner’s farm. This feeling is emphasized by the tragic story of the family. There’s a feeling of helplessness, of despair that lasts until their eventual doom at the end of the tale.
The Color Out of Space is undoubtedly one of Lovecraft’s finest pieces of work, especially because of the entity, the titular color. We know nothing about it, we can’t fathom or even see it and we’ll never know if it was even conscious.
It’s a fantastic story that I highly recommend to any fans of Lovecraft and that serves as a study on how to create a truly alien entity.
Best Lovecraft Stories – The Whisperer in Darkness – Mi-Go – Illustrated by Khannea SunTzu
The Whisperer in Darkness is one of my absolute favorite Lovecraft stories, one I regard as one of the best Lovecraft stories of all time.
Incidentally, it’s also one of the most important stories in his body of work. It introduces us to the Mi-Go, an extraterrestrial species of fungoid creatures and thus broadening the scope of his narrative.
While the Cthulhu Mythos might not be at the center point of the story, it still contains many of its elements and is without a doubt a masterpiece of cosmic horror.
The Whisperer in Darkness is the story of a man named Albert N. Wilmarth, who’s an instructor at Miskatonic University in Arkham.
The story begins with newspaper reports of strange things floating in the rivers after a flood in Vermont. Soon a conspiracy spreads, surrounding what’s supposedly sightings of extraterrestrial creatures.
Wilmarth remains skeptical, siding with those who blame the stories on old legends about monsters living in the hills. This changes when he receives letters from a man maned Henry Wentworth Akeley, living in an isolated farmhouse. Akeley claims he can prove the existence of the creatures.
The two continue to exchange letters. Akeley details accounts of an extraterrestrial race in communication with human agents worshipping Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep.
These human agents soon begin to intercept Akeley’s messages, harass him before the situation escalates and gunfire’s exchanged. Akeley reports having killed one of the extraterrestrial beings and describes their disgusting nature.
Soon after, Akeley seems to reconsider. In a new letter, he explains to Wilmarth that he’s met with the beings and learned they are peaceful. They even taught him many things, far beyond our imagination. He urges Wilmarth to visit him and bring along all the letters and photographic evidence he received.
Wilmarth’s unnerved, but eventually consents.
When he arrives he finds Akeley immobilized and in a sickly condition, sitting in a chair in darkness and whispering to him in a low voice.
Akeley tells him about the extraterrestrial race and the wonders they revealed to him. He also explains that they can surgically remove the human brain and place it in a canister. This will not only allow them to live forever but to also withstand the rigors of space travel.
Akeley himself has agreed to undertake such a journey and points to a canister bearing his name. Another one of the brains talks about the positive aspects of the journey and urges Wilmarth to join them on a trip to Yuggoth. It’s the beings outpost in our solar system, revealed to be Pluto.
The entire conversation gives Wilmarth a growing feeling of unease, especially from Akeley’s strange buzzing whispers.
During the night, Akeley’s awoken by a disturbing conversation between several bizarre voices. When he goes downstairs, he finds Akeley gone. All he finds is his robe, hiding a most terrifying discovery that sends him running from the house in terror.
It was the face and hands of Akeley.
The Whisperer in Darkness has all a great Lovecraft story needs. We’re not only introduced to the extraterrestrial Mi-Go. We also get vast information about Lovecraft’s terrible universe and the many beings out there.
“I found myself faced by names and terms that I had heard elsewhere in the most hideous of connections—Yuggoth, Great Cthulhu, Tsathoggua, Yog-Sothoth, R’lyeh, Nyarlathotep, Azathoth, Hastur, Yian, Leng, the Lake of Hali, Bethmoora, the Yellow Sign, L’mur-Kathulos, Bran, and the Magnum Innominandum…”
What made this story so great to me was not only the revelation. It also showed us just how broad the scope of Lovecraft’s body of work truly is. There are not only ghastly entities hiding on earth or at the bottom of the ocean. No, this story widens the scope of his work to the entirety of the cosmos.
The Whisperer in Darkness describes extraterrestrial beings that come to visit us and regard man as nothing more than another small, insignificant part of the greater cosmos.
I absolutely loved the plot of this tale. We follow it along from Wilmarth’s early skepticism, Akeley’s letters, Wilmarth’s growing beliefs until we enter the final, terrible revelation near the end.
All of those parts make The Whisperer in Darkness an absolute masterpiece of speculative fiction and cosmic horror. It’s a story I’ll urge any fan of Lovecraft, cosmic horror, or general science-fiction-horror to read.
Best Lovecraft Stories – At the Mountains of Madness – Elder Thing – Tom Ardans
At the Mountains of Madness is Lovecraft’s Magnum opus, his most popular work after The Call of Cthulhu and without a doubt one of the best Lovecraft stories of all time.
It is another blend of science-fiction and horror that encompasses everything that makes Lovecraft so special. It’s no understatement to say it stands at the top of his entire body of work.
At the Mountains of Madness details the events that took place during an Antarctic expedition led by Dr. William Dryer of Miskatonic University.
The expedition starts off promising and the scientists discover various fossils. One of them is a strange trigonal imprint which leads Professor Lake and a part of the investigation to further investigate. Lake and his team make their way northward.
Lake and his group discover not only a giant mountain ranger higher than any other on Earth but also fourteen prehistoric lifeforms. These lifeforms are unidentifiable as either plants or animals. Six of them are damaged while eight appear to be preserved in pristine condition.
When Lake dissects one of the specimens, he realizes they bear a striking resemblance to creatures mentioned in the Necronomicon, the so-called Elder Things.
Soon after the main expedition loses contact with Lake’s group. When they stumble upon the camp, they find it destroyed. Most of the man and dogs have been slaughtered.
Near the camp, they discover six-shaped mounds, each containing one of the specimens. All the specimens in prime condition appear to have vanished and the remains of a man and a dog appear to have been dissected.
Dryer and a graduate student named Danforth, fly a plane across the mountains and discover a vast city of alien architecture. When they explore it they stumble upon hieroglyphic murals.
From there they learn that the Elder Things came to Earth shortly after the Moon was created. They built their vast city with the help of so-called Shoggoths. These are biological entities, created by the Elder Things to perform any task and assume any shape.
They continue exploring and learn that the Elder Things were in conflict with the Star-Spawn of Cthulhu and the Mi-Go. They also find hints of an unnamed evil lurking within an even larger mountain ranger beyond the city.
Their culture eventually degraded when the Shoggoths gained independence. The last of the murals become haphazard and primitive, explaining that the Elder Things eventually fled to a vast subterranean ocean.
Dyer eventually realizes that the Elder Things missing from the camp must’ve come back to life, slaughtered Lake’s group before they returned to the city.
They discover traces of the Elder Things, follow them, and are led to the entrance of a tunnel that seems to lead to the subterranean regions depicted in the murals.
There they are confronted by a black, bubbling mass which they identify as a Shoggoth. They barely escape with their lives.
As they fly back, Danforth looks back and sees something far beyond the city that destroys his sanity, implied to be the unspoken evil mentioned in the murals.
Dyer concludes that the Elder Things were merely survivors of a bygone era. They only slaughtered Lake’s group out of fear, self-defense, or scientific curiosity.
He ends the tale by warning anyone who thinks about exploring Antarctica to stay clear of the place.
Best Lovecraft Stories – At the Mountains of Madness – Shoggoth – Tatsuya Nottsuo
At the center of At the Mountains of Madness is a feeling of vivid dread. We are shown just how small and meaningless our place truly is. Not only in the grander scale of things, but even here, on our very own planet. He conveys this feeling by rendering vivid descriptions of icy wastes, dark artifacts, and the remnants of a lost civilization that existed long before the dawn of man.
It’s another story that’s foundational to the Cthulhu Mythos. It shows us the ancient, alien history of Earth and introduces us not only to the Elder Things and the Shoggoth but also mentions a number of Great Old Ones.
If one’s familiar with the works of Edgar Allan Poe and his novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Plym of Nantucket, one can find many similarities between both works. In a way, At the Mountains of Madness is an homage to Poe’s work. They both feature an Antarctic expedition and Lovecraft cites Poe’s novel twice. He even borrows the cry ‘Tekel-li’ from Poe’s work.
Lovecraft chose Antarctica as a setting not only as an homage to Poe. Even during his lifetime, there was very little known about the continent. That’s why it was the ideal spot for fictional geography and alien ruins.
At the Mountains of Madness is a fantastic, well-written tale. It comes in Lovecraft’s usual descriptive style and presents to us not only an alien landscape but also disturbingly alien creatures.
One can also see Lovecraft’s general development as a writer. In earlier stories, creatures and entities were often described as beyond explaining, or too terrifying and alien to comprehend. In At the Mountains of Madness, Lovecraft could finally present us with a clear vision of his creatures, both the Elder Things and the Shoggoths.
It’s truly one of the best Lovecraft stories, a masterpiece, and one of the greatest classics of cosmic horror and the Cthulhu Mythos.
Best Lovecraft Stories – The Shadow Out of Time – Illustrated by Vishchun
And so we finally come to The Shadow Out of Time, my favorite tale by H. P. Lovecraft.
It’s yet another blend of science-fiction and horror, but in scope, it’s by far his most epic and ambitious work.
The Shadow Out of Time introduces us to another unique creation of Lovecraft, the Great Race of Yith. They are an extraterrestrial species able to travel through time and space by switching bodies with hosts from a chosen place in time and space.
The story is told from the perspective of Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, an American professor of political economy at Miskatonic University.
One day he suffers an attack during one of his lectures which renders him unconscious. When he finally comes to himself, five years have passed. He learns that he wasn’t in a coma, but was a changed person and had supposedly gone mad.
After he comes back to himself, his sleep is haunted by strange dreams of another world and vast, alien cities. In this city, he’s led about by strange creatures and experiences their way of life.
At first, he regards those episodes as nothing but a by-product of his temporary insanity. However, he soon comes to a different conclusion.
While he’s at first relieved to learn of other cases of similar temporary insanity, he gets worried when he learns that the experiences of others are almost identical to his.
The narrator’s dreams become more and more vivid and he becomes obsessed with archeology and ancient manuscripts. Yet, he still lacks proof for what he thinks might have happened to him.
Eventually, he leads an expedition to the Great Desert in Australia. There the ruins of a vast, ancient civilization are unearthed and within he finds proof that his dreams are indeed real.
For five years he swapped bodies with a member of the Great Race of Yith. What he finds in the ancient, million-year-old ruins are none other than his very own writings, in the English language, and written by his own hand.
I absolutely love The Shadow Out of Time, and two things make this story very special.
First, it’s the way the story is written. The Shadow Out of Time is not a simple, straightforward story. It’s written in an investigative, backward fashion as the narrator tries to uncover what happened in the past five years of his life.
And slowly, via dreams, research, and tales from acquaintances as well as family, he uncovers what truly happened.
Second, it’s the sheer scope of the narrative. It features not only people from various points in history, including ancient Romans, monks, and future wizards but also non-human entities such as Elder Things.
There’s no other story in Lovecraft’s body of work that better outlines the shallowness and pointlessness of humanity in the face of greater cosmic powers. It’s without a doubt Lovecraft’s most grandiose, most-awe-inspiring, and imaginative story. The Shadow Out of Time is Lovecraft’s purest vision of what cosmic horror is all about.
It contains nothing short of the history of the planet Earth from the eyes of both humans, but also those of a space-and-time traveling civilization that’s around way longer than we will ever be. Humanity on the other end is nothing but a footnote in the history of our very own planet. In the universe’s history, we’re unlikely to be remembered by anyone.
What’s even more interesting is the depiction of the Great Race of Yith. The Yithian’s aren’t presented antagonistically. They are benevolent to their visitors, letting them explore their vast library city and learn whatever they wish to learn.
Their entire reason for doing what they do is not to harm, but to learn. Their goal is to study all forms of civilization throughout space-and-time.
The Shadow out of time is an absolute masterpiece with a scope that’s mind-blowing. It’s not only showing us that other races inhabit Earth, an idea Lovecraft already explored in At the Mountains of Madness. No, he goes far beyond it and presents to us a race who’s able to travel not only through space but also time.
It shows us not just how vast Lovecraft’s universe is, but also how vast his imagination and creativity was.
If you want to witness Lovecraft at his grandest, at his most ambitious, I urge you to read The Shadow Out of Time. It’s a fantastic, well-written story that’s mind-blowing, both in scope and in creativity. A fantastic fit for the top spot of this list of the best Lovecraft stories.
As a horror writer, I’ve always been reading, yet most of what I read were works of classical literature. Recently I started to read the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was a writer whose stories I was well familiar with. Yet, it was mostly because of pop-culture references and from the influence he had on other writers and horror literature in general.
That’s why I spent the last months reading almost all of his works.
There are few writers as influential as Edgar Allan Poe on the horror genre and the American literary tradition in general. It’s not wrong to say he was a pioneer in many ways. He didn’t just set new standards; he changed the entire course of literature.
Edgar Allan Poe is hailed as the father of the modern detective story, the psychological horror genre, but he was also highly influential in such genres as science-fiction and adventure.
The list of writers Edgar Allan Poe influenced is long and extensive, including Charles Baudelaire, H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Herman Melville, Arthur Conan Doyle, H. P. Lovecraft, and even Sigmund Freud.
It’s no understatement to say that the literary world we know today might be very different without him.
Want to know more about Edgar Allan Poe and his life? Check out the Writers Mythos and their episode on Edgar Allan Poe.
Reading the works of Edgar Allan Poe differed from what I expected. I’d imagined him to be a writer of ghost stories and of creepy tales in which people are stalked by dark things and terrible creatures.
Instead, I was treated to tales of unreliable narrators, characters who are mentally ill and suffer from various ailments, fears, and addictions.
There were seldom any ghastly creatures. Instead, I was treated to tales of gripping psychological horror, of sick minds, and the terrible deeds they committed.
When I first started to read Edgar Allan Poe’s works, I needed some time to get used to them. As a non-native speaker, his often verbose and poetic style was tough to get into. His writing is often very imaginative, relying more on mood and atmosphere. He’s painting detailed pictures, not only of what his characters see, but what they feel and experience.
Once I got used to it though, there was something special about Edgar Allan Poe’s style. Reading his stories out loud made me recognize the mastery he held over the craft. There’s rhythm to his work, there’s power, suspense, and emotion, something you can truly feel and hear when you read his works out loud or listen to them.
While I mostly enjoyed Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, I couldn’t help but feel that I was reading poetry at times. It proves, at least to me, that Poe was first and foremost a poet, even in prose.
This also relates to his general style. Edgar Allan Poe’s writings aren’t so much vessels for storytelling or plot, they are all about atmosphere, about apprehension turning to terror, and doing so in as few words as possible.
This shows in one of his most fundamental rules of writing, his theory of ‘totality.’ Every element and every word in a short story must contribute to the feeling you want to instill in your readers. It’s an idea that you can see brought to life when reading his stories, and it’s one that I might do well to keep in mind regarding my writing.
While Edgar Allan Poe wrote many different stories, experimented with various different genres, for this list I wanted to focus mostly on his horror stories.
I’m going to discuss why I enjoyed these stories, their plots, their elements, and Edgar Allan Poe’s style. While I’d like not to give away too much about each story, it’s almost impossible. So, if you don’t want to be spoiled, I suggest reading each story before you venture into my discussion. For that, I’ve included a link to the electronic text at the start of each discussion.
So here are my favorite twenty short stories by Edgar Allan Poe:
Edgar Allan Poe – King Pest – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
I’m starting this list with one of Edgar Allan Poe’s comedies, albeit a dark one. I wasn’t too fond of Poe’s comedic writing and his satires, but King Pest stood out for various reasons.
It’s a story set in plague-ridden London, featuring a plethora of extraordinary characters. The first are two seamen. One is a giant, gangly, and almost emaciated man called Legs, the other a short, sturdy man named Hugh Tarpaulin.
At the outset of the story, our two heroes are getting drunk at a tavern and flee without paying.
As they are running from the tavern’s owner, they make their way to the plague quarters. Those are shut off and entry is punishable by death. The two of them, in their desperation and drunk stupor, disregard the rule and make their way to the home of a mortician.
Inside, a strange crowd has gathered. Every one of these characters is disturbingly unique, almost comically weird, and disgusting. It’s at this point, with the entrance into the plague quarters and the introduction of this group, that an eerie atmosphere settles upon the story.
The group is sitting together below a skeleton hanging from the ceiling and tasting the mortician’s wine from skulls.
Legs and Hugh Tarpaulin, however, aren’t afraid and join the group who promptly introduce themselves as the King Pest and his court.
One might think our main characters are too drunk or dumb to realize what’s going on around them. The story toys with this idea, almost making us believe that something terrible is going to happen as the circumstances grow stranger and stranger.
But then Edgar Allan Poe changes the rules, reverses the build-up. He changes the terror-stricken atmosphere to one of humor, as our two extraordinary protagonists thwart the court without a problem and get away.
What makes this story so great is not only this reversal but also the vivid descriptions. None of the characters in this tale are normal. The King Pest and his court are a collection of comically overdrawn freaks, twisted beings, and figures in shrouds. Even our protagonists are far from normal. They, too, are of a strange nature.
While I enjoyed the reversal of the build-up, I still didn’t enjoy the humor employed in this tale all too much. I’d have preferred it if Edgar Allan Poe would have gone the normal route and made this one a true horror tale.
Still, it’s worth the read for the descriptions and the imagery alone.
Edgar Allan Poe – Ligeia – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
Here we have the first of many of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories featuring the death of a beautiful woman, one of his prime themes. It’s what he described as the most poetic theme in the world.
The story starts with our narrator describing his lover Ligeia. She’s a passionate and intellectual woman, one of uncanny beauty. Yet, there’s a certain strangeness to her. Even more interesting though, the narrator can’t seem to recall anything else about her, neither her past nor even her family name.
The two of them get married and Ligeia impresses the narrator with her knowledge of various topics. From the sciences, over classical languages to metaphysics, she even teaches him about certain forbidden types of knowledge.
Eventually, Ligeia grows ill and dies. Our grief-stricken narrator retreats to an old abbey in England, becomes addicted to opium, and eventually remarries Lady Rowena.
Before long, however, she too grows ill, suffering from anxiety and fevers before she dies.
Grief-stricken, the narrator sits vigil at her bedside. It is then that Lady Rowena’s body shows signs of reawakening. At first, the narrator doesn’t believe it, but when he awakes in the morning a shrouded figure stands up from the bed, walks to the center of the room, and reveals herself not the Lady Rowena, but Ligeia.
Yet, all might not be as it seems in this tale. Our narrator is an opium addict and unreliable. It makes us wonder if what happens is true or, by chance, nothing but his opium- and grief-filled hallucinations.
Even more interesting is Ligeia’s introduction. Her talk about the soul moving from one body to the next, existing without it and her obscure background, makes us wonder who she truly is.
As so often, Edgar Allan Poe’s writing is ambiguous, making us guess and wonder, but not revealing the mystery.
All of this is supported by his style. Ligeia is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s more poetic and obscure stories, filled with countless references to obscure and strange works of literature. At times, the writing is getting verbose, even pompous.
Yet, Ligeia is an interesting story, one that makes us guess and wonder, not just about the story but also Edgar Allan Poe’s style.
Edgar Allan Poe – MS. Found in a Bottle – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
MS. Found in a Bottle is more a maritime adventure tale than a true horror story. Yet, there’s enough weirdness here to showcase Edgar Allan Poe’s grim and ghastly style and his imagination.
Our narrator’s a passenger in a cargo ship which capsizes. Only he and an old Swede survive and have to endure in the bitter cold of the sea. Eventually, a gigantic black galleon collides with the wreck and only the narrator manages to get on board.
This ship, however, is much stranger than at first thought. The maps he finds are outdated, the timber the ship is made of seems to have grown or expanded over time, and the elderly crew of the ship doesn’t seem to be able to see him.
The narrator procures writing materials from the captain’s cabin to detail his experiences. He eventually casts those overboard in a bottle just before the ship reaches Antarctica, gets caught in a giant whirlpool, and sinks into the sea.
It’s an interesting tale, clearly a predecessor of those of H. P. Lovecraft.
What made this tale work so well was first the emotions conveyed by the narrator. One can almost feel the desperation, his urge to just give up, and his astonishment upon seeing the gigantic black vessel approach.
The tale also features some amazing visuals and a great atmosphere. The strange black ship and his ancient crew are described in intricate detail, yet we never learn who they are or how they’ve been sailing for so long. One could even think of it as a ghost ship or one frozen in time.
The ending of the tale is the one thing I didn’t enjoy. As it’s related to an idea that was thought scientifically plausible during Edgar Allan Poe’s time, yet I can’t help but find ridiculous. Namely, the theory of the Hollow Earth and that the whirlpool, in the end, leads to it.
Some scholars believe the tale to be a satire of the typical sea tales so popular during Edgar Allan Poe’s times.
Still, it’s an enjoyable tale and even if it’s not one of Edgar Allan Poe’s horror tales, one would be hard-pressed to call it anything else than weird fiction.
Edgar Allan Poe – Hop-Frog – Illustrated by Arthur Rackham
Hop-Frog is the story of an outcast, the titular character of Hop-Frog. He’s a dwarf and the jester at the court of a king, a king who’s fond of practical jokes. That’s also where Hop-Frog got his name from. He’s crippled and because of his deformities, he can’t walk normally.
One day, the king forces Hop-Frog, who can’t stand alcohol, to down multiple goblets. When Hop Frog’s friend and fellow dwarf Trippetta tries to intervene the king pushes her to the ground and throws his goblet of wine in her face.
It’s at this moment that a ghastly sound is heard, a strange grinding which is thought to come from outside yet has a different source.
The story continues when the king asks Hop-Frog for advice about an upcoming masquerade. The king and his ministers plan on scaring the guests and Hop-Frog comes up with an idea. He suggests they all dress up as orangutans, chained together, pretending to be wild beasts.
Unbeknownst to the king, this idea is part of his and Trippetta’s plan to finally get revenge and get rid of their abusers. On the night of the masquerade, their plan’s set into motion. It’s there that we’re also revealed to the source of the strange grinding sounds.
The act of revenge is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s more gruesome murders.
Hope Frog is not Edgar Allan Poe’s only story that features revenge. It’s a motif that also comes up in The Cask of Amontillado, but Hop-Frog is different in many ways. The murderer, Hop-Frog, is sympathetic and the tale even ends with him getting away. Something unique in Edgar Allan Poe’s works.
The telling of the story is also different. While most of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories related to murder or other ghastly incidents are told in first person, Hope Frog is narrated by a third-person narrator, one who seems to have got no relation to the incidents taking place in the tale.
Yet, not all is well in Hop-Frog. One might wonder how the king and his ministers are so easily tricked and follow along with Hop-Frogs’ plan without the sliver of a doubt.
There are even some more interesting facts about Hop-Frog. Some suggest that the story is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s more personal ones. The relationship between Hop-Frog and the king might be a mirror to that of Edgar Allan Poe and his foster father. It makes even more sense when one hears that Edgar Allan Poe, similar to Hop-Frog, couldn’t handle alcohol well. Another idea suggests that Hop-Frog is a tale of literary revenge in which Edgar Allan Poe tricks and murders the eight members of a particular literary circle.
Overall, Hop-Frog is an enjoyable little horror tale, and one of his most conventional. Yet, at least in my opinion, it pales compared to some of his other works.
One of Edgar Allan Poe’s shortest pieces and also a strange one.
It’s not so much a story as a brief glimpse of an incident happening.
It’s set in ancient Greece at a time that a plague’s at large. A group of men have gathered to hold a feast at the deathbed of a friend who succumbed to the plague.
Soon enough, the narrator and his friends notice a shadow resting upon the doorway. The narrator then demands, with downcast eyes, what brings it there.
It then answers, speaking to them in the voices of their departed friends.
Shadow – A Parable is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s more open stories. We might wonder who or what that shadow exactly is, or what brings it there.
One suggestion, a grim one, is that it’s the shadow of death, hanging and looming above those present, talking to them about their demise. It fits in well with the setting of the plague.
Shadow – A Parable is an interesting and short little tale, yet it’s one that I enjoyed a lot.
Edgar Allan Poe – Morella- Illustrated by Harry Clarke
Here we have another one of Edgar Allan Poe’s true horror stories and another one that features the death of a beautiful woman.
It’s another weird story, one that feels more like a fever dream than a story. The beginning talks about the theory of identity by German philosophers Fichte and Schelling.
The narrator marries a woman named Morella. She’s a very intelligent and very intellectual woman and spends a lot of time focusing on the theories outlined at the beginning of the tale.
While studying, Morella’s health eventually deteriorates. She dies in childbirth, leaving, as she called it, the narrator with a pledge of her affection, a daughter.
The child grows up and resembles her mother closely, and before long the narrator fears this uncanny resemblance.
Eventually, the narrator takes her to be baptized to release the evil he thinks took hold of his daughter. It’s there that the narrator’s overtaken by the strangest of feelings and when asked the name of his daughter he names her Morella. At this the daughter calls out ‘I am here’ before she dies.
Yet things aren’t over. The tale continues with the narrator bringing his daughter’s body to the tomb where he buried Morella. Yet as he opens the tomb, he finds no hint of his late wife.
I absolutely loved this tale, and it was one of the earlier stories by Edgar Allan Poe that actually unsettled me, namely by its ending.
What makes it work so well is the introduction and the weird concepts Morella obsesses over. It’s another tale, akin to Metzengerstein, Ligeia, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue, which Edgar Allan Poe starts by explaining and outlining theories, hinting at what’s to come. In Morella, it’s the topic of identity and if it can exist outside the human body.
The genuine horror and the true weirdness of the tale come with the fantastic revelation at the end. Yet, typically for Edgar Allan Poe, we don’t get an explanation. The mood is driven to the top, pushed to a ghastly climax, and we’re left with only the ominous feeling that something’s very wrong.
Edgar Allan Poe – Metzengerstein – Illustrated by Arthur Rackham
Metzengerstein was the very first of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories that ever got published. Incidentally, it was also his very first tale I ever read.
It uses many of the gothic tropes famous at the time, even exaggerates them. We’ve got feuding noble houses, old, decrepit castles, and a setting, isolated from the rest of the world.
Because of this, it’s still debated if Metzengerstein was Edgar Allan Poe’s honest attempt at writing gothic fiction or if it’s a satire of an all too common trend in fiction at the time.
Metzengerstein tells the story of the noble families Metzengerstein and Berlifitzing who’ve been rivals for so long, no one knows how far it dates back.
Before we get into the story, however, Edgar Allan Poe explains a concept central to the events in this tale. It’s the idea that the soul of man can move on to different living things at the moment of their death.
After his parent’s untimely death, young Frederick becomes head of the family and inherits their vast fortune.
The young Frederick is a cruel and sadistic man, committing various atrocities. One day, while he’s meditating in his chambers, his eyes wander to a specific tapestry. It depicts an unnatural colored horse, belonging to a man from Berlifitzing who’s seen being murdered by a man from Metzengerstein in the background. The young Frederick is unnerved by this and eventually leaves the room, only for a strange sight to occur. As he steps outside, his shadow falls exactly on the spot of the murder depicted in the tapestry.
It’s at this time that he learns of the demise of William Von Berlifitzing. His stables were set on fire and the old man tried rescuing his priced horses. It’s of course implied that Frederick was behind it.
It’s soon after that a particular horse appears at the castle, one caught by Frederick’s servants. The horse wears the initials of Berlifitzing, yet no one, not even the man’s servants, can recall a thing about the animal. Frederick, however, takes possession of the horse.
It’s this horse that changes the young baron, making him retreat from society at large, and eventually brings his demise.
I enjoyed this tale, and it was a fine introduction to Edgar Allan Poe’s writing style. It introduces us to a lot of themes important in many of Edgar Allan Poe’s works. People of extreme wealth, gloomy, decrepit buildings, seclusion and teeth. It also showcases that Poe’s tales often include instances of symbolism, here especially in the tapestry scene. A scene which was fantastically done and made implications about what was to come in the tale.
It’s an interesting and short tale, one that already shows us Edgar Allen Poe’s mastery of his craft. One could do much worse as an introduction to Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories.
One of Edgar Allan Poe’s shortest horror stories, yet a good one. It’s yet another tale that features the death of a beautiful woman. As so often, though, Edgar Allan Poe’s able to fit much more in so short a tale.
The Oval Portrait is a story within a story. The narrator of the tale spends the night at an abandoned mansion and comes upon the beautiful portrait of a young woman. In a book he found, he reads up on the history of the portrait.
The book describes the tragic story of a young woman who married an eccentric painter, a man who cared more for his art than anything else. Eventually, he asks his wife to sit for him. Being an obedient wife, she does as he says and never complains, even when her health fades.
Even from this brief description, one can see the end of the tale coming. Yet, back in Edgar Allan Poe’s day and age, stories and twists like this weren’t common, and the tale proved to shock and horrify audiences.
The Oval Portrait doesn’t waste any words before it comes to its shocking conclusion. It’s one that explores the relationship between art and life and which was eventually fully explored by Oscar Wilde in its novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The story, like many others written by Edgar Allan Poe, explores the consequences of addiction and obsession. With the Oval Portrait, it’s an obsession with perfection and creating perfect art.
Edgar Allan Poe – Silence – A Parable – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
Another brief work by Edgar Allan Poe, one that almost seems more like a poem than a story.
The strongest point in this brief little tale is without a doubt the atmosphere. Yet, there’s more hidden between enchanted landscapes, apparitions, and demons.
Silence – A Parable is very open to interpretation.
Is it an allegory for man’s destructive nature? Is it talking about how solitude, being left alone with our thoughts, can drive us into a state of confusion or even insanity? Or is it Edgar Allan Poe himself who talks to his demonic muses?
It’s these various interpretations one can find for this brief work that makes it so interesting to me. However, Edgar Allan Poe’s true intentions with this tale might never be known.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Premature Burial- Illustrated by Harry Clarke
The Premature Burial is a tale that discusses one of Edgar Allan Poe’s favorite themes, that of being buried alive.
The narrator of this tale suffers from catalepsy, a condition that renders him into a death-like trance. It’s this condition that leads to his fear of being buried alive and his obsession with similar cases.
The story beings more like an essay, in which the narrator recounts various cases of people being buried alive. Some escaped their fate, others didn’t.
Only after this does the narrator recount his own experiences. Over time, his condition worsens as his fear becomes a crippling phobia. He does everything he can to escape his fate. He makes his friends promise him they won’t bury him prematurely, refusing to leave his home and even building a tomb with all sorts of precautions.
However, things take a turn for the worst and our narrator awakens in a confined, dark space with wood surrounding him and the knowledge that his worst fear has become reality.
There’s a deep routed, suffocating anxiety at the heart of this tale. Edgar Allan Poe plays this out in glorious detail in the second half of the story before it comes to a rather unexpected conclusion.
The Premature Burial is an examination of neurosis brought forth by obsessing over an irrational fear. This again shows that Edgar Allan Poe often focuses on narrators that are mentally unsound, in this case, a man suffering from crippling anxiety.
I really enjoyed this little tale and the various incidents discussed in the beginning. The fear of premature burials, while ridiculous to most of us now, was common in Edgar Allan Poe’s time.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Murders in the Rue Morgue – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
The Murders in the Rue Morgue is often celebrated as the first modern detective story, introducing us to C. Auguste Dupin, the first modern detective. It’s undeniable that Dupin and the stories he’s featured inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.
While it’s not a horror story, I still included The Murders in the Rue Morgue in this list. It not only features a gruesome and brutal murder, but it’s also a masterfully crafted tale.
The story begins not with the plot directly. As in other tales, Edgar Allan Poe starts by discussing the nature and practice of analytical reasoning. He does this by giving us various examples, including games such as chess and cards.
After this, he describes how our nameless narrator first met Dupin.
We get to know Dupin’s reasoning skills when he deduces the narrator’s thoughts simply from his interaction with the environment, his behavior, and his facial expressions.
It’s only then that the two of them stumble upon a grisly murder case that happened in an apartment in the Rue Morgue. A mother and daughter were brutally murdered in their home.
The murder represents a perfect puzzle, one that shocks and perplexes the investigators trying to solve it.
It’s then up to Dupin and his reasoning skills to solve the case. He explains what he learned from the scene of the murder and outlines its bizarre and surprising nature and brings the story to an almost comical conclusion.
What I enjoyed most was the deliberate construction of the narrative. In this story Edgar Allan Poe takes time, exploring first the theme of analytical reasoning, then introducing Dupin, showcasing his abilities before we’re introduced to the murder and its eventual unraveling.
I loved how Edgar Allan Poe slowly, but steadily walked us through the details of the crime scene. He even hints at things we don’t understand yet, until, at one specific point, it dawns on the narrator and us readers that there’s something very extraordinary about the case.
The story is also written differently from some of Edgar Allan Poe’s other stories. The Murders in the Rue Morgue is written in a non-verbose, and non-poetic style that lends itself to easier reading and focuses more on rational analytics than atmosphere and imagination.
While there are earlier stories that featured similar concepts or mysteries, The Murders in the Rue Morgue was the first one that focused on analysis and logical reasoning. It also established many tropes other writers later employed, such as Arthur Conan Doyle. One example is the narrator not being the detective, but his close friend, the other being the bumbling idiocy of the police who need the detective to help them out.
A splendid story, one that I’d recommend to not only fans of Edgar Allan Poe, but anyone interesting in early detective fiction.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Black Cat – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
The Black Cat presents us with Edgar Allan Poe’s most self-loathing narrator. He’s a violent drunk who commits acts of senseless and abhorrent violence when drunk. One might wonder if this is a projection of Edgar Allan Poe himself and his view of the abhorrent addiction he suffered from.
Yet, it doesn’t seem to be so much autobiographic, but a projection of Edgar Allan Poe’s worst fears. Namely losing himself to the bottle, just like the narrator in The Black Cat did.
The Black Cat is in essence a tale of a murderer who carefully concealed his crimes only to reveal them by his feelings of guilt. Once more, the narrator is unreliable, suffering from alcoholism.
From an early age, our narrator loved animals and owned many pets. He was especially fond of a cat named Pluto. For years his friendship with the cat lasted until the narrator succumbed to the bottle. In a violent stupor, he one night gored out one of the cat’s eyes.
At first, the narrator regrets his cruelty but is soon overtaken by his violent urges, and in another drunk fury, he ties a noose around the cat’s neck and hangs it. What’s interesting is the image Edgar Allan Poe here employs. The narrator has tears streaming down his face as he commits the deed, knowing how wrong it is, yet can’t seem to refrain from it.
At the same time, the narrator’s home catches fire and burns to the ground. In the ruins, the narrator finds a single wall still intact, the image of a giant cat with a rope around its neck imprinted on it.
The image disturbs him, but he eventually finds an explanation for it.
Before long the narrator finds another cat, almost identical to Pluto, and takes it home with himself. The only difference being a white spot on the cat’s chest. Soon he begins to fear and loath the animal because it reminds him of his guilt.
When the cat’s white spot resembles that of a gallows he grows more terrified of it. One day the narrator and his wife make their way into the cellar of their home. The cat trips him and he topples down the stairs.
In another drunk rage, he grabs the cat and tries to kill it, but is stopped by his wife. Driven mad by this, he kills her on the spot.
He decides to conceal the body within a protrusion in the wall and walls up the body. When the police show up, they find nothing and the narrator goes free. At the same time, however, he notices that the cat has vanished.
Before long the police check on him again, yet they once more find nothing. The narrator, in a state of confidence, proclaims of the sturdiness of the building and even taps against the wall behind which his wife’s body is hidden.
It is then that an inhuman shriek fills the room and when the police tear down the wall, they find not only his wife’s rotting body but also, to the utter horror of the narrator, the cat sitting on top of it.
As so often in Edgar Allan Poe’s tales, one might be inclined to think of certain things happening due to supernatural influences. Yet Edgar Allan Poe’s narrator is an alcoholic of questionable sanity. The image of the cat on the wall, the cat’s white spot changing, and many other things can all be explained by the narrator’s state of mind and his guilt. Instead of any supernatural influences, the prime devil in this tale is alcohol, which Poe described as a disease and a fiend that destroys one’s personality.
This is also the first of Edgar Allan Poe’s tales discussing his idea of the perverse, where he writes that it’s an ‘unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself — to offer violence to its own nature.’ Namely, our self-destructive urges, our inclination to do what will ultimately bring us harm. Here, the narrator’s beating against the wall behind which the body of his wife was hidden.
I enjoyed The Black Cat a lot. The mental descent of the narrator and its disturbing, catastrophic climax especially fascinated me.
The writing in this tale and the images employed are fantastic, and once more Edgar Allan Poe shows his mastery over the English language.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Pit and the Pendulum- Illustrated by Harry Clarke
The Pit and the Pendulum is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most popular stories. It details the tortures endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition.
Even someone who’s never read Edgar Allan Poe, and even those who barely know his name, will know of this tale, or at least of the titular Pendulum and the torture method related to it.
The narrator of this tale was brought before the Spanish Inquisition and condemned to death. Why is never known and I might argue, is not important at all.
At first, the narrator finds himself in a dark room. In its center looms a pit that the narrator only avoids when he trips and falls on its edge. Surviving the pit, he soon finds himself in a different state.
He’s bound to a wooden frame with a razor-sharp pendulum slowly descending upon him. Once more he’s barely able to escape, by smearing his bindings with the remains of his food and attracting the rats in the room.
At this point the walls are heated and slowly moved inward, to eventually drive him into the pit in the room’s center. Once more he barely avoids death when he’s rescued from the room as the French Army captures the city.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Pit and the Pendulum – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
The Pit and the Pendulum is a fantastic study of the effects of terror on the narrator. What makes this work so much is the realism of the story and Edgar Allan Poe’s focus on sensual inputs, or, in some cases, their absence. The narrator stumbles blindly through darkness, he smells the rats, he feels the heat of the walls and he hears the hiss of the pendulum above him.
The story is a prime example of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘totality’ theory. In this story’s case, every word is used for one purpose alone, to convey terror. Edgar Allan Poe doesn’t focus so much on what’s happening, but what the narrator experiences and his sensations. This adds much more terror to the tale and makes it much more unsettling.
It’s a well-executed and beautifully crafted tale, one that’s deservedly regarded as one of Edgar Allan Poe’s best.
The only problem I have is the tale’s ending in which the narrator is rescued at the last second by an almost random event. Yet, one can’t argue that if the narrator would’ve died, he couldn’t have written the story.
Edgar Allan Poe – William Wilson – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
This horror tale by Edgar Allan Poe focuses on the idea of doppelgangers.
The narrative beings by outlining a young boy’s days at a school in England. He’s known as William Wilson and details that there’s another boy by the same name at the school, one who resembles him closely and even shares his birth date.
One night, the narrator wanting to play a trick on his namesake sneaks upon his quarters but discovers in shock that his namesake’s face exactly resembles his own. The narrator flees the school in terror and later learns that the other William Wilson left the school the same day.
The narrator then talks about how his character grew worse during his days at Eton and Oxford and how he became, as he calls it, a scoundrel.
At the latter he tries to cheat another student out of his money during a game of cards. His plan is thwarted, however, by the appearance of his double.
From then on, many of his ploys are thwarted similarly by his haunting doppelganger.
The story eventually culminates with the narrator confronting his doppelganger during a Carnival in Rome. He duels his double and eventually stabs him multiple times.
It’s then that he perceives that at the spot where his double stood is only a mirror in which he sees his own image, pale and covered in blood.
His double then whispers one last line: ‘In me didst though exist – and in my death, see… how utterly thou hast murdered thyself.’
As so often Edgar Allan Poe leaves us with an ambiguous ending. What does the doppelganger mean when he’s proclaiming the narrator has killed himself? The most plausible explanation is that the doppelganger represented the narrator’s conscience, who kept him from committing his evil deeds. Now that he’s murdered it, he’s doomed himself. He’s killed his better half.
What’s interesting about William Wilson is that Edgar Allan Poe twists the idea of the doppelganger. Normally, they are dark twins, representing death and bringing evil. In William Wilson, however, it’s the narrator who’s evil and his doppelganger’s only there to stop his evil deeds.
While the ending might seem clichéd to us now, one has to remember that it was one of the first stories of its kind. People back in the day found the revelation shocking because it hadn’t been seen before.
It’s a great and fantastic tale, a slow-moving one, that’s more rational than supernatural, less verbose and poetic, following logic as the narrator tries to unravel the mystery behind his doppelganger.
William Wilson is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s best tales and one that I enjoyed immensely.
Edgar Allan Poe – Berenice – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
One of the first tales by Edgar Allan Poe I read, and also the first one I was truly impressed with. It was also the first of his tales that showed me how horrific his stories can be.
Berenice is another story that features the demise of a beautiful woman but includes others of Edgar Allan Poe’s most common themes, for example, that of premature burial.
The narrator is an ill young man who suffers from many maladies, but his most serious one is a form of mental excitement. During these times his attention will focus intently on a certain object before he entire loses himself in his imagination and daydreams.
The narrator marries a beautiful young woman named Berenice.
One day, during one of his bouts of excitement, he focuses on Berenice’s teeth, can’t seem to forget about them, and becomes obsessed with them.
It’s soon after that Berenice dies and is buried.
The narrator remembers nothing after the time of the burial and only comes to himself at midnight, wondering what happened. Right away he notices a small wooden box he’s never seen before and which unsettles him greatly.
It is then that a servant enters the room and tells him that Berenice’s grave has been desecrated and a shrouded figure has been found, one that’s still alive.
At this moment the narrator notices that his clothes are covered in mud and a spade is standing in his room.
Yet, that’s not the true horror of the tale. When the narrator accidentally drops the little box, thirty-two pearly white things are revealed, Berenice’s teeth.
It’s a fantastic and utterly disturbing tale. At the time of its writing, Berenice was considered horrifying because of its excessive violence.
What makes the entire story even worse, it’s revealed that Berenice was buried alive and might very well have been conscious while the narrator removed her teeth.
Berenice is a tale that’s part fascinating for its imagery and the revelation and part repulsive for its obsession and the ghastly deed the narrator committed.
Yet, it is a fantastic, well-told tale that leaves us with nothing short of terror. Terror for what happened to Berenice and terror for the narrator who learned what he’d done because of his condition.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
Here we have another interesting story by Edgar Allan Poe.
Once again, Edgar Allan Poe tried to trick his audience. He’d done so before with other tales, namely with his Balloon-Hoax and with The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfall.
Yet, this tale doesn’t feature any spectacular expeditions or travels. No, this one is about the examination of death.
The story recounts what happens when a hypnotist puts a man in a suspended hypnotic state at the moment of his death. While we might laugh at such an outlandish idea today, calling it absurd or surreal, during its time people believed it was real. The hoax was only discovered when Edgar Allan Poe himself was forced to admit that the story was nothing but a fabrication.
The story is written as a doctor’s report and walks the fine line between science-fiction and sensational horror.
The story presents the case of a man named Ernest Valdemar. Our nameless narrator is interested in hypnotism and states that no one ever attempted to hypnotize a person at the point of death. He wants to attempt such an experiment to report the effect it will have.
Valdemar, who’s suffering from tuberculosis and knows he’s dying soon, agrees.
On the evening of his supposed death, the narrator visits Valdemar and hypnotizes him. This is where the story gets strange, as Valdemar first reports that he’s dying and later that he’s now dead.
The narrator leaves Valdemar in his hypnotized state for months, checking on him daily. During this time Valdemar is without pulse, heartbeat, or breathing and his skin is cold and pale.
We’re here treated to one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most detailed descriptions as he describes the countenance of the dead body in minute detail.
The narrator once more asks Valdemar questions, whose voice seems to reach him reluctantly and from far away.
Eventually, Valdemar demands to be woken up and when the narrator does so, the body decays instantly, almost evaporates into a ‘nearly liquid mass of loathsome – of detestable putrescence.’
This story might be one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most vivid and gory. He’s describing the various details of the dead boy, even adding yellowish ichor leaking from the eyes. The worst, however, is the last line, when the body decays instantly.
There’s of course more to this tale. Namely, that messing with death, even for the sake of science, will have dire results. First for Valdemar, who wants to be awoken, or put to rest, and second for all those present to witness the effect the experiment has on his body.
What’s interesting here is to see that while Edgar Allan Poe describes the death of a woman as almost romantic, the death of a man is brutal, sensational, and disturbing.
I really enjoyed the pseudo-scientific outset, the medical background and the idea behind the experiment. It makes it without a doubt one of the earlier examples of science-fiction.
Another little tidbit I found interesting is that it was also one of Lovecraft’s favorite, who even used a similar theme in his tale Cool Air in which a man tries to cheat death as well and which ends similarly.
Truly one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most outlandish and most interesting tales, one that I enjoyed immensely.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Fall of the House of Usher – Illustrated by Arthur Rackham
The Fall of the House of Usher is another of Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous tales, and it supposedly was Lovecraft’s favorite.
The narrator is called to visit his old childhood friend Roderick Usher at his home. When the narrator arrives, he already feels apprehensive and notices a thin crack extending from the roof of the mansion down to its front.
Roderick is sick and asks his friend for help. His only living relative is his twin sister Madeline, who suffers from catalepsy.
Eventually, Madeline dies and Roderick has her entombed in the family tomb, where she’s supposed to rest for two weeks before she’s supposedly buried.
Over the course of the next week, Roderick as well as the narrator grows increasingly agitated for no apparent reason. It’s during this time that Roderick shares with the narrator certain theories about the sentience of inanimate objects and his idea that the house itself might be alive.
Then, one night, during a storm, Roderick, in a state of terror, visits the narrator’s bedroom, which is situated above the family tomb.
Strange things appear to happen outside, and the narrator tries to calm his friend by reading to him from a comical novel.
As he reads the tale, they can hear strange noises and sounds in the mansion which mirrors those detailed in the tale.
It all culminates when a loud shriek is heard and Roderick goes into a state of hysterics believing it’s his sister, still alive. Eventually, the door to the room is blown open and Madeline enters. She crashes onto her terrified brother and both hit the floor as corpses, Roderick having died from his terror.
The narrator flees the home in a state of terror and when he looks back, he watches as the House of Usher splits apart at the same crack he noticed during his arrival and the fragments sink into the lake surrounding it.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Fall of the House of Usher – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
The Fall of the House of Usher combines supernatural suspense with the frailty of the human mind. There are, however, more themes at work here, so many symbols and allegories, it’s hard to believe that Edgar Allan Poe could convey it all in a single story. That’s the reason The Fall of the House of Usher is often called a gothic novel in miniature.
There’s of course the theme of premature burial. Yet there are other themes to this highly symbolic tale.
The two twins Madeline and Roderick might describe a split personality, two sides of the same person. The House might not be a house, but might be an allegory of a declining family that’s about to end with its last two members. It might also represent the unconscious mind of Roderick’s or the family’s mental state that’s already declining as the narrator arrives, eventually splits apart before it’s utterly destroyed.
All those ideas come to the forefront and can be equally attributed to the story. It’s these many different ways to see the story that makes it so fascinating.
However, it’s not only the symbolism in the tale that makes it so great. There’s Edgar Allan Poe’s fabulous and imaginative prose, the atmosphere he conveys as well as the different styles he employs.
There’s a poetic interlude in which Roderick Usher sings ‘The Haunted Palace’, a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe, and there’s of course the fantastic story which the narrator reads to his friend. All of those elements help to set the obscure and ominous atmosphere the tale carries until its end.
The Fall of the House of Usher is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest stories, masterfully written and one in which he again employs his ‘totality’ rule. Every detail and every scene in this story is relevant to the horror it conveys. One can especially see it in the opening passage of the story.
The beginning of The Fall of the House of Usher is one of the greatest openings in literature. Every image conveyed, every word used, is dedicated to invoking dread and suspense and to show us the ghastly, decrepit building that is the House of Usher.
There’s a sense of dreariness as the narrator approaches the family mansion, one that we as the reader can feel as well. It all sets the stage for what’s to come.
The Fall of the House of Usher is an amazing tale and a fabulous example of gothic literature as well as literary symbolism. Truly a great tale and deservedly one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most popular stories of all time.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Cask of Amontillado – Illustrated by Arthur Rackham
The Cask of Amontillado is generally regarded as Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest story and one of the greatest pieces of short fiction of all time.
There’s no other story by Edgar Allan Poe that combines so many of his themes in so little space. We’ve got humor, irony, horror, and one of his most common themes, that of live burial. Yet, the story doesn’t waste a single word. There’s no trailing on, no unnecessary lines. It’s a tale that’s concisely crafted.
The Cask of Amontillado is set in an unnamed Italian city during a carnival in which a man takes revenge on a friend who wronged him. Similar to his story, the Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat, the story is told from the perspective of the murderer.
The story starts with Montresor, who tells an unspecified person about the revenge he took on his fellow nobleman, Fortunado.
Montresor lures him to his home by telling him he obtained some rare, vintage Amontillado. He proposes to get confirmation about the wine’s quality, by consulting a fellow friend, Luchesi. It’s a ploy since he knows that Fortunado won’t be able to resist demonstrating his knowledge of wine.
And so the two of them make their way to Montresor’s home and descend into the wine cellar in the palazzo’s catacombs.
On their way he keeps offering wine to an already drunk Fortunado, to keep him intoxicated. Montresor suggests multiple times that Fortunado should go back because he’s suffering from a bad cough. Fortunado, of course, states that a little cough won’t kill him.
During their trip through the catacombs, Edgar Allan Poe uses various instances of symbolism to outline the relationship between Montresor and Fortunado. The insistence of Fortunado that Montresor can’t be of the masons hints at their difference in standing. The family crest is another symbol, ripe with interpretations regarding the murder to be committed and its reason and meaning.
Eventually, the two make it to a niche in the wall in which Montresor says the Amontillado is kept. The moment Fortunado steps inside, Montresor chains him to the wall. Fortunado is still very much too drunk to realize what’s going on and offers no resistance.
Only when Montresor begins walling him off does the man sober up and understand what’s going on. He starts screaming for help, but his cries are mocked by those of Montresor, knowing fair well, no one will hear them. Then Fortunado laughs, pretending, or hoping, it’s all a joke. Once Montresor finishes up the last row of bricks, however, he realizes it’s all over.
“For the love of God, Montresor.”
And Montresor replies: “Yes, for the love of God.”
Then, before he sets the last brick, he throws Fortunado a torch, waits for an answer, but only gets to hear the bells of Fortunado’s costume.
In the last line of the tale, Montresor reveals that Fortunado’s body is still there, even fifty years later, and ends the story with the line ‘In pace requiescat!’, meaning ‘May he rest in peace.’
Edgar Allan Poe – The Cask of Amontillado – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
The Cask of Amontillado is yet another example of Edgar Allan Poe’s totality rule. Everything in this tale is of importance, everything reveals something. The setting, the names, the inclusion of costly wine, all make the story not only more exotic but also add to its atmosphere.
What I find most interesting about The Cask of Amontillado is that the motif of the murder isn’t known and is never brought up. Montresor only mentions that Fortunado committed a ‘thousand injuries’ and apparently insulted the man. There are hints in the story, but none suffice to give us a clear picture. Even when Montresor walls him off, he never discloses his reason. It might indicate that Montresor himself is unsure about the reason or only vaguely has one.
Yet, this is typical for Edgar Allan Poe. He isn’t interested in a plot, he’s interested in a situation, an incident, and atmosphere. Similar to the Pit and Pendulum, we don’t need to know why something is happening to see it happening.
As mentioned before the story’s ripe in symbolism.
The fact that Montresor walls Fortunado of within his family tomb might be worth mentioning. Is it just the best place for the murder or is there a more personal motif?
Montresor’s family crest also gives wide room for interpretation. It’s a family crest, showing a golden foot stumping on a snake, biting the heel.
At first glance, it might suggest that Montresor’s stomping down on the snake who wronged him, Fortunado. Yet, while the snake is being stomped on, it still brings harm to the foot, perhaps suggesting that Fortunado’s destruction will bring harm to Montresor. Namely the guilt of a murder that Montresor can’t forget even fifty years later and even shares with someone.
One might go even further and interpreting it entirely differently. The snake might be Montresor, who’s crushed by Fortunado’s higher standing or crushed by the guilt of murder. As one can see, there are multiple ways of interpreting, showing the importance of even this minor detail.
The Cask of Amontillado is also a story that’s often discussed for its composition. It defies general story construction. Most stories comprise a beginning a middle and an end. Yet in the Cask of Amontillado everything that leads to the ending, the murder, is entirely missing. Almost as if Edgar Allan Poe’s saying that nothing but the murder matters.
It’s a powerful story, without a doubt another one of Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest tales, maybe even his greatest. It stands out for its imagery, its vocabulary, and its many instances of symbolism.
The Cask of Amontillado is a masterpiece, one I’d recommend to anyone. It’s a short, but very worthy read, not only for fans of Edgar Allan Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Masque of the Red Death – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
I absolutely loved this tale and was surprised by how good it was.
At its heart The Masque of the Red Death might be an allegory about death, standing up against it, and the inevitability of such a deed. Yet, there’s more to this tale, for example, the social criticism.
While the titular illness, the Red Death, spreads in the country, Prince Prospero and his court hide behind the walls of an old castle. There they give into their lavish lifestyle, disregarding the suffering of the common folk.
Prospero holds a masquerade ball one night to entertain his guest in seven colored rooms. Each of the rooms is decorated in a specific color. The last room is decorated in black and illuminated by a scarlet light, filling the room with ‘a deep blood color’.
At midnight the guests and Prospero notice a figure in a dark, blood-splattered robe. The figure resembles the corpse of a person who died because of the Red Death. Prospero demands to know the identity of the guest. When he calls out for his court to seize the guest, everyone’s afraid to approach the figure and the guest passes through all six chambers. It’s in the last chamber where the prince confronts him with a drawn dagger. When the figure turns to face him, the prince dies almost instantly. The enraged court rushes in the last room and removes the mask of the figure, but find, to their horror, that no one’s beneath. The costume was empty and all the guests contract and die to the Red Death.
The Mask of the Red Death features fantastic gothic imagery. There’s the old castle with its high impenetrable walls, its weird constricting hallways, the different colored rooms, the masque ball and at last, the stranger dressed up as the Red Death itself. Especially the description of the last, dark, and the red room is fantastic.
The reason I enjoyed this tale so much tough, was not only the setting but Edgar Allan Poe’s writing. He’s clearly at his best here.
The Masque of the Red Death almost lends itself to the poetic, reminding you more of a play than a story. It’s this fantastic, poetic writing that brings forth the stunning imagery of the chambers and the symbolism hidden behind them.
And here we’re at the core of the tale, the symbolism. There are many interpretations of the different colored rooms. Some suggest they represent different personality types, yet others suggest they represent the different stages of life as defined by Shakespeare in his Seven Ages of Man.
It might, however, also be an allegory of life itself, naturally ending with death and man’s futile attempt to escape from it and even standing up to it.
Yet, blood, which is emphasized in the tale, especially with the Red Death and the last room, also represents life.
It’s this general room for interpretation that makes this tale so interesting and a topic of vast discussion among scholars.
The Masque of the Red Death is an absolutely fantastic tale, both for its writing and its content. It also features one of the most stunning closing lines in literature:
“And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.”
What a fantastic tale. If you want to read Edgar Allan Poe at his absolute best and most poetic, read The Mask of the Red Death.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Tell-Tale Heart – Illustrated by Harry Clarke
The Tell-Tale Heart is my personal favorite story by Edgar Allan Poe and another one of his most famous tales.
It’s much shorter than Edgar Allan Poe’s other tales, but there’s no need for it to be any longer.
The story’s told as so often, by an unreliable narrator, recounting a murder he committed. Who that person is, we never learn. The narrator’s goal in telling his tale is to prove that he’s not insane.
What’s interesting is that we learn little about the characters. Neither about the narrator nor the old man. We don’t even get to know their names, which is typical for Edgar Allan Poe. Similar to some of his other tales we need not know anymore to see the murder that’s taking place.
It’s apparent right from the get-go that the narrator suffers from a mental illness and an over-acuteness of the senses. He’s haunted by the old man’s pale, blue, vulture-like eye and distresses over it so much that he plans to murder the old man. Even worse, he mentions that the old man never did him any wrong, more so, he even liked the old man.
The narrator then describes in the smallest details how he went about committing the murder and explains that his minute attention to detail is the reason that he’s without a doubt sane.
He watches the old man for seven days before one night, he makes a sound and his lantern shines directly on the now open, evil eye of the old man.
Hearing the old man’s heartbeat loud from terror the narrator decides to strike and kills the old man. He then dismembers the body and conceals it below the floorboards.
A neighbor who heard the old man’s singular scream alerts the police. When they arrive, the narrator claims the scream was his own, caused by a nightmare and that the old man’s away in the country.
Confident he won’t be found out, he urges the police to take some rest. His pleasant and easy-going demeanor gives them no reason to suspect him, but soon enough the narrator hears a strange sound that grows progressively louder.
Eventually, he concludes that it’s the old man’s heart still beating from below the floorboard. The sound increases, but the police don’t seem to notice. Terrified of the violent heart and thinking the police have to hear it too, he eventually confesses the murder.
The Tell-Tale Heart is a story that pushes a character’s obsession over the top, driving the irrational obsession with the old man’s eye and later heartbeat to the extreme.
It’s clear that the narrator’s guilt is catching up to him at the end of the story, but one might still wonder what causes the sound. The easiest explanation is that it’s his imagination or even his own heart he hears in his chest. It might, however, also be the deathwatch beetles in the walls that are mentioned earlier in the tale.
While The Tell-Tale Heart is a tale of a macabre and gruesome murder, one could say that the true horror is the insistence of the narrator that he’s sane. It’s interesting how his exactness, his attention to detail, prove his paranoia, and his monomania with committing the perfect crime. It’s enough to show that the man’s indeed insane.
If one looks at The Tell-Tale Heart from a different perspective one might even say it’s a take on a ghost story, without employing a ghost. It’s not supernatural influences, but the narrator’s guilt, his psychological state that haunts him, and eventually drives him to confess the deed he committed.
What made this story so fantastic to me, was the eccentricity of the narrator, the suspense with which he tells the tale. I actually sat down and read the tale out loud, which made it so much better than just reading it. The Tell-Tale Heart is a dramatic tale, one filled with suspense, full of minute details, of slow deliberation and a sick mind.
The Tell-Tale Heart is in my opinion one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most perfect stories.
While his other stories like The Cask of Amontillado or The Fall of the House Usher bring more to the table, and might at times be better crafted, I still prefer The Tell-Tale Heart. It’s the suspenseful way it’s written and the sheer insanity of the narrator that makes it so good.
Truly a fantastic tale and one of the greatest studies of a sick mind in literature. Read it!
As a horror writer, I was always interested in the horror genre. I’ve always searched for new and scary content ever since I could go online. In the 2000s I mostly read horror manga and watched horror movies, but I hadn’t really bothered with any other horror content online. Neither did I know it existed.
This all changed when I found a thread about creepypasta on 4chan’s /x/ board. I spent the entire day reading creepypasta after creepypasta. Some were bad, some were good, and some were truly amazing.
Creepypasta are campfire tales spread via the internet.
Some are quick, frightening anecdotes, barely a few sentences or paragraphs long, others can be of novella-length.
In the early days of the internet, content was often shared via emails or copied and pasted to image and message boards. Users on 4chan were quick to call such reappearing content ‘copypasta’, a catchy name for content that was copied and pasted.
While most of those messages were normal or humorous, some were scary tales and urban legends. Derived from the word copypasta those soon became known as creepypasta.
Somehow the name stuck and is now the predominant name for all scary stories shared via the internet. Many of those early creepypasta carved out their own place in early internet culture.
Best Creepypasta – Slender Man
Creepypasta spawned many different communities. The two most famous ones are Reddit’s famous Nosleep subreddit and the SCP foundation.
Creepypasta are often written in first person to emulate someone depicting a real incident. There are however some that use different formats. Some use a pseudo-documentary style, incorporating blog posts, diary entries, and even email correspondences. Others are more literary and more akin to short stories.
There are even creepypasta who gained such popularity, they became urban legends of themselves. Others developed a cult following and spawned TV series or even feature-length movies.
It stands to say that creepypasta are some of the most unique and most popular content the internet has spawned.
That’s why I, a longtime fan, put together a list of all the best creepypasta. This list won’t include stories posted on Nosleep since I already created a separate list exclusive to Nosleep.
What better way to open this list than with this infamous little creepypasta. Who Was Phone? is most likely known by anyone who ever read creepypasta online.
Who Was Phone? is popular not for its story, or for how creepy it is, but for how bad it is.
Ever since it was published, it regained a meme-like status. It stands for the fact that the creepypasta genre differs in quality. There are some great ones out there, but there are also many terrible ones.
Annora Petrova is a classic in the realm of creepypasta.
It details the story of a young American ice skater named Anna Petrova. One day the girl googles her own name and comes upon a Wikipedia page about herself that tells her the future.
All is well until Annora, desperate to win a competition the next day, edits her page.
Soon enough, things spiral out of control because of her actions.
This creepypasta shows that it’s not always a good idea to google your own name.
In essence, Annora Petrova is a tale about messing with unknown forces, altering fate, and trying to get more than you deserve.
We get to know a man named James and his son Daniel. One day James finds a strange man, or better a strange creature, sitting in front of his son’s bed.
After this strange visit, his son changes. The boy refuses to speak. Even worse, mysterious things happen around the house.
James grows increasingly paranoid and is desperate to save his son from the creature he thinks is lurking around the house.
The Sandman is a great tale that truly shows a father’s desperation to save his son before the story comes to an unexpected conclusion.
I always enjoyed stories that are written this way, it makes things much more interesting and realistic.
A short little creepypasta about a strange practice a group of teenagers did one summer. They uncovered a way to make each other pass out.
In the few seconds they are unconscious, they have extremely lucid and vivid dreams.
One day, one of the narrator’s friends who’s never tried it before joins in on the fun. The results, however, are much different. What he saw wasn’t a vivid dream, but something utterly horrible.
I don’t know why I like this creepypasta so much. I guess it’s the setting and the narration. Bored teenagers are often up to strange things, and often those things can have dire results, as proven here.
I don’t know what it is I like so much about video game creepypasta.
This one features a Morrowind Mod called Jvk1166z.esp. It’s a cryptic and strange mod that only works after some tinkering.
The story first describes the narrator’s attempts at uncovering the secrets hidden within the mod. He soon gives up, but an acquaintance of his he got to know via the internet isn’t so easily deterred.
The story then details what the narrator’s acquaintance uncovers and what happens in the Mod the further he progresses.
As someone who played Morrowind, I enjoyed the details given in this creepypasta. If you enjoy cryptic mysteries related to video games, give this one a try.
This creepypasta is a follow-up to Abandoned by Disney. In this story, we hear more anecdotes about Disney and the weird things that keep happening in their parks.
One such thing is the ominous Room Zero, and we soon learn what took place in it.
I don’t know why Disney is so often featured in creepypasta. I guess it just fits that a place that a place that’s supposed to be happy might hold some very dark secrets.
Satan’s Fall is a creepypasta that’s a bit longer and that I only discovered recently.
A young man recounts that one of his neighbors, Wayne Warren, pretended to be the devil each year on Halloween. He painted himself red from top to bottom, sat on his sunken porch, and gave away candy to those kids brave enough to approach him.
The narrator reveals that Wayne didn’t give him candy. Instead, the man gave him something very special. It’s an item that puts into motion the actual events of the story.
Satan’s Fall is a strange story, one very different from what you might guess it’s about. Yet, it’s another great story.
Another creepypasta I only recently read and really enjoyed.
We get to know an internet blogger named Debra Lindsay Caine, who goes by the screen name of Sugercain. She used to be a web comedian before she disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
Not much is known, and she’d probably been forgotten if the tapes she recorded while staying at a certain haunted house wouldn’t have been found.
It’s an interesting story. Its beginning brings us right back to the mid-2000s when Myspace was still a thing and web-blogging had just taken off.
Another thing that makes this creepypasta so great is the format. Big parts of it are written as audio transcripts of the tapes recorded by Debra.
We get to know Conner, a delivery driver of questionable goods.
The story starts with him calling his boss because the thing he just picked up is unnerving him. His boss calms him down and tells Conner everything’s all right.
Conner continues, but soon the strange feeling of apprehension returns. Mixed with his sleep-deprived state, things soon get foggy. He uncovers what’s in the trunk, but that’s only the start of a surreal night.
Things get progressively stranger and we’re unsure that what’s happening is real or if Conner is hallucinating. Eventually, he finds himself on an unknown road where he encounters the titular roadwork.
Roadwork is a strange and surreal creepypasta that will make you question what’s real and what isn’t. Still an enjoyable read.
This creepypasta starts with an interesting little question. Why do we feel so vulnerable when we’re naked, yet save when we wear a few layers of clothing?
The narrator’s fear most likely comes from her youth when she watched scary movies in a dark room alone. It was the shower scene in Psycho that particularly stuck with her.
It was this scene that spawned her habit of always locking the shower door and always keeping it locked until fully dressed.
This habit should prove to save the narrator’s life.
It’s a short, scary little creepypasta with an ominous ending.
The narrator wakes up one morning to knocking on her door. Believing it to be a prank, she goes back to sleep. Two hours later, though, she’s woken up by her front door slamming shut.
A moment later she discovers the message ‘smile’ written all over her window. When she checks her phone, she finds a similar message.
When the police don’t believe her, she puts up a camera in her bedroom.
There’s something deeply unsettling about this little creepypasta and it ends perfectly. A short, but great read.
The Harbinger Experiment is a longer creepypasta I only recently discovered but enjoyed quite a bit.
It details the titular experiment announced by a man named Zimmerman in 1971. The narrator of the story is one of the people working for Zimmerman for the duration of the experiment.
The experiment is conducted in a large underground shelter. The project is supposedly testing the effects of extended isolation. However, the true purpose of it is much darker. Zimmerman is obsessed to prove the existence of a supernatural world.
The Harbinger Experiment spends outlines the set-up of the titular experiment, but when the horror slowly sets in, it’s a delight to witness.
Here we have another popular urban legend turned creepypasta.
The Hanging Munchkin is a theory that’s been around for a very long time and has been debunked multiple times. Yet people still believe it to be credible.
It explains a difference between the original and the edited version of the movie The Wizard of Oz. Namely the theory that in one specific scene you can see one of the Munchkin’s dangling from a rope in the background.
Even though the idea has been debunked multiple times, it’s still interesting to see what people notice and what theories they come up with.
Another creepypasta classic. It details the creation of the titular doll named Robert and the events related to it.
The doll was given to artist Robert Eugene Otto by a servant when he was a boy. The man continued to keep the doll until his adulthood. As the story goes, the doll supposedly took on a life of its own. It tormented Robert Eugene Otto’s family and later drove his wife to insanity.
What makes this story so much more unsettling is the fact that it’s all based on a real, supposedly haunted doll. Robert now resides in Fort East Martello Museum in Key West.
This story isn’t so much a creepypasta, but a well-known urban legend that has been passed around long before the internet became popular.
It’s the story of a boy who finds a photograph of a beautiful girl holding up two fingers. He soon grows obsessed with her and tries to find out who she is.
Even though this is not directly a creepypasta, it’s a great little tale, so I decided to include it in this list.
After their last semester, three friends make a road trip and go hiking in the Great Smokey Mountains.
After their hike, they stay in a small town at the base of the mountains and enjoy the town’s many tourist attractions.
Eventually, the narrator wants to pay a visit to the town’s haunted house. His friends, however, decline to join. Deciding to have some fun, he enters alone.
As he’s about to enter he’s warned that he shouldn’t go in alone and to beware the titular rotunda.
This is an interesting little creepypasta that moves into quite a different direction than you originally might expect.
Funnymouth is a creepypasta set in the realm of the internet.
It details the narrator’s strange encounter with another user named funnymouth. Funnymouth joins a chatroom the narrator is in and sends a couple of weird messages before he leaves again.
The narrator follows the user to his channel. His actions seem weird, but inoffensive at first, and soon the narrator discards him for just another, albeit strange, user. However, he’s soon plagued by weird dreams, and soon funnymouth contacts him again, this time via email.
What makes this creepypasta so interesting is the format. The chat format and the added email correspondences add a certain level of realism to the tale.
It details what’s written in a note left by Lieutenant Commander Ryan Simmons of the USS Mistral. It starts off by instructing whoever finds the note to leave and sink the vessel immediately before detailing the events that took place.
After a distress call from an Icelandic fishing vessel, the Mistral made its way deep into the North Sea.
They find the Icelandic vessel, but apart from one dead fisherman no other member of the crew is found. Even worse, thick, heavy fog reduces visibility to only a few hundred feet.
The crew is left with more questions than answers regarding the fate of the Icelandic vessel.
Soon enough the crew notices more strange things about the location before their ship’s stunted and unable to function.
I enjoy creepypasta and horror stories set at sea. There’s something terrifying about being stuck or isolated in a boat in the middle of the ocean. As short as this tale is, it captures the topic of isolation very well. It describes a dire scenario and hints at things out there, beneath the frozen seas.
Another creepypasta I first read on my days on 4chan’s /x/ board.
This story details what happens at a place called the Comfy and Cozy Cabin. It’s a three-story cabin rented out to guests by its owner.
His newest guests unsettle him the moment they arrive. Sam and Martha Anderson are young, thin, and very pale, almost sick looking.
From here on out, things get creepier before they turn into a surreal and gruesome nightmare.
The Comfy and Cozy cabin is another longer creepypasta one that isn’t shy to use gore and unsettling imagery. At times the story might focus a bit too much on gruesome details, however, it’s still quite a good tale.
We learn that in days past coffins were made with holes in them. Via these holes, copper tubing was attached to a bell to allow people who were mistakenly buried to call for help.
One night the gravedigger hears one of those bells ring.
It’s a simple and short, but very effective little creepypasta.
It’s unusual to find a creepypasta that’s set on or at least starts out on a train.
This one originated on the imageboard 2chan where a man details strange things happening at his train ride. He notices that the train doesn’t stop at any of the usual stops. Even stranger, it doesn’t seem to stop anywhere.
That’s until the train reaches the titular Kisaragi Station, a station that neither the narrator nor any of the other users on 2chan have ever heard before.
From here on out, things only get stranger and more bizarre.
What makes this creepypasta so interesting is its unique nature. It’s not told in a normal, conventional way, but as a series of posts on an imageboard.
Here we have another creepypasta more akin to a short story.
We get to know two adolescent boys, Joey and Jason, who are worried about a girl named Sarah. As the boys lay in wait in front of her home, we’re told the events that took place during the last three days after Sarah and her family first arrived in the neighborhood.
After meeting Sarah for the first time, the two boys realize that something isn’t right about her home situation.
That’s how the story of two friends in the small town of Lytle, Texas starts.
What makes this tale so good is the fabulous writing. It’s a delight to witness the boys’ adventure and their mission to find out more about Sarah and her family.
It’s another longer tale and while the payoff might be weak for its length, it’s well worth the read.
This has to be one of the weirdest and most bizarre creepypasta on the list.
I really enjoy apocalypse stories, especially those that differ from the norm. By now we’re all used to zombies, aliens, or natural catastrophes. When things are different, they get a lot more interesting.
This story doesn’t just make the apocalypse different, it makes it utterly bizarre.
With Burgrr Entries, the apocalypse starts with a new fast food that appears at the narrator’s city.
There’s one thing that’s even stranger, though. The fast food seems to be only available at weird takeout windows that appeared all over town. We learn about this early on when one such takeout window appears at the side of the narrator’s home with no visible addition or hint of it inside.
People stand in line at those takeout windows to buy and eat disgusting and weird food. Yet, everyone acts as if it’s completely normal. Only the narrator seems to understand what’s happening.
As the story progresses the influence of those new products rises and more and more people fall for them. At the same time, the story also becomes stranger and stranger.
As I mentioned before, this story is weird and at times quite gross. It’s however one of the most surreal and creative ones I’ve read.
Unfortunately, the story devolves a bit into a drawn out fight and escape scene in later parts. The overall plot and especially the first few parts stick out to me because of their gross and bizarre imagery.
Another good little creepypasta. We get to know our narrator, a fifteen-year-old boy. He explains that his mother, Martha, seems to be chronically pissed off. His life is almost unbearable when she’s around.
One day she leaves on a business trip to Australia. When she returns, she’s changed, different and all around happy and caring woman.
It’s interesting to witness the narrator’s conundrum and to follow his thought process. He knows something’s wrong, but on the other hand, his life’s much better now.
The creepypasta continues to outline his life before it comes to an unsettling conclusion.
What a nifty little idea this creepypasta brings forth. It’s another older one that gives us quite an interesting spin on the boogeyman and other, similar creatures that might watch us in the dark of the night.
It’s a quick read, but one that I can recommend to anyone.
Ah, Halloween, the time when kids dress up and go trick-or-treating and when adults watch scary movies.
This creepypasta resolves all around Halloween. Our narrator is the father of a seven-year-old boy named James. James wants nothing more than to dress up as Buzz Lightyear.
The narrator knows few trick-or-treaters will make their way to his home in the outskirts of town.
Still, decorating his home is one of his favorite activities around Halloween. His next-door neighbor, however, seems to decorate his home this year around as well. His decorations, however, prove to be more sinister, consisting mostly of bones, skulls and what looks like intestines.
Soon enough, our narrator notices a masked figure sneaking around the neighborhood.
From here on out, the creepypasta gets progressively weirder and creepier before it reaches its terrifying conclusion.
The Masked Man is a typical creepypasta that follows the creepy neighbor trope, or at least it starts out that way. It’s one of the longer ones on this list, but it’s well worth the read.
The narrator’s woken up by the sound of knocking against his door. As he lays in bed, fear slowly creeps in. He tries his best not to move or to turn towards the window. The knocking, however, doesn’t let up.
Eventually the narrator turns around to see who or what’s knocking against the window.
This tale is creepy in two ways. First, it’s the scenario. Hearing someone or something knocking against your window at night is unnerving enough. Second, it’s the revelation of this creepypasta, which is way scary than we could imagine.
Midnight Train is not exactly a creepypasta, but more a short story. It’s a rather sad tale, but it’s fantastic writing lands it a place on this list.
It tells the story of a man named Daniel. We get to know him when he’s barely six years old. The young boy catches his father with another woman. The father promptly beats his son into submission and makes sure Daniel doesn’t talk to anyone about what he saw.
That day was the first time Daniel heard the sounds of the Midnight Train near his home.
From then on the story continues to outline Daniel’s life and details the other times when he sees the titular Midnight Train.
It’s a great creepypasta, a life story really, and it’s vividly and amazingly told.
Two friends who love to explore abandoned buildings check out an old hospital. As so often before, the two of them split up to add to the creepiness factor of the experience.
Eventually one of them gets lost and his friend has to help him find his way out via the portable radio they use to communicate with one another.
From here on out, things get progressively creepier.
It’s a rather simple tale, but it’s nonetheless creepy.
What could go wrong in a public restroom? Well, a lot if we’re to believe this creepypasta.
A young woman makes her way around campus to the only woman’s restroom that’s still open at this time of the day.
Bathrooms are never clean, but this time the smell is worse than ever, and soon the narrator realizes there’s something strange going on.
We all know that public restrooms aren’t the nicest of places and since this is a creepypasta, we also know that something scary or creepy is bound to happen. While this one appears to be rather predictable, it ends in a rather satisfying way.
Another well-known creepypasta that has appeared in various different forms.
One night, a young woman on the last subway home encounters a group of three people. One of them, a woman, keeps staring at her the entire time.
Before long, another passenger sits down next to her and tells her to get off at the next station. Afraid and unnerved about the situation, she does as the man tells her.
I’ve always enjoyed coming-of-age stories or movies. There’s just something about them that makes them so relatable. I guess it’s because we can all look back at similar times, the adventures we went on, and how things eventually changed as we got older.
This creepypasta begins with the narrator telling us he was always told to avoid the woods.
Becoming a teenager is a strange time, the narrator explains. You’re changing, you find new interests, new friends, and often old friendships from our earlier years drift apart.
In the summer at the end of sixth grade, our narrator realizes that things for him are changing, too. So he and his friends go on one last adventure together.
The place they want to go to is an old lumber mill in the forest. The old mill has its share of stories. Workers disappeared and mysterious incidents happened before the mill was eventually closed down.
As it turns out the trip should prove to be their last.
I only read this creepypasta recently and was surprised by how good it was.
It’s the story of a young man who’s on the long drive home from California to Oregon during the winter. On his way north, he’s hit by a snow storm.
Eventually, the storm gets so bad he needs to stop. He does so in a small, lonely cabin.
He finds the door opened and the cabin unoccupied. When he looks around, he soon finds a painting of a family. What’s a little unnerving is that three of the four family members depicted appear to be completely smooth. There are no facial features to them at all.
This, however, is only the beginning of the strange things that happen to him at the cabin.
It Has No Face is a great creepypasta that surprised me by its unique approach to what would otherwise have been a rather normal, mundane horror story. It’s a great read.
Another creepypasta that stands out because of its great writing.
We learn about the small town of Gaston in South Carolina. After the narrator’s mother lost her job, the two of them move back there.
Before long the narrator befriends another boy, Terry. There’s one thing special about Terry, he loves scary movies and pretty much anything else that’s scary.
It’s Terry who tells the narrator about the legend of Hanging Man Hill.
This creepypasta is a typical story of two young boys trying to find out if an urban legend is true.
The idea has been done before. Still, Hanging Man Hill makes the list because of its fantastic prose.
Handling and describing a state of intoxication can be tough, and I’ve seldom seen it handled satisfactorily. This creepypasta succeeds where many others fail.
Our narrator goes to a music festival called Lot. While wandering the festival grounds she suddenly finds an aluminum pouch containing a few squares of paper. She recognizes them to be plotter acid.
A few months after this festival, she’s forced to move back in with her parents. When they leave to travel, the narrator decides it’s time to try some acid she found.
Her high this time turns out to differ greatly from usual. When she tries to ease the effects of the acid though, things take a turn for the worse.
Ground Score is another very interesting and strange creepypasta. What stands out to me is the description of the narrator’s high and the strange dark world she seems to be trapped in.
In this creepypasta, we’re brought to the streets, roads, and dusty lanes of Colombia. Many stories and legends are set there.
With the changes of civilization and the growths of cities there comes a new set of urban legends, for example, that of the phantom bus.
This story however isn’t about the phantom bus. Our narrator, a young woman, enters a bus one late afternoon in Bogota. There’s one peculiarity though, she notices that everyone on the bus seems to be rather old.
There’s something about roadhouses in the middle of nowhere. It’s pretty much the perfect setting for a horror story.
In this story, we get to know a woman Melinda. One night she gets the first call from her father in fifteen years and makes the long trip to meet up with him. When she arrives, however, she can’t find his name on the buzzer.
Annoyed, she makes her way back home, only to get lost on the small, lonely stretch of road. Eventually, she stops at Granny Royce’s Road House to get some directions. However, there’s something very special about the place.
The House That Death Forgot is more a short story than a creepypasta. It’s well-written, however and presents us with quite a unique concept.
What an odd little tale this is. I first read it on 4chan’s /x/ board and it was the first diary-type creepypasta I ever read. I thought it was quite a unique little tale.
We get to know a man who wakes up in a giant, never-ending white room. All he has with him is a diary in which he records and details his experiences.
Each morning, after waking up, he’s provided with supplies that help him survive in this white room. First, it’s only gloves and some water, but soon boxes containing coffee and later building materials for a shelter.
Before long, other people arrive as well.
As I said, this is an odd creepypasta, but there’s something about it that makes it interesting. The survival of the narrator, the forming of a small society, and the diary format make this quite a unique experience.
There’s also a deeper theme here, a deeper story that hints at things that make you ponder for a bit.
In this creepypasta, we get to know a woman living in a shanty in the city of Manila. she works in a questionable profession and is often in need of money.
One day, when the night gets colder, she decides to buy herself a sweater at a thrift shop.
When she tries it on, she finds a small note inside. On it, she finds an address and some instructions. She’s to enter a specific building and spend the night there with her eyes shut. If she does as the note instructs, she’s paid a thousand pesos. Being short on money and dreaming of a better life, she eventually follows the instructions.
This story is all about tension and suspense, and it’s handled in great detail. A fantastic tale that I recommend to anyone.
Here we got another shorter creepypasta, but it’s another great one.
In this one, we follow a man to a small antique store in Main. After checking out various items, he becomes interested in an old projector-kaleidoscope.
When he tries it out, it shows him weird, twisting swirls projected against the wall of the store. Interested in the strange object, he wants to purchase it. The old shopkeeper tells him then that there’s more to this specific kaleidoscope.
There’s just something about stories like this that play with our fear of the unknown and things invisible to the human eye.
It’s a short creepypasta that plays into our fears of seeing someone or something strange staring at us from a different apartment.
Living in a huge apartment complex myself, this story is very relatable. There’s this eerie feeling whenever you see another window alight in the middle of the night or the early morning hours. What would you do if you saw someone waving at you?
I first read this creepypasta back in the day on 4chan’s /x/ board and really enjoyed it.
Lights in the distance features a young man who suffers from insomnia. Looking out the window, he notices two streetlights in the distance. These solemn lights soon help him fall asleep.
This is another short, classic creepypasta well worth reading.
I’ve always enjoyed stories that shed light on specific professions. It’s the small details, the workings of things that add another little layer of reality.
In this creepypasta, our narrator works for a small publisher. The story centers on the photo collection of an old man. He describes those photos as anomalies.
The narrator shares some of these photographs with the reader and the captions for each one of them.
It’s an interesting little piece of creepypasta because it ties together old black and white photographs with historical anecdotes and real-life events.
Most creepypasta are set in our normal, mundane world. Not so this one. This one’s set in space, in a space station, to be correct.
We get to know a cosmonaut named Boris, who’s alone in a space station in earth’s orbit.
Communications with the ground are broken down and soon strange things start to happen. The station grows increasingly hotter, even though the temperature stays the same and strange noises can be heard around the station.
This is an absolutely amazing creepypasta. The idea to be confined in a small space station all on your own is a scenario that already makes me feel uncomfortable. Even worse is strange, unexpected things happening.
It’s a crazy thought to be stuck somewhere and not knowing what’s real and what’s not.
The mental decline of the narrator Boris is masterfully handled.
On another note though, this is a long story, a very long one and it’s also one that develops rather slowly. Still, it’s a fantastic read.
This creepypasta is more a selection of anecdotes, all featuring encounters with the titular Blue Man.
People encounter the ominous character on the road in various ways. While these chance-encounters themselves don’t prove to be dangerous, what follows is. For a meeting with the Blue man ultimately influences people in one way or another.
It’s another great and interesting creepypasta. There’s no real explanation given who or what the Blue Man is, and once again, the mystery makes the story so much better.
It describes a young man’s thoughts after a cave-in. The thought of being stuck inside a cave with no hope of getting out or being rescued is utterly terrifying.
This story, however, adds another, even more terrifying detail.
I really enjoyed Cave-In when I first read it back on 4chan’s /x/ board and the unexpected ending serves to be one of my favorites.
Killswitch is more an urban legend than a real creepypasta. It details the story by the same name which was supposedly released back in 1989.
What makes this one special isn’t necessarily the content of the game itself. While cryptic and bizarre, it’s the circumstances of the game, and its creation that makes this creepypasta so interesting.
Supposedly only 5000 units of the game were ever created. The game itself was uncopiable, and it deleted itself upon finishing. Even stranger, the game had two characters, but it was almost unplayable should one choose the second playable character.
It’s an interesting and weird little creepypasta that makes you curious if a game like this might exist somewhere out there.
The Rake is another widely popular creepypasta. Like many famous ones, The Rake originated from 4chan. It was created in a thread where users tried to come up with monsters.
It started with a description of a pale, hairless humanoid figure. The creature had no apparent mouth and walked on all fours.
The Rake was originally nothing but a picture of the creature with a brief description attached to it. Once the creature went viral though, people wrote stories and create their own media about The Rake.
The story linked above is one of many and follows the diary approach. It details various encounters that people had with the titular creature.
There are countless other creepypasta about The Rake, and images, videos, and various other media related to sightings of the creature.
I always found the idea of The Rake and other cryptids who might stalk humans fascinating. The Rake, however, proved to be the most popular of those.
A magician, Tom, receives a strange letter after one of his shows. The letter states that the game is on.
Confused, Tom wonders what’s going on, but joins into the absurd situation. Soon enough, a character named Daburu reveals himself and their game begins.
Things, however, aren’t what they seem.
It’s a good creepypasta on its own, but what lands it a place in this list is the fantastic final.
The most popular and infamous video game creepypasta of all time. While not technically a creepypasta, but more an urban legend, I still decided to include it in this list because of its influence and popularity.
The story of Polybius is infamous and is about an arcade game by the same name that appeared in the arcades in Portland, Oregon.
As the legend goes, the game proved highly addictive, but all who played it suffered from mysterious side-effects. Those led to amnesia and night terrors up to suicide.
All the Polybius machines were removed after only a month by men in black, and all traces that the game ever existed vanished.
While it’s a relatively short story, it has garnered a lot of attention throughout the years. Polybius was featured in innumerable YouTube videos and has been referenced in movies and pop culture over the years.
There are even some YouTube videos who talk about the history of the urban legend and trace it back to its roots.
Polybius is a very interesting creepypasta, not so much for its story but for its history, how it spread and became the dominant urban legend it’s today. If you want to find out more about Polybius, I highly recommend this YouTube video by user Ahoy.
I only read this creepypasta recently and loved it.
In the summer of 1987, a young boy and his friends are bored and walk alongside the train tracks near their hometown.
Soon enough they stumble upon a house near the tracks. The boys go exploring and find the house in a run-down state and in dire need of maintenance.
As his three friends vandalize the place, the narrator runs back home. The next day he goes there to apologize to the owner and meets an old woman called Maggie.
However, not all is well in The House by the Tracks.
This is another shorter creepypasta that proves that even a simple idea can work well when done right.
Man, I love this creepypasta classic. A young boy describes his encounter with strange entities that seem to follow him and knock on doors once he’s closed them.
The first time it happened, the narrator was barely six and on the school toilet. After that, the incidents continued to happen on a monthly basis.
He eventually gets used to the mysterious incidents and twenty years later his life is as normal as it can be with these strange incidents happening. But then, one day, things get worse.
Knocking is a great creepypasta that surprised me with its unique idea. It’s definitely worth the read if you haven’t read it already.
Another great creepypasta, but one that’s different from usual. We don’t know what’s actually going on, and so we share in the narrator’s confusion.
The story beings with the narrator explaining that he’s sick and has mental issues. He takes pills to keep his delusions and hallucinations at bay and function normally.
In the story’s course, we learn that something strange might have happened. We’re greeted with emptiness, smoke and eventually screams.
The narrator barricades himself inside his home, but before long he doubts what’s going on.
I really enjoy creepypasta that toy with our perception of reality and leave us guessing about what’s happening.
There are sometimes creepypasta so strange they make you wonder what the hell you just read. This is one of them.
One day the narrator, a studier of memetic theories, uncovers a strange symbol when browsing the internet. The next day he realizes in shock that the symbol has somehow affected not only his computer, but everything in its vicinity.
The story progresses and slowly more and more of the narrator’s world is taken over by the strange memetic symbol.
This is a short tale, but it’s one that’s so outlandish and strange one can’t help but be reminded of The Doscape and other bizarre creepypasta.
Lavender Town Syndrome is another video game creepypasta and the most popular one related to Pokemon. It’s fair to say that anyone who’s read creepypasta online knows about this one.
Lavender Town Syndrome is more an urban legend, recounting the occurrence of suicides related to the original theme of Lavender Town.
It’s a quick read and a typical creepypasta, detailing nothing but an unsettling urban legend.
Another great, early creepypasta and one of the first ones I read.
This one recounts how a man discovers that his wife is changing and acting strangely. He slowly believes that the woman sitting across him is not his actual wife.
As we continue to read, the man describes how things change, and how his paranoia and knowledge about the titular doppelganger slowly grows.
It’s an absolutely splendid story, well-written and all around fun to read.
A man stays over at a hotel, but gets warned to stay clear of a certain room. Ignoring the warning and curious, he looks into the room and sees a pale, white woman.
When she notices him he retreats. Later he tries to look again, but this time, all he sees is red.
Eventually he consults the receptionist about it.
White with Read is a fantastic short little creepypasta that’s sure to scare you.
Another short little creepypasta. There’s a bum living in the narrator’s neighborhood in Queens. The man paints with whatever supplies he finds, but his paintings are amazing.
Soon enough the man offers portraits. No one who got a portrait done, though, seems to like it. The narrator, however, believes them to be beautiful and eventually he gets one done for himself.
The result proves to differ greatly from what originally expected.
This is another one of the earlier creepypasta I read back in the day, and I still hold it dear for its strange, unique idea. It’s a short, wonderful read.
This was one of the weirder creepypasta I read first in the day, and I absolutely loved it.
It starts with the narrator stating that he lives in a house of rules. We soon learn that the rules aren’t enforced by any of the neighbors or the renting company, though. They are enforced by the house itself.
Should he not follow them, the house will punish him. That’s what this story is all about, rules and punishment.
It’s another creative story, one that gives off a hopeless feeling, one of isolation. How’s one to rebel against a building, against your own home?
House of Rules is, as the title states, a rule-based horror story. In recent times there have been a plethora of rule-based stories. This one however was written much earlier.
I’m a fan of lost episode creepypasta, at least if they are well made.
Suicidemouse.avi details a strange Mickey Mouse cartoon that shows Mickey walking down the street. In the animation, however, Mickey behaves differently than usual, showing a distraught facial expression and unusual music is playing.
When the cartoon gets digitized, it’s noticed that the cartoon is much longer than originally thought. Soon enough the disturbing nature of the clip is revealed, or at least hinted at.
What I like about this story is the number of details added. We don’t just hear about a strange and creepy clip, but it’s described to us in various details. I also enjoy that much of the mystery remains hidden. As so often with other, similar creepypasta, less is more in horror.
This creepypasta is an absolute delight to read. It starts with Elliot in the titular year of 1999, when he was no older than five years old. He was absolutely in love with the TV show Pokemon.
His dad, fed up with his son’s whining, buys him his own TV.
Originally the TV was only meant to have 20 channels, but one day Elliot discovers Channel 21, and the disturbing shows aired on it.
1999 is a very interesting creepypasta. It starts off almost like an anthology as Elliot describes each show he saw on the strange channel.
Eventually, a young Elliot writes a letter to be invited to his famous show on the channel, Mr. Bear’s Cellar, and receives an invitation.
Driving there with his dad, they are met with the police and uncover the true nature of Channel 21 and Mr. Bear.
This, however, is only the beginning of the story. When Elliot enters college, he remembers the strange channel and begins to hunt for answers.
What makes this story work so well is that it’s not written like a traditional story, but an internet blog. It’s almost a diary in which the narrator details more and more of his findings.
There are creepypasta that are scary because of unexplained incidents, creepy beings, monsters, or serial killers. Then there are those who are scary for an entirely different reason.
This is one such story.
Wake Up is a tale that always unsettled me. There’s always this tiny little feeling of ‘what if’ in the back of my mind?
This creepypasta is told in a somewhat unconventional format.
A psychotherapist named Sylvester Penn visits a young patient at an asylum to interview him. Said patient, named Michael, is at the asylum because he murdered someone.
As he talks to Michael, he slowly learns more about him and his past. He lived in a pleasant neighborhood, but there weren’t many kids there.
His only friend was a boy named Andrew, a big boy that was a bit slow in the head. Michael often used to play tricks on Andrew and grew mad at him. Still, Andrew stuck to him and after another one of his pranks, Michael feels responsible for him.
Eventually, more families move into the neighborhood with their kids. One of them was Stephen DiMisaco, or Stevie, a weird, lanky boy obsessed with taxidermy.
As the story continues we learn more about Michael’s relationship with his new friends and Stevie.
Eventually, things take a turn for the worse and get progressively darker as the story continues.
Steve is one of the longest creepypasta on the list, and one that develops slowly. Still, it’s a fantastic story that will keep you engaged throughout until the end.
This huge creepypasta was originally posted in a military story thread on Something Awful. The story quickly became very popular.
In this creepypasta, our narrator, Monkey, joins the US Army in the late 80s. He’s stationed in an undescriptive three-story building high in the mountains in Germany. It’s not only cold and storming, but the place is supposedly haunted.
It’s during his very first night that Monkey gets the feeling that he’s not alone in his room and that he’s very much watched by someone or something.
Thus starts Humper-Monkey’s Ghost Story. As the title says, this is a ghost story. It might also be the single longest creepypasta on this list at a length of almost 30.000 words. The story even spawned multiple follow-ups and related tales, making it even longer.
There’s something about isolated settings that makes things so much more interesting. This is exactly what happens in Humper-Monkey’s Ghost Story. The characters are isolated in a creepy building in the middle of nowhere because of heavy snow and raging blizzards.
As the story progresses, the soldiers search through the building and try to figure out what’s going on.
This creepypasta is popular for many reasons. The writing, the rough language as well as the realistic and historical background.
Another great creepypasta about a mysterious event.
A young boy, Payton, wants to take pictures of a young lion spotted in the area. Payton asks for advice from the people at National Geographic. They tell him he should put up an automatic camera at a place the young lion might frequent.
Eventually, he decides to set up the recording of a dying rabbit as bait to lure the young lion to a small creek.
Things get strange when the narrator, a young girl, describes how she can hear the recording at night in her home. Even worse, the recording is strangely distorted.
As it turns out, something was lured to the creek, but it might not have been the young lion.
Rabbits in the Creek is a fantastic creepypasta. It’s well written and gives us a nice framework for yet another mysterious and unexplained event.
The Art of Jacob Emory is more a short story than a usual creepypasta.
It’s the story of a man named Jacob Emory. A jack of all trades, with ambitions and interests too large for the small town he grew up in.
Eventually, Jacob travels abroad. After years he finally returns to his home town, bringing with him a stick of chalk. This stick allows him to draw strange paintings, paintings that are animate.
Soon Jacob has his own shows in which he presents his animate paintings in front of an audience. From here on out, things only get worse.
It’s a great, well-written story and one of the more creative ones on this list.
I love mysterious little tales like this creepypasta, especially those who leave you hanging with something entirely inexplicable.
One day in a quiet town in Minnesota, the charred body of a woman was found in a kitchen stove. However, the details of the case are more than a bit puzzling.
This is another creepypasta that wastes no time on narration and gets straight to the point, the mysterious, titular oven and what it contains.
It’s an unsettling little tale, one that makes you wonder what actually might have happened.
Cervin Birth is as typical as a creepypasta can be.
It details a strange video that was shared around the internet showing a grotesque birth by what is assumed to be a blind deer.
The story then details other videos by the creator of the ominous video called Cervin Birth.
This is pretty much a perfect creepypasta because it simply details a strange occurrence, an unsettling video that was found online, and what it contains.
There’s no explanation, it’s just a description of obscure videos. That’s why I enjoyed Cervin Birth so much.
Ben Drowned is most likely the most popular haunted video game creepypasta of all time. This sub-genre generally revolves around video games who are haunted or evil. The people who play those video games are killed or driven insane. There’s a lot of creepypasta that feature haunted or demonic video games, and a lot of them are quite bad.
Ben Drowned is a rare exception and one of the earliest haunted video game creepypasta done well. Many clichés that other, similar tales contain come from Ben Drowned. While I’m not the biggest fan of the haunted aspect of the game itself I acknowledge it for the influence it had on the genre.
There’s something about video game creepypasta I enjoy. I like the intricate details they contain, such as parts of the game changing, new levels or areas being created, strange glitches, and so on. That’s exactly what happens in Ben Drowned. The game gets progressively stranger, warping itself into a surreal experience for the player.
The narrator of Ben Drowned buys a used game of Majora’s Mask. When he starts the game, he discovers a safe file named Ben. From then on, in typical creepypasta manner, the narrator tries to uncover what’s going on as the game gets progressively stranger.
The most interesting aspect of Ben Drowned is not the story itself, but the work that went into it. It contains multiple media types integrated into the story. It’s not only images though, but actual video footage of the supposedly haunted game.
This still wasn’t all there is to the story, though. There’s an entire ARG (alternate reality game) surrounding Ben Drowned. I only found out about it recently because of some videos on YouTube, but it made me see the entire story in a different light.
Ben Drowned, while a very long story, is one that anyone should check out. If only to see all the work that went into it and the ARG surrounding it.
This is another video game creepypasta. I don’t know why, but I always find them interesting, at least if they are as well made as Pale Luna.
The titular game is described as a weird and obscure text adventure shared among a small circle of fans back in the day. When the game starts you’re presented with a description of your surroundings and you’ve to enter various commands to perform actions and move forward in the game.
Pale Luna isn’t a simple adventure game though, it’s cryptic and barely functioning at all. Many people abandoned the game out of sheer frustration. However, there’s one young man with too much time on his hand who finally decides to see if there’s more to this enigmatic game.
Pale Luna is a short, but interesting creepypasta. What I like the most about this one is the mystery surrounding the titular game.
Best Creepypasta – The Thing That Stalks the Fields
The Thing That Stalks the Fields is another super and classic creepypasta. It’s well written, creepy, and scary.
The story starts with a farmer noticing one morning that the hay balls in his field are slowly being moved away from his house. At first, he believes it to be the work of thieves or teenaged pranksters. Soon enough, he realizes that there’s something much more sinister out there.
This was one of the first creepypasta I ever read, and that left quite an impression on me.
In the fall of 1987, a small local news channel in Atlanta, Georgie had a gap in its scheduling.
Eventually, young Reverend Marley Sachs was allowed to take the available hour for his show “Words of Light with Rev. Marly Sachs.”
Things get weird quickly when calls from women arrive complaining about uncomfortable feelings while watching the show. It’s always at roughly the twelve-minute intervals when these feelings come up. Before long the show is canceled so the channel can focus on something else, the local miscarriage epidemic.
A young intern eventually has a look at the tapes of “Words of Light with Rev. Marly Sachs” and discovers something truly disturbing about the show.
I only read this story recently, but I absolutely loved it. There’s something deeply unsettling and truly mysterious about it. It’s a fantastic creepypasta, one that anyone should check out.
As I mentioned before I’m a fan of creepypasta about cryptic and obscure video games. Pokemon Black is one such tale.
There are a lot of Pokemon creepypasta out there, but this one stuck out to me as one of the few that’s well made.
Pokemon Black is not about a cursed game and neither about a game possessed by ghosts. This one’s simply about a very obscure Pokemon hack by the titular name.
That’s exactly the reason this story works so well. There’s nothing dangerous here, it’s just an unsettling story about a game that can be interpreted in many ways.
A short, but good creepypasta. If I remember correctly this was actually the very first ones I ever read.
A hunter gets lost in the forest and stumbles upon a cabin. He decides to spend the night there. All is well, apart from one little detail that unnerves him. It’s the many weird portraits on the walls.
This is pretty much a perfect creepypasta tale. It does nothing but depicts a short, creepy incident and that’s enough to make it work so damn well.
The Gallery of Henri Beauchamp is another popular creepypasta that I only recently stumbled upon.
This is a story that details a set of rules one has to follow to be allowed entrance into the titular gallery.
What makes this one so great to me is the obscure nature of the entire tale, the great writing, and the many intricate details. And the Gallery itself, and what one can find there.
One day our narrator, a hotel owner, goes to pay the man in room 304 a visit. There’s been no word from the guest, and neither has he paid for his room yet.
When no one answers, the narrator enters via a spare key only to find the man dead in a corner and the walls of the room covered in strange writings.
The police are soon called and a few days after the narrator returns to the room to find answers about what happened to the old man.
I was very impressed when I read this story recently. The writing is great; the imagery is amazing and unsettling, and the old man’s descent into madness is fantastically done.
Ah, this creepypasta. It’s one of the earliest, most popular creepypasta. If I remember correctly, it was also the very first story ever shared on Reddit’s Nosleep forum after it’s creation.
The story itself originated on 4chan’s /x/ board and details the story of a teenager who goes to Alabama to stay with his extended family.
They are out camping in the woods and encounter a strange figure, the titular Goatman. This figure is moving strangely, talking gibberish, and eventually follows them.
Did you ever encounter the feeling that someone or something is watching you and you can’t seem to shake it off? That’s one of the central themes of this story. Anansi’s Goatman Story is a tale of paranoia, fear, and terror.
What makes Anansi’s Goatman Story so interesting is the mixture of fiction and the old Native American legend of the Goatman.
It’s a great creepypasta both for what happens, but also for the general way it’s written. Anansi’s Goatman Story is one of those earlier creepypasta that gives you the feeling that someone’s telling something that actually happened. It’s a casual post shared on an imageboard that details a scary event, not a literary piece.
Slender Man is probably the most popular creepypasta and internet horror creation of all time. It spawned various different stories, games, video series such as Marble Hornets, and even a feature-length movie.
Slender Man wasn’t a story, but a pair of pseudo-historical photographs depicting the titular character. They were created for a Photoshop contest on Something Awful. From here on out, the images gained vast popularity and eventually went viral.
Slender Man is a tall, lanky man with unnaturally long limbs, wearing a suit and without a face. His primary target seems to be children who he prays on, lures away, and eventually abducts.
What’s most interesting about Slender Man to me is how something as small as two pictures can spawn an internet phenomenon of such magnitude.
There are various tales about Slender Man, but I feel none of them give off the same unsettling atmosphere as the original pictures. I also think less is often more, and Eric Knudsen did a superb job in his depiction of the creature.
All one can say about Wristbands is that it’s short but good.
Wristbands tells us there are different wristbands the patients at hospitals receive. We also learn that red wristbands are exclusively placed on people who died.
I can’t say how much I enjoyed this little creepypasta.
Ah, the SCP Foundation. This creepypasta here started it all. SCP-173 was first posted to 4chan’s /x/ board and was written less like a story but more akin to a Wikipedia article. It explained the procedures on how to safely contain the titular entity.
SCP-173 went viral, spawned similar stories, and eventually the SPC Foundation, a fictional organization tasked with securing, containing, and proceeding dangerous entities.
Today the SCP Foundation is one of the largest horror fiction communities on the internet and comprises thousands of SCP created by countless people over the years.
The Backrooms is a creepypasta that started from nothing but a picture of an unsettling room or set of rooms. Accompanying the picture was a short tale, or more a description of what we’re seeing.
The Backrooms is a place you end up in when you glitch through reality.
I love this eerie, creepy idea. It’s depicted as a thing that could happen to anyone. Once you’re there, there’s nothing you can do but walk those endless corridors.
Another great creepypasta, one that’s again more a short story than a true creepypasta.
Case Report 7591 details a tale that took place in an amusement park created by a man named Travis Leroy. One particular ride in his park is an indoor track-car ride through an enchanted forest.
All is well, the park is profitable and business is booming in the small town it was built in.
Then a small, four-year-old boy goes missing in the outskirts of the town. The case is eventually closed, but five months later another child goes missing.
Soon enough an investigation is started, people are questioned and the amusement park is investigated. It’s there that a terrible secret is discovered.
This is another fantastic tale that lured me in with its narrative and its fascinating story-telling.
Case Report 7591 is a great creepypasta that takes a simple premise and transforms it into something unique. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend giving it a try.
Smile Dog is another interesting early creepypasta. It comes accompanied by a picture of the titular creature. It’s this image that made the story standout and is most likely the reason it became as popular as it is.
In its essence Smile Dog is a cursed image story. It centers on a young man who’s on his way to interview a woman named Mary. We don’t get to know much about her, only that she suffers from nightmares and night terrors.
We learn soon that the reason for Mary’s nightmares is an image of Smile Dog, smile.jpg, which she saw when it was posted on a Bulletin board.
The story details the narrator’s quest to uncover what’s behind the legend of smile.jpg.
It’s a story that brings us back to the earlier days of the internet, and it’s another story that features a strange internet mystery.
So we come to NoEnd House. This creepypasta is another classic and another really popular one. NoEnd House proved so popular it was adapted as the second season of the horror anthology series Channel Zero.
NoEnd House is in its essence a haunted house story. Whoever’s able to make it to the end wins $500. All you have to do is make it through nine rooms in total.
Our narrator David learns about it from a friend and gives it a try. How hard can it be, right?
As if to prove him right, things start out silly, almost childish, but they get progressively creepier before they become outright nightmarish.
The Expressionless is yet another classic creepypasta written by my good friend T. J. Lea.
It’s a short tale detailing the appearance of a strange, expressionless woman appearing at a hospital in California in 1972. She’s covered in blood, chewing on a kitten she discards before she’s evaluated.
What’s strange about the woman is that she seems barely human. Her appearance is more like that of a mannequin.
From here on out, things take a turn for the worst.
The Expressionless is one of the earliest creepypasta on this list, but it’s become a classic for a good reason.
There aren’t many creepypasta set in the realm of science-fiction. This is one of the few exceptions, and it’s a remarkable little tale.
In The Gift of Mercy we don’t find ourselves in a spacecraft, a space station, and neither is there an alien invasion happening. No, we follow an alien narrator who laments about a great mistake that was made by his species.
It’s a very interesting, unique, and creative tale.
The Dionaea House is a creepypasta told via email correspondences and blog entries.
It’s an interesting format that gives you the impression that what you’re reading might actually be real. It’s not a short story, not a simple creepypasta, but it’s written in a way that makes you think those might be real emails.
The story starts with Eric, who details his email correspondences with his friend Mark. Mark contacts him about another one of their friends, Andrew.
One day, Mark found a newspaper article which details that Andrew shot two people and later himself.
From this point onward we witness the story of Mark trying to figure out what happened to their old friend. Mark’s emails read more like the diary of an investigator and only at times do we get some input from Eric.
Eventually, Mark finds the titular house and from here on out things only get stranger.
This is one of the longest stories on the list, one that develops slowly. It’s well put together, though, and the format adds a lot to the enjoyment. I also absolutely love the idea of the titular Dionaea House itself.
Now we’ve officially entered bizarro world. The Dream of Every Dentist is without a doubt one of the weirdest, and probably most unique stories I’ve ever read.
The story starts with a man in a black suit standing in front of a group of dentists. He offers them a large sum of money to reveal the titular dream to him. After some discussion and stating that he won’t understand anyway, the dentists eventually reveal their dream to him.
This is one of the strangest creepypasta I’ve ever read. I caught myself squirming when reading it and once I was done, I couldn’t help but stare at my computer screen dumbfounded wondering what the hell I’d just read.
An Egg is another weird, yet amazing little creepypasta.
It’s one that plays with our existential fears, our search for meaning, and gives answers to them in one of the most interesting and remarkable ways I’ve ever come upon.
It’s a very short creepypasta, but an absolute delight.
The Theater is yet another video game creepypasta. This one, however, is not about a haunted game or sentient video game characters. The Theater features nothing but a strange and glitchy game.
There’s something about The Theater that I absolutely love. There’s the mystery, the minor details, and the obscure nature of a game with no clear aim.
I love that there’s nothing scary happening to the narrator here. It’s all anecdotes and references to The Theater.
A very enjoyable little tale and a creepypasta classic.
Who doesn’t know about The Russian Sleep Experiment and the image accompanying it? It’s one of the most popular and best-known creepypasta of all time. If you know about creepypasta, you’ve probably heard about The Russian Sleep Experiment.
The title already makes us guess what’s going to happen. A group of political prisoners is subjected to an experiment. They are put into a room filled with an experimental gas that will keep them awake for the duration of thirty days.
Over the course of the experiment, the test subjects grow increasingly paranoid and slowly lose their mind, but things don’t end there.
The Russian Sleep Experiment is without a doubt an absolute creepypasta classic.
As the title states, this is another video game creepypasta, and probably my favorite in this entire sub-genre.
It’s the story of a young man who wants to rekindle his childhood nostalgia and his memories of the NES game Godzilla: Monster of Monsters.
The creepypasta starts off normal enough, with him playing the first level of the game. Before long, the game glitches and changes in various strange ways.
What makes this video game creepypasta so special in my book are the visuals, the images. The writer designed entire screens, bosses, and monsters for his glitchy NES game. Even better, he describes entire levels with intricate details and how he’s able to finish them.
My only problem with this creepypasta is the actual story. It’s clichéd at best and lackluster at worst. It’s the game itself and the various different levels and monsters that make it such a rewarding experience.
If you’re interested in creepypasta about video games, this one’s a must in my opinion. Just don’t pay too close an eye on the overall story and its conclusion.
Gateway of the Mind is another classic, well-known creepypasta.
In this creepypasta, a group of scientists conducts an experiment. It’s their theory that a human being without access to any of their senses could perceive the presence of God.
Before long, they find a test subject, a man with nothing left to lose.
In the story’s course, the test subject grows more and more disoriented, paranoid, and eventually hallucinates. He soon hears people talk all around him before things get even more unsettling.
The central idea of Gateway of the Mind is very interesting. What would happen to someone who’d lose usage of all their senses? What happens when you’re stuck inside your own head?
The reason Gatewy of the Mind is so great, in my opinion, is the ending. If you haven’t read Gateway of the Mind yet, do it.
The Song and Dance Man sticks out to me for its writing. It’s a phenomenal piece of fiction and more a short story than a regular creepypasta.
It tells the story of a group of people who one day meet the titular Song and Dance Man. The man appears in their town at one point, sets up a tent, and invites people to listen to music and dance. Many join him at the prospect of free music, dancing, and some fun.
Yet, things don’t just stay this way, and there’s not just a bit of dancing involved.
As I said, what makes this story is the writing. Not only that though, but it’s also the entire way the story is presented to us, the narrative and everything else.
This is one of the most well-written creepypasta on the list.
Another well-known and widely popular creepypasta. Abandoned by Disney details what a young man finds in one of Disney’s abandoned resorts.
The story starts off by giving us some insight into abandoned resorts by Disney before our narrator reveals that he visited one such place called ‘Mowgli’s Palace.’
As the story continues, it details the narrator’s exploration of the ruined resort before he descends into the basement.
It’s a great story, and it depicts the derelict Disney resort in all its details before it grows more and more unsettling.
Ted the Caver was one of the earliest creepypasta I heard about and I recall reading the first entries on 4chan’s /x/ board, but I only read it in its entirety about a year or two ago.
It’s a story about caving. Exploring tight spaces and caves is something that always unsettled me. I’m not claustrophobic, but squeezing through tight spaces in dark caves still makes me anxious.
What makes this story so great is the level of detail that was put into it. It’s written more like a blog of a caving enthusiast who discovers a new, unknown area of the cave system he’s in.
The various blog posts detail the process of laying bare the entrance to the unknown part of the cave system in intricate detail before the narrator explores it. What makes it even better is that each blog post comes with various photographs that give you even more insight into the process and immerses you more in the story. It gives you the impression that this entire creepypasta might actually be real.
It’s a slow-moving tale. Long parts of it detail the caving and actual scary parts of this creepypasta are only slowly added.
It’s truly one of the greatest and most detailed creepypasta ever written.
I like weird, strange, and surreal stories. There’s something about the bizarre that entices me and lures me in. As such, Dogscape has always been one of my favorite creepypasta or my favorite collection of short little creepypasta.
The plot of Dogscape is simple. All the earth has become a never-ending landscape made up of dogs. The ground of the earth has become nothing but dug for, sprouting dog heads and weird dog trees.
The tales that make up Dogscape detail people’s life and their survival in the Dogscape. People are devoured by dog heads, kill each other, rape each other and even become part of the Dogscape themselves.
It’s an utterly surreal selection of tales and quite an experience. Dogscape supposedly started on 4chan’s /x/ board as a joke. Before long people started to write their own little tales set in the Dogscape.
The various tales vary in detail, length and quality. They also feature gore, rape, and other atrocities. Still, it deserves its place in this list for its bizarre scenario and imagery.
If you like weird and bizarre creepypasta, I’m sure you’ll enjoy Dogscape as much as I did. A word of warning though, some of the tales feature some explicit content.
This creepypasta written by Kris Straub is another classic and one of the most popular creepypasta of all time. It was even adapted as the first season of horror anthology series Channel Zero.
The story is written in an interesting format. It’s not told conventionally but written akin to a conversation in a thread on a message board.
A group of people talks about a strange children’s TV show by the titular name. Things start out normal enough, with people sharing into nostalgia. However, the more people join, the more strange details are revealed about the show.
What makes Candle Cove so great is the format and the way it’s told. It starts out simple, with people recalling a silly children’s TV show before the horror slowly creeps in.
Another creepypasta classic and a fantastically depraved tale of a sick internet discovery.
The story starts out with the narrator receiving a chain letter about a weird website called normalpornfornormalpeople.com. The site is weird, bare-bones, and features a variety of strange videos. Soon enough the narrator and other members of a certain imageboard explore the page and discover more and more unsettling content.
I’m always drawn to stories about the stranger corners of the internet because you never know if things like that exist out there.
I highly recommend Normal Porn for Normal People to anyone. It also inspired me to write one of my earlier stories titled Fetish Webcam.
Oh, Psychosis. Ever since I read this creepypasta by Matt Dymerski, it stayed on my mind. This one’s another longer creepypasta. I first read it, like many others, on 4chan’s /x/ board and I was stunned at how good it was.
Did you ever wonder if the reality you preserve is real? Is there something else going on, something you can’t seem to grasp? This is the question at the core of this story. Things somehow feel odd to our narrator, John, and don’t add up. Soon enough, he’s not sure if he can trust his surroundings anymore.
John isolates himself from the real world, believing there’s something out there, something dangerous. In the story’s course, John’s thrown into a downward spiral of paranoia he can’t seem to escape from.
Psychosis is an absolute delight, and Matt Dymerski is one of the best creepypasta writers out there. There’s always something interesting to creepypasta that depicts a slow descent into madness, and this one is at the top of the genre.
The only problem I can find with this one is the very last part of it, which in my opinion could’ve easily been left out. Everything else, though, is pure gold.
Psychosis was also a huge inspiration to my story The Watchers.
The Strangers might be my favorite creepypasta of all time. The writing in this tale is superb, the story is superb, and the world created as well as the imagery is too.
It’s the story of a man named Andrew Erics, who left behind a retelling of the events that befell him. Andrew has a peculiar habit, each time he rides the subway he watches his fellow commuters. One day he discovers a strange man, someone who doesn’t react to his staring at all. Soon enough Andrew gets obsessed with this weird man and tries to figure out what’s wrong with him and the other titular strangers he notices.
From here on out, things get more interesting as the narrator follows the man on his daily trips back and forth on the subway. This, of course, is just the beginning of the The Strangers.
As I said this is a masterfully done tale and one of the best creepypasta. It was one of the first creepypasta I read, and it absolutely blew me away. Even to this day, it still holds up. I can’t recommend this one highly enough. Go, read it!
Being a horror writer, I’ve always loved the horror genre and I’m always searching for new horror content. One medium I hold very dear is manga, namely horror manga.
There’s an enormous amount of horror manga out there which feature horrific incidents and combine them with a unique and breathtaking art style.
Horror manga can often be very effective and creative.
While I enjoy horror movies, novels and creepypasta, there’s something special about horror manga.
Looking back, I can’t help but wonder why this genre stands out so much to me. It might be the detailed art that presents the horror that’s happening in all its horrific glory. Maybe it’s also the cultural difference. Japan is a country with a unique culture and one that’s always had firm beliefs about ghosts and other supernatural beings.
Whatever it is, horror manga are something that will delight many and offers a wide variety of unique and disturbing works.
In this list, I want to present to you many of my favorite horror manga that I uncovered throughout the years. While some are vastly popular, I’m sure there are some hidden gems that some of you might not have heard about.
A word of warning. This is a list of horror manga and will be accompanied by images of the respective works.
I’d also like to give a general spoiler warning. I’ll try not to go into too much detail about the plot points, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.
So here’s my list of 33 horror manga that anyone should read.
Kazuo Umezu is one of the most popular early horror manga artists and one of those who defined the genre.
His most popular works include The Drifting Classroom, Fourteen, and Orochi:Blood.
Umezu’s style is quite recognizable, and his influence on the horror genre can’t be overlooked.
While I’ve read most of his works, the only one I can highly recommend is God’s Left Hand, Devil’s Right Hand.
Many of Umezu’s horror manga are strange and feature outlandish, bizarre, or downright silly scenarios.
This one’s not too different, but it’s a more traditional horror manga than, for example, Fourteen.
God’s Left Hand, Devil’s Right Hand features a young boy named Sou, who’s often haunted by visions of terrible things happening and tries to stop them from becoming reality.
Some scenarios in this manga are more normal, including serial killers or ghosts, but others are more bizarre, featuring heavy instances of body horror.
One definitely needs to get used to Umezu’s art style. It’s old-fashioned, and some people might call it downright ugly.
If one’s willing to overlook that, one’s treated with quite a good horror manga. God’s Left Hand, Devil’s Right Hand can get quite gruesome and feature some terrifying imagery.
God’s Left Hand, Devil’s Right Hand is one of the oldest manga on this list and one of the more outlandish ones. If one’s interested in experiencing the earlier days of horror manga, one could do worse than read this one.
The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service centers on a group of graduate students from a Buddhist college.
Each member of the group has a special skill related to the supernatural. One member, Kuro Karatsu, can commune with the dead.
The events of this horror manga center on the group’s titular business of fulfilling the last wishes of the dead.
Many times, however, they figure out that people didn’t die of natural causes and encounter criminals or run into other troubles.
This horror manga, like many others on this list, has a more episodic structure. Many of its chapters are self-contained stories.
This manga is also not a pure horror manga, but could often be classified as a mystery one. Many stories feature mysterious deaths that the main characters have to unravel using their various abilities.
It’s an interesting and unique manga. While it’s not as horrible or graphic as others on the list, it makes up for it by its unique and creative story.
Manhole is a horror manga that will make anyone uncomfortable because it’s a realistic story that features biological horror.
It starts with a naked, bloody man, who emerges from a manhole one day. Unbeknownst to anyone, the man is host to a deadly biological agent.
As the story progresses, two detectives try to uncover the cause while the infection spreads.
This manga could be best described as a detective story, but what truly makes it a horror manga is the deadly infection and the things it causes to happen.
Manhole is a great, but unsettling read. There’s nothing supernatural happening. Instead, it’s a very realistic tale.
Especially in times of the global Corona pandemic, this one’s truly scary and might hit a bit too close to home for some.
The story centers on Count D, the caretaker of the titular Pet Shop.
Pet Shop of Horrors is another episodic horror manga. Each story revolves around a specific rare pet and the person adopting it. Each pet comes with a contract, comprising three rules the new owner has to follow. Should he fail to do so, there will be dire consequences.
The manga features some overarching plotlines and reoccurring characters, but most of its chapters fall into the ‘monster of the weak’ category.
As this is an older horror manga, the art might take some time to get used to. It’s well worth the effort, though, and some chapters are quite creative and unique.
Domu is a single volume-spanning horror manga by Otomo Katsuhiro, the creator of Akira.
The story of Domu is set in an apartment building that’s plagued by a series of mysterious suicides and other similar incidents.
A group of investigators try to uncover what’s going on, but realize that there’s a lot that doesn’t add up.
It’s soon revealed that the perpetrator is a senile old man with psychic powers. He uses them to hold sway over the apartment complex and its inhabitants.
Eventually, a young girl with psychic powers of her own moves into the apartment complex with her family. It doesn’t take long for a conflict between her and the old man to begin.
In Domu, one can already see Otomo’s interest in psychic powers which was carried over to his masterpiece Akira.
Domu’s definitely worth the read, especially for Otomo’s detailed and amazing art.
Ajin is one of the more popular horror manga on this list, and for a good reason.
It tells the story of Kei, a student who learns one day that he’s immortal. After being fatally hit by a truck, Kai miraculously survives. Even stranger, his body will regenerate any injury, regardless of how bad it is.
The story revolves around Kei and how he handles his new powers.
Kei soon gets to know another Ajin named Sato, who escaped from the government and pledges to help fellow Ajin. However, we soon learn that Sato’s got much bigger plans and that he’s much more dangerous.
Ajin features quite an interesting and unique idea and interesting characters.
The manga also features a concept called Black Ghosts, which are entities that some Ajin can call forth to fight.
It takes a bit to get used to this horror manga. Once we get to know the character of Sato, however, the story takes up more steam.
Hideout looks absolutely stunning. It’s not the art alone, however, that sells this horror manga.
The story focuses on Kirishima Seiichi, a troubled writer who plans to murder his wife during a vacation. The reason for that is revealed throughout the story.
When his attempt fails, a chase emerges and soon Seiichi follows his wife into a cave. However, Seiichi and his wife aren’t the only ones in that cave.
Most of the story in Hideout is told via flashbacks and gives us glimpses into Seiichi’s life before the vacation.
Hideout is a great horror manga, but it’s also a gloomy, depressing tale. It’s a story that’s nothing but a downward spiral that keeps getting worse and worse.
Hideout is only nine chapters long. It’s a quick and disturbing read that comes with some of the finest art I’ve seen in horror manga.
Heads is a horror manga by Higashino Keigo and Motorō Mase. The story centers on a young man, Naruse Jun’ichi, who gets shot in the head but survives miraculously because of a brain transplant.
He recovers quickly but slowly starts to change. It begins with little things, such as disgust about his girlfriend’s freckles. Soon enough, though, other areas in Jun’ichi’s life change as well.
It’s slowly revealed that it might be the donor’s brain that’s taking control over his life.
Heads is a bit of a different type of horror manga. It’s a slow burn and most of the horror stems from the idea that you’re losing yourself and slowly become a different person. Would you even know you’ve changed yourself? Would you be able to see it? It’s those questions that make Heads quite scary.
I Am a Hero is a zombie apocalypse manga by Hanazawa Kengo.
The story follows a young manga assistant, Hideo Suzuki. He’s a strange character, and we learn in the very first chapter that he suffers from mental problems.
What makes I Am a Hero such an interesting read is to follow someone like Hideo around, a character who doesn’t seem to be able to handle an event such as a zombie apocalypse.
The zombies in I Am a Hero are also different from the ones we’re used to. They are not just walking corpses, but they are often contorted and twisted in various ways. As the story continues, they slowly take on more and more horrific forms. They merge and melt into one another, creating giant, fleshy abominations.
I Am a Hero is a horror manga that starts slowly and takes a while to get going. Don’t be fooled by the first chapter though, it’s an interesting read and only gets more interesting the longer it lasts.
Zashiki Onna is another, older horror manga, published in the early 90s. What makes this story stand out is the lack of supernatural elements.
What makes Zashiki Onna so terrifying is how realistic and plausible it is.
It’s the story of a university student, Hiroshi, who’s being stalked by a tall, mysterious woman. At first, she seems only interested in his next-door neighbor, but after a chance encounter, she turns her attention to Hiroshi instead.
From here on out, things slowly escalate and get more and more dangerous as the mysterious woman continues to invade his life.
Zashiki Onna is a haunting experience and presents us with the topic of stalking most chillingly. It’s not only an invasion of privacy, not only creepy, but turns out to be truly dangerous.
Zashiki Onna is a short manga, at only eleven chapters, but it’s nonetheless a terrifying and creepy tale.
There are many terrifying manga on this list, but only a few don’t feature supernatural elements. That’s what makes Zashiki Onna stand out. It’s a simple tale about a stalker, but that’s also what makes it so much scarier.
The Promised Neverland is another one of the more popular horror manga on this list. I discovered it a couple of years ago when it was relatively new and I couldn’t stop reading it.
The story features a young girl, Emma, who lives at an orphanage with all her other foster siblings.
Life is happy, the caretaker is kind, but there’s one rule, the kids aren’t allowed to leave their home, ever.
It’s revealed in the very first chapter, that their orphanage is a farm, created to raise human children as livestock for demons.
The story starts slowly with the kids trying to flee the orphanage and outwit their caretaker. As the story continues, we learn much more about the lore of the world and the demons who control it.
The art in this manga is great and Posuka Demizu renders the many demons in gorgeous details.
The Promised Neverland is a Shonen manga, so it might not be as mature as many other works on this list. Still, it’s a great read, and I enjoyed it very much.
Shiga Hime is a vampire manga and a great horror manga.
One thing one should know is that Shiga Hime is quite sexually charged. There’s quite a bit of glorified nudity that might not be to everyone’s liking.
The story starts with two boys, Souichi and our main character, Osamu. Souichi convinces Osamu to follow him to the home of a mysterious woman, Miss Miwako.
It’s revealed that Miss Miwako is an immortal vampire who lures people to her home to feed on them. As the story progresses, Osamu becomes her slave, or better her familiar. Cursed with a monstrous appearance, he’s forced to do Miwakow’s biding.
Shiga Hime doesn’t start too well because of its heavy reliance on sexual themes.
Before long, though, things pick up when Osamu’s forced to kill and when we learn that there are other vampires with their very own familiars around.
The longer the manga goes on, the more the art seems to evolve and we’re treated to some amazing creature design and some amazing battle scenes.
The story of this manga is multi-layered. On one hand, we have the master-slave relationship between Osamu and Miss Miwako. We also encounter other theme’s though, themes such as jealousy, vanity, obsession, and the corruption of those who were once pure.
If one can overlook the sexually charged art, Shiga Hime is a great read and a tragic story.
When I first found Shiga Hime, I enjoyed the manga so much, I finished it throughout a single afternoon.
Now we’re going down the deep end of the horror manga genre.
Suehiro Maruo is most famous for his erotic gore work. Many of his works are strange and very disturbing.
The Laughing Vampire is no different and features quite a few sexually charged scenes.
It stands out, however, because of its horror and by how disturbing the story gets. Another thing is the characters. They are throughout the board terrible people or downright insane.
What makes The Laughing Vampire such a great horror manga is the unique spin it takes on the vampire genre in later parts. It inspired my story The First Few Times Always Hurt.
I’d like to point out that this horror manga is not for the faint of heart and probably one of the most twisted and disturbing works on this list.
Lychee Light Club is one of the strangest additions to this list of horror manga. The art of this manga is very reminiscent of the works of Suehiro Maruo, and Furuya has mentioned that Maruo strongly influenced him.
The manga centers on the titular Lychee Light Club, whose members create an AI or better a robot called Lychee, who they program and task to bring them beautiful women.
As the club continues, its methods become more brutal and outlandish, which eventually results in an internal struggle.
Lychee Light Club is another very disturbing horror manga that features a fair amount of gore and disturbing ideas.
Parasyte is one of the older entries on this list. It was created in the late 80s and early 90s.
This horror manga centers on the titular parasites, worm-like creatures that infest human beings and take over their bodies.
Our main character Shinichi is victim to one such parasite, but wakes up before the creature can dig into his head. Instead, the creature can only infest his right hand.
The two of them keep their separate personalities, but now share the same body. It’s a strange situation that gets worse when other parasites find out about them and attack them.
Before long, Shinichi picks up the fight, especially since other parasites prey on humans and devour them.
Parasyte is a horror manga that deals predominantly with themes of disgust and paranoia. Disgust about strange parasites who can infest anyone and the paranoia of not knowing who’s already infested.
While Parasyte can be humorous occasionally, it can also be quite gory. People are torn apart, shredded to pieces, and mauled in gruesome ways.
Parasyte is a delight for anyone interested in horror manga.
Attack on Titan is another widely popular horror manga.
The story is set in a dark, fantastical world. All that remains of mankind is living in a single, giant city surrounded by massive walls.
This city is the last bastion of humanity and its walls protect it from the titular titans. All other human beings have been killed off.
The titans are giant, humanoid monsters that feed on humans.
The story centers on Eren. During an attack on one of the outer districts, Eren’s home, his mother gets devoured by the titans. He vows revenge and joins the military.
The manga starts with a simple, but interesting premise. As the story progresses, however, we uncover how much more there is to the titans, the city and how the two are connected.
Attack on Titan is another Shonen manga and might be less mature than others on this list. It’s also much more action-oriented and relies more on battle scenes than simple scares.
What makes it so special to me is the scenario. I’m a big fan of apocalyptic stories and those set in confined spaces. I like the idea that all of mankind is restricted to a single city, while the rest of the world is filled with terrible dangers.
Another thing I love is the appearance of the titans. They don’t look like ghastly, twisted monsters, but more like giant, dim-witted humans. It’s their lack of emotions and their empty faces that make them truly outlandish and not just a bit creepy.
Attack on Titan is another, longer manga, but well worth the read. It’s an engaging, interesting storyline that features some memorable characters.
Franken Fran is one of the weirder entries on this list. The horror manga follows the titular character of Fran, a girl created by a brilliant surgeon.
Franken Fran is mostly an episodic horror manga. It can be compared to anthologies such as Tales From the Crypt or Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Each chapter features a unique scenario involving Fran.
The world of Franken Fran is not all dark and gloomy. There are quite a few chapters that take on a more humorous or satirical tone. However, all chapters of this manga are disturbing in their own unique ways.
I love this horror manga, mostly because it’s so unique.
Mieruko-chan follows a girl named Miko who’s got the ability to see ghosts.
What makes this manga so special is that Miko doesn’t fight or even interact with the ghosts, but tries her hardest to ignore them. The reason is simple, normal humans aren’t able to see ghosts. Should a human see them or react to them, however, the ghosts might attack them. So Miko tries her best not to provoke them in any way.
Mieruko-chan can be best described as a horror-comedy or a slice-of-life. It even gets quite humorous as we follow Miko through her day.
There are no battles, and no horrific incidents happen to Miko. It’s merely her observing the ghosts all around her.
As the manga progresses, the story picks up a little by introducing some additional characters. However, the original premise stays the same.
What sells this manga is the amazing art. The ghosts taken on outlandish and disturbingly horrible forms and are a delight to look at.
This manga is definitely weird and usually not what people look for in horror. Still, it’s a great read, and I’d recommend it to everyone who likes horror, if only for the design of the various ghosts.
Goth is based on the novel of the same name by Otsuichi. It’s the story of two high school students who share a strange fascination with gruesome murders.
Goth was one of the very first horror manga I ever read, and I truly enjoyed it.
It’s a relatively short manga, comprising only five chapters, but it’s still a great read and might hold the occasional surprise or two.
What makes Goth so special to me are the unique characters. In horror manga, we usually encounter normal people who get thrown into horrible situations. In Goth, our two main characters are anything but normal. Overall, one could say that quite a few characters in this horror manga are a bit special.
Another thing I enjoyed was the dynamic between the main characters and the backstory of one character revealed in later chapters.
Goth is a fantastic, quick read that features unique characters and quite the graphic imagery.
Tokyo Ghoul is another popular horror manga and one of the most popular manga of our time.
The story revolves around Kei Kaneki, who’s attacked by a young woman named Rise. Rise turns out to be a ghoul.
Ghouls are creatures who look like humans and mingle with them. However, they have superhuman powers and feed on humans to survive.
After his attack, Kaneki’s rescued by Dr. Kanou but soon learns that he’s now part ghoul and can’t stomach normal food anymore. He finds support at a cafe called Anteiku, which is a safe house for fellow ghouls.
As the story progresses, we learn more about ghouls and the different members of Anteiku. Slowly we get introduced to the various groups and characters who make up the world of Tokyo Ghoul.
Tokyo Ghoul is a lot more action-packed than other manga on this list and can be best compared to the likes of Attack on Titan or Gantz.
The story starts slowly, focusing first on Kaneki and how he comes to terms with his new life. Soon enough, though, as more lore surfaces, the story grows in proportion and gets much more interesting.
Tokyo Ghoul is a very enjoyable manga with lots of action and a fair bit of gore. It also features some great art, interesting characters as well as some amazing creature and weapon design.
The Shadow Out of Time is my favorite story by H. P. Lovecraft, and this adaption of it by Gou Tanabe is amazing.
Gou Tanabe is an amazing artist and up there with the best of the genre, in my opinion. Everything about this manga is gorgeous.
There isn’t much to say about the story. A professor suffers from a sudden attack and collapses during a lecture.
Years later, the man comes to himself only to discover that he wasn’t in a come, but that he wasn’t himself during that time and acted as if he was an entirely different person.
As the story progresses, the man slowly unravels what happened by putting together bits and pieces of his memory. The Shadow Out of Time is a cosmic horror masterpiece and introduces us to one of fiction’s most unique races.
What is there to say about Gou Tanabe’s adaptions of Lovecraft? They are amazing and this one’s no different. Regardless if you’re a fan of Lovecraft or cosmic or enjoy horror manga, I can highly recommend this work as well as Gou Tanabe’s other horror manga. If you want to check out yourself which stories of Lovecraft Gou Tanabe has adapted you can find them here:
Categorizing Ichi the Killer can be hard. It might not be a horror manga, but it’s definitely horrible.
Full disclosure here, Ichi the Killer is one of the most graphical and most disturbing pieces of manga out there. It’s also one of the best manga I’ve read in my entire life. Which might say a thing or two about me.
Yamamoto Hide created the manga. He’s outdone himself by creating a manga in which almost every character is batshit insane.
I first got to know Ichi the Killer by watching Takashi Miike’s movie of the same name. It’s a damn fantastic movie and as insane as the manga.
There’s a key difference, though. The movie’s overdrawn and almost comical in its depiction of violence and depravity. The manga is not.
Ichi the Killer is the story of the titular killer, but more so of the Yakuza Kakihara.
After Kakihara’s boss vanishes, he first searches for him and later for Ichi. This eventually leads to a confrontation between the two.
Ichi the Killer is less a horror manga, but predominately a mature and psychological tale about two characters who are downright insane.
It heavily explores themes such as sadism, masochism, identity disorder, manipulation and mixes them into one of the most depraved manga of all time.
I like to warn you again. Ichi is fucked up, at times disgusting, and features graphical content. If one’s up for that, though, one’s treated with an amazing manga.
Fuan no Tane written by Masaaki Nakayama is one of the best horror manga of all time. It’s one of the few pieces out there that focuses solely on being scary and creepy.
Fuan no Tane is also different from other, more conventional horror manga since it doesn’t have a plot or a story.
Instead, it’s a collection of short and creepy incidents, often involving ghosts or other supernatural entities. As I said, there’s no plot. Each chapter of this manga comprises a few creepy incidents, based on a central theme. It might be a location such as a school or a concept, such as uninvited guests.
Each of these incidents is only a few pages long. Characters aren’t developed, but are just there to witness these incidents. That’s what makes this horror manga so good. It wastes no time to show us who people are, doesn’t slowly introduce a story, instead it goes right into the creepiness, right to the scary incidents that take place.
Some stories in Fuan no Tane are a bit on the lighter side and are more humorous than scary, but others are truly disturbing.
I highly recommend Fuan no Tane to anyone since it’s one of the best horror manga ever created.
Another work by mangaka Masaaki Nakayama. Kouishou Rajio starts similar to his other horror manga Fuan no Tane.
At first look, Kouishou Rajio seems to be a similar collection of short, unconnected horror incidents. As we continue reading, though, we soon learn that something ties all those stories together. It’s hair.
Hair is a major focus of Kouishou Rajio and many of its shorts, often only a handful of pages long, center on it. People are haunted by images of losing their hair, encounter ghosts made of it, or those obsessed with it.
Slowly but steadily, though, Nakayama Masaak establishes an overarching narrative. It revolves around a spiritual entity only known as the God of Hair.
Kouishou Rajio is a great read, especially since many of its tales are bite-sized glimpses at scary incidents. The art is as unique and amazing as it was in Fuan no Tane. Many of the ghosts encountered look scary, unique, and creative.
What makes it even better is when we slowly realize that everything that’s happening is connected.
Kouishou Rajio is another great manga that I can highly recommend, to fans of Fuan no Tane but also to horror fans in general
It’s the surreal tale set in the city of Hole and features Kaiman, an amnesiac with the head of a reptilian.
The city of Hole is connected to the Sorcerer’s World, a world populated by magic users. These magic users often visit the city of Hole to test out their magic powers.
Kaiman believes himself to be the victim of one such magic-user, and together with his female friend Nikaido, he goes after them. It’s Kaiman’s goal to figure out who transformed him and who he really is.
The story starts as weird as it sounds and only gets strange as we read on.
We get to know various characters, both in the city of Hole and the Sorcerer’s World.
The imagery in this horror manga is outlandish, but absolutely beautiful. Q Hayashida renders both, the run-down city of Hole and the weirdness of the Sorcerer’s World, in gorgeous detail.
The same is true for many characters. The transformed and disfigured inhabitants of Hole paint a strange picture while the magic users look outlandish and scary.
Homunculus is another horror manga by Yamamoto Hideo.
While Ichi the Killer is brutal and fucked up, Homunculus is way, way stranger.
It’s the story of a man called Susumu Nakoshi, who’s homeless and lives in his car.
He eventually encounters a young man, Manabu Ito, who’s researching the process of trepanation, the drilling of holes into the human skull. He proposes to Nakoshi that he’s looking for a test subject on which to perform the process.
As the story progresses, Nakoshi eventually agrees and undergoes the procedure.
From then on, Nakoshi can see distorted versions of humans when looking at them with only his left eye. These distorted versions are the titular Homunculi.
Homunculus is an absolutely amazing and unique manga. It starts relatively normal, but soon becomes very strange.
It’s a psychological masterpiece that deals heavily with various topics, such as vanity, trauma, identity disorder, materialism, and many other things.
It’s definitely one of the stranger manga on the list, but it’s also very, very interesting.
I highly recommend it to anyone interested in strange, psychological horror manga.
The series also isn’t shy in killing off its characters. Many times, a character’s backstory is revealed only to witness their demise a chapter or two later. No one’s truly safe in this manga.
It’s a great horror manga, especially because of the creativity of the death games and the unique characters.
Gantz is another one of my favorite horror manga of all time.
It tells the story of Kei Kurono. One day, he and his childhood friend Kato die in a tragic train accident when trying to save a homeless man.
Following the accident, they awake in a Tokyo apartment in which a group of other people, as clueless as them, have gathered.
A black sphere in the center of the room, called Gantz, explains to them it’s now their job to hunt down aliens living among humans. Soon after, they get teleported to a different location and the first of many similar hunts begins.
At almost 400 chapters, Gantz is the longest manga on this list, but it’s well worth the read. The reason Gantz stands out among many other, similar action-oriented horror manga is the amazing art, the unique and creative alien design, and the sheer insanity of the story.
Another fantastic thing about Gantz is the main character, Kurono. He starts as an unlikable, egoistic teenager, but in the story’s course, he shows tremendous amounts of character development. It’s a delight to see Kurono grow and eventually become the leader of the Gantz team.
Gantz features not only Kurono though, but a plethora of memorable characters.
While Gantz’s story isn’t always clearly structured and some plotlines seem to be cut short or abandoned, it’s still a masterpiece.
What sells Gantz is the art, the craziness of the story, and the fact that it doesn’t shy away from presenting us with glorified violence, gore, but also deep emotions.
Uzumaki is a tale that’s as simple as it’s weird. The small town of Kurouzu-cho is haunted by spirals. Yes, you heard that right.
The story features Kirie and her boyfriend Shuichi, who stumble upon one freakishly scary incident after another in the course of this three-volume long horror manga.
What makes Uzumaki so special is not its story, it’s the art and the creativity behind it. Junji Ito’s imagination is incredible and disturbing. People in Uzumaki are twisted, warped, and changed until they represent the titular spiral in various disturbing ways.
Uzumaki is as good as it gets in the world of horror manga and clearly one of the best horror manga of all time. Not only that, but it’s also a work that’s truly unique and at times utterly disturbing.
Blame! is one of the greatest manga of all time and my personal favorite.
It can best be described as a cyberpunk epic, but can also be called a horror manga. It’s an absolutely amazing read and the art in Blame! is some of the best I’ve ever seen. Tsutomu Nihei is an absolute master of his craft.
Blame! follows the character of Killy as he travels through a gigantic labyrinth of concrete and steel, known as The City.
Killy’s mission is to find a human with Net Terminal Genes who’d be able to access the so-called Netsphere, a computerized control network of The City. Such a person could put an end to the chaotic growth of The City and stop the so-called Safeguard from exterminating all of humanity.
Throughout the manga, Killy travels through vast technological and architectural wastelands populated by cyborgs and other technological horrors.
Killy also encounters various pockets of civilization that make a living in this dangerous environment.
As the manga continues we see more of those communities, learn more about the Safeguard and The City itself.
Blame! is an absolute visual masterpiece. It’s not only the cyborgs or the other creatures Killy encounters, but the entire landscape that is rendered in fantastic detail.
The world of Blame! is huge, gigantic even, and it shows in many of the manga’s panels when we get a glance at the gigantic structures that make up The City.
The story of Blame! however, is complicated and doesn’t make much sense at the best of times. It’s divided into general arcs which are all combined by Killy’s overarching quest for a human with Net Terminal Genes.
Near the end, the story gets even more confusing and we’re left with not so much an ending but yet another mystery to add to an already huge list.
Even though the story is lackluster, Blame! is worth it for the art and the world it’s set in alone.
There’s few manga who can compare to Blame! Especially for fans of cyberpunk, there aren’t as many works out there as good as this one.
Blame! is a visual delight and a manga I can highly recommend to anyone who loves cyberpunk or is interested in a more technological kind of horror manga.
What better way to finish this list than with an absolute masterpiece such as Kentaro Miura’s Berserk.
Berserk is another one of my all-time favorites, both for the amazingly detailed art and the story told.
Berserk is the story of Guts, the Black Swordsman.
At first glance, Berserk might appear simple. We’ve got Guts, a man with a sword as huge as himself who fights giant monsters, so-called apostles.
That might be true for the first volumes of the manga, the so-called Black Swordsman arc. Soon enough, though, we discover that there’s more to Guts than we first believed and that he’s a much more complex character.
After the Black Swordsman arc, we enter the Golden Age arc. It’s here that we learn more about Guts’ backstory and his connection to the man named Griffith.
Berserk is deep, shows us a complex relationship between two complex and unique characters, and can get quite philosophical.
The art in Berserk is breathtakingly beautiful. There’s a reason that Kentaro Miura is not regarded as another mangaka, but a true master of his craft.
You can easily find more details on a single page of Berserk than in an entire chapter of a different manga.
It’s this art that brings forth the unique world of Berserk and the people and monsters populating it.
Berserk’s world is a dark and grim one though, much darker than what we’re used to. It’s a world rampant with war and atrocities.
Berserk also doesn’t shy away from gore and violence. Especially since Guts doesn’t shy away from cleaving anything standing in his way, be it humans or monsters. We see guts flying, people being cut to pieces, torn apart, and much worse things.
However, as dark as Berserk is, the story is masterfully told.
When Berserk’s at its best there’s very few manga that can compare to it.
At first glance, especially during the first chapters or even volumes, Berserk might not appear the masterpiece it truly is, but if you read on, you’re sure to be blown away by it.
I can’t recommend Berserk highly enough and for that reason it’s the number one on this list. Anyone interested in horror manga or manga, in general, should check out Berserk. It’s at the very peak of the genre and as good as it gets.
As a horror writer, I’ve always engrossed myself in the horror genre. From an early age, I consumed any, and all media related to horror. It was more than a decade ago that I first read my first of the many Junji Ito stories out there.
Junji Ito is one of the greatest horror mangaka and one of the greatest horror artists of our time. There’s something special about his work. It’s not simply his style and his dedicated line-work, but also his narrative style that makes his work so original.
Many of his stories feature cosmic horror, distortions of body and mind, phobias, fears, and many other, stranger things. One can easily say that Ito’s works are completely unique and there’s no other mangaka that’s like him in both style and narrative.
Some works such as Uzumaki feature classical Lovecraftian horror. Others like The Bully are more realistic and can best be categorized as psychological horror. Yet some are utterly bizarre and absurd, like Hanging Balloons.
Want to know more about Junji Ito and his work? Check out the Writers Mythos and their episode on Junji Ito which was co-written by me.
If you’re interested in learning more about those things, and my ideas about it, I wrote a long article about Junji Ito’s style. You can read it here.
It’s often hard to review Ito’s works since his stories don’t rely on twists and plots like other stories. Most of his stories give us a glimpse into a horrible world and let us see the horrible events that happen to his main characters.
I’ll try my best not to spoil the crucial details about his stories, but at times it’s unavoidable. So here’s an obligatory spoiler warning.
As a fan of over a decade, I’ve decided to put together a long list of my favorite works by Junji Ito. Even though this is a long list, it’s still only a fraction of his entire body of work.
So here’s a list of my favorite 40 Junji Ito stories.
Slug Girl is a very short tale and can be best described as a typical piece of body horror. It’s one of Junji Ito’s most popular tales and has been featured in various other lists and recommendations.
There’s a certain appeal to the story of Slug Girl. It brings everything to the table a typical Junji Ito story needs. It’s bizarre, creepy, disgusting, and the ending is downright sad.
Still, it’s a bit on the short side and I wish the idea’d have been explored more.
Slug Girl tells the story of Yuuko, who suddenly suffers from a swollen tongue. At the same time, her family’s backyard is infested by slugs which her parents try to get rid of.
Yuuko soon starts to feel sick and the true nature of her sickness is discovered.
It’s an outlandish tale that plays with our fears of irrational and strange sicknesses.
I first read Bronze Statue in its raw, Japanese version and didn’t understand a thing of what was going on in this story by Junji Ito.
What stayed with me was the image of murdering people by encasing them in plaster and later creating statues that showed their demise.
Most of Junji Ito’s stories are brutal and disturbing, many far worse than this, but somehow this image stayed with me.
Once I could actually read the story and understand the plot, it wasn’t one of my favorites. The story centers on vanity, jealousy, and obsession with beauty. It’s still worth a read, if only for the gruesome depiction of murder. The rest though is rather forgettable.
This is another, somewhat weirder story by Junji Ito that I enjoyed quite a bit. It’s one I never really see mentioned by other people or on lists, and I know why. It’s not one of Junji Ito’s typical, horrific tale, but a more somber and thematically heavy one.
In a small town, strange drifting spores appear that can mimic people’s voices and even repeat what they said. Soon enough people collect those spores, not only to hear their voices but also for the spores to reveal their secrets.
The story features such topics as the invasion of privacy and the urge to know the secrets that others keep to themselves. Throughout the story, this urge of some grows to an obsession of one character and ultimately drives him to commit a menacing act. It’s a tale that shows how far we can be driven when we mess with things we don’t understand and which are beyond our control.
It’s a tale that’s not driven by sheer horror or outlandish imagery, but one that shows how far our nature can drive us.
This another underrate Junji Ito tale that I never see mentioned by anyone.
It’s the story of a young doctor named Furahata who moves to a small remote village. The people there look lifeless, gloomy, and withered. They suffer from a strange illness that makes them bleed profoundly at varying intervals.
As Furahata tries to figure out what’s wrong with the villagers, he ultimately learns the cause of the sickness and the terrible nature of the village.
It’s a slower, more Lovecraftian tale that ultimately pays off. I enjoyed this tale, especially since the scenario is like the one featured in my novel New Haven.
Reading this title, I’m surely not the only one who thinks back to fond childhood memories. Even now I remember the ice cream truck that appeared at my home once a week selling sweat treads and other delights.
Of course, this is a story by Junji Ito and it’s not about reminiscing the good old times.
Each week when the ice cream man appears with his truck, he not only offers the kids ice cream but also a ride around the neighborhood inside his truck. The narrator, a recent divorcee, eventually lets his son join in on the fun.
After a while, the narrator notices that things around the house, around the neighborhood kids and his son get increasingly stickier. Eventually, things come to a horrifying conclusion.
This is not one of Junji Ito’s best tales and the scenario is frankly said, almost comically bizarre. What makes this story special is how Junji Ito twists the mundane and sweet childhood memories into something terrifying. It’s always a delight to experience stories like that.
This is one of Junji Ito’s most disgusting stories as you might guess from the title.
The premise is simple. A young man returns to his house after a year abroad, only to find it abandoned by his subtenants. Even worse, they left the house in a disgusting state of destitute, and mold is growing everywhere.
Said subtenant was his old teacher, Mr. Rogi, a man who had a passion for studying fungi.
The narrator tries to clean up his house, but it’s to no avail. The mold keeps spreading further and intensifies, slowly warping the entire house. As the story progresses, the mold grows everywhere, forming giant tubes that pump out disgusting black liquid.
Eventually, the narrator discovers what happened to Mr. Rogi and his family and will most likely suffer a similar fate.
This story is absolute hell for any germophobe. Especially because of Junji Ito’s style, which creates an utterly haunting, rotten hell.
Scarecrows is another story with a simple premise.
The inhabitants of a small town realize that if they plant a scarecrow on the grave of a deceased relative, it will take on their likeness.
Things don’t stop there, and soon mysterious things happen in the graveyard.
While it’s a weird and creative story, it’s also not as outlandish as some of Junji Ito’s other tales. Still, it’s an interesting premise and a worthy read.
There isn’t much to say about this story. It’s about a group of fishermen out at sea who eventually hear the titular demon’s voice.
The next day, after a long dry patch, the crew makes a big catch, but only one member of the crew, not affected by the shrill cry of the demon, sees what they truly pull from the sea.
Demon’s Voice is a delightfully short read with some great and disturbing imagery that’s so typical to Junji Ito.
I enjoy stories that not only incorporate popular tropes but change them up and breathe new life into them. It’s not a beautiful woman that drives the men to their death against the cliffs. No, it’s a demon’s voice that makes them hallucinate and causes them to ultimately suffer their demise.
Rib’s woman is a tale that focuses on plastic surgery and body image. One thing I found weird about this tale is the reliance on plastic surgery. Especially considering that the main characters Yuki, as well as Ruriko, are both still in high school.
Rib’s woman is the tale of Yuki, who wants to be pretty and eventually relies on plastic surgery to have some of her ribs removed to get a slender waist.
Soon enough though, her friend Ruriko, who underwent a similar procedure, starts to hear awful music. Eventually, the two of them discover that it’s caused by a mysterious, creepy woman. She’s playing on a strange harp made from bone.
From here on things only get crazier as the true nature of the instrument, and the mysterious woman, are revealed.
The revelation features one of Ito’s most iconic images of body horror that’s become popular on the internet.
The story itself is a bit of a mess, especially the aforementioned aspect of plastic surgery. Yet, the body horror, and the strange nature of the instrument, make up for it.
In this story, we get to know a young woman, Sayoko, who goes on a hiking trip with a friend. Sayoko’s friend is worried about her since she hasn’t come to school for a while, for reasons she hasn’t disclosed yet.
The two of them get lost in the mountains and eventually find their way to a monastery.
On a whim, Sayoko stays and joins their healing meditation program. It’s because of her fears and her state of mind.
From another visitor, Sayoko and her friend learn that things aren’t what they seem. The monastery’s members ultimately enter a state of eternal meditation, which means they become Buddhist mummies.
Eventually, Sayoko and her friend end up in the labyrinth which is the final resting place for those members of the monastery. As the two of them get lost, they eventually encounter an area where the members are still alive. Under the gazes of hundreds of monks, Sayoko finally reveals that she’s suffering from a fear of being watched.
This story isn’t too special, both in the premise and execution. What makes it so good, is that Junji Ito’s able to create a scenario in which Sayoko ends up in her personal hell, an endless row of people all staring at her.
Mimi’s Ghost Stories is a collection of six tales about ghosts which the titular character, Mimi, encounters.
The interesting thing about this collection is that Junji Ito didn’t write the stories, but he merely collected them. All the stories in this collection are all based on Japanese urban legends.
The volume features Junji Ito’s typical style, but to me, none of them stood out particularly. It might because they haven’t been written by Ito himself.
The one I enjoyed the most was the chapter titled ‘The Seashore,’ but even this one felt rather lukewarm compared to Junji Ito’s other works.
Now don’t get me wrong, Mimi’s Ghost Stories is an interesting and enjoyable volume of stories, and I’d highly recommend it to any fan of Junji Ito’s work. However, there are other, better works of his available.
Hellstar Remina is one of Junji Ito’s best example of Lovecraftian cosmic horror.
Professor Oguro discovers first a wormhole and then a new planet that appears to have entered our universe via this wormhole.
He names this newly discovered planet after his daughter, Remina, who’s propelled to stardom because of the event. What’s weird about Planet Remina is that it moves in random directions with no clear orbit. Even stranger, all the stars in its vicinity seem to vanish.
It soon becomes clear that the planet has set its sight on Earth and is closing on it. Soon Remina enters our solar system and one by one all the other planets are destroyed or devoured by Remina.
The story only gets weirder and more insane from this. Unfortunately, Hellstar Remina also becomes sillier the longer it goes on and I had a hard time taking it seriously in later parts.
However, one has to give Junji Ito credit where credits due. An apocalypse caused by a sentient planetary entity is fantastic. It just seems that the story focuses a bit too much on the humanities’ reaction and especially the hunt for the professor’s daughter.
The imagery in this story is fantastic though. It’s a terrifying delight to see Planet Remina with its eyes and mouth. Its surface, as we later see, is as horrifying as its general appearance.
As I said though, the crazy and silly plot made it hard for me to enjoy the later parts of this work. As a Junji Ito fan, it’s still an interesting read, if only for the imagery of the titular Hellstar.
At the beginning of this story, we get to know Miss Takigawa, a kindergarten teacher. One night, on her way home, she’s assaulted by an unknown person and drenched into a strange liquid.
At the kindergarten itself, there are problems too, caused by one of the kids Chikara. He’s a troublemaker and behaves violently towards the other kids.
Eventually, Miss Takigawa visits Chikara’s home only to discover the true horror of this story and the reason for his behavior.
Flesh Colored Horror was another one of the first Junji Ito stories I read, and boy was I in for a surprise. It’s one of those stories that demonstrates how imaginative Junji Ito is and how creative he can get.
Here we have another typical Junji Ito tale. It’s short, it’s terrifying, and it comes with some very crazy visuals.
The main character Yuji, a young writer, confesses to his girlfriend, Mari, that he hasn’t slept for three days. It’s because of his fear of his dream-self, an entity with the goal to replace Yuji here in the real world. Whenever Yuji falls asleep, he says, his dream-self is coming out.
Mari doesn’t believe him, but is worried and agrees to help him overcome his fears.
Eventually, though, Mari learns that Yuji’s fears aren’t as irrational as she thought.
The most terrifying part of this story is that it throws Yuji into a fight he can’t win. We’ve seen similar scenarios in other media before, and we all know that it’s impossible to stay awake forever.
Gyo means fish in Japan and knowing that you might think you’re prepared for what’s coming. Believe me, if you’ve never heard about this story, you don’t. Gyo is without a doubt one of Junji Ito’s most iconic and popular works.
Yet, it’s also one of his weirdest and most absurd stories.
The premise is simple. Sea-dwelling creatures emerge from the depth and invade the land, but not in the way we’d expect them to.
The story starts with Tadashi and his girlfriend Kaori going on a vacation. Kaori, who’s very sensitive to smells, soon complains about a terrible, rotten stench. Soon the two of them notice a strange fish on robotic legs that’s skittering through their holiday home, spreading the disgusting smell.
While it’s only a tiny fish at first, soon bigger fish, including a giant shark, emerge from the depths.
Back in Tokyo, the story enters full-fledged apocalypse territory as the so-called death-stench spreads, and millions of sea-creatures flood the city and Japan.
Gyo is without a doubt a very creative story. There’s nothing like it out there. What’s interesting here is that Junji Ito combined two common fears. First, the fear of the deep sea and what’s hidden down there, second our fear of the skittering, multi-legged movements of insects. As if this wasn’t enough, he also adds the disgusting, rotten smell known as the death stench.
While I can praise Gyo for its creativity, it also suffers from many problems. The predominant one being that Junji Ito tries to explain what’s going on. Things start absurd, but as the story continues they become ridiculous and finally downright silly. It was hard for me to take any part of Junji Ito’s explanation seriously because it made no sense at all. Horror is often best when it’s unexplained and we don’t uncover the mystery. In Gyo Junji Ito tried and, in my opinion, failed at it.
The strongest part of Gyo is definitely the outlandish imagery, especially in the later parts of the manga when it’s not just fish, but also bloated, disfigured humans walking the streets.
My absolute favorite chapter in Gyo is the one about the circus. It comes completely out of nowhere and features the single greatest page in the entire manga.
For all the criticism I give Gyo here, it’s still an iconic story, and a fun read if one doesn’t look at the story too critically.
Considering Junji Ito’s interest in phobias, there had to be one that features trypophobia. This is it, and it’s a fabulous story. There’s something about holes appearing all over your body that’s deeply unsettling but also strangely fascinating.
The story starts with Yuuji, who talks about his neighbor Rina, who spends most of her days inside because of a strange illness. Said illness causes holes to appear all over Rina’s arm. When Yuuji sees this he remembers that his grandfather too suffered and died because of a similar illness.
Yuuji tells his best friend Hideo and together the two of them try to uncover what happened. That’s how they learn about a strange jade statue related to it.
This is another one of Ito’s story that talks about man messing with things he doesn’t understand, greed, and obsession. And of course, holes, lots and lots of holes.
The Human Chair is a story that was originally written by Japanese writer Yoshiko Togawa and adapted as a manga by Junji Ito.
The story features a female writer, named after the author of the original story who receives a letter from a fan. The letter contains a very unsettling manuscript about someone hiding and living inside an armchair.
It’s another of Ito’s most popular stories that I see mentioned a lot. The entire premise of the story is very unsettling and brings forth the topics of privacy and obsession.
What drives this story home is again Ito’s unique art style combined with a truly unsettling idea.
This story is a prime example of Junji Ito’s mastery of the body horror genre, and his artistic skill.
At its core, it’s a story about body dysmorphia, but once again Junji Ito drives it up a notch. It’s not about changing your body, it’s about having your body cut open and being dissected.
Ruriko is a young doctor who’s visited by a mysterious woman who wants him to dissect her. As the story progresses, we learn more about the titular character and the reason for her obsession.
Dissection girl is as typical a Junji Ito story as can be. It features two of his predominant themes, body horror and mental illness.
What makes this one stand out is the disturbing imagery, especially that of the last page. It’s truly one of the most absurd, yet most creative images of body horror I’ve ever seen.
The story features, as the title says, a haunted mansion or better a haunted house.
Our main characters are two young boys who find out about a new haunted house in their town. The of them witness as other people visit the attraction and flee the place scared half to death.
Eventually, the two of them make their way there and get invited by the owner for free.
There are quite a few surprises ahead, not only for our main character but also for our readers who might recognize a few reoccurring characters.
This is another story that features one of Ito’s most unsettling drawings, which you can find above.
The deep sea is one of the few places on our planet that’s still mostly unknown.
The same could be said about the universe, but it’s huge, infinite by our standards. The ocean however is right here, right next door to some of us, yet we barely know a thing about it. It can be unsettling to think about what horrors lurk down there, in its depths.
The premise of this story by Junji Ito is simple. A horrific deep sea creature is washed ashore. It’s not a whale or anything that was ever seen before. It’s an unknown, disgusting, and almost Lovecraftian creature.
People are driven to the beach in droves, some to see the strange creature, others to figure out what sort of creature it actually is.
As the story progresses another horrific truth is revealed, namely that something is moving inside its body, something that’s still alive.
What makes this Junji Ito story so interesting is the possibility that something like this creature could actually exist somewhere out in the depths of the ocean.
This is another one of Junji Ito’s very short works with a very simple premise.
Hiroshi and his family move into their new home, situated right next to a strange building. Said building has only one window, right opposite Hiroshi’s very own.
The family learns that the building is the home of a strange, secluded lady. When we finally get to see her though we are presented with another iconic one of Junji Ito’s drawings.
It’s this drawing, the details, and the artistic skill displayed that makes this story so special. The rest is almost forgettable, anticlimactic even.
Yet, I can’t help but hold this story in high regard, especially since it inspired my series The Disappearing Alley.
Black Paradox is wild, Black Paradox is weird, and Black Paradox is actually quite interesting.
The story starts with a group of four people who form a suicide pact to end their lives together. Somehow though, our main character Marusou ends up with a group of doppelgangers.
After uncovering what’s happened and after meeting up with the real group, they postpone their attempts and meet again at a later point to go through with it.
From here on, the manga only gets stranger.
Black Paradox is one of Junji Ito’s longer works consisting of six chapters in total. The biggest problem with Black Paradox is the disjointed start. It starts with a suicide pact, but the focus of the series proofs to be about something entirely different.
Still, it features Junji Ito’s typical masterful art and his crazy imagination. For that alone, it would be worth the read. Yet, as weird as the story starts, the better it gets later on.
Overall, Black Paradox is quite an enjoyable experience, and I’d highly recommend it.
This story, oh god, this story. Many of Junji Ito’s stories feature disgusting images, but this story might be the worst.
It’s the story of a young girl, Yui, who lives with her sadistic older brother and her father above the family’s yakiniku restaurant. Said restaurant is the reason the entire house is coated in thick layers of grease.
Soon enough, her brother hits puberty and develops pimples. Because of the thick greasy air and his habit of drinking oil, his acne gets much, much worse than it usually would. I guess you can tell where things are going.
However, the story isn’t solely about the crater face’s eruption. There are even more sinister things going on at the family restaurant.
An interesting side note, I recently learned that this story stems from Junji Ito’s experience during dental school. When there he was forced to sleep on a dirty, sweaty futon himself.
It’s honestly one of Junji Ito’s most disgusting stories and of course, it features another one of his very popular drawings. Read it, but you’ve been warned.
I’ve always been a fan of concepts such as a city within a building. That’s the reason I also enjoy stories that are set in confined or restricted spaces.
This story by Junji Ito begins with Saiko, who’s sick and tired of her family constantly spying on her. So she leaves her family to live with her aunt instead.
She travels to her aunt’s town only to discover that all the streets have been blocked by wooden, make-shift buildings. That’s not the only thing though, the entire town has been boarded up by wooden constructions almost making it a single building.
Out of necessity, the people in this town had to find new passageways. Without streets, the only way to get anywhere was via people’s houses. This eliminated all privacy between the people living in the town.
Even worse there’s this constant feeling in the town that you’re being watched by someone, or… something.
I really enjoyed the bizarre setting of the town and Saiko’s walk through various buildings and different areas of the town.
There’s also a secondary plot happening about a killer appearing in people’s dreams. Yet again, it feels a bit disjointed and doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the story.
It’s obvious this story’s focus is the intrusion of privacy and the fear of being watched or being spied on. While I don’t think the dream killer story is necessary, perhaps it signifies yet another intrusion of privacy. Not even your dreams solely belong to you.
Either way, it’s a very interesting story which shows that Junji Ito doesn’t shy away from sometimes including more serious topics in his work.
Junji Ito’s stories are rarely grounded in reality. They feature monsters, outlandish powers, or supernatural entities. This one here’s a rare exception to the rule.
The Bully is the simple story of a young girl bullying a little boy. When the two of them meet again as adults though, things take a different turn, one for the better.
However, this is a Junji Ito story, so there’s no happy ending here. What makes this story so terrifying is the absence of supernatural forces. This one’s entirely grounded in reality, and it makes it so much worse.
Imagine a stranger runs up to you and licks your face. That’s the simple premise of this story by Junji Ito.
Miku’s fiancee Tsuyoshi gets licked by a mysterious woman on his way home. Of course, the story isn’t just about the disgust of being licked. No, the Licking Woman’s saliva is dangerous and soon Tusyoshi dies from it.
As time passes more cases related to the Licking Woman are reported and more people are getting hurt.
Miku of vows for revenge and plans to kill the Licking woman. However, there are quite a few surprises ahead for her.
This story has quite a few things to offer. There’s the general disgust of being licked by a stranger and worse, being hurt by it. What makes this story so great is once more Ito’s imagery. The disgusting, bloated, wet tongue, her mouth, her eyes, they almost warp the licking woman into something that’s not even human anymore.
Overall, it’s a great story and I really enjoyed it a lot.
I think most people are familiar with the story of Frankenstein, or have at least heard about it. Having read the original novel and having watched some movie adaptions, I can say that Junji Ito’s adaption is absolutely phenomenal. It might be the best adaption of Shelly’s source material out there.
This volume is frankly said a masterpiece. I’d can highly recommend it to anyone who’s either a fan of Junji Ito’s art style or the original novel by Mary Shelley.
Ito’s strange, unsettling imagery, his over the top way of conveying his characters emotions and his body horror make this an unforgettable experience.
Tomie is another one of Junji Ito’s reoccurring characters and probably his most popular character. Her stories span three volumes and spawned an entire series of live-action movies.
It’s even more interesting when you consider that Tomie was one of Junji Ito’s earliest works.
Even though the art style in the early chapters of Tomie isn’t as refines as in his later works, you can already get a glimpse of Junji Ito’s crazy imagination.
The story begins with Tomie being a normal, but gorgeous student who’s in an affair with her teacher. In the first chapter, she accidentally dies during a school trip, and the class bands together to hide the fact by cutting her body into pieces and getting rid of her.
The next day, however, Tomie returns and from this point onward things only prove to get stranger. As the stories surrounding Tomie continue, we learn that she’s not a normal person, but an entity with regenerative powers. It doesn’t matter what you do to Tomie, even the tiniest bit of her will regenerate and grow into a new version of herself.
As if that wasn’t enough, Tomie also has an almost supernatural hold upon man. Every man she meets is taken by her, falls in love with her, and eventually grows obsessed with her. This obsession always ends with a descent into madness.
Tomie was the first of Ito’s stories I discovered, and I read all the chapters in one day.
Looking back, the quality of Tomie’s chapters varies. Some are better, some are worse. At times, Junji Ito’s at the top of his game, and some chapters are masterfully done and contain some of the most horrific things he’s ever drawn. However, other chapters can be rather forgetful.
Oshikiri is another reoccurring character and most of his stories are centered on the strange events happening in the mansion he lives in.
I never hear people talk about Oshikiri’s tales, yet I feel that some imagery here is absolutely amazing.
As with some of Ito’s other stories featuring the same character, Oshikiri’s also doesn’t follow a general storyline. Considering the things we learn about his mansion, these stories might not even be related at all.
The main reason I adore these stories is that they feature some of Junji Ito’s greatest imagery and body horror.
The very first story centers on weird hallucinations in which people’s necks grow and distort. A later story features a strange medication that warps people’s appearances into ghastly abominations.
Overall Oshikiri’s stories are very strange, feature an idea I’ve never seen in any other story by Junji Ito, but they are also creative and at times horrifying. They are definitely worth a read and I feel they are truly underrated.
Another one of Ito’s earlier stories, but man do I love this one.
The story introduces us to our main character Rumi, her boyfriend and their teacher Mr. Okabe, who’s an artist specializing in the creation of headless statues.
At the start of the story, Mr. Okabe is tragically murdered. In the days that follow Rumi’s boyfriend Shimada, the last person Mr. Okabe hung out with starts behaving strangely. As the two of them return to the place of the crime, the teacher’s art room, things quickly spiral out of control in typical fashion for Junji Ito.
As with many other stories by Junji Ito, one can assume from the title alone what will happen. What I like so much about this one is the execution and the ghastly art. We get distorted faces and Junji Ito’s typical, nightmarish and brutal imagery.
I also think Headless Statues has one of the best, most terrifying ending panels in all of Ito’s stories.
Another fan favorite story by Junji Ito and oh is it deserved.
Miss Fuchi, the titular fashion model, makes us uneasy the moment we first see her on the pages of a fashion magazine.
The main character, Iwasaki, is so horrified by her he suffers from nightmares because of her outlandish appearance.
As the story progresses, Iwasaki eventually gets over his fears of Miss Fuchi. That is until he and his fellow students search for a female lead for their newest movie project.
The moment we see Miss Fuchi in person, we can already tell that there’s something amiss about her. She’s not only tall, but she’s also almost gigantic, her face is too long and her eyes don’t look like those of a normal human being. No, there’s something very wrong about this… person.
On the way to the project we get a first glimpse of how unnatural and monstrous Miss Fuchi is and from there, things only escalate further.
Miss Fuch is definitely one of Junji Ito’s most popular and iconic creations. The story itself might be rather conventional for Junji Ito. There’s no supernatural phenomenon happening, there are no distortions of the human body or mind, no, this is just a story about a monster.
But what a monster Miss Fuchi is. She will stay on your mind, just like she did on Iwasaki’s.
This is another one of the very first Junji Ito stories I read, and it always stayed on my mind. What puts it here, in the top ten, is as much nostalgia as anything else.
Lovesick Dead is another one of Junji Ito’s longer works, spanning five chapters in total.
The story’s set in Nanchou-Shi a town enshrouded by thick layers of fog. It’s definitely a great scenario for a horror story.
Right away we are introduced to the concept of intersection fortune-telling, a practice at the core of the story. It’s simple. People wait at an intersection for someone to pass by and ask them to tell their fortune.
Our main character Ryuusuke is returning home after him and his family left the town many years ago. As the story progresses a strange character called the Intersection’s Pretty Boy starts wandering the streets of the town. Whoever encounters him during intersection fortune-telling will only get an ill fortune, with dire consequences.
It’s a typical Junji Ito story. People act irrational, go insane, or get obsessed to the point of mutilating and even killing themselves.
There are some parts of the story that are a bit disjointed and don’t seem to fit in too with the overall narrative. It’s a problem we often encounter in Junji Ito’s longer works. Yet, does it really matter? People read Junji Ito’s works mostly for the horrifying imagery and his crazy ideas.
Overall, Lovesick Dead is a great read, and it features a lot of unsettling and at times quite gory art. What I love especially is the mysterious setting of a town perpetually enshrouded by thick, heavy fog.
Long Dream is another super story by Junji Ito with a concept that’s equal parts interesting and terrifying.
Mami, a young woman with a dire diagnosis, is terribly afraid of death. What makes it even worse is that she talks about death himself visiting her hospital room.
However, it’s not death, it’s another patient named Tetsuro Mukoda. The man suffers from a very strange condition that causes him to have the titular long dreams, dreams that last for days, weeks, months, and even entire lifetimes.
Long Dream is especially scary because of the idea of getting lost in your dreams and forgetting both the real world and who you really are.
It’s definitely one of Ito’s most creative and original stories. It also comes with its fair share of body horror, as the people suffering from long dreams slowly transform, degrade, and get warped into something terrible and alien-looking.
The most interesting part about this story is that there are no monsters here, no antagonistic powers, no, there are only dreams.
This is another great Junji Ito story and one of my absolute favorites.
Army of One was merely a bonus chapter to Hellstar Remina, but in my opinion, it’s much better than all of Remina combined.
What makes Army of One stand out among Junji Ito’s other stories is that starts as more of a thriller than a horror story. People go missing and soon after their stitched-together corpses are found.
At first, it’s only two people at once, but soon more and more people go missing and get strung together into nightmarish, public displays all over the city. It’s at this point that not only the characters in the story but also we as the readers realize that this can’t possibly be the work of a single person.
Even worse, there doesn’t seem to be any hint of struggle, and no bodily harm was done to the victims before being stitched together.
What makes this story so interesting is that it changes one of horror’s predominant rules: strength in numbers. If you want to live through any horrific scenario, you stay together. Not so in Army of One, here the rule is reversed. The first to die aren’t those who are alone, no, it’s those who get together and mingle with others.
Another story that sticks out among Junji Ito’s body of work. It’s not one of the terrifying and horrific tales we’re so used to, it’s rather a sad little tale.
The story starts with Akiko, a young woman always plagued by the fear of her father dying.
The story progresses and Akiko marries Makoto and joins the Tokura household. There’s one peculiarity about the Tokura family though, a special practice. When a relative dies, the members of the family get together and perform a ritual which will create an afterimage of the person.
Throughout the story learn more about afterimages, their nature and the characters.
Everything about this story is great and, to me, it holds a very special place among Junji Ito’s many works.
We enter the top five with another one of Junji Ito’s most popular stories and definitely one of his masterpieces. The story was first translated on 4chan back in 2006 and went viral instantly.
The story’s premise is simple. People-shaped holes appear on the side of an earthquake fault line, and soon people from all over Japan flock to the location.
Most of those watching the event on TV became restless and were driven by a strange desire to visit the location themselves.
Our main characters are an unnamed young man and a young woman named Yoshida. Both share the strange feeling and are driven to the Amigara Faults.
As the story continues we see other people, who came in search of their hole and soon enough we see them enter them.
At the core of the story is the compulsive urge of people to understand the unexplainable. That itch inside their minds that questions why those holes are there, how they were created, and why there exists one with their exact shape.
Even worse, there seems to be no explanation for the event. We never find out what those holes are and why they exist.
What makes this story by Junji Ito so great is the mixture of claustrophobic horror, the fear of the unknown and the strange allusions of the impossible.
The Enigma of the Amigara Faults is truly an absolute masterpiece.
Layers of Fear is one of Junji Ito’s more recent work, and definitely my absolute favorite among them. It brings forth one of his craziest ideas and supports it with breathtakingly horrific imagery.
This story is absolutely wide. When I first read it, I could only read it in its original Japanese version. Even though I hadn’t understood a thing, I couldn’t help but stare at my screen in awe.
The story starts with a professor uncovering the grave of a child that was created by stacking layers upon one another.
After this event we move forward to the present time, years after the father’s death his family is on the way to a ceremony.
On the way there, the family has a car accident and one daughter, Remi, gets part of her face sliced off.
Instead of suffering a terrible wound as one would expect, it’s revealed that under her skin is another layer of skin. From here on out, the story only gets crazier and crazier.
The story doesn’t focus on this premise alone. As with many other stories by Junji Ito, it’s multilayered in its horror. There’s also Remi’s mother, an older woman obsessed with her daughter’s childhood.
What makes this story so amazing is not only the outlandish idea it puts forth, but once more Junji Ito’s imagery, which is at the top of its game here.
Layers of Fear is amazing and I can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone interested in Junji Ito.
Risa, a young woman, suffers from temporary amnesia and is plagued by nightmares of a giant, caterpillar-like creature.
Her boyfriend Shuichi tries to help her and brings her to his home to meet his father.
This is where things get strange. Her father enters the room in a very weird, almost spider-like fashion.
From this point on, the story takes a quick turn to the utterly bizarre as the reason for both the father’s weird behavior and Remi’s amnesia are revealed.
My Dear Ancestors is undoubtedly one of Ito’s most bizarre and grotesque stories.
Uzumaki is without a doubt an absolute masterpiece and Junji Ito’s magnum opus.
Manga can be a strange genre. There are many works out there and I’ve read my fair share of bizarre manga, but none was as weird as Junji Ito’s Uzumaki.
It’s a three-volume long series set in the small Japanese coastal town of Kurouzu-cho which is infested by spirals.
Everything in this story, everything in the imagery, is linked to spirals. Even the horrific events that take place in town all happen because of spirals or are related to them.
Spiral shapes appear all over town, things take on the form of spirals, and soon enough even the townsfolk are obsessed with them.
This leads to some of Junji Ito’s greatest and most outlandish imagery. People are warped, changed, and transformed into various spiral-like shapes.
And this brings us to Junji Ito’s most iconic drawing.
This image is not at the climax of the story, no, it’s merely the first chapter and from then on things only get stranger and more horrible. Nothing in Kurouzu-cho is safe from the curse of the spiral. People transform into snails, lovers entangle each other like snakes and even hair develops a life of its own.
What sells Uzumaki is without a doubt Junji Ito’s terrifying and horrifying art, and in Uzumaki, he’s at his absolute best. His simple, clean black-and-white style, his precise craftsmanship brings forth the horrors that re happening in Kurouzu-cho in every last horrifying detail.
Most of Uzumaki’s story is episodic. The first two volumes feel almost like a collection of short stories that all feature the same setting and the same reoccurring characters.
In my opinion, Uzumaki is at its weakest in the last volume when Junji Ito brings everything together and drives the narration to its end.
It’s a satisfying conclusion to a fantastic piece of weird fiction, but once more I feel Ito’s at his best when things are left open and when we don’t find out what exactly is going on.
What makes Uzumaki stand out so much among a plethora of other horror works is the lack of a feasible antagonist. There are no monsters to fight, no killers to run from. No, there’s only the spiral, a concept that lingers of the town in the form of an omnipresent curse.
Reading Uzumaki for the first time is an utterly surreal and absolutely horrifying experience, but one that’s without a doubt satisfying to anyone interested in horror.
As I said I’ve been reading Junji Ito’s works for years and recently I came to appreciate Hanging Balloons just for how good it is. It’s, in my opinion, one of Ito’s best stories ever.
It’s bizarre, absurd, surreal, and downright creepy.
The story is long when compared to Junji Ito’s other one-shots. It starts slowly, with the suicide of Kazuko’s best friend, Terumi. Her body was found outside her apartment, dangling from a nose.
Soon enough though, Terumi’s boyfriend Shiroishi and other people start to see Terumi’s ghost lingering around town. What makes it even stranger, it’s just her head and a giant version of it.
At first, people try to explain it by mass hysteria and similar syndromes until the first picture of the floating head surfaces.
One night a troubled Shiroishi calls Kazuko. He’s been following Terium’s ghost and wants to prove to her it does truly exist. It’s then that Kazuko witnesses the true horror that’s happening in the story: The Hanging Balloons.
The sheer idea of a giant balloon with a replica of your face on it is creepy enough. This balloon coming after you to hang you with its noose makes this story so utterly nightmarish.
The great thing about this story is the horror and the scenario. It’s probably the most bizarre and surreal idea of an apocalypse ever put forth in fiction.
Sure, there have been many types of an apocalypse featured in fiction, but here it’s no monsters or zombies, it’s your own face stalking and eventually killing you. Even worse, you can’t destroy the balloon for you will share the same fate it does.
In terms of story-telling, I love the slow start of the story and the way it makes you believe it will be a ghost story.
Another fact that makes this story work so great is that similar to others like Army of One or The Enigma of the Amigara Faults, we never find out anything. We don’t learn where those heads came from or their true nature. No, it all stays an utter mystery. We’re thrown into the story, witness it with Kazuko, and at the end the mystery’s left intact.
And who could forget that terrible last panel?
To me, Hanging Balloons is an absolute masterpiece of bizarre and surreal storytelling and my favorite Junji Ito story of all time.
If you’re interested in Ito’s works, many of his short stories have been published for Western Audiences in the collections Shiver, Fragments of Horror and Smashed.
Many of his longer works are available as well, such as Uzumaki, Tomie and Gyo.
