Creepypasta are amongst the most-popular internet horror content there is. Over the years I’ve read countless creepypasta, as you can see in my long list of must-read creepypasta.
Many creepypasta are short anecdotes, often no longer than a few sentences long. Others are written as simple online-post, diary entries or email-correspondences.
Some, however, are more literary and are akin to short stories. For this list, I want to share some of the most well-written creepypasta with you.
Doppelganger was one of the first creepypasta I ever read and I was blown away by it.
This well-written creepypasta tells the tale of a man who notices his wife is changing and acting strangely. Soon enough, he believes that the woman he’s with now is not his actual wife.
As the story continues, the narrator describes how things have changed and we witness as his paranoia and knowledge about the doppelganger grows.
Doppelganger is a fantastic and well-written creepypasta, one any horror fan should read.
Stevie is long, but it’s also one of the most well-written creepypasta I’ve read. It begins with a psychotherapist, Sylvester Penn, interviewing a young man at an asylum.
This young man is Michael, who’s there because he murdered someone. As two of them talk, we learn more about Michael and his past. He grew up as one of the few kids living in a pleasant neighborhood.
His only friend was a boy named Andrew, who was a bit slow in the head. Michael often played tricks on Andrew. Even though Andrew grew mad at him for it, he always stuck to Michael, who soon felt responsible for him.
Over time, more families move to the neighborhood with their kids. One of them is Stephen DiMisaco or Stevie, as he’s being called. He’s a weird, lanky boy who’s obsessed with taxidermy.
Michael recounts his childhood and teenage years and his relationship with new friends, but also with Stevie.
It isn’t long, however, before things take a turn for the worse.
Stevie is the longest tale on this list. It’s a slow developing story, but one that turns progressively darker. It’s a fantastic story, one that keeps you engaged until the end and one of the most well-written creepypasta ever.
Another well-written creepypasta about a mysterious event.
Payton, a young boy, wants to take pictures of a young lion spotted in the area. When he asks for advice from the people at National Geographic, he’s told to put an automatic camera at a place the young lion might frequent.
To lure the young lion to the small creek, he sets up the recording of a dying rabbit.
The narrator of this tale isn’t Payton, however, but a young girl. She describes how she can hear the distant recording of the dying rabbit even from her house at night. What makes it even worse, however, is that the recording is distorted.
It’s soon revealed that something was indeed lured to the creek, but it might not have been the young lion.
Rabbits in the Creek is another fantastic and well-written creepypasta. It’s a great story, told slowly and reveals yet another mysterious and unexplained event.
This well-written creepypasta tells the story of a man named Jacob Emory. He’s a jack of all trades, but his ambitions and interests soon grow too large for his small hometown.
And so Jacob travels abroad. When he returns to his home town, years later, he brings along a stick of chalk. This stick turns out to be special because it allows him to draw strange paintings that are animated.
It isn’t long before Jacob holds his own shows, presenting his animate paintings in front of an audience. Things, however, should soon get worse, much worse.
The Art of Jacob Emory is a favorite of mine. It’s not only one of the most well-written creepypasta but also one of the most creative I’ve ever read.
Case Report 7591 tells the tale of a man named Travis Leroy and takes place in the amusement park he created. The man’s most priced attraction was an indoor ride through an enchanted forest.
The park turns out to be profitable and soon leads to business booming in the small town it was created in.
Tragedy strikes, however, when a four-year-old boy goes missing in the outskirts of town. A search is started, but the case is closed down, eventually.
When another child goes missing, however, an investigation is started. Soon enough, the amusement park is investigated and a terrible secret is discovered.
Case Report 7591 is a creepypasta that stands out for its narrative and the fascinating story-telling.
It’s a fantastic and well-written creepypasta that transforms a simple premise into something unique. If you’re looking for a well-written creepypasta, I highly recommend it.
Creepypasta set in the realm of science-fiction are rare. The Gift of Mercy is one of the few exceptions and it’s a remarkable little tale.
Yet, this story isn’t set in a spaceship or space station. It’s not one about an alien invasion. Instead, it follows an alien narrator who laments the greatest mistake his species ever made.
It’s an incredible interest, unique and creative little tale.
Well-Written Creepypasta – The Song and Dance Man.
The Song and Dance Man has always been one of my favorite creepypasta. It’s a phenomenal piece of fiction and one of the most well-written creepypasta I ever read.
It’s the story of a strange man who one day appears in the narrator’s home town. The man sets up a tent and invites inside to listen to music and to dance. Many of the townspeople follow his invitation and join him for free music and dancing.
Yet, things are never what they seem at first glance and there’s more involved than just a bit of dancing.
What makes this story so great is the fantastic writing, the way the story is presented to us as well as the narrative.
The Song and Dance Man is without a doubt one of the most well-written creepypasta I’ve come upon and a delight to read for any horror fan.
Ever since I read Psychosis, Matt Dymerski has become a favorite of mine. It’s another long, but incredibly well-written creepypasta. I first discovered it on 4chan’s /x/ board years ago and was stunned by how good it was.
Psychosis is a strange story. It’s about a young man, John, who soon feels things don’t add up anymore. He wonders what’s real and what isn’t, and soon enough, he’s not sure if he can trust his surroundings anymore.
John isolates himself from the world, believing something terrible is happening out there. Over the course of the story, his paranoia gets worse and worse. It’s a fascinating and interesting tale, one that presents us with a slow descent into madness.
Psychosis is a well-written creepypasta and Matt Dymersky’s one of the greatest creepypasta and horror writers out there.
The Strangers is my favorite creepypasta of all time. It’s a superb story. The world created is fascinating, and it’s one of the most well-written creepypasta of all time.
It tells the story of a young man named Andrew Erics. He’s got a peculiar habit. Whenever he rides the subway, he watches the other passengers. One day, he discovers a peculiar character, a man who doesn’t react to being watched at all. It isn’t long before Andrew tries to figure out what’s wrong with this weird character. In time, however, he discovers there are other strangers around.
Andrew follows the man on his daily trips, back and forth on the subway, but this is merely the beginning of the tale.
The Strangers is a masterfully told tale and one of the most well-written creepypasta of all time. It was one of the first creepypasta I ever read, but it blew me away. After rereading it recently though, I can say that it still holds up, even today and even after reading hundreds of other creepypasta. I highly recommend this tale to anyone who’s interested in creepypasta, horror or strange tales.
Blame! is the debut series of Tsutomu Nihei, a science-fiction cyberpunk manga artist. He’s among the best and most talented manga artists out there and his art can compare to the best in the entire medium.
Blame! is one of my favorite manga of all time. It’s unique, beautiful, awe-inspiring and at times brutal. The manga stands out for its amazing setting, the stunning action scenes, but also the many gorgeous and disturbing cybernetic horrors that populate it.
It tells a dark, futuristic story that depicts a world in which technology is running amok and has created one of the most unique settings ever created.
The world of Blame! is a typical cyberpunk setting, depicting a world of fascinating high-tech but at the same low-life for all its inhabitants. Many other cyberpunk tropes fit Blame! as well, but the manga also features many instances of biomechanics and bio-punk.
Tsutomu Nihei was an architecture student before he became a manga artist. This knowledge of architecture is one reason Blame! is so unique and impressive. We constantly see grand, awe-inspiring buildings and massive architectural wonders. Blame!’s world isn’t just huge, it’s immeasurable and mind-boggling gigantic.
The plot of Blame! is relatively simple. Killy, our main character, wanders the world of Blame! only known as the City in search of a human with Net Terminal Genes. A person like this could access the Netsphere, stop the chaotic growth of the City and stop the Safeguard from destroying what remains of humanity.
Over the course of the manga, we follow Killy on his journey through the world of Blame! and witness his interaction with the many other inhabitants of the City.
Blame’s world is dark and beautiful, chaotic and depressing and dangerous and brutal. It’s a wondrous, technological wasteland.
Blame! is a cyberpunk manga set in the far-future, but it’s also set in a post-apocalyptic dystopia.
The apocalyptic event was the loss of control over the City and thus over the builders and the Safeguard. There’s also the infection and devolution of humans and at the time of the story, no one with Net Terminal Genes remains.
The dystopian elements are clear at first sight. The surviving humans don’t amount to much when compared to the other cybernetic horrors inhabiting the City. They huddle together in small pockets of society and constantly have to fend for survival. Another aspect is the Netsphere, an advanced virtual reality which allows people to upload their consciousness. People with the Net Terminal Gene already did so, leaving the real world or base reality, as it’s called in Blame! behind.
Blame!’s setting is entirely unique. It’s a world devoid of any natural elements. There are no forests, no normal ground and no mountains within the megastructures. Instead, everything we see in Blame! are buildings and constructions, many of which are of mind-boggling size. The City is a chaotic amalgamation of titanic architecture whose dimensions are entirely unknown to any of its dwellers. It’s essentially labyrinthine, futuristic dungeon.
Over the course of the manga, we learn more about the insane size of the City. At one point, Killy stumbles upon a single room the size of Jupiter inside the City. In the prequel NOiSE, we learn the Moon was the first celestial body incorporated into the City. It’s stated by the writer Tsutomu Nihei that the City is the size of a Dyson Sphere, meaning it stretches as far as the orbit of Jupiter.
Even now, however, the City continues to grow and is endlessly constructed by so called builders, autonomous robots. Since no human is possible to access the Netsphere, no one can communicate with the builders and so they just keep on increasing the size of the City.
There are, however, some interesting details and concerns about the City. It’s so massive that its sheer size defies the law of physics. A construction the size of a Dyson Sphere would inevitably collapse into itself. Yet, this seems to be solved by certain gravitational controllers inside the megastructure which manipulate gravity itself and keep the City from destruction.
Another interesting tidbit is the sheer amount of materials. We learn, over the course of the story, that many celestial bodies have been harvested as raw materials. Even then, there wouldn’t be enough raw materials for a construction the size of the City. It’s implied, however, that builders can convert energy into matter, are using some sort of antimatter or can simply conjure matter into existence.
The City is one of the most unique and interesting settings I’ve ever come upon in manga.
As mentioned before, humans don’t have it easy in the City. Many of them have to fight for survival and do so in various outposts and pockets of civilization. Some are smaller, others, however, like the Capitol, are bigger.
Many of the humans our main characters encounter look different from one another. Some are taller, others are smaller. The reason for this is most likely because of the often mentioned infection, devolution, and mutation. What they all have in common, however, is that they look pale, emaciated, even sick. These changes are also the reason that people aren’t carrying the Net Terminal Genes anymore.
The Safeguard was originally a security system to protect the Netsphere from unauthorized access and protect humans with the Net Terminal Gene. The Safeguard still follows these instructions, but by now hunts down and kills anyone without Net Terminal Genes.
Other dwellers of the City are the Silicon Life, cyborgs who have their own goals, are independent from the Netsphere and want to keep the chaotic growth of the City going. If humanity would regain control over the City, and thus the Safeguard, they’d most likely use them to destroy the Silicon Life. And thus they want to keep the current status quo intact.
The last important fiction is the Governing Agency, which is basically the AI administration in charge of protecting the Netsphere. They are the ones who task Killy with finding a human with Terminal Net Genes to stop the chaotic growth of the City.
Blame! is a highly stylistic and unique manga, but that also means it’s not for everyone. The manga is mostly told via visuals and has very little dialogue.
With Blame! Nihei pushes the entire manga towards the visual side and his story is told not by dialogues or conventional narration, but almost entirely by visuals.
Blame! is a grand example of virtual story-telling and of a work in which a setting drives the narrative. In Blame!, the narration is told via the setting and not the other way around.
It’s this reason that makes Blame! so special and unique because it succeeds at telling a story primarily through the art.
Many parts of Blame! comprise nothing but silence. We watch as Killy travels on through futuristic wastelands, desolation and massive derelict buildings.
There’s scarcely any dialogue in Blame! but often it’s unnecessary. A great example is Killy’s gun, the Gravitational Beam Emitter. Instead of telling us how it works and how powerful it is, Nihei shows us multiple panels of how destructive a single shot is. Another one is the City itself. We know it’s chaotically and continuously growing, but we’re never told how huge it is. Instead, Nihei conveys this entirely through the visuals. There are countless panels in which we’re shown a bird’s-eye view of Killy as he wanders through buildings and past constructions of mind-boggling proportions.
Another great way about Blame!’s specific way of story-telling is that the manga’s never bogged down by needless explanations. We don’t get long-winded explanations about how the world of Blame! works. Instead, we merely witness the stunning, bizarre and nightmarish effects of the technological wonders Nihei conjures. Blame! is all visual.
This visual story-telling also influences the pacing of the manga, which lends itself especially well to the many action-sequences of the manga.
Nihei’s fantastic at world-building and Blame!’s a masterclass in world-building.
We know right from the very first chapter that Blame!’s a world that’s unfamiliar, dangerous and even alien when compared to our own. As we watch Killy’s travels, we soon realize that the City is entirely different from our world and it gives us a feeling of alienation.
All this is only possible by the insane, futuristic technology that exists within the City. This technology, however, is never explained, we just see it. Blame! happens so far in the future and everything can be explained by technology, but technology that not even the cast of characters truly understands anymore.
A lot of the technology we witness is the stuff of dreams or nightmares. This is most prevalent in the arc about Toha Heavy Industries. It’s here we learn that teleportation, time travel and even traveling to parallel realities is possible. All that, however, is hinted at to be caused by yet another of Nihei’s strange, futuristic technologies going haywire.
What’s true about technology is also true about the many factions and the mythology of the world. We only learn more about the City and its inhabitants in bits and pieces and have to put together the entire story on our own. All of it is vague, however, at times confusing, but it adds so much more to the mystery of the story and the atmosphere.
The main characters in Blame! are stoic, quiet badasses that almost never twitch when they get hurt.
This is truer for Killy than for everyone else. As he wanders the City he barely ever utters a word. That changes when he meets up and continues to travel with Cibo, but there’s still very little dialogue compared to other works.
When reading Blame! one soon learns that Killy isn’t a normal human being, and it’s later revealed or at least hinted at that Killy, similar to Dhomochevsky and Iko, is a provisional Safeguard. Even then, his past is hazy and we never learn much about him apart from what we witness of his mission.
Many of the human characters we encounter are badasses in their own right, and one can clearly see the toll survival has taken on them. We never encounter someone who’s truly happy or truly beautiful. No, this is a dark, depressing and dangerous world and it shows as much in its setting as in its characters.
While the manga comprises various arcs within their own specific parts of the megastructure, Killy’s overall quest ties it all together.
Because of the special way Blame! is told, the manga can be confusing. There’s little dialogue and no exposition.
This is especially the case at the beginning of the manga when we don’t know what’s going on. We merely follow Killy as he wanders the City through several almost unconnected chapters.
The story only gets more engaging when Killy reaches the Capitol and meets up with Cibo.
Even then, the reader has to always put things together on their own as information is revealed slowly and only bit by bit over the course of the manga. Once one gets used to Nihei’s style of story-telling, however, the story is almost straight-forward.
And yet, Blame! might still be a manga you have to read twice. When I read Blame! for the first time years ago, I was entirely lost when I reached the ending. On my second reread, however, all was much clearer and the plot now made sense.
The passage of time is something that matters little in the world of Blame! We don’t know how much time passes as Killy travels from location to location.
It’s only occasionally that we get a measure of time for an elevator ride or the time it takes for Killy to fully repair and those numbers, similar to the size of the City, are mind boggling.
An elevator ride through a megastructure takes about a month, his reconstruction after being heavily damaged takes years. The same is true for other characters and other parts of the story. Dhomochevsky, for example, has been fighting the Silicon Life under Davinelulinvega for approximately three-hundred years before Killy and Cibo arrive at the unofficial megastructure.
This treatment of time only helps to add to the mystery of the world and makes the City seem even more unfathomable and immeasurable.
The sheer size of the City makes the passing of time almost irrelevant, especially since Killy’s is almost always seen to be traveling on foot. We don’t know how long he’s been wandering the City, but estimations point not just at centuries or millennia, but at dozens of millennia.
What’s interesting about Blame! is also the question of who the antagonists are. The more we learn about the world of Blame!, however, the more we discover that there are merely different factions opposing one another.
At first the Safeguard is the primary antagonist. We discover, however, that the Safeguard is merely a security network out of control which was originally responsible for protecting the Netsphere from unauthorized access.
The Silicon Life fits the term antagonists the closest, but even they are merely fending for survival in the City. It’s their goal to keep the current status quo, afraid that should humanity regain control over the City and the Safeguard, they’d be wiped out.
It’s even revealed in Blame² a sequel that the Silicon Life as Killy as ‘the calamity,’ the one responsible for their race almost going extinct.
The Governing Agency wants to find a Net Terminal Gen simply to stop the growth of the City and to regain control of it.
While we watch the story from the eyes of Killy, it appears, of course, that the Safeguard and the Silicon Life are the prime antagonists of the story. If we take a step back, however, we learn that all that’s happening is caused by mismanagement and the chaotic stage of the ever-expanding City.
Blame! is one of the greatest manga’s I’ve ever read in terms of visuals. As mentioned before, I believe that Tsutomu Nihei is an artist who can rival the best in the genre. Be it his world or his various cybernetic horrors, Blame! is a marvel to look at.
The moment you start reading Blame! you realize that this manga’s different from others. Even in chapter 1, we already get to see the grand architecture of mind-boggling proportions so common to Blame!
You can clearly see that Tsutomu Nihei studied architecture and that he knows about the construction of buildings. It’s this knowledge that sets Blame! aside from other works.
There’s a sense of scale in many of Tsutomu Nihei’s panels that really showcases the insane proportions of the immeasurable City. Yet, all those constructions are as bleak as they are vast. Many times we can’t even make out the end of these constructions, as they seem to go on forever.
Many times, we see Killy in front of a backdrop of immeasurable proportions or we see him only as a small unimpressive dot as he walks vast metal plans, climbs giant buildings, or wanders a bridge that continues further than the eye can see.
And yet, as gigantic as Tsutomu Nihei’s creations are, they are still insanely detailed. This attention to detail is especially prevalent when we get a closer look at the locations Killy travels. Technological gadgets, machines and many other elements of the City are rendered in stunningly beautiful detail.
It’s this mixture of mind-boggling proportions and attention to detail that truly brings forth Nihei’s world and truly immerses you in the story.
An interesting detail to note is that Blame!’s world isn’t a unified one. In one chapter, we see Killy traversing an amalgamation of high-tech constructions or a futuristic cityscape. In others, he’s ascending winding corridors, unending staircases or what looks like gothic castles. At times, these constructions look almost organic, almost like something that grew instead of being built.
Tsutomu Nihei’s style is rough, almost dirty, especially in earlier chapters. His imagery comprises a lot of line work which lends itself fantastically to the more derelict and ruined areas of the City.
The many different details of the City are brought forth by a heavy reliance on shadows and shading.
Blame!’s entire visual style is one of the stark contrast between light and dark. Empty spaces are generally held in lighter colors while interiors, especially tunnels, caves and staircases, are conveyed via deep blacks.
What’s special about Tsutomu Nihei’s style is his usage of negative spaces to convey light or huge explosions during action sequences. This makes them a marvel to look at and helps to bring forth what’s happening.
Killy’s design is an interesting choice. He’s wearing all back, no special armor and seems to be almost understated in a world as strange as Blame!’s. The same can be said about the rest of the cast, however. Cibo, Sanakan and also Dhomochevsky are all dressed similarly.
This is a stark contrast from the other inhabitants of the City who all have a distinctly different look from one another. The Electrofisher’s armor, the Silicon Life in general, but also the exterminators of the Safeguard.
Blame’s world is a harsh and dangerous one and as mentioned before, you can truly see it in the design of the many humans. Almost all of them look pale, sick, malnourished and depressed. They look hardened, emotionless and you can see just how much they went through.
What’s interesting to note is the aforementioned contrast of light and dark also applies to many of the character designs. The interior structure of the exterminators seems to be black, while their faces and outer parts are white. The same is true for the many Silicon Life, who generally have white, human faces, but distorted, black, metallic bodies.
One could even say that the color palette of a character shows their alignment. The most dangerous beings, like Schiff, or the armored Silicon Knights, are held entirely in black. Mensab and Sue, two arguably lawful individuals are held in almost pure white.
Our main characters, especially Killy, are almost all morally gray and thus are a mixture of black and white.
While Blame!’s world is one of futuristic high-tech, many of its elements look strangely biological.
This is especially true for the many cybernetic monstrosities Killy encounters, the exterminators of the Safeguard and the Silicon Life. They clearly look mechanical or robotic, but at the same time, they all have a distinctly organic look to them. This is especially true when new Safeguard units are synthesized. The entire process has a sort of biological look and feel to it.
The many cybernetic horrors that populate the City are all fantastic, disturbing and outlandish to look at.
While the normal, level 1 exterminators look terrifying, they all look identical to one another and appear more like drones than anything else. Higher-level exterminators, however, look amazing. There’s the ‘siren’ Safeguard Killy encounters when climbing the tower, the high-level exterminator at the end of the story, but also Cibo after fusing with the level 9 Safeguard. They all have a distinct, almost angelic look to them with rings, haloes, and even wings. It’s an interesting design choice that only serves to make them creepier.
The Silicon Life has some of the most fantastic design I’ve ever seen in a science-fiction magna. They come in a variety of forms and design, employ a variety of weapons and wear a variety of armor. Some are even heavily distorted, sprouting additional limbs or parts.
Their design is throughout the book terrifying and disturbing, but they are a marvel to look at and are rendered in beautiful detail. Their design is reminiscent of the strange organic-inorganic art of H. R. Giger.
Blame! is full of frantic action which is always shown in stunning detail. Each of panel of it is fantastic to look at.
Many of the action sequences in Blame! are devastating, insane in scale and bright forth mass destruction. At other moments, however, they are more intimate and showcase fantastic close-range encounters.
There are also action scenes in Blame! that are clearly created for style alone. This is most prevalent in the Toha Heavy Industry arc, which features Seu, the protector of Mensab who appears as a knight in shining white armor wielding a sword. When he fights Ivy and when he fights the guards of the Central AI, it gives the action the air of a fantasy manga and not that of a science-fiction one. One thing has to be said, however, those fights look absolutely amazing!
I always loved science-fiction, but especially the more futuristic and outlandish scenarios. Blame! was everything I was looking for.
It combines fantastic and unique world building with breathtakingly beautiful visuals. The art is incredible and shines because of its technical drawings and Tsutomu Nihei’s knowledge of architecture.
While Blame!’s setting is a post-apocalyptic dystopia, it’s one so strange and fresh it’s unique. It’s a tale of technology run amok which manifests in the ever-growing, chaotic City and the out-of-control Safeguard. Things go even so far as to include time travel, mass-scale teleportation and even parallel realities.
What I came to love the most, however, were the many creatures, especially the higher-level exterminators and the Silicon Life, who spice the manga up with a fair bit of horror because of their design and simply look gorgeous.
An interesting little detail is that Blame! never becomes preachy, never a discussion of the topics it showcases. Instead, it simply conjures up a nightmarish vision of our future, one unlike any ever seen before.
While most of Blame! is full of weird imagery, crazy action, and Killy’s stoic demeanor, there are some human and tender scenes. At one point, Killy and Cibo discover a cloning machine which is forever creating clones and which Killy promptly destroys. At another point, Killy saves a Dry Man child and later destroys the cooperation’s docks after he realizes that the transporter he was on was transporting Dry Man ready for organ harvesting.
Those minor events never detract from the atmosphere, but are instead merely there, but they help to flesh out Killy a bit and give him at least some semblance of emotion.
There are, however some problems with Blame! While I love the action scenes in the manga, some of them can be hard to follow because of the abundance of gigantic explosions caused by Killy’s Gravitational Beam Emitter.
Another problem can be the style of story-telling and the story overall. It makes for a somewhat different, confusing reading and can be hard on first-time readers of the manga, making it almost necessary to read the manga more than once.
While I enjoyed the weird and outlandish technologies at play, I think Tsutomu Nihei went a bit too far during the Toha Heavy Industry arc and makes it one of the most confusing ones to follow and understand.
And yet, even with this criticism, I still think Blame! is an absolute visual masterpiece. It’s not something to be simply read, but it’s something to marvel at and to be immersed in.
Blame! is a manga with an intensely dark and brooding atmosphere, a unique setting which is portrayed by vast, colossal structures and frantic action sequences.
I’d recommend Blame! to anyone interested in visual story-telling, people who are fans of science-fiction and anyone who loves cyberpunk.
If you want to read Blame!, I recommend buying the complete set of the Master Edition released by Vertical Comics:
There’s no one as famous in the world of horror manga today as Junji Ito. He has rightfully amassed a cult following around the globe.
And yet, Junji Ito is not merely a horror mangaka. In my opinion, he’s one of the greatest horror artists of our time. If you’re a fan of horror and especially horror manga, you will certainly stumble upon his works.
Junji Ito’s body of work is as strange as it is unique. Reading his manga feels like going down a tiny, very special rabbit hole unlike any other.
I first learned about Junji Ito a decade and a half ago. At the time, I was searching online for new horror manga to read. At the time, I was still new to the genre, but the prospect of a manga that was supposed to ‘give me nightmares’ sounded interesting enough.
That manga was Tomie. When I finally read it, it was everything I desired in a work of horror and much, much more. It was full of outlandish ideas and terrifying imagery.
The next manga by Junji Ito I read was Gyo, which was as nightmarish as Tomie, but much more surreal, weird and absurd. Junji Ito’s style, however, was as fantastically disturbing and nightmarish as in Tomie.
What finally sold me and made me a lifelong fan of his works was Junji Ito’s masterpiece, Uzumaki. It’s the story of the small coastal town of Kurouzu-cho which is haunted by spirals. The story was outlandish, the imagery disturbing, and it was completely unique and different from any other horror manga I’d read until then. If you want to learn more about Uzumaki, I put together a short article about my favorite Uzumaki chapters.
Over the years, I’ve read countless horror manga, both by well-known and lesser known writers, as you can see in the list of my favorite horror manga. Still, Junji Ito’s works hold a special place in my heart and are, in my opinion, among the best horror manga of all time. His works are so strange, so unique and outlandish, I find myself going back to them time and again.
What makes Junji Ito’s works so fantastic is his blend of outlandish and, at times, supernatural horror with the mundane things in life.
Junji Ito’s work truly shines because it’s a very special kind of horror. His works seldom feature killers or monsters. Instead, Junji Ito’s horror is often unexplained, comes from powers outside of our influence or it comes from our very own faults, fears, obsessions and phobias.
Sometimes his premises are strange, even ridiculous, but Junji Ito makes it all work. The idea of a town haunted by spirals becomes one of the most disturbing and unique horror works of all time. Balloons taking on the faces of people and hunting them down becomes a nightmarish apocalypse. Even a story about human-shaped holes revealed after an earthquake become a setting of outlandish existential horror and deadly curiosity.
Junji Ito’s works stand out for their blend of masterful imagery and the narrative themes featured in them. It’s especially interesting to note that Junji Ito’s nightmarish imagery and disturbing ideas often hide deeper themes or things to ponder about.
Once can’t talk about Junji Ito without first discussing cosmic horror.
The genre was created by American Horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. It centers on the idea that the most horrible thing is the realization that humanity is ultimately meaningless in the greater scope of the universe. Even worse, there are powers and beings out there that are far older and far more powerful that we could ever imagine. They are entities that were around long before man first emerged and will be so long after we’re gone again. Our lives, our dreams, our problems, they are all meaningless in the greater sense of the cosmos.
While Junji Ito’s influenced by H. P. Lovecraft, he still created his very own blend of cosmic horror. It’s one that’s often weirder and stranger than what was seen in Lovecraft’s work. Humans are powerless in Junji Ito’s world, but while some of his works, like Uzumaki, feature unknown powers or entities, most of his work focuses on more intimate and mundane things.
Another similarity is that cosmic horror and Junji Ito’s works seldom feature central villains or antagonists. We don’t encounter evil in the traditional sense. Instead, it’s our own realizations or inexplicable powers that are at the core of cosmic horror.
Visual Style and Narrative Themes
In the main part of this article, I want to discuss both Junji Ito’s visual style and his narrative themes. They both make Junji Ito’s work unique and make it stand out amongst a plethora of other graphical horror works.
Junji Ito’s works are well known for his own personal style. He brings forth his horrors by a combination of masterful ink work and line work.
Junji Ito uses his detailed line work and a reliance on bold, almost unsettling inks to present his grotesque and shocking imagery. While he uses shading, his work mostly relies on lines to show textures. Even his gore and many of his unsettling details, like blood and wet, squishy details, are rendered with nothing but lines. This serves to give them not only a unique look, but adds much more detail and gives them a more visceral and disgusting quality.
Another concept Junji Ito heavily uses is contrast, both in environments and in characters.
His visual style, however, is most prevalent and recognizable in his characters. Junji Ito’s characters never blush and seldom show signs of normal happiness. Instead, they are often devoid of normal emotions and all he shows us are over-exaggerations.
Junji Ito’s characters often look empty and lifeless even before the horror happens. This is most often the case in his stories that focus on personal horror or mental illnesses. You can truly see how bad his characters feel and how close they already are to the abyss that’s eventually going to swallow them up. Their faces are characterized by fallen in cheeks and their bodies are often sickly thin, almost skeletal-like. Dark circles around the eyes and abnormal irises often help to showcase dark emotions, such as depression and gloominess.
This effect is used by minimal shading and heavy contrast between certain elements of the person’s face. Ito often focuses on the eyes, the mouth, and uses them to show nothing but unnatural emotional reactions.
His characters often wear creepy facial expressions. Be it smiles, be it sad looks, they are all disgustingly accentuated, giving them an entirely surreal feeling.
Once the true horror of a story happens, however, Junji Ito goes all out when showcasing a person’s emotional response. Terrified facial expressions are often so overdrawn they make us uncomfortable. Mouths are wide agape, faces are distorted and elongated as they scream and eyes are wide open.
Another element that makes Junji Ito’s works so unique is his reliance on body horror and the distortion of the human body. He doesn’t rely on monsters to scare us, instead his horror is often related to our own bodies. People are being twisted, become warped and turn into forms barely resembling human beings. We see people turning into spirals or becoming rotten abominations and elongated versions of themselves.
It’s this reliance on body horror that makes Junji Ito’s work so terrifying. Often, the horror of his stories doesn’t come from outside, but from within our very own bodies. It’s both strangely fascinating, but also highly disturbing.
Junji Ito’s Narrative Themes
As a writer, I’m often fascinated by Junji Ito’s works. It’s not only for their visual representation, but also for the narrative themes he employs. While his works are graphic, he uses a variety of narrative themes and elements to bring forth his own blend of horror.
Junji Ito’s works are bizarre, even absurd, but incredibly creative. His characters, as well as his settings, however, are often as mundane as can be, at times even boring.
His themes often center on fears, obsessions and phobias and showcase what happens when people give into them. And yet, many of his works hide deeper themes, a deeper meaning that might not be visible at first glance.
I want to discuss all of those elements in detail below.
Junji Ito’s work doesn’t follow normal or traditional story-telling conventions.
Most of his characters aren’t characterized and there’s no character development throughout his work. Instead, characters are often blank slates, or merely exist to showcase a certain fear, phobia or obsession.
The same is true for the plot. Junji Ito’s works seldom rely on an engaging or interesting plot. Instead, he merely gives us a glimpse into someone’s life and lets us witness the horrible things that happen to them. More than anything, Junji Ito’s works are about atmosphere, about horror and the gruesome demise of his characters.
While Junji Ito writes horror stories, there’s seldom a feasible antagonist. People are haunted by faceless entities, curses, higher powers, or by their very own psychological problems.
One of the biggest problems in horror writing or horror stories is the need to explain what should be inexplicable or adding too many details. Junji Ito seldom does this. Instead, he leaves us with the mystery, leaves us guessing and fearing the unknown. One of the best examples is his story Hanging Balloons. We never get an explanation what those balloons are, where they came from or why. Instead, he only shows us what happens after they appear. He lets us watch it through the eyes of his characters and ends it when their time on the screen is over. The mystery remains intact and, with it, the horror.
Gyo is an example of a story where Junji Ito breaks this convention. Near the end, he tries to give a scientific explanation for the apocalyptic horror that unfolded and, at least to me, it didn’t work. Instead, it seemed silly, almost comically absurd, and almost ruined the manga for me.
Junji Ito’s stories often begin in normalcy. We don’t start with a dramatic backstory or by introducing an antagonist. Instead, his stories begin in the most mundane places. We watch characters going to school, falling in love or having to go to the hospital. It’s here in these normal, mundane settings that Junji Ito slowly introduces his horror elements.
The same is true for the horror themselves. In many stories, Junji Ito’s horror comes from the most mundane places or is caused by mundane objects: musical records, laughter, hair and even concepts such as spirals.
Many of his stories feature normal or ordinary fears such as the unknown depths of the ocean, claustrophobia, being watched, a sweaty, dirty mattress or holes in a wall. Yet, Ito drives them up a notch. He twists them into something irrational and surreal, blows them up and turns them into crazy phobias. At the essence, though, those are often fears or thoughts that plague many of us.
And yet, Junji Ito twists these mundane settings and tortures his normal characters until his stories turn into a world of horror. What started out as a normal, everyday scenario becomes uncomfortable to watch, has been warped and now the surreal and disturbing reigns supreme.
It’s this that makes Junji Ito’s work so special and unique. This contrast between the mundane and the horrors he conjures. We see it most in his characters. Their mundane, almost expressionless faces get twisted and turned into masks of terror with over-exaggerated details that are barely resembling them. It’s almost as if not only the story but also his characters get warped into something entirely different, something horrible.
There are also some stories by Junji Ito that are grounded in reality. A great example is The Bully, which serves to be one of his most realistic, but also most terrifying, works.
It’s not only Junji Ito’s stories that are normal and mundane but also his characters. They are nobodies, often blank slates who become involved with Junji Ito’s horrors.
They are often students or normal day people who lead a normal life. His characters are never the heroes of their stories, they are never smart or resourceful protagonists. Instead, they often serve as nothing but a vessel. Through them Junji Ito gives us a glimpse into his world of horrors.
Even worse, though, sometimes his characters are dumb and driven on by their curiosity or desires. And yet, if his characters show strong emotions, it’s almost always a singular one. Their fear, phobia or desire becomes their defining character trait, often the only one they showcase, and that ultimately leads to their demise.
Junji Ito’s a fantastic writer and artist, but he’s not a character writer. No, his characters are merely there and seem to be nothing but lambs waiting to be slaughtered.
We all know irrational or childish fears. When we were young, we were all afraid of the monsters under our bed, of the doctor, strange neighbors, or even shadows.
As adults, we understand that those are nothing but irrational fears. There’s no boogeyman, and there are no monsters out to get us.
Junji Ito’s work, however, often features exactly these fears. This often gives them an uncanny feeling because we recognize those scenarios. We too were afraid to visit the doctor, and we too were afraid of the monsters under the bed and even know we have our own eccentricities and phobias. And Junji Ito explores and exploits them. He takes the most irrational and silly fears, gives them life and as a result his stories so much more terrifying.
Junji Ito’s a master of body horror. He isn’t just satisfied by people dying. Instead, he often distorts, warps, and twists them. This is not merely visible in their ultimate demise, but also in the way people change over the course of his stories. People who start out by looking normal, even beautiful, become haunting, sick versions of themselves or turn insane as their sanity shatters.
Two of Junji Ito’s greatest examples of body horror are Dissection Girl and Uzumaki. The first features a disturbed woman who wishes to be dissected. Her wish is ultimately granted at the end of the story and showcases one of Junji Ito’s most fantastically disturbing panels. For it is revealed that it’s not only her mind that was heavily distorted but also her body. Uzumaki, on the other hand, is a three volume masterpiece about a small town haunted by spiral. Over the course of the story, many of its inhabitants become obsessed with spirals and are warped and twisted until their bodies represent the spiral in various horrible ways.
Junji Ito’s brand of body horror is always a disturbing delight to look at and one that often renders his characters almost unrecognizable.
One of Junji Ito’s most common tropes is that of mental illness. Depression, fears, phobias and obsessions are often the center point of his stories.
Yet, Junji Ito isn’t satisfied by exploring them. Instead, he uses them as a basis for the madness in his stories. Many times, an irrational fear or phobia is merely the starting point and. Over the course of the story, he amplifies and distorts them until they end in utter madness and insanity.
His characters’ mind gets distorted and changes similarly to their bodies. While their eyes become large and bulging and their mouths hang agape in terrible screams, their minds, too, are inevitably broken.
Powerful emotions and general erratic and irrational behavior are widely featured in his works and are almost commonplace amongst his characters. They are eccentric weirdos, people whose entire being or character revolves around a single trait, often their very own blend of mental illness, fear or phobia.
Obsession is the leitmotif in Junji Ito’s Tomie which features a woman so beautiful any man who sees her becomes obsessed with her. Many other stories, too, feature obsession. It can be caused by love, by animosity, jealousy or even the obsession of owning a certain object. And each of these stories ends with people giving into their obsession, being changed by it and ultimately leading to dire results.
Love, too, is something Junji Ito often exploits and distorts. What might start as a harmless crush will soon turn into a dangerous obsession that drives people mad. Great examples are again the aforementioned Tomie, but also other works such as The Lovesick Dead or the chapter Jack-in-the-box in Uzumaki.
As mentioned before, Junji Ito often drives his characters’ fears and phobias to the max and turns them into despair and insanity.
The reason for this, however, is often because his characters are inevitably doomed. Similar to the characters in the works of Franz Kafka or H. P. Lovecraft, Junji Ito’s characters have no power over their world.
We can see it best in Uzumaki. In it an entire town becomes an inescapable hell and characters realize that there’s no hope, no way out anymore. In a similar way, The Enigma of Amigara Faults toys with our curiosity, but also with inevitable fate. People flock to the strange holes that resemble them and, driven by an almost supernatural, primal urge, they are overcome with a curiosity they can’t seem to fight.
Existential dread is something at the core of our very being. As humans, we are the only beings on this planet who know that they will die one day and there’s nothing we can do about.
Junji Ito’s stories are full of this existential dread and horror, but his world is one that’s far more unforgiving than our own. It’s a place far more dangerous and far weirder and messes with its characters. The horror often comes in the most mundane forms and it shows that nothing is safe in the world of Junji Ito. There are no safe spaces and even the most mundane thing can lead to a terrible, horrible incident.
While Junji Ito’s work relies on supernatural forces and mental instability, many of his works feature deeper themes.
Town Without Streets is a prime example. In it, Junji Ito discusses privacy and twists it to its extremes. What would you do if there was no more privacy? Would you reject the notion of such a world and do anything against it, or would you accept and discard the idea of privacy all together? It’s a topic that’s even more relevant today.
Another fantastic example is The Long Dream. It poses the question if endless dreaming could be a way to defeat death itself. Is it a better choice to be trapped in a dream forever than to die? Is even a never-ending nightmare better than to cease existing?
Isolation is another dominant theme in Junji Ito’s work. As mentioned before, many of his characters suffer from problems and not a few isolate themselves from society.
Junji Ito features a different idea of isolation in his story, Army of One. Safety in numbers is usually common rule in horror. In Army of One, however, he twists this idea, and it’s those who stay alone, who isolate themselves that are safe. It’s a strange story, but one that’s ripe with deeper meaning. It seems almost to point at our urbanized society and the forced social interactions so common in it and especially in Japan. Is it ultimately a better choice to stay on your own than to mingle and take part in this often forced social life
Lingering Farwell is a study of holding on and not accepting the death of loved ones and also one of Junji Ito’s best stories of all time.
Black Paradox is one of Ito’s weirdest stories, but in its later parts brings forth an interesting question. In the story’s context, it’s using our own souls as a new source of energy. It’s clear, however, that the story centers on the idea of humanity bringing its own demise. Would we, too, bring our own end because of our greed and hunger for power?
Hanging Balloons is a story that might at first glance seem utterly nonsensical, but once more there’s more here than meets the eye. The very first person to die is Terumi, an idol. If one’s familiar with Japanese pop culture and the idol business, one knows suicides are an unfortunate reality. But the story isn’t merely a criticism of the idol business.
Similar to The Enigma at Amigara Faults, the story is a discussion of Sigmund Freud’s ‘Death Drive,’ our own fascination with suicide and the compulsive need to follow our desire towards destruction. Most of us ignore those thoughts, but there are still some who don’t.
While The Enigma at Amigara Faults showcases the characters’ strange, almost supernatural obsession with finding out more about their holes, Hanging Balloons takes a different route. The balloons Junji Ito features are almost a personification of the ‘Death Drive’ and the story itself is an allegory of it catching up and preying upon people.
Many similar examples show that while Junji Ito’s predominantly an artist who creates visual nightmares, his works often hold deeper meaning.
It’s always interesting for me to think about how works as bloody, surreal and twisted as those of Junji Ito can also convey deeper themes. It gives them an entirely different layer and something to ponder about when one’s not satisfied by just gore and blood alone.
Junji Ito is one of my favorite horror creators and Junji Ito’s Uzumaki is among my favorite horror manga of all time. It’s not only disturbing, it’s also entirely unique. Most other horror manga feature killers, monsters, or supernatural entities, not so Uzumaki. It presents us with a premise that’s almost nonsensical, silly even, but Junji Ito brings it forth in all its twisted and horrific glory.
Junji Ito’s Uzumaki is the story of Kirie Goshima and Shuuichi Saitou and tells the story of what happened in the small coastal town of Kurouzu-cho which is infested by spirals. There are no monsters or killers here, no psychopaths or ghosts, no, there’s only concept which manifests as an omnipresent curse.
Over the course of this three volume epic, our main characters stumble upon one freakishly scary incident after another.
What makes Junji Ito’s Uzumaki so great, however, isn’t its story or its characters, it’s Junji Ito’s art and creativity. His imagination is incredible and disturbing and he always finds new ways to conjure up the horror of the spiral.
Junji Ito’s Uzumaki comprises three volumes divided into twenty chapters. While I consider Uzumaki as a whole a masterpiece, it has its highs and lows.
That’s why I decided to write this article in which I want to discuss my favorite chapters of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki.
As always, I’d like to give a spoiler warning. If you haven’t read the manga yet, I suggest you do so because I’m going to discuss each chapter and its plot.
I regard the third volume of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki as its weakest. At the outset of the third volume, multiple storms have transformed the town of Kurouzu-cho into an apocalyptic mess of rubble.
While volume three brings the manga to its Lovecraftian conclusion, it also features elements which I didn’t enjoy. What I enjoyed, however, was the depressing and eerie atmosphere as Kirie and Shuuichi travel the ruined town. There’s a feeling of despair and futility that hangs heavily over Uzumaki’s last chapters.
This is most prevalent in chapter seventeen, Escape. It is here that Kirie and Shuuichi make one last attempt to flee the twisted hell that Kurouzu-cho has become. As we follow them into the mountains, we see that by now everything has fallen to the curse of the spiral. Nature itself has become warped, twisted and has taken on the form of the spiral. Soon enough, however, we see that even those who want to flee the town succumb to madness and are slowly twisted into the form of the spiral.
And it’s here we realize how ironic the chapter’s title truly is. Because we learn that an escape from Kurouzu-cho and the curse of the spiral is impossible.
If there’s one thing to be said about Junji Ito’s Uzumaki is that it wastes no time and presents us with the horrific curse of the spiral right from the get-go.
After a brief introduction to our main characters, we soon learn that Shuuichi’s father has recently become obsessed with spirals. At first, this obsession manifests in him collecting all spiral-shaped objects he can find. After his wife gets rid of said collection, his obsession takes on a more disturbing turn, one that should ultimately lead to his demise. For he learns he can use his own body to create spirals.
It’s a fantastic introduction chapter that truly brings forth the horror of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki in all its glory. The chapter is ripe in body horror as we witness how Shuuichi’s father twists and contorts parts of his body into the form of the spiral. The chapter also features one of the most popular and unsettling panels in all of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki.
Truly a fantastic and disturbing introduction to Kurouzu-cho and the curse of the spiral.
I believe that Junji Ito’s Uzumaki is at its best in its second volume. It’s here that Ito’s creativity is at its peak, and the curse of the spiral takes on even stranger and more disturbing forms than in its first volume.
The Black Lighthouse is one of these chapters. Lighthouses always give off an eerie atmosphere and seem to be a perfect setting for horror. Junji Ito’s Uzumaki is no different.
The chapter begins with Kurouzu-cho’s abandoned lighthouse working again. Everyone is puzzled about it, but soon enough the light influences people and renders them impossible to walk in a straight line.
This, however, is only the chapter’s beginning. Before long, Kirie’s brother Mitsuo and his friends enter the lighthouse, prompting Kirie to follow them. As she climbs the seemingly endless stairs, she soon notices spiral patterns all over the walls. Those patterns are rendered in beautiful detail and give the entire staircase an almost disorienting feeling.
Before long, Kirie stumbles upon horribly burned bodies and discovers that the lighthouse’s lens has melted out of shape, taking on the form of a spiral. As Kirie stares at it, she realizes it must be the light that melted the lens, but also burned the bodies she saw before.
And of course, Junji Ito isn’t satisfied by merely teasing at the idea of burning hot light. No, as Kirie, her brother and his friends flee down the stairs, we bear witness to one of the boys being consumed almost instantly.
The Black Lighthouse is a fantastic chapter. It show’s Junji Ito’s artistry by showing us the many spiral patterns, the melted lens, but also the horribly burned bodies. Truly a fantastic chapter.
While The Snail is lower on gore than many other chapters, it serves to be one of, if not the most unsettling and unnerving chapter in Junji Ito’s Uzumaki.
The Snail is the first chapter in which we bear witness to people transforming into snails. Junji Ito, of course, isn’t satisfied by showing us a disturbing and gross transformation, no he goes even further. After Katayama, a bullied boy, transforms into a snail, his bully, Tsumura, soon turns into a snail itself. Not knowing what to do with the snails, the school keeps them in an enclosure. And here we come to the most disturbing and unsettling part of the chapter. Snails are hermaphrodites and we soon witness Katayama and Tsumura mating.
People turning into snails is disturbing enough and Junji Ito brings forth this transformation in all its glorious detail. The bully and his former victim mating, however, are beyond unsettling.
A fantastic chapter that might be lower on gore, but which brings forth concepts that are unsettling and unnerving in an entirely different way.
Junji Ito’s Uzumaki features many strange and disturbing ideas. Still, The Umbilical Cord might be the manga’s most disturbing chapter. It’s the second chapter set at Kurouzu-cho’s hospital.
After the events of The Black Lighthouse, Kirie was hospitalized. In the chapter Mosquito’s, she bore witness to pregnant women, including her cousin Keiko, sucking the blood from other patients. While Mosquito is a great chapter it only serves as the prelude to The Umbilical Cord.
The chapter beings with the birth of the babies of said blood-sucking woman. Kirie soon notices that something seems to be wrong about the babies. After the birth, strange mushrooms also become a regular ingredient in the hospital’s meals. While Kirie never eats them, other patients become obsessed with them.
Wondering what’s going on, Kirie wanders the hospital and hears a conversation between the babies who wish to be returned to the womb they came from.
When Kirie hears her cousin’s screams, she enters the operation room. There stumbles upon a plethora of the same mushrooms served as part of the hospital’s meals.
And here we learn what those mushrooms really are. They are nothing other than placenta, regrown from the babies’ umbilical cords. As if this wasn’t disturbing enough, we also learn what became of Keiko.
The Umbilical Cord is a chapter that’s ripe with disturbing and unsettling ideas. There are first the placenta-mushrooms who drive people mad, the creepy babies and the imagery of a woman whose baby is returned into her.
There’s just so much here, in this single chapter, that makes it an absolute masterpiece of the disturbing and of body horror.
The Umbilical Cord is the best chapter in Junji Ito’s Uzumaki’s. Not only for its imagery but also for the multiple, disturbing ideas it includes. It’s a fantastic chapter and the best in a fantastic horror manga. It also served as inspiration for my story Special Diet.
If you’re looking to read Uzumaki yourself, I highly recommend to get the 3-in-1 Deluxe Edition.
As a writer, I’ve always read novels, even at a young age. Another medium that was always close to my heart was manga, especially the seinen genre. While I also enjoy shonen manga, as you can see from my list of the best shonen manga, I usually prefer the seinen genre. I love stories that are more mature and convey deeper themes. That’s why I decided to share my list of the best seinen manga with you.
This is, of course, a personal list, so some popular or acclaimed titles might not be part of it. I also like to give a spoiler warning. While I’m not trying to give major plot points away in my review, it might be unavoidable.
But now, here’s my list of the 48 best seinen manga anyone should read.
Manabe Shohei is one of my favorite mangaka of all time. Dead End is one of his weirder manga, but one I thoroughly enjoyed and consider one of the best seinen manga.
Our protagonist is a man named Shirou who works as a construction worker. His life changes when a naked girl named Lucy falls into his life. After introducing her to his friends, he leaves the apartment only to come back to find Lucy gone and his friends slaughtered.
In the center of the carnage stands a mysterious man who saves Shirou from an explosion. He urges him to flee into the sewage system where Shirou meets another strange.
From this point onward Shirou gathers a rag-tag group of weird characters he supposedly knows from his past to figure out what’s going on.
While this premise already sounds strange, things only get weirder as the manga continues.
Dead End starts out realistic, more like a thriller, but over time it introduces more fantastical elements. It’s those elements that make the manga such a surreal and weird experience.
The reason I enjoyed Dead End so much was in large parts because of the characters. They are all absolute badasses.
Manabe Shohei’s works feature a very special art type. It’s unique and takes some time to get into. The backgrounds and surroundings are rendered in gritty detail. Yet it’s the characters that stand out the most. They are more realistic than other manga characters, but their unique design also makes them uglier than usual manga characters. This, however, is one reason I consider Manabe Shohei’s works so unique.
Dead End is a weird and surreal manga, one worthy to start this list of the best seinen manga with. If you’re looking for a raw, gritty and surreal thriller, you should definitely give this one a try.
Usogui by Toshio Sako is a manga about mind games and gambling and one of the best seinen manga of all time.
It’s the story of Baku Madarame who’s known as the Usogui, the Lie Eater and the many deadly gambles he takes part in.
Those games are watched over by the referees of Kagerou, a powerful organization which makes sure that all games are carried out satisfactorily and all best are paid.
Usogui gets crazy right from the start. After a brief introduction to our protagonist, we enter our very first death game. From here on out, things only get crazier.
The reason Usogui is such a fantastic manga is the games. They can be complex, but are never impossible to understand. A lot of times it’s not even the games itself the manga focuses on, but the many psychological tricks and ploys the characters employ to win them.
I also truly enjoyed the characters. Our protagonist Baku is the type who never shies away from a death game and who isn’t scared to confront overwhelming odds. Kaji starts out as a normal guy, and more a stand-in for the reader. Over the course of the manga, however, he grows as a person and eventually becomes a talented gambler himself.
The art might be a bit of a let-down, at least early on. It starts out rather simplistic and doesn’t stand out much. The longer the manga goes on, however, the better the art becomes and in later parts it’s downright fantastic.
Usogui is also one of the longest series on this list. The manga comprises a multitude of arcs, spanning over 500 chapters in total. However, it’s worthwhile reading it.
I had a lot of fun reading Usogui and I think it’s one of the best gambling and mind game manga out there. While so of the scenarios and games depicted are unconventional and extreme, I still enjoyed the suspense and tension. Usogui is one of the best seinen manga and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s interested in gambling and mind games, especially the extreme kind.
Motor Mase’s Ikigami is set in a dystopian future. Under a strange law, the National Welfare Act, certain citizens between the age of eighteen and twenty-four are selected to die for their country.
Twenty-four hours before they die, they receive an Ikigami, a notification informing them of their fate.
These Ikigamis are delivered by government messengers, like our protagonist, Kengo Fujimoto.
Ikigami’s story is told in episodic fashion, showing us how different people react to the terrible news of their impending death and how they spend their last days. While some accept, others throw themselves into despair.
The manga also focuses on Kengo, who slowly develops his own doubts of the National Welfare Act.
Ikigami’s premise is as interesting as it is terrifying, making it one of the most thought-provoking and best seinen manga out there. It’s interesting to witness these different scenarios and people presented to us. Some storylines are heartfelt and beautiful while others are poetically tragic.
It’s those different episodes that make Ikigami so good and made me add it to this list of the best seinen manga.
The biggest problem with a manga such as Ikigami are the characters. While some are well done, and we can truly feel for them, they are never around for long.
Ikigami’s art is serviceable and does what it needs to do, but it’s rarely more than average. Some pivotal moments, however, are rendered in beautiful detail and.
I enjoyed Ikigami a lot and I think it’s worth reading for almost everyone out there. While it’s a more episodic manga, it’s also a deep and thought-provoking one. I couldn’t help but wonder how I’d spent my last day.
I first read Eiji Otsuka and Shouu Tajima’s MPD Psycho a few years ago. Back then, the manga was relatively new with only, but it still stayed on my mind.
A year ago I revisited it and enjoyed it even more. By now I consider it one of the best seinen manga out there.
MPD Psycho isn’t for everyone though. It’s a complex and confusing psychological manga with a lot of scenes of shocking violence.
It’s the story of Kazuhiko Amamiya, a man suffering from multiple personality disorder. He works as a detective and solves multiple violent crime cases and sick murders.
The result is presented to us in all their twisted and sick glory. That’s why this manga is not for the faint of hard, and goes almost too far.
MPD Psycho’s art is clean and very detailed and features some of the most realistic character design I’ve ever seen.
What I’ve mentioned so far might make the manga sound like a slaughter fest, but it’s far from it. It’s a highly psychological manga that develops over time as a complex plot related to Amamiya’s post is revealed.
Yet, the more complex the manga becomes, the more confusing it grows. This is in part caused by the mystery of the plot, but also by Amamiya’s different personalities. It is tough to keep up with them and what they seem to aim for.
And here we come to the biggest problem with this manga, the personality shifts. At times, it’s hard to understand what’s going on or which personality is in charge.
Another problem is the aforementioned copious violence which might be off-putting to some readers. We can see bodies that have been dismembered, cut apart or heavily tortured.
MPD Psycho is a twisted and dark manga with deep psychological themes and a complex plot. If you like thriller manga and if you like dark, twisted stories, I highly recommend it to you.
When I first read Soil by Atsushi Kaneko, I didn’t know what I’d just read. And yet, I enjoyed the manga immensely and consider it one of the best seinen manga out there.
Soil differs from anything else I read. It’s weird, probably the weirdest manga on this entire list.
The manga’s set in Soil New Town and details what happens when a family vanishes without a trace. Yokoi and Onoda, two detectives, are tasked with uncovering what happened. What seems like a routine case quickly gets out of hand as more details about the town and the missing family are revealed.
Soil’s art is very different and takes some getting used to. At first it might appear simplistic, amateurish even, but if one’s willing to read one, one realizes that it’s a very deliberate and unique style. This art shines the most when it showcases the bizarre events happening in Soil New Town. The more surreal the town becomes, so does the art.
The characters in Soil are realistic, complex and all stand out from one another. You won’t find any clichéd characters here. Instead, most of them act like realistic people and are heavily flawed. However, those flaws can be a bit overdrawn, especially in the character of Yokoi.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Atsushi Kaneko created those eccentric characters to add to the overall odd atmosphere so prevalent in the manga.
Soil is a manga that is filled to the brim with weird things. One has to be impressed. It makes it different and refreshing and an entirely surreal and unique experience.
This, however, is also one of the biggest problems with the manga. Soil, especially in the latter half, feels more like an exercise in weirdness than a coherent story. Atsushi Kaneko adds more and more weird elements, making it almost impossible to understand what’s going on anymore.
This is most prevalent in the ending. It isn’t so much an ending as it is another question. I found some interpretations on the internet, but most of them are nothing but mere guesses.
While I think Soil is flawed from a storytelling point of view, I can’t help but recommend it to everyone. It’s one of the most surreal and weird experiences I ever had in manga.
If you’re looking for a manga that’s different, and you enjoy surreal imagery, read Soil, it’s one of the best seinen manga in that regard.
It took me a while to decide if I’d include Inio Asano’s Oyasumi Punpun in this list. The more I thought about it, however, the more I had to admit that it’s one of the best seinen manga of all time.
If you’re familiar with Inio Asano’s work you can already tell that this won’t be your everyday manga. No, his works are famous for being depressing.
Our protagonist, Punpun Onodera, is a normal eleven-year-old boy. His life is fine, but that soon changes. First Punpun meets Aiko, the new girl in glass and quickly comes to learn how fickle relationships can be. Over the course of the manga we learn more about Punpun, about his family and friends and watch as this shy little boy turns down a dark path.
Oyasumi Punpun is a depressing manga. Punpun’s life is filled with romantic problems, family issues, alcohol as well as depression and anxiety. It’s one of the best manga I ever read, but it’s far from an easy read. There many raw, gritty details that showcase how even the smallest of things can influence us. That’s what makes Punpun so relatable. Each one of us has experienced his share of misery, and each one of his can, on some level, relate to Punpun.
Over the course of the manga, we get multiple glimpses into Punpun’s life. At first as a little boy, then as a high school student and ultimately a young adult.
Punpun’s art comes with Inio Asano’s unique style. It’s a beautiful manga, drawn more realistically, but also grittier and gloomier. This style adds a lot to the overall, depressing atmosphere of the manga.
The most interesting thing about the manga is that Punpun and his family aren’t drawn as people. Instead, they are drawn as comical, bird-like beings. At first, this confused me, almost made me drop the manga, but I soon realized why this was the case. It was an obvious choice by Inio Asano to better convey Punpun’s emotions and reactions and to make him stand out more amongst the realistic setting.
While Punpun is a major manga, featuring its fair share of nudity, there’s never any fan service. The only reason for nudity and sex is to make us uncomfortable.
There are a lot of characters in Punpun and many of them are damaged. The manga isn’t trying to present us with likeable, good-hearted characters, but with real people. No one is perfect and no one would be an ideal protagonist, and it’s the same with Oyasumi Punpun’s characters.
I enjoyed the earlier parts of Punpun the most. It was the innocence so prevalent during those parts, but also the feeling, the knowledge that it would all go downhill. Later on, especially during the last arc, the story felt almost too dramatic. Before, the story always felt real, was always relatable, but during the last arc, things spiraled out of control far too much. It’s for that reason I consider the last arc of the manga its weakest.
Another problem was the story’s deviation in later arcs and the focus on side-characters. I think Punpun’s friends are interesting characters, but the time spent with them almost felt like filler.
Punpun can also feel pretentious and self-indulgent. While I don’t mind a mangaka discussing deeper themes and conveying his own reasoning, it fell flat at times and seemed to be there only for the sake of being there.
And yet, Oyasumi Punpun is a fantastic manga and one of the best seinen manga of all time. It’s deeper and more depressing than most other works I’ve read, but also much more realistic.
If you want to read a story, that will make you uncomfortable and depressed, Punpun is exactly that. However, it’s not merely misery porn, it’s a thought-provoking read, one that shows how easy it is to fall into darkness.
Battle Royale is one of my all-time favorite movies. When I learned there was a manga adaption, I had to check it out. It’s not without flaws, but I still consider it one of the most disturbing and best seinen manga of all time.
The manga adaption by Masayuki Taguchi and Koushun Takami is, of course, a retelling of the original novel. However, it spends much more time on the individual characters, exploring their backstory and adding details here and there. The manga also alters the source material occasionally to make things more dramatic.
The story of Battle Royale is simple. Each year a class is selected for the titular program and the students have to kill themselves until only one remains.
When his class is chosen for the program, our protagonist Shuuya Nanahara makes it his goal to get off the island without taking part in the game.
Battle Royale features one of the most disturbing settings of all time. Forcing students, even friends, to kill each other to survive is sick, and the manga doesn’t sugarcoat things either. Instead, it focuses on showing us how different people would react to a situation such as this. While some give into despair, others set out to win at all costs.
What I enjoyed the most about the manga was the many additional details we learned about each character. However, the manga also overdramatized a lot of the events. In typical manga fashion, fights are over-the-top and often last entire chapters.
Battle Royale’s art does a great job in showing us the gruesome reality of the situation and doesn’t shy away from depicting gore in glorious detail. However, sometimes it feels a bit too copious, similarly to the sexual themes depicted. The art, however, is always good.
Still, Battle Royale has its share of problems.
The biggest one lies in the design of the characters. It’s frankly said, extremely unrealistic. While the students are supposed to all be of the same age, around fifteen, some of them look like they are no older than ten, while Kawada looks like a man in his thirties.
The formulaic approach to tell the story is also a problem. The manga follows a simple concept. It introduces a character, shows us his or her backstory before they are, ultimately, killed off. It gets old quickly.
The last thing is the aforementioned over-dramatization. The movie and the novel aim to make things realistic and confrontations rarely last more than an instant. In the manga, however, things often get out of hand and we witness characters fighting on after being shot, or even disemboweled. It goes a bit too far.
This doesn’t mean that Battle Royale is a bad manga, it’s just realistic. This, however, didn’t deter my enjoyment. No, I still consider it one of the best seinen manga out there.
If you’re a fan of the movie Battle Royale and want to dive deeper, I highly recommend this manga. The same is true if you’re a fan of death games or manga featuring kill or be killed situations.
Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto is a retelling of one of the most popular classical manga of all time, Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka.
I never read Astro Boy and when I started reading Pluto I didn’t know, the manga was inspired by it. It made reading it quite a different experience.
The manga begins when one of the seven most advanced robots in the world, Montblanc, gets murdered.
Gesicht, another one of the seven most advanced robots working as a detective for Europol is sent to investigate. Before long he uncovers evidence of a plot to destroy all the world’s most powerful robots related to a mysterious entity known as Pluto.
When Gesicht realizes that the murder couldn’t have been committed by a human, the story soon gets more interesting.
Naoki Urasawa is most famous for his manga 20th Century Boys and Monster, but Pluto is another fantastic manga by him. It’s a great mystery manga and clearly one of the best seinen manga out there. The story follows Gesicht as he uncovers a world-wide-plot.
At Pluto’s center, is the relationship between robots and humans. This is especially important because Gesicht himself is a robot.
Even though, the boundaries between humans and robots have become more and more fleeting, we witness many examples of anti-robot hate. It shows that not all is well in the futuristic world of Pluto.
Pluto’s impressive plot is one reason I considered it one of the best seinen manga. Many times the gripping mystery kept me guessing what was going on and I couldn’t help but read on.
Once again Naoki Urasawa reveals his mastery of storytelling and plot development. Many manga use new characters and events to move a plot forward. Not so Naoki Urasawa. Plot is a more intimate story, much more reliant on dialogue and interaction between characters.
Gesicht himself is a very complex character. Even though he’s a robot, he’s still haunted by his own demons.
The biggest problem with Pluto is one I’ve also encountered in his other works, namely that the story reaches its peak during the middle of the manga. It’s unfortunate, but the later volumes feel a bit lacking compared to the earlier ones.
Now don’t get me wrong, Pluto is still an amazing mystery manga and one of the best science-fiction manga out there. It’s set in a fantastic, futuristic world and features an intriguing mystery. If you’re a fan of mystery manga or the other works of Naoki Urasawa, I urge you to read Pluto.
What makes Holyland such a fantastic manga are the characters and the way the story is told by them. From the moment you start reading the manga you can feel how lost Yuu is and how desperately he wants to find a place for himself.
At its core, Holyland is a coming of age story. Yet, it’s not a one man story. Yuu makes friends, but also enemies and many of them are as carefully developed as Yuu himself. The most notable examples are the characters of Masaki Izawa and Shougo Midorikawa. They too have their reasons for being out in the streets and they too are shunned by normal society.
Holyland isn’t without his faults. A lot of times, fight scenes are interrupted by explanations about the techniques employed. This often stops the flow of battles and makes it harder for them to be enjoyed.
Another problem is that Holyland is entirely character-driven. It focuses more on character development than plot. Since Holyland is a manga about street fights and action, things soon become repetitive.
It didn’t change my opinion of the manga much however and I still consider it one of the best seinen manga of all time.
When you start reading Holyland you quickly notice that the art, while unique, is also old-fashioned. It’s the type of style that takes a while to get used to, but it soon develops its own charm. This art stands out especially during the battles which are all rendered in fluid detail.
Holyland is a fantastic martial arts manga. While the story isn’t too deep, it makes up for it with amazing characters, great development and a relatability. Every one of us can understand how hard it is to find our own place in this world.
Holyland is one of the best seinen manga I ever read in terms of character development and I urge anyone interested in martial arts to give this manga a try.
Minetaro Mochizuki’s Dragon Head is an apocalypse manga.
After surviving a violent train wreck that saw many of his classmates killed, our protagonist Teru encounters two other survivors, Ako and Nobu.
While the three of them try to escape the train tunnel, the lack of light and food slowly impacts their psyche.
Eventually they make it outside, only to learn that a massive catastrophe has happened and the outside world might hold even more dangers.
Dragon Head’s major selling point are its characters. They are realistic and act like normal people thrown into a disaster. These characters are afraid; they lash out and might even go crazy.
The same is true for the story. There’s constant suspense and a prevalent feeling of hopelessness that never wavers. The more you read of Dragon Head, the more you wonder if there’s even anything left for our main characters.
Dragon Head is the best apocalypse manga I ever read. It’s a thrilling experience and the manga never takes a break. Instead, the world seems to become more and crazier the longer it goes on.
When it comes to the art, Dragon Head is fantastic. The world, the backgrounds and the general destruction are something to marvel it. Dragon Head’s destroyed world is presented to us in all its terrifying and depressing glory. It’s this beautiful, detailed rendering of an apocalyptic world that makes it stand out amongst other, similar manga.
In later parts, however, Dragon Head drags on a bit too much. Instead of a general plot, the manga heavily relied on character introspection. And yet, one has to wonder if it was done on purpose. The world is ending, so what is there to do anymore?
Another, bigger problem was the ending. The manga was simply over and we are left without a resolution and with no clear answers.
Even though it has its faults, Dragon Head still presents us with one of the best and most realistic depictions of the end of the world in the entire medium.
If you want to read a manga about survival and disaster, about destruction and the end of the world, Dragon Head is exactly what you’re looking for.
Shuuzou Oshimi’s Chi no Wadachi is a psychological masterpiece and one of the best seinen manga I’ve read in recent years. It’s a manga that focuses on trauma, abuse and manipulation.
Our protagonist, Seiichi Osaba, is a typical young boy. There’s one thing, however, he’s often made fun of, his overprotective mother. While she’s acting strange and a bit extreme, it’s nothing too out of the ordinary.
Until a certain incident changes Seiichi’s life and the way he thinks of his mother forever.
Chi no Wadachi might start out simple before it spirals out of control and becomes crazier and crazier.
The pacing of the manga is slow, however, but it’s slow for a reason. Entire chapters might be dedicated to the interaction between two characters. This slow, almost stifling way of storytelling adds a lot of tension and suspense.
There are a lot of moments and slow shots filled with suspense, so much so that it’s almost oppressive. The more I read on, however, the more I was drawn in and eventually got used to this style of storytelling. This focus on even the smallest of details makes Chi no Wadachi so great.
The art is yet another reason I consider this manga to be amongst the best seinen manga of all time. It looks stunning and gives a lot of focus on facial details. Some pages of the manga might be sparse, others dense, but it always helps to set the mood of the story. Where the art truly shines is during the many big page spreads.
Chi no Wadachi’s story might not sound too deep. What makes it so good is the way it’s told, the way we experience it. You can’t help but be disturbed by the portrayal of a toxic, manipulative mother and a young, insecure boy trying to please her.
The slowly, gloomy and depressing atmosphere of the manga might be a problem to some. The same is true for the suspense and tension, which might be a bit too much.
Overall, I think Chi no Wadachi is a fantastic psychological manga, one that’s told in rather unique fashion and truly worth reading.
I was drawn in by Ouroboros by Yuuya Kanzaki the moment I started reading it. When I finished it, I had to admit that I’d just read one of the best seinen manga of all time.
The manga tells the story of Ryuuzaki Ikuo, an investigator for the Shinjuku Police and Tatsuya Danno, a member of the yakuza.
When the two of them were children, they lived in an orphanage under their caretaker, Yuiko. Their happy life ended when the two of them witnessed her murder.
Ouroboros, similar to other manga, begins in a more episodic fashion, showcasing Ryuuzaki and Tatsuya, working together to solve various crime cases.
For most of its run time this episodic nature continues, but the general plot tying it all together becomes more and clearer as we learn more about the man they are after.
Ouroboros soon become one of my favorite manga about crimes and conspiracies. It might develop slowly, but the manga is never a boring read.
This overall plot is clearly the manga’s strongest point. Yukio’s murder is a mystery, one that becomes more and more complex and throws you off repeatedly.
Ouroboros’ art is enjoyable enough, but never truly outstanding. One thing I truly enjoyed was the realistic design of the characters. It helped to keep the story grounded in reality.
Our two protagonists were both interesting and complex. Yet, I’d have loved to see more of Tatsuya Danno and his underworld shenanigans, since he was, at least to me, the more interesting of the two.
There are also a lot of side-characters in Ouroboros, which are all interesting and well-developed in their own right.
My only problem with the manga was the overabundance of twists near the end. Things deteriorated a bit too much and became a little too clichéd near the end.
The manga kept me engaged throughout the entire run, however, and I truly enjoyed it and especially the setting.
The reliance of a more episodic nature might daunt some and so might be the first volumes of the manga that reveal little about the overall plot. If you like those parts, however, you’ll love the rest.
Ouroboros is clearly one of the best seinen manga in the crime and underworld genre.
I’m a big fan of manga featuring the underworld and Sanctuary by Buronson and Ryoichi Ikegami was right up my alley.
It’s the story of two men who want to change Japan. One is Akira Houjou, the other Chiaki Asami. The two of them feel Japan is stagnant and set out to push the country into a new age to create their very own sanctuary.
To accomplish this, the two of them set out on different paths. While Asami aims to become Prime Minister, Houjou sets out to seize control of the underworld.
The best thing about Sanctuary is this dualism of the plot. One part centers on politics, the other on organized crime.
Over the course of the manga, our two protagonists encounter various adversaries. Some are ambitious hot-shots and yakuza bosses others are hardened politicians and diet members.
Sanctuary is a fun, suspenseful ride. I guess I’m a fan of power fantasies and Sanctuary is among the best of them. What makes things even more interesting is that Sanctuary, mostly, is grounded in reality.
Now while Sanctuary was interesting and kept me reading for the plot, it was also really cool. Many of the characters are absolutely amazing and pure badasses.
The art in Sanctuary is typical for the 90s, but not bad. Characters look professional and badass at the same time and many of the wide shots are gorgeous to look at.
The biggest issue with Sanctuary is the aforementioned realism. While Sanctuary is set in the real world and aims to be realistic, it slowly becomes more and more unbelievable. And yet, while many of the political intrigues and twists were unrealistic, I still had a great time following them. This is in large parts because of Isaoka who was probably the best character in the entire manga and a fantastic adversary.
Things spiraled out of control near the end. It was still enjoyable, and I wanted to see how things ended, but by then I’d long abandoned the idea of realism.
Another problem is the depiction of woman. Sanctuary is a manga centered about manly characters and any woman who are there are prostitutes, sex objects or serve as love interests to our main characters.
Still, I had a great time reading Sanctuary. It reminded me of certain over the top gangster movies or polit-thrillers. It might not be too realistic in the long run, but it sure is a lot of fun. Asami’s plotline is full of suspense while Houjou’s is full of action. This combination makes Sanctuary one of the best seinen manga I ever read. If you are into crime manga and political intrigue, you could do worse than to read Sanctuary.
Tokyo Ghoul is a manga created by Ishida Sui and is another long and vastly popular series. It’s by many considered one of the best seinen manga of recent years.
The manga tells the story of Ken Kaneki. He’s a reserved college student who encounters a beautiful young woman named Rize at a café. The two of them bond over their love for books.
Unbeknownst to Kaneki, Rize is a ghoul and driven by her hunger for human flesh attacks him.
Ghouls are creatures with superhuman powers who mingle amongst humans and need to feed on them to survive.
Kaneki miraculously survives the encounter and is saved by Dr. Kanou. He soon learns, however, that he’s now part ghoul and can’t stand normal food. He finds refuge at Anteiku, a café and a safe house for ghouls.
Over the course of the story, we are introduced to a plethora of interesting characters and learn more about ghouls.
Early on the story focuses on Kaneki, how he comes to terms with his new life and the characters he encounters. The story takes up steam however, as newer and more dangerous threats are introduced.
The manga’s continued in a sequel called Tokyo Ghoul:re which expands the plot and the world of Tokyo Ghoul.
Tokyo Ghoul’s art is one of its biggest selling points. The manga has both fantastic creature design and character design. Backgrounds look fantastic and the entire manga is filled with a gloomy dark atmosphere. Ishida Sui accomplishes this with his inky art style, which is perfect in setting the mood.
Another thing I greatly enjoyed were the many battles. Especially the various weapons and the ghoul’s kagune showed some fantastic design. And yet, sometimes the battles could be a bit confusing. This is mostly the case in Tokyo Ghoul:re where the battles are on a larger scale and lots of people are involved.
Tokyo Ghoul’s characters are a tough point for me. I grew to like some of them while I disliked others. Kaneki, our protagonist, is one of the prime offenders.
Early on he’s a shy, reserved boy, but over the course of the manga and after certain significant power-boots he quickly becomes a force to be reckoned with.
Another thing is his edginess. Sure, Kaneki had some bad things happening to him and he’s clearly going through some serious trauma, but at times it feels a bit too much.
The characters I enjoyed the most were supporting characters like Arima, Urie or Amon.
Another glaring problem of Tokyo Ghoul comes from its most prevalent theme, that of the tragic past. Over the course of the manga, we find out that a large part of the main cast suffers from this trope. I understand that the world of the ghouls and the CCG is a dark and brutal one. And yet, this seem is so common that it ultimately weakens its impact. Before long, I felt myself merely shrugging when another character’s tragic backstory was revealed, thinking, same old, same old.
Now those are of course not the only themes in Tokyo Ghoul. One I came to enjoy was the dualism of the two sides, the CCG and the ghouls. Neither side is truly good or evil.
While I enjoyed Tokyo Ghoul for all of its run, I found myself most invested in the earlier parts. Here the difference between ghouls and humans was still the most important part.
All of those flaws, however, don’t make Tokyo Ghoul a bad series. No, I enjoyed it a lot and I still believe it’s a fantastic manga and one of the best seinen manga of all time.
Tokyo Ghoul stands out for its gorgeous art, its battles and the fantastic design of creatures and weapons. I recommend this manga to anyone who’s looking for a darker, more complex and brutal manga.
Most of the time, I don’t enjoy comedy manga. So at first I was wary about One Punch Man by Yusuke Murata and One. I quickly came to realize, however, that it’s one of the best seinen manga at what it does.
The manga is centered on a single gag. Imagine a character is so strong he can defeat any enemy with a single punch.
This character is Saitama who sets out to become a hero and joins the Hero Organization. He soon becomes bored when he realizes just how strong he is and searches for a real challenge.
That’s basically it for the premise. It might sound simply, even silly, but it sure is a lot of fun.
As the manga continues, the story shifts more to the many side-characters introduced and their individual struggles. It presents a nice contrast to Saitama’s powers and is often used for comedic purposes.
The high point of the series is clearly the art which shines most during the various battles. One Punch Man is easily at the top of the medium in terms of art. The monsters are extremely detailed and fantastic to look at.
From the premise one might think that most battles are over quickly, but many focus on other characters. It’s often only in the end when Saitama shows up and ends things in a single blow.
The side-characters in this manga are fantastic, too. A favorite of mine is King, the world’s strongest man. I often laughed out loud when he was involved in the story.
One Punch Man features a plethora of characters. Some are more comical, others more serious, but they are all likeable. Another favorite character of mine is Garou.
What makes this manga, however, is the humor. As simple as the premise is, it never loses its charm. The art also adds a lot to this. Saitama is often depicted as a small, unimportant bystander before he’s shown as an absolute badass when he finally takes action.
One Punch Man has quickly become one of my favorite seinen manga of all time and is one of the best action and comedy manga out there. It’s extremely entertaining, a lot of fun and offers some of the best art in the entire medium.
Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys is one of the greatest mystery manga of all time and one of the best seinen manga ever.
I read this manga years ago and it’s one of the first manga that comes to mind when I think of the best seinen manga.
The manga tells the story of Kenji Endo and his friends. At the end of the 20th century, Kenji is working at a convenience store.
The story takes up steam when he learns of the suicide of one of his friends, Donkey. At the same time, a cult, led by a figure only known as Friend, becomes more and more popular. Before long, Kenji realizes that this cult and the ominous figure of Friend are related to his childhood.
To find out more about the cult and Friend Kenji reunites with his childhood friends to find out the truth.
Naoki Urasawa’s art might appear simple at first glance. His mastery of the craft becomes clear, however, in his characters. Every single one of them has his own personality and is recognizable at first glance, even when the manga switches to different points in time. Backgrounds are very detailed and a pleasure to look at.
The reason 20th Century Boys is so good is because of the mystery, the relationship between the characters but also the way the story is told.
Conspiracy plots are nothing new and neither is saving the world. Yet, the way the story unfolds is masterfully done. What I loved the most was the inclusion of different timelines and the showcasing of childhood events. It was extremely well done, never confusing and helped to learn more about the various main characters.
20th Century Boys comprises three major arcs. The first is set during the end of the 20th century, the second in the year 2014 and the last during the 3FE, the third year of the so-called Friend Era. Included in all this are various flashbacks to the 60s and 70s when Kenji and his friends were children.
Of all those arcs, the last one, the Friend Era, was my least favorite.
The first two arcs of the manga were some of the best I read and I consider them to be some of the best in the entire mystery manga genre. They are masterfully told and you will guess repeatedly what’s going on.
The last arc, however, felt almost detached and too different from what had happened before.
Another pet peeve of mine is how so many people are in on the conspiracy. It almost feels as if our protagonists are not fighting against a conspiracy, but against the rest of the world.
Those problems, however, don’t change my opinion of the manga. 20th Century Boys is a fantastic manga. Because of its complex story and the way it’s told it is clearly one of the best mystery manga and seinen manga of all time.
The most visually stunning was chapter five, which was drawn in stunning full colors and was absolutely beautiful. This, however, was in contrast to the story, which was barely there.
My favorite amongst the collection was chapter one, which featured the titular hotel and even made me tear up a little.
There are few collections on this list of the best seinen manga, but I feel that Hotel truly deserves to be named here. The stories featured here might be emotional, others might be surreal, but they are all interesting and rendered in beautiful and stunning detail.
Hotel is a great read, and with only five chapters a quick one. It stands out, however, because of Boichi’s absolutely outstanding art.
I’m a big fan of science-fiction and especially cyberpunk and Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro is one of the best manga the genre offers.
Ido, a scientist, uncovers the remains of cyborg girl and restores her. She’s lost her memory, she he names her Alita and gives her a new cybernetic body.
From here on out, the story follows Alita as she finds her way in this new world. Over the course of the manga she changes from an innocent, almost childlike character to a battle-hardened badass.
The art is merely serviceable at the outset of the series, but improves in later parts. Where it stood out was during the many battle scenes. While the battles in Battle Angel Alita are intense, they are always fluid. This was most prevalent during the fantastic motor ball arc.
Battle Angel Alita is set in a gritty, post-apocalyptic world. Especially the city of Scrapyard, was a fantastic cluster of machines, factories and rubble. More so, it’s a cesspool where the worst criminal scum and cybernetic freaks gather.
Alita herself was an interesting main character, and I enjoyed her character development. She’s not your standard protagonist. Her story is more about finding her way in the world, more character-driven and about her than following a general plot.
Ido, too, is a complex character and his relationship with Alita can be seen as one between father and daughter.
The manga’s villains are a lot of fun too, especially the deranged bounty hunter Zapan who later turns into a full blow psychopath.
What I enjoyed were the deeper themes present in the manga. Battle Angel Alita toys with such things as the meaning of life, finding your own way and uncovering who you are, but it’s never shoved into your face and always part of the story.
The manga, however, is not free of flaws. The most obvious one is the art. It’s decent enough, but never truly stands out. The city of scrapyard and the general post-apocalyptic setting is beautifully done, but many of the characters feel unrefined and, at times, even cartoonish.
Some characters are also a bit overdrawn and to on-the-nose.
This is also true for Alita. I enjoyed her character growth a lot, but she’s still immature and arrogant for most of the story.
Still, Battle Angel Alita is an entertaining cyberpunk, science-fiction manga and among the best seinen manga I read. If you’re a fan of science-fiction or post-apocalyptic settings, you could do worse than to read Battle Angel Alita.
Some manga stand out because of their characters or their plot, others because of the world they create. Made in Abyss by Akihito Tsukushi is an example of the latter.
The titular Abyss is one of the most beautiful and stunning worlds ever created. I only read this manga recently, but I almost instantly fell in love with the abyss.
The manga tells the story of Riko, a young girl who lives in the town of Orth which is built around the abyss. The abyss is a giant chasm that has never been fully explored.
Riko is the daughter of a White Whistle, a famous cave raider who explored the abyss. After her mother’s disappearance, it’s Riko’s dream to become a White Whistle as well.
The story begins when Riko uncovers a robot boy called Rengu on an expedition to the abyss. She believes this encounter to be orchestrated by her mother and soon Riko and Rengu descend the abyss to find her.
Made in Abyss is a manga that can be best described as a mixture of science-fiction and fantasy. Its world is populated with various strange and bizarre creatures as well as interesting characters.
What makes this manga so good is the fantastic art. It’s amongst the most beautiful manga I’ve ever seen and clearly amongst the best seinen manga in that department. The level of detail used to illustrate the abyss is insane.
Early on the story starts out as lighthearted, especially because of the age of the characters. The deeper our protagonists descend into the abyss, though, the darker and more disturbing the story becomes.
The abyss has this overwhelming feeling of dread surrounding it. There are not only the bizarre creatures populating it but also the ‘curse of the abyss.’ This curse manifests when a person ascents from the depths of the abyss. The further one descended, the more painful it becomes, and eventually a return from the abyss becomes impossible.
One of the biggest problems with Made in Abyss are its characters. I’m not a huge fan of very young characters in manga. It makes me wonder why the author chose for Riko and Rengu to be that young.
Is it to relate to the adventurous feelings we all had as children, or was it a done as a contrast to the dangerous and alien world that is the abyss?
While I think this choice is strange, it didn’t deter my enjoyment of the series. The world building in Made in Abyss is excellent and each layer of the abyss serves to be more interesting than the last.
It’s a beautiful manga, one of the most beautiful I’ve ever read and presents its readers with one of the most unique settings ever.
I urge everyone to give this manga a try. It’s clearly one of the best seinen manga of all time.
Jagaaaaaan by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Kensuke Nishida is definitely one of the weirder manga on this list.
It tells the story of Shintarou Jagasaki, a young police officer who’s frustrated with his quiet and boring life.
On another boring day, he and his partner escort home a drunk man. On the train, they witness an office worker transforming into a twisted monster. The creature beings tearing apart the other passengers, but is ultimately defeated by Jagasaki with a bream he shoots from his hand.
Jagasaki quickly learns that the man was a fractured human, and he himself is one as well.
Fractured humans come into being when so-called frenzied frogs infest a normal person with a strong desire. When these people experience strong emotions and give into their desires, they transform into monsters. Some, like Jagasaki, however, are able to resist this temptation.
From this point onward; it’s Jagasaki’s task to hunt down fractured humans.
As crazy as this premise sounds, Jagaaaaaan proves to get even crazier as it goes on. As crazy as it is, however, I still consider it one of the best seinen manga I ever read.
I enjoyed the idea of people’s desire, causing them to become monsters. It adds a certain depth to an overall very weird series.
What stands out the most about Jagaaaaaan is the outstanding art. Kensuke Nishida’s art is fantastic throughout the board. I especially came to enjoy the monster design. Many of the fractured humans have a fantastic and horrible design.
The high point of the series are the battles. Over the course of the manga, Jagasaki becomes more and more powerful and as he does his own transformation becomes more impressive to look at. What starts out as nothing but a handgun soon turns to a rival and later even crazier things.
Having read Muneyuki Kaneshiro’s Kamisama no Iutoori and its sequel, I knew the author’s tendency for weird characters. Jagasaki is no different. He’s quite the weirdo, and we know it right from the first chapter. And yet, there’s something realistic about his frustration with life, something relatable. Over the course of the manga, however, Jagasaki changes and slowly turns to someone who values the people by his side.
The many side characters in Jagaaaaaan are interesting as well. Many are fractured humans, like Jagasaki. While some of them are more normal, it’s the crazy ones who are truly interesting.
What’s important about Jagaaaaaan is that it’s a mature manga, so it’s got its fair share of explicit content. The manga isn’t shy to present us with gore, nudity and sex.
One criticism I have with the series is the pacing. While the first chapter works well to introduce us to the setting and premise, I still think it was a bit too rushed. This, however, is only a minor criticism.
Jagaaaaaan is a weird and twisted manga, but a great one. It’s full of action, gore and its share of depraved acts, but never just for the sake of it. Even though Jagaaaaaan is a horror manga, and one of the best in the genre in recent years.
For all its disturbing and depraved content, I still enjoyed the manga a lot and consider it one of the best seinen out there.
If you’re looking for a weird manga, check out the first few chapters or the first volume of Jagaaaaaan. If you enjoy those, you will enjoy the rest of the manga.
What makes it special is that all those stories are only a few pages long. They don’t focus on plot, but are rather short, creepy incidents involving ghosts or supernatural entities.
Each chapter comprises several incidents all center on a certain topic. It can be a location such as a hospital or a concept like uninvited guests.
It might sound strange that Fuan no Tane doesn’t have a plot. But this is exactly why the manga works so well and is one of the best at what it does.
Fuan no Tane doesn’t set the scene or introduces characters, but only presents us a creepy incident. Because of this, the manga can fully devote itself to being creepy and scary.
The art is unique and sketchy, which helps to underline the general atmosphere. It is, however, not outstanding and can’t compare to some of the better manga on the list.
Fuan no Tane is definitely not for everyone. It’s a special type of horror, one that doesn’t bother with plot or characters and thus might alienate readers.
If this is what you’re looking for, pure scares, then Fuan no Tane is definitely worth your time. I consider it one of the best manga in the horror genre and one of the best seinen manga.
Knights of Sidonia is Tsutomu Nihei’s longest series to date. It can best be described as a mecha-space manga. If one’s familiar with Nihei’s earlier works, one might notice a diversion from his usual style of storytelling, one might even call it mainstream-friendlier.
What’s the same, however, is his outstanding art and his complex world-design.
While I don’t think Knights of Sidonia is as good as Blame! or Biomega, it’s still one of the best seinen manga of all time.
The manga tells the story of Nagate Tanikaze. He lives aboard the Sidonia, a spaceship that fled after earth was destroyed by the Gauna, a powerful alien species. These Gauna are still in pursuit of the Sidonia and attack it relentlessly.
For most of his life, Nagate Tanikaze has lived in the depths of the ship without contact with other human beings.
The story begins when he finds his way to the populated portions of the ship. There it quickly becomes clear that he has innate abilities as a fighter pilot. And thus, he becomes the pilot of a Gardes, giant mechs designed to fight the Gauna.
As I mentioned, Knights of Sidonia is more mainstream than Nihei’s other series. Many of his earlier works had a dark and gritty feel to them and were gloomy and quiet.
Knights of Sidonia differs from them, at least to a part. While the fights are still presented to us in a gritty and dark atmosphere, the rest of the manga feels much more conventional. People living on the Sidonia have fun, hang out, joke around or fall in love.
Even though, Knights of Sidonia still looks and feels like a Nihei manga. His architectural design is still as grand and ambitious as always. The alien Gauna are rendered in beautiful detail and are entirely unique. Later in the mange we even encounter entities that remind us more of the silicon life from Blame!
While Knights of Sidonia features lighter elements, it’s still a seinen manga. Death is an everyday occurrence and so are destruction and danger.
My biggest quarrel with the series is the ending. It feels strange and a bit too happy and even cheesy.
For most its time, however, Knights of Sidonia is still one of the best space opera manga out there and definitely one of the best seinen manga.
If you’re a fan of space or Tsutomu Nihei, you should definitely check it out.
Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira is one of the most influential manga of all time. It spawned the Japanese cyberpunk subgenre and also one of the most influential anime movies of all time.
It’s held in very high regard and many fans consider it to be one of the best manga ever created.
The story is set in the dystopian cyberpunk city of Neo Tokyo. It’s a futuristic hell that combines technology and skyscrapers with poverty, revolutionaries and biker gangs.
Our protagonists are two bikers, Shoutarou Kaneda and Tetsuo Shima. The two of them are best friends, but also bitter rivals. One day, Tetsuo pulls a desperate stunt to prove himself and sets into motion the events that lead to the awakening of Akira, a secret government project.
Akira’s story is one about government conspiracies, secret experiments and megalomania.
What makes Akira one of the best seinen manga is Katsuhiro Otomo’s fantastic art. It brings to life the dystopian hell that is Neo Tokyo in all its detail. We can see cracks in streets and buildings, rubble in dirty corners or marvel at high-rising skyscrapers.
We can especially see Katsuhiro Otomo’s mastery in the later chapters when he presents apocalyptic destruction in all its glory.
The characters’ visual design is also fantastic. They all look stunning and unique. The same, though, can’t be said for their personality. Many characters seem more like arch-types than actual people.
Tetsuo is an edgy teenager who wants to be at the top while Kaneda is a badass biker boy.
Tetsuo is clearly the more interesting of the two, especially in earlier chapters. He’s scary, almost chilling, but remains tragic and even sympathetic.
One of the biggest problems in Akira, however, is the story. The manga is often more style than anything. While I love to watch the massive destruction caused by psychic powers, none of them are ever clearly established.
I enjoyed Akira the most when it focused on biker gangs, drug orgies, and government conspiracies. It’s also here that the cyberpunk elements and the dystopian setting come to shine the most.
None of those flaws ruined Akira for me. Having read Katsuhiro Otomo’s other works and watched the movie version of Akira, I knew what I was in for. I knew it wouldn’t be a hard-science-fiction manga. What I wanted to see was outstanding art, a cyberpunk setting and a storyline about a crazy megalomaniac. That was exactly what I got.
Does Akira deserve the hype it gets? In my opinion, yes and no. Akira’s massive influence on the manga and anime genre can’t be overstated, but similar to other pivotal works it doesn’t truly life up to its reputation.
Still, in terms of art and setting, Akira more than holds up. Katsuhiro Otomo’s art is gorgeous and amongst the most detailed in all of manga.
Once you look past the almost one-dimensional characters and the sometimes lackluster plot, you get to experiences some of the greatest art and one of the best cyberpunk settings in the entire manga.
While I think Akira is flawed, I still consider it among the best seinen manga of all time.
There are weird manga, and there is Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida. While the manga’s set in a dark, grim and brutal world, it’s still full of absurdist humor.
The manga is set in the city of Hole which is connected to the Sorcerer’s World. This connection has made the city the perfect testing ground for magic users.
Magical atrocities are a daily reality for the people living in Hole.
Our protagonist Kaiman, a man with a reptilian head and suffering from amnesia, believes himself to be another victim of magic users. Together with his female friend Nikaido, he hunts them down to find out what happened to him and who he really is.
This premise might be weird, but the story only proves to get much, much weirder over the course of the manga.
There is, however, a strange dualism to Dorohedoro. It mixes death, carnage and gore with comedy and lightheartedness. It’s a strange mixture that’s unlike anything I’ve read before.
Another thing praiseworthy about Dorohedoro is the art and the world its set in. The decrepit city of Hole and the surreal Sorcerer’s World are both beautiful to look at.
The same can be said about the cast of characters. They are all unique, be it the disfigured inhabitants of Hole or the outlandish magic users populating the Sorcerer’s World.
The most interesting thing about the cast of characters is that neither are presented as good or evil. Instead, Dorohedoro is a morally gray mush and almost all of its characters are likeable.
Early on the story centers on Kaiman, but we soon learn that he’s connected to both the city of Hole and the Sorcerer’s World. Dorohedoro’s plot is as strange as its presentation and one of the most original and creative ones I’ve read.
While Dorohedoro is often lighthearted and even humorous, it still features copious amounts of blood and gore. The longer the manga continues, the more outlandish, brutal and horrific the overall story becomes.
Dorohedoro is without a doubt one of the most original manga I ever read. And yet, one can’t help to wonder if all its weirdness and complexity is just there for the sake of it.
I urge anyone to read Dorohedoro. While it’s often humorous and lighthearted, make no mistake, this manga is not for the faint of heart.
Still, Dorohedoro is one of the best manga seinen manga I’ve ever read and anyone who’s interested in horror and especially surreal manga should check it out.
Shigurui by Norio Nanjou and Takayuki Yamaguchi is a samurai manga, but one of the best and most brutal the genre offers.
The story begins when the daimyo Tadanaga Tokugawa proclaims to hold a martial arts tournament with real swords and fights to the death.
The first fight is between a one-armed man, Gennosuke Fujiki and the blind and lame Seigen Irako. And yet, the manga doesn’t focus on the tournament, instead it focuses on the backstory of our two companions.
Shigurui’s high point is clearly the fantastic art. Characters, backgrounds and nature are beautiful and gore and brutality are rendered in stunning detail.
It’s not the art however, that makes Shigurui special, but its depiction of the brutal and unforgiving nature of samurai culture. In other manga, and media it’s often romanticized. Shigurui, however, doesn’t shy away from showing that it was despicable and the cause of many lost lives.
The most interesting thing about Shigurui is that it doesn’t distinguish between good and evil. The author shows the flaws of both characters and we come to understand that the true evil here is samurai culture.
Women in this manga are nothing more than attachments to samurai. They can be abused and exploited as seen fit and we witness it too in the form of Lady Iku and Mie Iwamoto.
Shigurui’s entire story gives of a feeling of depression. None of what we witness is good. There’s only the sword that forces people into a life of servitude and obedience in the guise of honor.
The manga’s plot is largely character-driven and showcases our character’s lives and how they were eventually driven to become mortal enemies.
And here the problems with Shigurui start. In later parts, the manga seems to lose focus and drags on a bit too much. An entire arc of the manga is also dedicated to two characters that have no relation to our protagonists and is brought to no resolution.
The reason for this is simple, however. The manga is based on a novel featuring the tournament held by Tadanaga Tokugawa. This novel itself features not only the fights but also the backstory if all the contestants. This begs the question if the manga was cut short and originally wanted to feature the entire tournament and all its contestants.
This might also explain the ending. While I thought it was a perfect ending for our protagonists and handled the overall themes satisfactorily, it still felt rushed.
Make no mistake, though, Shigurui is still a fantastic, brutal story. It features interesting characters and gives us a realistic view of samurai culture.
I regard Shigurui not only as one of the best seinen manga of all time but also one of the best samurai manga ever created. Anyone who’s interested in samurai culture and brutal fights should check this one out. It is, however, not for the faint of heart.
Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima might be the oldest manga on this list of the best seinen manga. This samurai manga is, however, an absolute classic and proved to be one of the most influential manga of all time.
The manga tells the story of Ittou Ogami. He was once the Shogunate’s chief executioner, but was framed for treason by the Yagyuu Clan. He was forced to flee with his young son and now lives as an assassin for hire, known as Lone Wolf and Cub.
Early on, the story is told in episodic fashion, featuring various assassination carried out by Ittou Ogami. Over the course of the manga, however, we learn more about our protagonist, his back story and the reason for his travels. Ittou Ogami has only one purpose, to get revenge against the Yagyuu Clan.
Lone Wolf and Cub is a fantastic manga both for its overall plot, but also for the many episodic stories told. Many of those are extremely well done, and convey more depth and emotion that many other, much longer manga.
While the art is old-fashioned, it’s still excellent. It’s gritty and realistic and lends itself perfectly to a traditional samurai story.
The best part is, of course, the many battle scenes. Even today, almost fifty years after the manga was published, they still hold up and make Lone Wolf and Cub one of the best sword fighting manga out there.
I also really came to like Itto Ogami’s character. At first he might seem like a cold-blooded assassin, a demon even, but we soon learn that he’s a much more nuanced character.
Lone Wolf and Cub might not be for everyone. It’s old-fashioned art and realistic presentation makes it different from other, flashier samurai manga.
And yet, it’s without a doubt one of the best seinen manga and samurai manga of all time. If you’re a fan of traditional Japanese stories and samurai manga, go check out Lone Wolf and Cub.
And now we come to one of the most graphical and most disturbing manga of all time, Ichi the Killer by Hideo Yamamoto. Incidentally, it’s also one of the best seinen manga of all time.
Hideo Yamamoto has really outdone himself when creating Ichi the Killer. While his older work is strange too, Ichi the Killer is batshit insane.
Ichi the Killer is the story of two men. One is Ichi, an ominous figure who kills his victims brutally. The other, is Kakihara, a deranged yakuza. When Kakihara’s boss vanishes, he tries to find him at any cost. Before long, he figures out what happens and begins his search for Ichi, which eventually leads to a confrontation between the two.
Ichi is nothing for the faint of heart. It’s a mature and graphical manga that features violence, torture, sexual abuse, rape and murder.
While Ichi relies on graphic violence, it’s no mere gore feast. Instead, it’s a psychological tale that explores various themes.
The most important one is that of sadism and masochism, but Ichi also features things such as identity disorder, childhood abuse, manipulation and much, much more. Yamamoto Hideo mixes all of those together and created one of the most deranged and best seinen manga of all time.
This, however, is what makes Ichi the Killer work so well. It doesn’t filter. Instead, we are subjected to the deepest depth of human depravity.
That’s what I enjoyed the most about Ichi the Killer, the mixture of brutal violence, over-the-top and insane characters and deeper themes. Over the course of the manga, there are quite a few twists and turns as we get to know our two protagonists. This is most prevalent in the character of Ichi, who’s much more complex than anyone would’ve guessed.
Ichi the Killer’s art is both unique and simplistic. One of the most notable things about the manga are overdrawn facial expressions that show the mental state of characters. Another thing is the violence which is shown to us in stunningly disturbing detail.
The driving force of the manga is clearly its two protagonists. Ichi and Kakihara are almost opposites which also serves to make the manga more interesting than it already is.
I already mentioned the brutal violence, and it can be a bit much. There are certain scenes that are quite disturbing and rough. The plot too, has some problems, namely that a few details are left unexplained or are unrealistic. Still, it didn’t deter my enjoyment, and it’s to be expected from a manga as insane as this one.
Ichi the Killer is definitely not for everyone. If, however, you can stand the brutal violence and the disturbing subject-matter, you’re treated to one of the best seinen manga out there. At its core, Ichi is an amazing psychological thriller.
Kingdom created by Yasuhisa Hara is one of the most popular historical and military manga of all time.
I had always heard good things about Kingdom and read it last year. I enjoyed it tremendously and think it’s one of the best seinen manga in its respective genres.
The manga’s story is set during the Warring States era of China. It details the events that led to the unification of China under the state of Qin.
During a rebellion against the soon-to-be king of Qin, Ei Sei, a young servant boy gets entangled in the matters of state. This young servant boy is Shin, our protagonist.
It’s from this point onward that Shin follows his path to becoming a Great General under the Heaven to help Ei Sei unify all of China under his banner.
The scope of Kingdom is grand and I think it’s one of the most ambitious projects in all of manga. Kingdom is currently close to 700 chapters long, and it’s far from over.
Kingdom’s focus is clearly on the large-scale battles that were common during the Warring states era. Those battles are presented to us in stunning detail.
During those battles we can witness armies numbering in the tenth or even hundreds of thousands. The greatest part of Kingdom’s battles isn’t scale, it’s the presentation of tactics and strategies. The manga goes into extreme detail when explaining the various engagements, as well as the tactics and strategies used.
Kingdom doesn’t solely focus on battles, though. Another important plot-point is the power struggle between Ei Sei and Ryo Fui, the Chancellor of State who plants to overthrow Ei Sei and become king himself.
As much as I loved the large-scale battles of Kingdom, I also came to enjoy the matters of state with all their intrigues.
In later chapters, Kingdom also illustrates the important events that take place in all the different states.
Kingdom’s scope is grand and the story that is told is fantastic, especially for someone who’s interested in history. For this alone it deserves to be added to any list of the best seinen manga.
Kingdom’s art is merely average at the beginning. During the very first arc, it was decent enough to get the job done, but nothing outstanding. As the manga continued, the art improved. Large-scale battles were detailed and the giant, walled cities of ancient China are a joy to look at.
A manga is grand as Kingdom also has a vast cast of characters. Some of these are truly fantastic, for example Ei Sei, Ryu Fui, General Ou Ki and Riboku.
There are also characters who I wasn’t as fond of. One of them is unfortunately, our protagonist Shin. Raised as a servant boy together with his friend Ri Hyou, the two of them dreamed to become generals in China and often sparred together.
These sparring matches and his natural talent somehow make Shin a force to be reckoned with. Over the course of the first arc, he not only battles against, but wins against experienced swordsman and hardened assassins.
This theme continues for the rest of the manga and Shin’s martial prowess feels unrealistic.
Shin’s characterization is also quite clichéd. He’s your typical hotheaded, young man who aims for the top because it’s the top. And yet, his young man is always recognized by those around him for his greatness. It, frankly said, feels forced.
Often, this isn’t too important though. Sure, Shin is the manga’s protagonist, but the focus is clearly on the general plot and the large-scale battles and the politics. We might witness the battles from Shin’s point of view, but the focus isn’t solely on him, but always on the overall battle.
The worst part of Kingdom, however, is the very first arc. During the Sei Kyo Rebellion arc, his faults are most glaring and the story is at its weakest. Early on, Kingdom doesn’t feel like a seinen manga, but more like a typical shonen manga.
This changes, however, when Chancellor Ryo Fui returns to court and when we enter our first large-scale battle. It’s from here on out that Kingdom proves to be one of the grandest and best seinen manga of all time.
A word of warning though, while Kingdom is a historical manga, it takes some liberties with the source material. This, however, shouldn’t be too surprising.
The problems outlined didn’t deter my enjoyment and once I was done with the first arc, I truly grew to enjoy Kingdom. If you decide to read Kingdom, make sure you read on until the very first large-scale battle. It’s here that Kingdom truly shines and becomes one of the best seinen manga.
The world of illegal money lending is a dangerous place. The people in Manabe Shouhei’s Yamikin Ushijima-kun get used, betrayed, tortured or even lose their life.
If you enjoy darker and more twisted stories, than this manga is perfect for you. It’s amongst the best crime manga out there and one of the best seinen manga I ever read.
Kaoru Ushijima, our protagonist, is a moneylender who offers cash loans. However, his loans are special, they have an interest rate of fifty percent and are to be paid back within ten days. Now, the first thing you might wonder is who’d take such an outrageous loan. Apparently there are many people, if you believe Yamikin Ushijima-kun. It’s people who are drowning in debt, who gave into their vices or simply the dregs of society.
The manga follows Ushijima on his path as he makes sure people pay him back and he takes from them all they have. Ushijima uses any means possible to get his money back, including prostitution, identity theft and extortion. He’s even willing to set the occasional example for those who think they can get away.
Yamikin Ushijima-kun is a realistic, grounded story that shows us the worst of humanity. Here we can see how deep you can fall and in just how much trouble you can get. There are no monsters here, no killers, there’s only people’s own mistakes and their desperation.
While most of the episodic stories end with characters in a terrible place, there are some rare glimpses of hope. They might feel a bit out of place in a manga such as this, but they make the manga much, much better.
And yet, most of the depicted stories are without a doubt tragedies.
We soon learn, however, that Ushijima isn’t the only bad guy out there. Over the course of the manga we see other people, people far worse than him.
What makes this manga so dark is how realistic it is. We all make mistakes in our life. Sometimes we have bad luck. And there are always people out there, who are preying on the weak.
Make no mistake, this manga isn’t meant to glamorize, it’s meant to be unpleasant. It focuses on the underbelly of society, the dark sides and does so in a fascinating way.
Manabe Shouhei’s art isn’t as refined as that of other manga. It’s gritty and almost dirty, but it’s exactly right for a manga such as this. The world of Yamikin Ushijima-kun isn’t a pleasant or clean world, no it’s a dark, gritty and dirty world.
The character design is unique, but many characters aren’t exactly pleasing to look at. But again, this helps to set the tone.
Many of the characters in this manga aren’t likeable. Our protagonist Ushijima is all business and has no scruples taking from people as much money as he can. And yet, you often come to root for him and not for the many other characters.
In later arcs, though, the manga’s focus shifts. Ushijima and his plots aren’t a focus anymore, instead it’s the stories of other people. It’s here that Yamikin Ushijima-kun truly shines. I enjoyed the earlier chapters a lot, but it was the later, longer arcs that I truly came to love. It’s here that the manga’s at its best and truly becomes one of the best seinen manga of all time.
It’s extremely interesting to follow people along, see the lives of different people and to witness what eventually drives them to Ushijima’s office.
Most of those characters aren’t sympathetic, and one’s hard pressed feeling sorry for them, but there are some fates that are truly heartbreaking.
Yamikin Ushijima-kun is a fascinating, dark manga that showcases the underbelly of society in all its glory.
While there are many crime manga out there, almost none portray the dark side of society just like Yamakin Ushijima-kun. It’s definitely among the best seinen manga out there, and well worth the read.
I love Gantz by Hiroya Oku. It’s one of the most insane manga I ever read.
One day, our protagonist Kei Kurono and his childhood friend Masaru Kato die in a tragic train accident. Soon after, they awake in a Tokyo apartment where a group of people, as clueless as them has gathered. In the room’s center sits a giant sphere called Gantz. It explains to them they now have to hunt aliens living among humans and are soon after teleported to a different location.
And thus begins the first of many brutal alien hunts.
With over 400 chapters, Gantz is one of the longest manga on this list. It’s well worth the investment though, especially since Gantz is high on action and, often, low on dialogue.
Gantz is a brutal, gritty series about people hunting aliens. It’s ripe on fluid action and glorified gore, and it’s exactly this that makes Gantz so good. The action and the violence are among the best in the entire manga genre, especially later when the scale and the danger seem to increase exponentially.
Yet, what makes Gantz stand out is not only the action and violence, it’s the sheer absurdity of the premise and the outstanding art. Each character is detailed and unique. The same goes for the aliens, who all have a fantastic design.
Gantz is a battle manga, and it knows it. Battles are amazingly drawn, the action is fluid, and the violence is brutal. The best part, however, is that the enemies aren’t cannon fodder. No, it’s the humans who often end up being torn apart and killed off. Death is normal in Gantz and characters die, many characters die.
While I love the action in Gantz, what truly made me appreciate it was its protagonist. Kurono starts out as an unlikeable and egoistic teenager. He’s the type of character that you almost can’t help but hate. As the manga progresses, however, he develops tremendously, grows as a person and eventually becomes the leader of the Gantz team. Whenever I think back to reading Gantz, the first thing that comes to mind is Kurono’s character development.
However, Kurono isn’t the only fantastic character in this manga. Almost all the supporting characters are fantastic in their own way and many of them have their own traits and abilities.
There are, however, some serious flaws with Gantz I’d like to point out.
Gantz is long, and I while reading I often had the feeling that Hiroya Oku as experimenting. There are quite a few plot points or even entire subplots that are never truly resolved and are just left hanging.
Another is the world of Gantz. The alien missions are dark, brutal and unforgiving, but so is the real world. We bear witness to severe bullying, rape, brutal violence and even a mass shooting.
The biggest problem I had with Gantz, however, was the last mission and the ending. The plot didn’t feel planned out anymore and felt almost as if Oku was making things up on the fly. Near the end Gantz turned very weird, and it’s never truly explained what was going on before the manga was brought to a rushed ending. I understand what Oku wanted to say, but it all happened too fast.
This, of course, doesn’t mean Gantz is a bad manga. No, it’s a fantastic manga. Gantz is a weird, brutal gory mess featuring some of the best action scenes I’ve seen in manga. The same is true for the monsters and their design.
While the plot can deteriorate a little, I still consider Gantz one of the best seinen manga of all time. Gantz is a series about hunting aliens, and during those missions it’s at its absolute best.
Shinobu Kaitani’s Liar Game is my favorite mind game manga of all time and also one of the best seinen manga of all time.
The story starts when Kanzaki Nao, an incredibly honest girl, suddenly finds herself a contestant in the Liar Game. It’s a game where you have to deceive and trick your opponent with stakes in the hundreds of millions.
It isn’t long before Nao is tricked and loses her money. When she finds out that Shinichi Akiyama, a genius swindler, is released from prison, she sets out to get his help. After initially rejecting her request, he soon helps her out and turns the first round of the Liar Game around.
What makes Liar game so good are the different games. They might appear simple early on, but over the course of the manga they get much more complex and interesting.
Liar Game is one of the best manga out there for anyone who’s interested in clever mind games and psychological ploys.
Even more interesting than the games themselves, are the many tricks and strategies used by our protagonist. It’s incredibly fun to watch them as they out-play each other repeatedly.
Liar Game’s art is good enough, but never outstanding. The characters are all rendered uniquely and the locations are nicely designed, but all of it is merely serviceable. One thing I found a bit annoying, however, were the over-exaggerated reactions of characters.
Another problem with Liar Game are its side characters. Many of them seem to be only there to represent a certain character type. Apart from a select few such as Yokoya and Harimoto, none of them are a match for Akiyama. Once the aforementioned characters show up, however, the manga becomes much more interesting and reaches new levels of suspense. It’s especially because of the games featuring them that are outstanding and truly make Liar Game one of the best seinen manga.
What might also alienate some readers are the explanations of many of the games. They can become drawn out and overly complex.
There’s also the ending which I found anti-climactic and which felt to me as if the manga was cut short.
Still, I enjoyed Liar Game immensely. While some of the earlier games are easy enough, things get truly interesting during the Contraband Game. It was during this game that my mind was literally blown by the sheer complexity and the many strategies used.
Liar Game is absolutely brilliant and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a complex mind game manga.
I came upon Bokutachi ga Yarimashita while searching for other works of Kaneshiro Muneyuki. When I started it, I wasn’t sure what to think about it. Soon enough though, it turned out to be one of the darkest and best seinen manga I ever read.
The manga centers about Tobio Masubuchi and his three friends Isami, Maru, and Paisen. Most of their days are spent leading an average life. Things change when Maru’s beaten up by delinquents from a neighboring school. Together the friends hatch a plan to get revenge.
What was nothing but a little prank quickly turns into deadly reality and their normal lives end.
Bokutachi ga Yarimashita is a fantastic manga about psychological themes such as guilt and redemption. It’s also one of the darkest and most depressing manga I ever read.
Reading this manga was one of the most unique experiences I ever had. It’s a story ripe with tension, but more so one that makes you uncomfortable on a deep psychological level.
What this manga succeeds at the most is the storytelling and the plot. It keeps you engaged throughout the entire run and the pacing is fantastic.
The art is pretty good, but it truly shows in terms of facial expressions and the showcasing of the characters’ emotional state.
However, what truly makes this one of the best seinen manga of all time are, without a doubt, the characters. The story of this manga is entirely character-driven. But here’s the major difference with Bokutachi ga Yarimashita, the characters aren’t heroes; they are normal everyday people. Hell, they are weak and immature, the type who don’t think about the consequences of their actions.
It’s extremely interesting to see these people handle the situation they find themselves in and of course the psychological and emotional toll it takes on them.
Bokutachi ga Yamashita not only presents us with topics such as guilt and redemption but also friendship, love, and life itself. It’s a deep character study and there’s no magical ending here. Life goes on and at the end, our characters have to live with the consequences of their actions.
It’s a fantastically dark and suspenseful manga. Reading Bokutachi ga Yarimashita was an experience for sure. It presents its reader with a deep look at the human psyche.
It’s clearly amongst the best seinen manga and was probably the best manga I read last year.
Homunculus is another manga by the creator of Ichi the Killer, Hideo Yamamoto. While it’s not as brutal and disturbing as Ichi the Killer, it’s much, much stranger.
Homunculus tells the story of Susumu Nakoshi, a homeless man living in his car. One day he encounters Manabu Ito, a young medical student. Manabu is doing research about a process known as trepanation, the drilling of holes into the human skull, and asks Nakoshi to become his test subject.
Nakoshi eventually agrees to undergo the procedure. From then on, he’s able to see distorted versions of humans, the titular homunculi.
Homunculus is not only one of the most unique but also one of the best seinen manga of all time. Yet, it starts out interesting, but it soon becomes very strange.
The manga deals with various themes, such as vanity, trauma, identity disorder and materialism, to name a few.
Homunculus features its fair share of disturbing scenes, both violent and sexual, but also other scenes that are uncomfortable on a deeper, more psychological level.
The story of this manga can almost be described as a slow, but steady descent into madness.
It’s because of this that the manga often feels unpredictable. Right from the beginning we can tell that something’s off about Nakoshi and after the trepanation it becomes more a character study than a straight plot.
What I loved the most about Homunculus was the art and the strange story it told. For those two reasons alone, it’s a worthy addition to a list of the best seinen manga of all time.
The art is abstract disturbing at others, but it’s always detailed.
Our protagonists, Nakoshi and Manabu, are both interesting in their own way, and are both complex and flawed people. Over the course of the manga their interactions are masterfully done and slowly, but steadily reveal more. Neither of the two is a clichéd character, and the same can be said about the various side-characters featured in the story’s course.
It’s near the end, though, that Homunculus derails and turns from a deeper psychological story to one of surreal insanity.
To me, the biggest problem with the manga is the ending. It stayed on my mind for a long while, but I still can’t say what I truly think about it.
Homunculus is a psychological masterpiece and one of the most unique and surreal manga I’ve ever read. It’s a deep, psychological story that features some of the most complex characters I ever came upon.
For the sheer creativity alone, and for its psychological themes alone, this manga is well worth reading.
Freesia is a manga I go back to repeatedly. It’s a weird, surreal story and one of the best seinen manga I ever read.
The manga is created by Jiro Matsumoto, the creator of Keep on Vibrating.
Freesia is set in a dystopian Japan plagued by war. In this society, a new law has been passed, one that legalizes retaliatory killings. This means you’re legally allowed to kill someone who murdered a loved one or hire someone to do the job for you.
Kano, our protagonist, is a man who works for an organization that specializes in retaliatory killings.
This manga’s story isn’t pleasant, and it presents us with a set of horrible and insane people.
Freesia’s world is a dark and cruel one, a gloomy one, and there’s a dark, depressing feeling prevalent throughout the entire work.
The art in Freesia isn’t pretty to look at, but it doesn’t want to be. The style is unique. It’s raw, gritty and unpolished. Backgrounds are detailed while faces are often simplified. It’s an interesting contrast that feels oddly fitting for a story such as this.
The cast of this manga is full of broken and damaged people. One can almost tell that Jiro Matsumoto discarded the idea of presenting us well-adjusted, sane people.
Kano, our protagonist, suffers from schizophrenia, delusions and memory failure. Yet, Kano understands that it’s not the world, but he who’s crazy.
Other members of the cast suffer from similar problems, the most prevalent being delusions and hallucinations. This shows in the manga itself. Sometimes scenes don’t appear to make sense, or appear strange, until we learn the truth about what’s really happening.
Freesia might appear to be a story about retaliatory killings, but it focuses more on personal stories. It gives us insight into both our main characters and the people they are tasked to kill.
This helps especially in fleshing out the extras, the targets of the retaliator killings. It makes these characters sympathetic and turns many of the killings into tragedies of their own right. It also shows us that the world is not black and white, but nothing but morally gray. This is another reason I consider Freesia one of the best seinen manga.
The world of Freesia isn’t safe, and atrocities are committed daily. Our characters too, are far from normal. Most of them are mentally ill and some even snap over the course of the story.
And yet, we never learn much about this world. The war is nothing but a backdrop, a reason for all the misery that’s happening.
It’s similar for our main cast. We’re only shown glimpses of their past, but we never truly learn who they really are. This, however, isn’t too much of a problem, since Freesia is mostly concerned with Kano and his point of view of the world.
Freesia might be a tough read for some people because of the prevalent theme of mental illness. It can confuse and irritate and cause scenes that are downright surreal.
This manga is dark, gloomy and depressing and clearly not for everyone. However, Kano’s portrayal, his delusions and hallucinations make it a surreal and unique experience and one of the best seinen manga I ever read.
If you’re looking for a dark and surreal story, read Freesia.
Junji Ito’s my favorite horror mangaka of all time, and I regard his horror collection as one of the greatest works of Japanese horror.
Most of the collection comprises one-shots, but there are also longer works in here. One is Ito’s adaption of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the other one of his most popular works, Tomie.
Junji Ito’s Tomie tells the story of a high school girl who gets murdered and dismembered. This, however, only proves to be the beginning of the tale because Tomie shows up the next day as if nothing happened. Soon enough the true horror in this tale is revealed. Tomie is a special type of being, one able to regenerate any injury and replicate from the smallest part. To add to this, she’s of entrancing beauty and drives every man into a senseless obsession about her and ultimately mad.
The story of Tomie is told in episodic fashion, but she’s never the protagonist. Instead, she’s always an enigma, always an evil.
This collection contains some of Ito’s best work. My favorites amongst those many stories are The Long Dream, Hanging Balloons, Lingering Farewell, Lovesick Dead and My Dear Ancestors.
Ito’s work stands out because of his unique and beautiful style. He’s a master at what he does.
Body horror is a common theme and his characters are often distorted and twisted, presenting the reader with gruesome imagery, violence and gore. Yet, Ito’s work stands out the most for his character reactions, especially their faces. Wide eyes, terrified faces and distorted expressions are rendered in stunning detail
Another element that makes Ito’s work stand out is the page turn. Ito’s a master of it and often ends a page with a character’s shocked or terrified expression. It’s only on the next page, after the page is turned, that he reveals the reason.
Ito’s stories often feature characters going mad, toying with things they don’t understand or giving into their desires.
These character’s, however, they aren’t heroes. Instead, they are nobodies, mundane people like you and me, going about their normal life only to stumble into horrific situations. Yet, these situations are often caused by things as mundane as his characters. Instead of monsters or killers, Ito’s stories feature things such as dreams, love, hair or even musical records who turn into deadly enigmas.
Junji Ito is in my opinion Japan’s best horror mangaka. If you’re horror fan and you want to enjoy the horror genre at its best, I urge you to read the works of Junji Ito.
There are certain stories that contain glances of absolute brilliance. Kenji Tsuruta’s Omoide Emanon is such a story and one of the best seinen manga of all time. It’s a beautiful short little story based on the novel by Shinji Kajio.
The story features a young man who’s returning home after his travels. On a ferry he meets a beautiful young woman. She introduces herself as Emanon and the two of them get to know each other.
While they have dinner together, she tells him her story.
There’s something about this manga. It has this warm, solemn atmosphere about it. It might be the way our protagonists meet or why the young man returns home, but it’s all strangely fitting together.
Omoide Emanon’s art is beautiful, and it paints a beautiful picture of a beautiful story. The characters are rendered very realistic. Emanon stands out especially. She’s beautiful and charismatic, but also ominous.
While it’s a short manga, barely a volume long, I’m surprised how many emotions were packed into it. This short little tale had more of an emotional impact on me than many other, much longer series.
However, sometimes it’s the smaller things in life that stay on our mind the longest. If you read Omoide Emanon, it might very well become one of these things.
Onani Master Kurosawa or Masturbation Master Kurosawa is a manga created by Katsura Ise and Takuma Yokota. I honestly thought a manga with a title like that wouldn’t be any good. Yet, after reading, I consider it one of the best seinen manga I ever read.
I first found out about the manga on an image board. Finding out what the title meant, I thought I knew what I was in for. Nothing but a big perverted joke. Still, I was intrigued and before long I realized I was entirely wrong.
Our protagonist is Kakeru Kurosawa, a fourteen-year-old, anti-social loner with a very special habit. Once school is over, he heads to a seldom-used bathroom at school to masturbate.
Before long he notices how the timid Aya Kitahara is bullied by two of the popular girls in class. He takes retribution into his own hands by doing what he does best.
Kitahara eventually figures out he’s the culprit and not only confronts him, but blackmails him to do the same to other girls who’ve crossed her.
This is the start of a strange, but heartfelt coming-of-age story.
The manga starts out humorous, and its earlier parts are often seen as a parody of Death Note. Over time, though, it gradually changes and becomes a sweet, inspiring story that tackles various serious topics.
Onani Master Kurosawa’s art gives a lot of emphasis on characters, bringing their expressions to life with its careful shading and its sketchy style. Backgrounds, however, are often simple and uninspired. The art is good enough to get the job done, but it’s never outstanding.
The manga truly stands out because of its character. Kurosawa is a well-rounded, believable and likeable character. It was surprising to me how a character who’s called the Masturbation Master can be so well done. This, of course, is mostly because of his development over the course of the manga.
Kurosawa is relatable and we as the reader get to know him intimately, no pun intended. We not only see what’s going on, or how he feels, no we come to understand him. It’s this intimacy that elevates Onani Master Kurosawa to one of the best seinen manga out there.
Almost all the important side-characters are as complex and realistic as Kurosawa. They might not develop as much as him, but they too change and we get to understand them as well.
What might be off-putting to some readers is Kurosawa’s fantasies. They can be disturbing, but one has to remember that he’s a teenager. Apart from those parts though, there’s no cheap fan service throughout the rest of the manga.
Onani Master Kurosawa proved to be one of my biggest surprises in manga. I thought it was nothing but a perverted joke, but it turned out to be one of the best seinen manga I ever read. It’s a sweet, well-told coming of age story I urge anyone to check out.
Tsutomu Nihei’s Biomega is a mixture of science-fiction, cyberpunk and zombie apocalypse. This manga is as weird and crazy as it sounds. It’s for this reason and many others that I love it and regard it as one of the best seinen manga of all time.
It’s the story of the synthetic human Zouichi Kanoe and his AI companion Fuyu Kano. Biomega begins when they are sent to retrieve a human that’s immune from the N5S virus.
All who get infected by the virus are changed to drones, disfigured, zombie-like creatures.
The story soon takes up steam though, as more characters with different agencies are introduced. The most notable of those, Niardi, the leader of the DRF.
Biomega is a typical Nihei manga. It features a futuristic world, characters who aren’t fully human and lots of cyberpunk action.
As is always the case with the works of Tsutomu Nihei, the art in Biomega is gorgeous. It’s raw and gritty, featuring stunning and wide-reaching architecture and various cybernetic monstrosities. Nihei’s art is enough to make Biomega one of the best seinen manga.
Biomega’s creature design is also fantastic. There are the drones, who are reminiscent of lifeless robots, but are clearly biological. The many other creatures featured in Biomega are depicted in all their stunning detail and their transformations are delightfully horrible to witness.
The same, of course, is true for our protagonist Zouichi, and fellow synthetic human Nishu. Both are absolute over-the-top badasses. Their motorcycles, their outfits and their weapons are all incredibly well done.
What made Biomega stand out from other works by Nihei is the pacing. Many chapters of this manga comprise nothing but action, some of which are incredibly fast-paced. This action is almost always over-the top, but it’s well-done, fluid and you’ll always know what’s going on.
Similarly to Nihei’s other works, especially Blame!, Biomega scarcely uses dialogue, and the story is often told via stunning visuals. More so in Biomega, making it almost impossible to make a clear division between the art and the story.
What I love so much about Biomega is the scope, the craziness and the creativity of the work. I’ve seldom read a manga similar to it.
The fast-pacing of Biomega’s story is a double-edged sword though. At times things are moving forward too quickly, giving you almost no time to breathe or think about what’s going on. Biomega’s second part, however, is where things get completely out of hand. It could almost be a different manga.
While the first part is a fast-paced cyberpunk story set in an apocalyptic world, the second part is more reminiscent of a cyberpunk-fantasy story. It’s almost as if Nihei’s trying to fit way too much into a six volume long series.
And yet, it never deterred my enjoyment of the manga. The art, the action and the many twisted cyberpunk creatures we get to see easily make up for the above weaknesses.
While the story’s weird, sometimes lackluster, I was still stunned by Biomega as a whole and consider among the best seinen manga.
I recommend it to anyone who likes the other works of Tsutomu Nihei, science-fiction and cyberpunk.
Smuggler is another manga by Manabe Shohei, but it’s much shorter than his other work featured on this list.
Our protagonist Yosuke Kinuta, a failed actor with a massive debt, is forced to work as a smuggler and becomes part of a corpse disposal crew.
Trouble brews when the crew becomes involved in a mob war. Even worse, are the two Chinese assassins joining the fold.
I consider Smuggler, as short as it is, one of the best manga in the crime and thriller genre.
The action is fantastic and the characters are great throughout the board. Yosuke stands out amongst the rest of the cast by being relatable and the only member of the cast who seems to be normal and not entirely mad.
My favorites, however, were the leader of the corpse disposal crew and the assassins, who are all absolute badasses.
While there are occasional scenes of subtle humor, this is a dark and serious story.
I think Smuggler can be best described as a story similar to movies by Tarantino or Guy Richie. It’s a crime story featuring crazy events, over-the-top characters and scenes that pack a heavy punch.
Manabe Shohei’s personal style isn’t for everyone. It’s detailed and well done, but his characters are rendered strangely uniquely. Their distinct facial features make them look more realistic than the characters in other manga, but also somewhat ugly.
While it’s an interesting style, it’s not for everyone and I can see people disliking it.
Smuggler is a hidden gem that’s definitely not for everyone. It’s a disturbing and amazing thriller that’s fantastic throughout the board. It features memorable characters, stunning action and some absolutely amazing moments. At only five chapters, it might be one of the shorter manga on this list, but I still consider it one of the best seinen manga of all time.
The Climber by Shinichi Sakamoto is one of the most beautiful manga I ever read.
I’m not a fan of sports manga and so I was reluctant to read it. Once I did, however, I discovered one of the best seinen manga of all time.
Our protagonist, Buntarou Mori, is a lonesome and solitary teenager. He gets interested in climbing when a classmate challenges him to climb the school building. Mori accepts without hesitation and it’s in this moment that his passion is awoken.
When Mori’s introduced, you feel like he doesn’t care about anything. After climbing the school building, however, he changes completely and appears like a different person.
As the story of The Climber continues, Mori climbs more and more mountains and gets to know other characters. Yet, he’s always a loner.
The thing I loved most about the Climber was the showcasing of dedication and perseverance. It’s almost as if the manga says that if you push and work hard enough, you can do anything.
I also enjoyed the story of the manga immensely. At first glance, one might think it’s a manga solely about climbing, but it’s also one about character development. The story in the Climber is hugely character-driven and shows Mori’s development as a person. Mori’s got problems. He’s someone who can’t seem to relate to people, but as he overcomes more and more mountains, he also overcomes more and more problems. This dualism of the story is fantastically done.
Death is another theme prevalent in this manga. Mountain climbing is a dangerous sport, and The Climber makes it no secret. And yet, death is never dramatized, never show as an over-the-top struggle, no it’s haunting, depressing and natural.
The art in this manga is among the best in the medium. It’s breathtakingly beautiful, often presenting us with stunning double pages of mountain ranges. These are rendered in excruciating detail and a delight to look at.
One thing that makes the Climber stand out amongst other manga is the glimpses of poetic beauty. Throughout the manga, many panels are solely dedicated to Mori climbing. There’s no dialogue, instead the manga speaks through its visuals alone. It’s a thing of beauty, one that elevates The Climber to one of the best seinen manga of all time.
And yet, it goes even further. The Climber adds metaphors, allusions and even literary passages and quotes. It gives the entire work a feeling of joy and character, but never feels pretentious. The Climber is clearly a piece of art.
While it’s an outstanding work, it’s also not free of fault.
The very first problem is the change of tone. The manga was originally written by two people. When its writer left, Sakamoto Shinichi, the artist, continued it on its own. It’s at this point that the focus of the manga changes. It’s not so much about sports anymore, but becomes an atmospheric and visual character study.
This manga is for and foremost the story of Mori Buntarou. We might witness other characters coming into his life, some of which are well-developed, but the focus is clearly on Mori. This focus on a single character might daunt some readers.
Another problem is the frequent time skips. Some are only a few days long, others will span weeks or even years. This can make the manga somewhat confusing. It didn’t deter my enjoyment too much and was well handled, but you might wonder what happened.
The Climber is a work of beauty. It’s not solely a manga about climbing. It’s rather a character-driven coming-of-age story. While this might make for some heavy reading at times, it’s never an unpleasant experience.
The Climber is without a doubt one of the best seinen manga of all time, one I’d recommend to anyone.
Me and the Devil Blues by Akira Hiramoto is a manga that retells the life of Robert Johnson and set in the American South.
You might wonder how a manga such as that might work, but I can tell you it’s an absolutely fantastic manga.
Robert Johnson, our protagonist, is a dabbling musician. He wants to learn how to play the blues, but he’s no good at it. One day, he hears of an urban legend: if you play alone at a crossroads at night, the devil will visit you. He will take your soul, but for it, he will make you a genius blues player.
One night he tries exactly that and from then on his life changes forever.
Me and the Devil Blues is fantastic. The art in this manga is outstanding. It’s gritty, but very detailed, creating a very personal style that’s nothing short of beautiful.
Another is the setting. The South in the 1930s is well depicted. We can see the deep-seated division between white and black and also the many blues clubs so popular during the time. This gives the entire manga a very realistic and western feel.
The characters in this manga are all well done. RJ is an interesting protagonist, one who’s more thrown into the events taking place than choosing them himself. Clyde Barrow is, in my opinion, the best character in the manga and serves as a great companion to RJ.
There are also many side-characters in this manga, the best amongst them is the enigmatic Stanley McDonald.
What I came to enjoy the most about Me and the Devil Blues was the atmosphere. This makes it one of the best seinen of all time. I’ve seldom read a work that’s so heavy with suspense. The entire manga and its story are loaded with tension. There are certain parts, or even entire chapters, that don’t let you catch your breath. It’s outstandingly well done.
The one thing I have to criticize is the beginning. Even after multiple re-reads, I’m still confused about what’s actually going on.
Me and the Devil Blues is a hidden gem I think few people know about. Its western feel, its heavy suspense and outstanding art make it one of the best seinen manga of all time.
I’ll urge anyone who likes manga to give this one a try. It’s well worth it.
Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga is one of the best seinen manga of all time. Art, story, characters, this manga is fantastic in all departments.
Our protagonist Thorfinn Karlsefni, son of Thors, is part of a mercenary group led by a man named Askeladd. We soon learn that Askeladd is responsible for Thor’s death. It’s getting revenge that makes a young Thorfinn join Askeladd’s group.
After this brief introduction, the manga takes up steam when the Danish prince Canute is taken hostage. Askeladd quickly puts together a plan that should change their lives forever.
Vinland Saga is manga focusing on Vikings and Viking culture set in the 11th century in Europe. It’s a brutal time and we witness rape, plunder and murder.
The manga takes, of course, liberties, but it feels very realistic.
Makoto Yukimura’s art is stunning and it can rival the best seinen manga of all time. The first volume is already fantastic to look at, but the art serves to only get better. Vineland Saga is without a doubt one of the most beautiful manga of all time and brings to work 11th century Europe in stunning detail. What I loved the most are the many shots of towns, cities and farmsteads. It really helps to bring the story to life.
Being a manga about Vikings, there are, of course, a lot of battles. These are all around brutal. The violence is blunt, gross and gratuitous, but it never feels over the top or unrealistic.
And yet, Vinland Saga isn’t a story about brutal wars and battle, it’s the story or Thorfinn. There are long parts that tell a clam, gloomy and quiet story. While I enjoyed the battles immensely, it’s those quieter parts I came to love the most. It’s here that the story and the characters truly shine.
The characters in Vinland Saga are among the best in the entirety of manga.
Thorfinn starts out as a quiet and efficient killer and we can feel the rage burning inside of him. He lives for nothing but his revenge.
As the story progresses though, Thorfinn grows tremendously and serves to become one of manga’s most complex protagonists.
My favorite character in Vinland Saga, however, is Askeladd. He might be my favorite manga character of all time and if you read Vinland Saga, you’ll find out why.
Many other side-characters are well-developed in their own right. Einar comes to mind, and so does Hild, or even Sigurd.
Thorkell is another fan favorite, but I never truly warmed up to him. He’s fun and his over-the-top character is based on an actual legend. Still, the way he acts most of the time makes him feel like more of a comic-relief character than one to be taken serious.
There isn’t much more that needs to be said about Vinland Saga. It’s an outstanding manga, both when it’s brutally violent, but also when it’s quieter and calmer. It’s a fantastic read and truly deserves to be called one of the best seinen manga of all time. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue is based on the novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa and tells a romanticized version of the life of Musashi Miyamoto. It’s a fantastic samurai manga and one of the best seinen manga of all time.
At the beginning of the story we get to know a young man, Shinmen Takezou, who wants to become a great swordsman. He and his best friend Matahachi Honiden enlist as part of the Toyotomi army.
They barely make it out alive and after returning home, Takezo is declared a wanted criminal. After he’s caught, he’s strung up at a tree and left to die. He’s freed by a monk named Takuan Soho and given a new name, Musashi Miyamoto.
From here on, the manga details his life as he travels the land in pursuit of the sword to become ‘Invincible under the Heavens.’
The most prevalent is the art which is absolutely gorgeous and even among the best manga in terms of art, few can compare to Vagabond.
Vagabond is a samurai manga, so there are a lot of battles. All of them are stunning. They are brutal, gory and disturbing. Limbs and heads are cut off, guts are sent flying, and it’s all presented to us in gorgeous detail. This explicit content, however, is never glamorized and instead shown in an almost matter-of-factly fashion.
And yet, Vagabond isn’t solely about action. Many of the battles are more reliant of suspense and tension, about making the right move at the right time.
Vagabond’s art truly comes to shine in the design of its many characters. Each character in the manga is depicted in realistic detail and they are all unique to one another.
What makes Vagabond so enjoyable are its characters. Watching Musashi’s travels and seeing him battle various opponents is an absolute joy. Musashi is not the only character featured in this manga, though. There’s also Sasaki Koichiro, another great swordsman of the same era, and this manga is as much his story as that of Musashi.
As we follow Musashi’s and Koichiro’s story we also get to know a plethora of other character and almost all of them are similarly complex and interesting.
The most enjoyable part of Vagabond was the introspection we get about each of those characters. The manga gives us glimpses into all of them, their emotions, desires and fears, without ever painting them as good or evil. No, they are all just people living by the sword.
The storytelling in Vagabond is another thing I enjoyed immensely. While it’s the story of Musashi Miyamoto, long parts are dedicated to Koichiro and Matahachi. It makes the manga more refreshing and lets us get to know every character’s unique path.
One of the best things about Vagabond is Musashi’s development. While he starts out as a demon child who only wants to fight, he matures into a calm man, one questioning what it means to be invincible.
This also showcases in his battles. At first he’s nothing but a reckless use throwing himself into battles, but slowly turns into someone who picks his battles and uses finesse rather than raw strength to win. It’s fascinating to see him turn from a bloodthirsty and amoral warrior to one that’s philosophical. It’s one of the many reasons I consider Vagabond one of the best seinen manga out there.
Vagabond is great throughout the board, but the story can drag on a little. This is especially noticeable in one of its later arcs.
The spiritual and philosophical moments in the series are another problem. I usually enjoy the inclusion of these themes and many times it’s insightful and beautiful, but at others it can come up as pretentious.
Still, Vagabond is definitely one of the greatest accomplishments in manga history. It combines fascinating characters and character development with some of the best art I’ve ever seen.
I recommend Vagabond to anyone who’s interested in manga, even those who might not be fond of samurai culture or samurai manga. Vagabond is at the top of the entire medium and it’s clearly one of the best seinen manga of all time.
Keiichi Koike’s Ultra Heaven is a stunning piece of art and the most psychedelic manga I’ve ever read. It’s a manga unlike any I’ve read before and was an entirely unique experience.
Set in a dystopian future, it describes a world in which all feelings can be artificially created by the right type of drug.
Our protagonist Kabu is addicted to those drugs. Eventually, he stumbles upon a man who tells him of a new, illegal substance, one called Ultra Heaven.
From here on out, Kabu and the reader are in for the craziest, most creative trips I’ve ever read.
Dystopian societies are nothing new. Even the idea of artificially creating feelings via drugs is a concept seen before in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
The reason I consider Ultra Heaven one of the best seinen manga is not the setting or the story, but the art. The setting is gritty and detailed, characters look realistic and locations are detailed. Yet, where the art truly stands out is during trips, hallucination and mediation.
While manga panels are usually rectangular and organized, Ultra Heaven breaks those conventions. While Kabu’s having a trip or suffers from an altered mind, the shapes and panels are distorted and twisted to show the character’s mental state. Panels become twisting spirals and start running into one another, showcasing absolute chaos. It’s a surreal, almost disorienting feeling that shows perfectly what’s happening in the manga.
I’ve seen nothing similar and I don’t think there’s another manga out there that’s deconstructing the medium’s visual rules in a way similar to Ultra Heaven.
Ultra Heaven features a variety of themes, the most prevalent being consciousness and the transcendent to different states of mind or being.
At first, this is showcased by drugs, but later meditation is used similarly.
Ultra Heaven’s cast of characters, however, is limited. There’s our protagonist Kabu, who’s an addict and a small-time dealer trapped in his own world. The second main character is his female friend, a neo-hippie who uses technology to reach a higher state of consciousness.
Yet, Ultra Heaven has problems. Ultra Heaven doesn’t so much have a plot as it is a slice-of-life story about an addict.
The biggest problem, however, is that the manga seems to never have been finished. It comprises only three chapters, but those are longer than what one’s used to. A lot is condensed in those chapters, making following the plot confusing and overwhelming. It’s not that you don’t understand what’s happening, it’s that nothing is ever explained. This becomes even more prevalent in the last chapter that focuses on meditation. It’s almost as if we get a mere glimpse in this chaotic, strange world and are left with just that.
Yet, those things don’t make Ultra Heaven bad. I think this sort of presentation is exactly what Keiichi Koike wanted the manga to be. A wild, unrestrained ride down into one’s consciousness.
Ultra Heaven is without a doubt a visual and creative masterpiece and one of the greatest seinen manga ever made. It’s unfortunate that so few people know about it.
I’d recommend Ultra Heaven to anyone who’s interested in drug culture, strange visuals and manga who are weird and surreal.
Uzumaki by Junji Ito is one of the most famous horror manga of all time, a horror masterpiece and without a doubt one of the best seinen manga of all time.
Manga can be a strange medium and there are many disturbing and bizarre tales out there. Few, however, are as unique and weird as Uzumaki.
Uzumaki is a three volume epic and tells what happens in the small coastal town of Kurouzu-cho that’s infested by spirals.
Over the course of the story, our protagonists Shuuichi Saitou and Kirie Goshima stumble upon one freakishly scary incident after another, all involving spirals.
The very first chapter details how Shuuichi’s father’s obsession with spirals turns to madness. It ultimately comes to a terrifying conclusion which is presented to us in one of Uzumaki’s most popular pages.
What elevates Uzumaki above many other horror manga is not the story, but the art and creativity behind it.
Ito’s imagination is incredible and disturbing as he shows chapter after chapter. The inhabitants of Kurouzu-cho are warped and twisted into various spiral shapes, always with dire results.
While Ito’s art is always fantastic, he’s at his best in Uzumaki. His unique style helps to bring forth his dark imagination and presents the horror in ghastly detail.
The curse of the spiral is dire, and Ito is sure to present us with blood, gore and twisted bodies.
As always, Ito’s characters are presented as gloomy with over-exaggerated facial expressions when they experience true terror. This strange style of character presentation really helps to set the mood for the entire manga.
What makes Uzumaki one of the best seinen manga and helps it stand out so much, is the unique premise. Uzumaki isn’t a story about monsters, killers or even a feasible antagonist. There’s only a concept, the spiral that lingers over Kurouzu-cho and our protagonists as an omnipresent curse.
While Uzumaki has an overarching storyline, most of it is told in episodic fashion. The first volumes are an anthology of spiral-related incidents all witnessed by the same protagonists and happening in the same town.
In these chapters we encounter hair, snails, doomed lovers and even pregnancies all tainted by the curse of the spiral. Every single one of these incidents is unique and terrifying.
It’s only in the third volume that Ito brings the story together and drives the narrative to a conclusion as he reveals the true Lovecraftian nature of the curse.
Kirie is more a vessel to give us insight into the surreal hell of Kurouzu-cho than an actual character and thus her actions and her continued presence in town can appear strange and illogical.
The episodic nature of storytelling is another problem. In each chapter we get to know new characters and often they will be gone by the end. This makes it hard to get emotionally invested in them and ultimately makes their fate less impactful to the reader.
The third volume is weaker than the rest. Ito’s blend of horror works best when it’s left unexplained. It should be witnessed, but not necessarily understood. Uzumaki’s ending, while satisfying in its own right, ultimately weakens the manga a bit.
Uzumaki is a must for any horror fan out there. It’s one of the greatest accomplishments of the horror genre and one of the best seinen manga of all time. Ito’s type of storytelling and his characters might not be for everyone, but his art and creativity are outstanding. Uzumaki is definitely a must-read for any horror and seinen fan.
Tsutomu Nihei’s Blame! is one of the best seinen manga of all time and also one of my all-time favorites.
Blame! is a science-fiction, cyberpunk epic that follows Killy as he travels the City. He’s on a mission to find a human with net Terminal Genes. A person like this could gain access to the so-called Netsphere, a computerized control network. It would allow them to stop both the chaotic growth of the city and Safeguard who’s exterminating the remains of humanity.
Blame!’s most amazing aspects are the art and the world building.
The city is a technological and architectural wasteland, made up of mega-structures of mind-boggling proportions. The world showcased in Blame!’s many distant shots of Killy, barely visible amongst the backdrop, are epic in proportion. Tsutomu Nihei presents those to us in many huge panels and panel spreads. It gives off both a feeling of awe and one of disorientation.
Not only Blame!’s world stands out but also the various creatures populating it. There are cyborgs, the Safeguard, the Builders and various other technological and cybernetic horrors. All of them are unique and terrifying in their own right. The detail in which they are rendered is absolutely outstanding. I often caught myself being impressed by and staring at Nihei’s creations before I could read on.
In terms of art Blame! is one of the best, if not the best seinen manga I’ve read.
Blame! is full of action and it’s showcased in stunning detail. The action often features enormous explosions, but also intimate battles.
Yet, Blame! contrasts this action with the aforementioned calmer, somber shots of Killy traveling against the backdrop of the city.
The storytelling in Blame! differs from other manga. Dialogues are sparsely used and there’s rarely a semblance of a typical plot. Blame! much like other works by Nihei, uses visuals to convey a story.
Blame! comprises multiple acts, all connected by Killy’s overarching quest for a human with Net Terminal Genes. Each of these arcs is fantastic in their own right and features interesting characters and antagonists.
Because of this visual style of storytelling, Killy’s character can seem to lack compared to other protagonists. He’s a somber character who travels the city quietly until he meets Cibo, our second protagonist.
As we learn in the story’s course, we learn more about both of them, but this is less in terms of character development. Instead we get more details about who they are.
Blame! also has some problems. The action can often overwhelm, especially because of Killy’s Gravitational Beam Emitter. It’s a weapon that causes mass destruction, giant explosions and battles often descend into chaos.
The biggest problem with Blame! is the story. As I mentioned before, the story is more episodic, with each arc focusing on different pockets of humanity. It’s only the last arc that focuses fully on Killy’s quest and it’s here where things get confusing. Instead of a clear ending, we’re presented with yet another mystery to add to an already huge list.
While Blame! might lack in the story department, it’s worth reading for the art and world alone. It’s an outstanding, visual masterpiece and for that alone deserves to be called one of the greatest seinen manga of all time.
In terms of art and world building, there are very few manga that can compare to Blame! I highly recommend this manga to anyone, but especially to fans of science-fiction, technological horror and cyberpunk.
Kentaro Miura’s Berserk is probably the single best seinen manga of all time. It’s not just the art, the story, but the themes and narrative that make it stand out. Berserk is a dark fantasy manga featuring lots of action, gore, incredible manga design and two of the most complex characters in all of manga.
Berserk tells the story of Guts, the ‘Black Swordsman,’ on his quest for revenge against monsters known as apostles and the ominous man known as Griffith.
The manga might appear simple at first glance. Our protagonist Guts wields a giant sword and fights monsters and humans alike who get in his way.
That’s true for the first arc of the manga, the Black Swordsman arc. Before long, we learn more about Guts and we catch glimpses at what a complex and nuanced character he really is.
The Golden Age arc gives us more information about Guts and about his connection to Griffith. Both of them are incredibly complex and unique characters. While they differ from one another, they are both drawn to each other. Berserk does an amazing job showcasing, exploring, testing and ultimately severing their relationship.
Another thing I love is the dualism of these characters, their symbolism and how they appear to the people around them. Guts, our protagonist, is wearing mostly black and known as the Black Swordsman, while Griffith, the antagonist is shown in all white and appears almost angelic.
It’s these two characters and their relationship alone that puts Berserk above most other manga and already makes it one of the best seinen manga.
While Berserk starts off as a simple revenge story it becomes a much more personal narrative during the Golden Age arc. Yet, the longer Berserk continues, the grander it becomes. The story includes foreign invasions, Christian fanaticism and even magical creatures and powers.
Berserk’s world is cruel and dark place, one much darker than one would expect. War and atrocities are the norm and Miura isn’t shy to showcase them. We not only witness battles and war but also murder, rape, torture and senseless slaughter.
This violence and gore is always greatest when Guts is involved. We see him cut down anything in his path, be it humans, knights in full armor or monsters. Guts are flying, people are dismembered, decapitated or torn to pieces.
While Berserk is already outstanding in terms of characters and story, the main reason for its popularity is its art. Berserk almost transcends the medium, becoming less manga and more a piece of art. Few manga out there can compare to Berserk and you can often find more details in a single page of Berserk than entire chapters of other manga. For its detailed and outstanding art alone, Berserk deserves to be on this list of the best seinen manga of all time.
What I love the most is the monster design. Berserk’s apostles are absolutely gorgeous to look at in all their unique horror. They are beautiful, grotesque and disturbing.
The single biggest problem with Berserk is the release time. While the art of Berserk has improved throughout the years, the manga’s release has slowed down massively. Berserk was originally released at a pace of two volumes per year. In the last years though, there’s barely a handful of chapters a year. It’s a shame, especially considering that the story of Berserk isn’t nearly done.
Another problem is the quality of the first arc, especially during the first chapters. They simply don’t hold up to later parts of Berserk. Our anti-hero protagonist Guts is almost a villain himself and takes out apostles who are comically evil.
This, however, only serves to elevate the Golden Age arc even higher. Many fans consider it the high point of Berserk and one of the greatest arcs in manga history.
Berserk is nothing short of art. The manga gets dark, very dark, but it’s a masterfully told story. When Berserk is at its best, almost no other manga can compare.
During its first arc Berserk might not appear the masterpiece it is, but if you read on, you will be surprised by how good it is.
I can’t recommend Berserk enough and it truly is one of the greatest seinen manga of all time. Anyone who’s interested in dark fantasy, horror or manga should read Berserk. It’s at the peak of the medium and as good as it gets.
Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura is my favorite manga and, in my opinion, the best seinen manga of all time.
It’s an action-packed story in the guise of a samurai manga, but rarely explores themes of honor or samurai code.
It tells the story of Manji, the infamous ‘Hundred Men Killer.’ To punish him for his deeds, an eight-hundred-year-old nun, Yaobikuni, placed bloodworms in his body. This renders him immortal and able to heal almost any wound.
To atone for his crime and free himself from the curse of immortality, Manji resolves to kill one thousand evil men.
The story takes up steam when Manji meets Rin Asano, a sixteen-year-old girl, who asks him for help against the man who killed her parents.
This man’s name is Kagehisa Anotsu, and he’s the leader of the Itto-Ryu sword school.
Manji decides to travel with Rin in search of the members of the Itto-Ryu and Anotsu.
While Blade of the Immortal’s premise is simple, the plot gets more complex over time as new faction are introduced, but never strays far from a revenge story.
What truly solidified Blade of the Immortal as one of the best seinen manga of all time are its characters. Our protagonists Rin and Manji go through significant amounts of character development. Yet, they aren’t the only excellent characters in this manga. Blade of the Immortal features a wide cast of fantastic characters. Anotsu Kagehisa is without a doubt the most interesting character in the entire manga, but there are also Taito Magatsu, Makie Otono-Tachibana and of course, Shira.
We get to know these side-characters, learn more about their motifs and backgrounds and all of them receive the same amount of character development. Sometimes I even caught myself being more interested in certain side-characters than our protagonists.
The biggest testament to the manga’s greatness is the nonexistent distinction between good and evil. Everyone has their own circumstances, ideals and reasons to fight. Manji and Rin are our protagonists and this alone makes Kagehisa Anotsu the story’s antagonist.
However, there’s one exception. Blade of the Immortal features one of the craziest antagonists in seinen manga history.
What I also came to like about Blade of the Immortal are the depiction of female characters. Female characters are often relegated to the role of love interests and damsels in distress, not so in Blade of the Immortal. The manga features quite a few female warriors, especially Makie Otono-Tachibana and Hyakurin.
One can say that all characters are badass and look damn cool. There are minor side-characters in Blade of the Immortal whose backstory is more intense and interesting than other manga’s protagonists.
While the setting in Blade of Immortal is populated by samurai and ronin, it’s not your typical samurai manga. While other samurai manga focuses on such topics as samurai code, honor, or ponder philosophical questions, Blade of the Immortal is a raw, gritty and brutal revenge story.
Even more interesting is that characters seldom speak in samurai lingo. This is especially true for Manji and many of the Itto-Ruy members, who act and curse like contemporary street punks or gangsters.
Another point that makes this such an outstanding manga is the art. Blade of the Immortal is one of the absolute best manga in the arts department. While Hiroaki Samura’s style is gritty and sketchy, it’s also very detailed. Every character in this manga looks great and unique.
The world of Blade of the Immortal is beautiful and gives us a detailed view of traditional Japan.
The high point of the manga is, of course, the fights. Blade of the Immortal features some of the best fights I’ve ever seen. They are brutal. People are torn apart, massive amounts of blood are shed and limbs and guts are flying. Yet, the violence, with one exception, is never over the top, instead it serves to showcase the brutal nature of sword fights.
The action in Blade of the Immortal is easy to follow and never confusing. This, however, doesn’t mean that fights are simple or boring. They are some of the best and most intense I’ve ever seen.
Perhaps it might seem that Manji’s immortality might lower the stakes, but that’s not the case. It gives him an advantage, but it’s often one he needs to even have a chance of making it out alive.
The only flaw some people might have with Blade of the Immortal might be the place. The early chapters and volumes are arguably the manga’s weakest. Once Manji and Rin set out to take revenge, however, it’s almost flawless to ride until the end.
Nothing more needs to be said about this manga. Blade of the Immortal is one of the best seinen manga out there and one that will keep you engaged until the end. It stands out in terms of characters, character development and, of course, fights.
Blade of the Immortal is absolutely amazing and anyone interested in manga should check this masterpiece out.
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.
