Manga has become a global phenomenon, captivating readers with its diverse storytelling, rich characters, and stunning artwork. From action-packed adventures to heartfelt romances, Japanese manga offers something for everyone, shaping pop culture and inspiring countless adaptations in anime, film, and video games. In this article, we explore the 20 most popular Japanese manga of all time, highlighting their impact, fanbase, and why they continue to resonate with readers worldwide. Whether you're a seasoned manga fan or a newcomer looking for your next great read, this list will introduce you to some of the most influential and beloved series in manga history.
| Title | Author |
|---|---|
| One Piece | Eiichiro Oda |
| Dragon Ball | Akira Toriyama |
| One-Punch Man | ONE, Yusuke Murata |
| Attack on Titan | Hajime Isayama |
| Hunter x Hunter | Yoshihiro Togashi |
| The Cult of Death Note | Tsugumi Ohba |
| Vagabond | Takehiko Inoue |
| Naruto | Masashi Kishimoto |
| Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba | Koyoharu Gotouge |
| Oyasumi Punpun | Inio Asano |
| Slam Dunk | Takehiko Inoue |
| Berserk | Kentaro Miura |
| Uzumake | Junji Ito |
| Bleach | Tite Kubo |
| Case Closed | Gosho Aoyama |
| Rave Master | Hiro Mashima |
| Tokyo Ghoul | Sui Ishida |
| Jojo's Bizarre Adventure | Hirohiko Araki |
| Fullmetal Alchemist | Hiromu Arakawa |
| Fist of the North Star | Tetsuo Hara, Buronson |
1. One Piece, Eiichiro Oda
📆 Release Date: December 24, 1977
📚 Volumes: 110
Few and far between are those who have not heard of this work; after all, it is the best-selling manga of all time. Within the 92 manga volumes, we have been treated to the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a young pirate whose goal is to become the king of pirates by finding One Piece, the treasure left by the old king Gold D. Roger.
His secret weapon: he is completely elastic – a very handy way to battle against other pirates!
Luffy and his ever-growing band have fought their way into fandom by sheer persistence (it has been a staple of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine since 1992) and more than a bit intrigue: will he ever find that treasure?
No other Japanese cultural export treats us to this level of entertainment; quite possibly it could be considered the crown jewel of the genre.
2. Dragon Ball
📆 Release Date: April 26, 1989
📚 Volumes: 42
It would be impossible to discuss manga without mentioning Dragon Ball: one of the most renown and best-selling manga. The author of this masterpiece is Akira Toriyama.
Granted, it is a bit older, having enjoyed its Shonen Jump run between 1984 and 1995 but you can still purchase tankoban (books) in the series.
Dragon Balls: magic spheres capable of granting wishes. In Son Goku and Bulma’s world, such things are not that uncommon. The first tome introduces us to a number of friends as well as enemies that the protagonists defeat using their excellent martial arts skills and ‘ki’ or magic spells.
If the manga is well-known, the anime series must be a part of global collective consciousness.
The new series, Dragon Ball Super, premiered in 2015, much to the joy of anime fans the world over. Don’t just scout for the anime online though; head to your local bookstore or library to see if you can discover for yourself the joy and complexity of reading manga!
Once you get started, you will be delighted to know that there are more Dragon Ball adventures to embark on:
- Son Goku: childhood and fight against Piccolo
- The battle against the saiyans who have come to invade the Earth
- Rescuing planet Namek, which was colonised by Freeza
- The story of the Cyborgs and Cell’s tournament
- Fighting to save the world from a demon
Once you get started on these epics, you may just find yourself to be a super manga reader!
3. One-Punch Man
📆 Release Date: 2009
📚 Volumes: 32
This superhero manga by ONE has been a feature series on the free online manga magazine Tonari no Young Jump since the year 2009. It tells the story of Saitama who looks like a normal human being but is abnormally strong, knocking people out with just one mighty punch. The manga was adapted into an anime in 2015, and a second season came out in 2019.
4. Attack on Titan
📆 Release Date: September 9, 2009
📚 Volumes: 34
Attack on Titan is a 2009 comic by Hajime Isayama that's been serialised on the magazine Bessatsu Shonen and is ever popular.
It is a dark-fantasy manga that has been adapted into an anime as well with four seasons. The main characters of the story are Eren Yeager and Mikasa Ackerman who, along with the other Survey Corps members, fight the titans and try to figure what they are doing there.
5. Hunter x Hunter
📆 Release Date: March 1998
📚 Volumes: 38
Here again, a shining example of decades-long book publication in Shonen Jump and as volumes in their own right – 38 vol, to be exact... and still, the story goes on!
Two anime have been created based on Hunter; the more recent one is more true to the original story arc that the first effort.
Meet Gon, a spirited young boy who wants to become a hunter; an adventurer on sea and land because he wishes to find his father, who was one of the greatest hunters. Submitting to required examinations, Gon makes plenty of friends to follow him into adventure: Kirua, Kurapika et Leolio... and a frightful enemy: Hisoka.
This series creator, Yoshihiro Togashi is also known for Yu Yu Hakusho – another excellent manga. He caters to those who like a bit of humor with their tension and combat.
If that is you, you may have just found a manga to sink your teeth into!
6. The Cult of Death Note
📆 Release Date: December 1, 2003
📚 Volumes: 14
It may be a bit difficult, once you start travelling in manga circles, to meet someone who hasn’t read Death Note. This Shonen – which actually skates very close to Seinen, enjoyed a relatively short run but actually revolutionized the otaku world.
A passionate tale expressed through sublime artwork and a storyline that is as disturbing as it is enjoyable.
One day, Light Yagami finds a notebook titled Death Note, wherein one could inscribe names. Everyone whose name has been entered dies. So begins Light’s crusade, under the pseudonym Kira: he seeks out those he opines are unworthy of life, with an elite police squad on his trail, led by the mysterious detective L.
As though there weren’t enough intrigue built into the story itself, even the creator of the series is a mystery: Tsugumi Oba is a pseudonym for... who?
Is Light heroic or an anti-hero? Read all about the heroes of manga...
7. Vagabond
📆 Release Date: March 23, 1999
📚 Volumes: 37
Vagabond is a history-based manga released in 1999 but focusing on a Samurai teen with amazing sword skills (the famous Musashi Miyamoto). Author Takehiko Inoue began writing this manga in 1998 yet ceased from writing in 2015, leaving the series incomplete.
8. Naruto
📆 Release Date: 1999
📚 Volumes: 72
Is ramen your favorite meal? Do you like fighting and admire secret techniques? If that is you, then Naruto, the manga written by Masashi Kishimoto – the third-most popular in all the world, is meant for you.
Both the anime and manga have been ‘converted’ into further entertainment: card games, video games, full-length feature films that have generated a fortune in merchandise sales...
Naruto is a young ninja from Konoha, a small village. His dreams are anything but small: he wants to be the village chief. Unfortunately cursed, the villagers reject him.
He embarks on a series of (mis)adventures to prove his worth, gain acceptance and become the greatest ninja, accompanied by allies Sakura and Sasuke – along with ninjas from other lands.
Hope your reading skills are up to snuff; you have 72 volumes to catch up on. As for the anime, it’s only 220 episodes long!
9. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
📆 Release Date: August 6, 2003
📚 Volumes: 23
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of the top manga of our time and it has fans from all over the world, not just in Japan.
It was serialized on Weekly Shonen Jump in 2016, and ended its time in May 2020. At the time it was still incredibly popular.
The story is set in a fictional Japan during the Taisho period (early 1900s). The plot is that demons threaten human peace and so it is up to demo slayers to eliminate them. The main character is called Tanjiro Kamado and he makes the decision to fight with demons after his very own family falls fate of the dreaded demons.
The author of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba was orignally going to make the main characters, Tanjiro and Nezuko twins; however, he changed his mind and made Nezuko younger.
10. Oyasumi Punpun
📆 Release date: March 15, 2007
📚 Volumes: 13
Oyasumi Punpun is a drama manga serialized on Weekly Shonen Sunday back in 2007 and then on Big Comic Spirits from 2008. The comic by Inio Asano is created in an avant-garde style with 13 volumes about the reality of life, as lived by the unusual main character named Punpun and shaped like a chick.
11. Slam Dunk
📆 Release Date: October 1, 1990
📚 Volumes: 20
It's not too late to change ourselves and have a meaningful life.
Hanamichi Sakuragi
During it’s six-year run, this manga was overwhelmingly popular because it embraced a sports theme – something few mangas had ever done. Even more impressively: it is the first manga about basketball.
Hanamichi Sakuragi, a rebel in search of love, comes across beautiful Haruko, a girl mad for basketball. To impress her, he takes to the court even though he knows nothing of the game.
Between romance and the love of the game, this story presents a slice of secondary school life, full of athletic rivalry and comedy.
If sports is your game, you may want to dribble your way through all 20 volumes of this tale.
12. Berserk
📆 Release Date: August 25, 1989
📚 Volumes: 41
Beserk is a dark fantasy manga written by Kentaro Miura. The original manga was first published in 1989 and still lives on today, published on Young Animal. It stars Guts, the main character, a survivor of fictional medieval Europe who dons a large sword for protection. The series has been also made into an anime adaption as well as turned into games for fans.
It appeals to people in Japan but also to people in their million beyond because of its European theme.
13. Uzumaki
📆 Release Date: August 29, 1998
📚 Volumes: 3
Uzumaki is a late 1990s manga consisting of volume 1, 2 and 3, for Japanese and international fans alike with a great rating.
With a horror theme, the cursed fictional city of Kurouzu-cho is home to some strange supernatural activity, and it's up to main character Kirie Goshima and her boyfriend to explore it and be a hunter or slayer of supernatural demon.
14. Bleach
📆 Release Date: October 5, 2004
📚 Volumes: 74
With 74 volumes in the manga series and 366 anime episodes, Bleach manga enjoyed a long run of publication in Shonen Jump.
The story takes us to a world where shinigami, angels of death chase ‘hollows’ - corrupt human spirits, with the intent of sending them to Soul Paradise.
Rukia is shinigami but, following a difficult battle, she transfers her powers to Ichigo, a human (and the story’s protagonist).
This extended-run story involves several important characters, including:
- Ichigo Kurosaki, a big-hearted shinigami
- Rukia Kuchiki, the shinigami who conferred her powers onto Ichigo,
- Orihime Inoue, a human who has the power to heal and protect
- Yasutora Sado (Chad), a human with a superhuman arm
- Uryū Ishida, a quincy with a magic bow
- Kon, the comical sidekick with a soul squeezed into the body of a stuffed animal
For its frenzy of combat, reflections of justice and dark ambience, Bleach is not to be missed, either in anime or manga format.
You really need to understand manga as an art form to grasp all of its nuances. Learn everything you need to know about reading a manga book in our comprehensive guide!
15. Case Closed
📆 Release Date: January 8, 1996
📚 Volumes: 106
What is the Japanese equivalent to Sherlock Holmes? Few Japanese comics would tempt you to call off from work or school for a week just to get caught up on them; Case Closed is one of them.
Shinichi Kudo, a 17-year-old student with a fair measure of success as a detective is forced to swallow a toxin that will make him regress to childhood.
To lead the investigation into the ‘Black Organization’ who put this curse on him, he adopts the name Conan Edogawa and, to ‘disappear’ himself, takes up residence with Ran Mori and her father.
This serialized story, with sales in the millions, has been ranked the fourth bestselling manga of all time.
16. Rave Master
📆 Release Date: June 2004
📚 Volumes: 35
Rave Master is a 35 vol manga written by Hiro Mashima, famous for Fairy Tail. This particular title was serialized between 1999 and 2005 on Weekly Shonen Magazine and tells the story of main character and hero Haru Glory searching for missing pieces from a sacred stone called Rave.
This is a fantasy manga great for beginners.
17. Tokyo Ghoul
📆 Release Date: September 18, 2014
📚 Volumes: 14
Tokyo Ghoul is a modern manga, published in 2011 through to 2018 and was serialized for part of that period on Weekly Young Jump.
Dark fantasy in nature, this comic is set in Tokyo where so named ghouls roam around and live in society. They appear to be like humans but they are a slayer of the beings and actually feed on human flesh.
18. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
📆 Release Date: January 1, 1987
📚 Volumes: 136
So difficult is it to categorize this Japanese comic book series that, through the course of its long run, it moved from Shonen Jump to Ultra Jump – the seinen anthology.
Written and illustrated by author Hirohiko Araki, this manga has featured in Jump since 1986. That record of publication, along with its monumental 136 volume collection makes Jojo one of the greatest stories to reckon with in the history of manga.
The complexity of Jojo lies in the fact that it tells its tale of one family from many perspectives; every family member’s name is condensed down to Jojo and each Jojo follows their own story and action.
As of 2016, more than 100 million volumes of Jojo have been sold worldwide.
Have you too stepped into Jojo’s universe?
19. Fullmetal Alchemist
📆 Release Date: July 12, 2001
📚 Volumes: 27
No manga compilation or collection would be complete without the only manga to have never been published in Jump.
Fullmetal Alchemist is a fantasy/adventure story that very much recalls the Steampunk world.
Here we cast our lot with brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, whose mother had died. The characters attempted to bring her back to life through alchemy.
Their failure cost them dearly: Edward, an arm and a leg; Alphonse’s entire body vanished, leaving his soul trapped within his armour. Edward regained limbs, albeit made of metal – from which he derives his name. To fully understand the limits of alchemy in this story, you must understand the rules governing the practice:
Humanity may obtain nothing without giving something in return. For each receipt, there must be something of equal value lost. In alchemy, it is the fundamental law of equivalent exchange.
20. Fist of the North Star
📆 Release Date: September 13, 1983
📚 Volume: 27
Fist of the North Star is a 1980s manga published in Weekly Shonen Jump. It is set in a deserted world following the 1990s nuclear war.
It stars Kenshiro, the main character, who is the successor of an antiquated martial art of assassination named Hokuto Shinken, and the story is all about him battling with villains and surviving. Readers seem to rate this highly, so it's certainly one to add to your reading list.
Now that you have an expanded list of manga, you can start reading and learning Japanese as soon as today! Whether you choose to read manga in English or Japanese, a Superprof tutor can help you uncover the Japanese nuances and help you understand the culture behind the famous stories. It's now time to open your books and get started on your manga adventure today with Superprof!
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