Curated category
Shōnen manga
- The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can EnterIn January 2017, a user named Meguru Seto uploaded the first chapter of a fantasy story to Shōsetsuka ni Narō. This website allowed anyone to publish their…
- Super Dimension Fortress MacrossSuper Dimension Fortress Macross began its life in Japan in October 1982 with only three episodes completed. The show's creators at Studio Nue had spent…
- InuyashaInuyasha is a Japanese manga series created by Rumiko Takahashi, and it begins with a betrayal. In 1496 Japan, a priestess named Kikyo and a half-demon she…
- NarutoNaruto Uzumaki was born into a lie. On the night of his birth, his father, the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, sealed a monstrous nine-tailed fox called…
- DevilmanDevilman is the manga series by Go Nagai that sent a 16-year-old reader named Nanase Ohkawa into a state of shock she never forgot, and eventually led her to…
- Vinland Saga (manga)Vinland Saga is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Makoto Yukimura, and it begins with a boy who wants nothing more than to kill a man.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!Yu-Gi-Oh! began as a single question: what if a bullied teenager could become an invincible hero, not through strength, but through games?
- Fist of the North StarFist of the North Star opens with a single phrase that would eventually conquer the internet decades after anyone first read it: "You are already dead."…
- Astro BoyAstro Boy is a small android with jet engines in his feet, a machine gun hidden in his hips, and the ability to feel. Osamu Tezuka created him in 1952 for a…
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no YaibaDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba began its life in Weekly Shonen Jump on the 15th of February 2016 as a quiet manga about a charcoal-selling boy whose family…
- Jujutsu KaisenJujutsu Kaisen is a manga series written and illustrated by Gege Akutami that debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump on the 5th of March 2018, and went on to become…
- RWBYRWBY, pronounced "Ruby," launched on the 18th of July 2013, on the Rooster Teeth website, and it arrived with a question its creators never expected to face…
- Rurouni KenshinRurouni Kenshin opens on a man carrying a sword he has sworn never to use. It is 1878, the eleventh year of Japan's Meiji era, and Himura Kenshin wanders the…
- Black ButlerBlack Butler, the manga series written and illustrated by Yana Toboso, opens on a single night in Victorian-era London that changes everything.
- Attack on TitanAttack on Titan begins in the year 845, when two enormous humanoids punch through the outermost of three great circular walls and leave a boy named Eren…
- Fullmetal AlchemistFullmetal Alchemist began in a single magazine page published on the 12th of July 2001 in Monthly Shōnen Gangan, the monthly anthology put out by Square Enix.
- Bleach (manga)Bleach began with a drawing of a kimono. Tite Kubo, a manga artist whose previous series had just been cancelled, sat down with the image of a death god…
- DororoDororo begins with a bargain no father should ever make. A powerful daimyo named Kagemitsu Daigo strikes a pact with 48 demons, offering them anything they…
- Fate/stay nightFate/Stay Night began not as a game but as a story Kinoko Nasu wrote in college with no particular destination in mind. He only completed what would become…
- Speed RacerSpeed Racer began not as a television show, but as a comic book rooted in two films that captivated a young artist in Japan.
- Ashita no JoeAshita no Joe begins with a young drifter wandering through the San'ya slums, an encounter that will set in motion one of the most debated endings in manga…
- Dragon HalfDragon Half is a Japanese manga series that turns the conventions of fantasy adventure completely on their head. Written and illustrated by Ryūsuke Mita, it…
- KonoSubaKonoSuba begins with an embarrassing death, one so ill-timed that a goddess found it worth mentioning the moment she met Kazuma Satou.
- Tetsujin 28-goTetsujin 28-go arrived in 1956, the creation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama, and it asked a question that would echo through decades of Japanese popular culture: what…
- Tokyo RevengersIn 2017, a twenty-six-year-old part-time worker named Takemichi Hanagaki learns that his ex-girlfriend Hinata Tachibana has been murdered.
- Sakigake!! OtokojukuSakigake!! Otokojuku has sold over 26 million copies, yet outside Japan almost no one has heard of it. That single number places it among the best-selling…
- Claymore (manga)Claymore is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Norihiro Yagi, and it opens on a world where the line between human and monster is drawn in…
- Gurren LagannGurren Lagann opens underground, where humanity has forgotten the sky. A meek fourteen-year-old named Simon spends his days digging deeper into the earth…
- Shōnen mangaShōnen manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics that, by any measure, dominates the global comics market. In 1995, at the industry's peak, shōnen…
- Lucky Star (manga)Lucky Star began, in its creator's own words, as nothing special. Kagami Yoshimizu told Newtype USA in June 2005, "I don't really think my production process…
- Baccano!Baccano! begins on a ship called the Advenna Avis in 1711, where a group of alchemists summons a demon and walks away with eternal life.
- Cobra (manga)Cobra, the manga series by Buichi Terasawa, opens not with a hero striding across a starfield, but with an ordinary office worker named Johnson who is bored.
- Violence JackViolence Jack arrived in Weekly Shonen Magazine on the 22nd of July, 1973, and it arrived with a figure unlike anything manga readers had encountered.
- Blue ExorcistBlue Exorcist opens with a teenager pulling a sword from a scabbard - and discovering he is the son of Satan. Rin Okumura does not learn this quietly.
- Guin SagaGuin Saga began as a single novel in 1979 with a premise that sounds almost absurd: a warrior with no memory, no name, and a leopard mask magically fused to…
- Black CloverBlack Clover, the manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Tabata, opens with a premise that sounds almost like a joke: in a world where every person is…
- Bastard!!Bastard!! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kazushi Hagiwara, and it is named after its own irreverence.