Manga

When it comes to manga, Dragon Ball is a classic. Written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama (1955-2024), Dragon Ball was first serialized in Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995. A long run due to the fact that it quickly became one of the most successful manga series of all time. A status cemented by the multiple adaptations into various anime series, movies, video games, and other media.

At first, the story of Dragon Ball tells the adventures of Goku, a pure-hearted, naive, and incredibly strong monkey-tailed boy martial artist, as he embarks on a quest for the mystical seven Dragon Balls, powerful artifacts that can summon Shenlong, a wish-granting dragon, when gathered together. Everything begins with Goku’s encounter with Bulma, a brilliant inventor who is searching for the Dragon Balls to fulfill her wish of obtaining a boyfriend. Together, they embark on a journey filled with battles against powerful foes, including the likes of Emperor Pilaf, the Red Ribbon Army, and the evil King Piccolo. Along the way, Goku trains under various martial arts masters, forms lifelong friendships, and faces increasingly formidable adversaries.

As the series progresses, Goku’s quest expands to include participation in various martial arts tournaments where he faces off against other skilled fighters from around the world. He also learns about his Saiyan heritage, a warrior race to which he belongs, and confronts powerful enemies like Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, and Majin Buu, who threaten not only Earth but the entire universe.

Beyond the first long-running series, Dragon Ball continued with other series like Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball SD, Dragon Ball Super, and more! Hundreds and hundreds of chapters of the manga were collected in a fairly notable amount of volumes published in America by Viz Media.

Read More »Dragon Ball Reading Order, Akira Toriyama’s Classic Series

Not far behind Demon Slayer in terms of sales, Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) is also one the best-selling manga series of all time. Launched in 2009, the manga had a modest beginning before being boosted by the popularity of the anime adaptation. Since then, it inspired five spin-off manga series, three light novel series, several visual novels and video games, and a two part live-action film.

Written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama, Attack on Titan is a Shōnen manga set in a post-apocalyptic world where the last remnants of humanity live in a kingdom surrounded by walls designed to protect them from a powerful race of man-eating giants known as Titans. Living in this dark world is Eren Yeager, a teenager who has vowed to exterminate the Titans after his hometown’s destruction and his mother’s death.

Exploring human persistence in the face of failure, trauma, loss, and death, Attack on Titan lasted 139 chapters, compiled into 34 volumes. The main manga series came to an end in 2021.

Read More »Attack on Titan Manga Order (with Before the Fall, No Regrets and more!)

For Christmas, my niece received as a present a volume of Fairy Tail: Happy’s Heroic Adventure. I read a few volumes of Fairy Tail myself, but I hadn’t realized the series inspired several manga! So I recently took a closer look at the franchise created by Hiro Mashima and discovered it was bigger than I thought…

But first… What is Fairy Tail about? Set in a world where magic is commonplace and wizard guilds exist, the story follows the adventures of Lucy Heartfilia, a Celestial Spirit Mage, who joins the Fairy Tail Guild and teams up with Natsu Dragneel, who is searching for the Dragon Igneel. What follows are many missions and adventures!

Created by Hiro Mashima, the shōnen started in 2006 and lasted 11 years, for a total of 63 volumes. But the adventures of Natsu, Lucy, and the other members of Fairy Tail proved to be quite popular and led naturally to an anime adaptation and two movies, but also several manga spin-offs, including a sequel still ongoing!

Read More »Fairy Tail Reading Order (including 100 Years Quest and other spin-offs)

The manga series Demon Slayer only started in 2016, but is already one of the best-selling manga series and has spun one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

Written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a Shōnen manga that follows Tanjiro Kamado, a young man on a quest to restore his young sister’s humanity after she was transformed into a demon and the rest of his family was slaughtered. For this purpose, he goes on rigorous training to become a Demon Slayer and join the Demon Slayer Corps.

Tanjiro’s story is now complete as the shōnen consists of 23 volumes, all released between 2016 and 2020. The Demon Slayer Universe has naturally expanded beyond the main manga, with light novels, spin-offs, and of course, an anime television series which is a smashing hit and still ongoing! There are also anime films and video games, per usual.

Read More »Demon Slayer Manga Order

Written and illustrated by Kōhei Horikoshi, My Hero Academia is a Japanese manga series that has been serialized since July 2014 and spawned a media franchise with several spin-off manga, light novels, stage plays, video games, an anime television series, and several animated films. Simply put, My Hero Academia is a big success, and one of the best-selling manga series of all time, even appearing on the New York Times bestseller list.

My Hero Academia is also a manga inspired by American comics and more precisely by superhero comic books. Mangaka Kōhei Horikoshi has never hidden his love for the superhero genre, particularly influenced by Marvel Comics with Spider-Man as his favorite character.

Set in a world where 80% of the world’s population has superpowers, known as “Quirks”, My Hero Academia follows the adventures of Izuku Midoriya, one of the few humans without a quirk who still dreams of becoming a hero. After an encounter with his idol, All Might, the world’s greatest hero, Izuku is chosen by All Might to inherit his Quirk “One For All” (which gives him the ability to stockpile his raw power and pass it on to others) and to become his successor. The young man then joins U.A. High School, the top Hero Academy in Japan.

Ten years after its launch, My Hero Academia concluded with the release of its 431st Chapter. The main manga series was collected in 42 tankōbon volumes with the final volume set to be released in 2025 by Viz Media.

Read More »My Hero Academia Reading Order (with Vigilantes, Team-Up Missions, School Briefs)

One of the most influential and popular seinen manga from the beginning of the 1990s, Gunnm also known as Battle Angel Alita is a cyberpunk series from Yukito Kishiro published initially in Japan between 1990 and 1995.

The story of Battle Angel Alita is a dystopia set in a future where a natural catastrophe caused by a meteorite colliding with the Earth has taken humanity to the brink of extinction. The world is then divided between Zalem, a suspended city reserved for an elite few, and Kuzutetsu, the land that serves as its “dumping ground”, where humanity survives in violence.

The story follows the rebirth of an amnesiac cyborg named Alita (or Gally if you are not reading the English version), as she searches for meaning in her life. Daisuke Ido, a bounty-hunting cybermedic expert, discovers her intact head and chest in suspended animation in the local garbage dump. Ido revives her and, upon discovering she has lost her memory, names her Alita after his recently departed cat.

Read More »Battle Angel Alita Manga Order

Almost 30 years ago, Pikachu was introduced to the world in the Japanese video games Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green. This was the start of what would become the gigantic Pokémon franchise, bigger than Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman or Spider-Man. Set in a world where people and animals known as Pokémon coexist, human trainers must run around and catch some Pokémon to then train them and engage them in battle where they gain experience and get stronger.

This simple, classic but effective concept spawned many video games, animated series, films, trading card games and, you guessed it, many many manga!

There are several Pokémon manga series out there, the most important one–and generally the one being referenced when someone is talking about the manga–is Pokémon Adventures. Launched in 1997, this is a manga adaptation of the Pokémon game series. As such, each manga arc (or chapter) corresponds to a specific game. Each story is set in a region that is introduced in the video game and focuses on different characters. The series is written by Hidenori Kusaka and was illustrated by Mato for the first nine volumes and has subsequently been illustrated by Satoshi Yamamoto.

Read More »Pokémon Adventures Manga Order, Read them All!

Welcome to Junji Ito’s World of Horror! Junji Ito, one of the best horror mangakas, has established himself as a renowned manga artist and gained a cult following for his works, which include Tomie, Uzumaki, Gyo, and The Enigma of Amigara Fault.

Reading Junji Ito is entering an unforgiving and irrational world that is dominated by phobias, obsessions, fears, and paranoia, with the every day turning bizarre. Junji Ito, influenced by artists such as Hidesho Hino, Shinichi Koga, and the Father of Cosmic Horror, H.P. Lovecraft, frequently has his characters deal with malevolent supernatural circumstances for no obvious reason or suffer excessive punishment for small offenses. He evokes beauty and terror and a sense of dread with powerful imagery.

Previously published by Dark Horse in America, Junji Ito’s works are now released by Viz Media, under the Viz Signature Imprint. Let’s enter the Ito-Verse!

Read More »Junji Ito: Your Reading Order to the Japanese horror manga artist