25. Masashi Tanaka - Gon
Masashi Tanaka, a Fine Arts graduate, found great success with his comic series based on a small tyrannosaurus called Gon. The comic series is at times violent, at times moving, but with exquisite attention to detail and an artistic style tending towards an exact representation of animals, together with beautiful backgrounds and the absence of dialogs or interjections. It results in a charming combination of caricature and realistic nature.
24. Katsuhiro Otomo - Akira
For many, Akira is considered the best manga ever written due to the modern style of its dialog, plot, and characters. It has received many awards for the best graphic fiction piece ever created.
Its creator, Katsuhiro Otomo, a fan of US cinema, published it in 1982. It received immediate success and became an epic piece, highlighted by its beautiful backgrounds and panoramic views.
23. Hiroya Oku - Gantz
Hiroya Oku created one of the best stories, combining science fiction and gory action. It is considered a visual artwork due to its technical mastery.
Hiroya Oku did a fantastic job of using 3D renders to create a uniform look for his world, without forgetting details. Not one stain or beheading clashes with the rest of the images.
22. Makoto Yukimura - Vinland Saga
A historical title where every strip brings something to the story. Makoto Yukimura created one of the goriest mangas, thanks to the highly realistic and precise battles depicted.
His weekly issues had to be changed to monthly to include the highest possible level of detail. The results are incredible and won him the Grand Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2009.
21. Junji Ito - Uzumaki
From an early age, Junji Ito was inspired by his older sister's drawings and Kazuo Umezu's comics, which spurred an interest in creating horror comics.
Uzumaki, like the rest of Junji's work, is wonderfully horrific. Terrifying yet fascinating, the images tell the stories and keep the reader in constant tension.
20. Yusuke Murata - One Punch Man
This is a comic action manga with detailed artistry, smart writing, and precise drawings. Murata is the pillar of the new generation of Japanese artists, thanks to his work with color, lines, and details.
His technique, character designs, and ease with which he combines his marks and the narration have brought him to collaborate with Capcom, Marvel, and Pokémon.
19. Asano Inio - Oyasumi Punpun
Asano Inio is acknowledged for his realistic stories spanning from the mundane to psychological horror. In 2001, he won the first prize in the GX competition for young manga artists.
The newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun described Asano as "one of the voices of his generation". Oyasumi PunPun is a story about adolescence and the somber reality of the transition to adulthood. His diverse aesthetics provide intense, realistic atmospheres and different emotions.
18. Kentaro Miura - Berserk
This is considered one of the five best mangas in history for its creativity, fascinating narrative, and artistic execution. This is a work of art in the Western world, both in its storyline and in the designs.
Its creator, Kentaro Miura, is trained in various inking techniques and is incredibly skilled in creating highly fluid, precise, and intense fight scenes. He uses crude shadowing techniques to add a surrealist feel to his work.
17. Hiroaki Samura - Blade of the Immortal
Hiroaki Samura is an expert in human anatomy, enabling him to draw unique and expressive postures and points of view. He is renowned for the attention he gives to hands and feet and his atmospheric backgrounds and landscapes, using pencil and ink shading.
Blade of the Immortal combines storyline and art, with a remarkable result of style, flow of action, and a perfect balance between the details and the atmosphere's simplicity.
16. Takehiko Inoue - Vagabond
Vagabond is considered a piece of art in motion, with beautiful surroundings, mixing intense beauty with a harsh aesthetic. The illustrator, Takehiko Inoue, is a well-respected mangaka, whose most famous work is Slam Dunk.
With Vagabond, however, he gained recognition for his detailed and realistic character designs, all utterly different from one another and characterized by excellently accomplished shapes, perspectives, and lines.
15. Blame!
Blame!, a post-apocalyptic science fiction manga from Tsutomu Nihei, follows protagonist Killy who wields a powerful weapon, the Gravitational Beam Emitter. The manga revolves around his search for "Net Terminal Gene," which allows humans to access the "Netsphere," or control network of the city.
The setting, called "The City," is styled in a gritty, cyberpunk environment with incredible detail. The illustrations of mechanized characters in The City are reminiscent of H.R. Giger and evoke a bleak, dark future as Killy seeks to prevent the increasing expansion of the "Megastructure."
14. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, created by Hirohiko Araki, is a stylish Manga adapted into a popular anime. The series blends reality with fantasy elements and revolves around the powerful Joestar family and their connection to the supernatural.
13. Pure Trance
Junko Mizuno's debut manga series, Pure Trance, features a distinct illustration style that's not only eye-catching but has a notably modern look.
The series is set in a post-World War III fictional future, where Earth has become inhospitable, forcing humanity to flee underground. To survive the post-apocalyptic world, the subterranean inhabitants rely on nutritional capsules, called "Pure Trance."
12. Phoenix
For many fans of the genre, Osamu Tezuka is affectionately referred to as the "Godfather of Manga," garnering global recognition for Astro Boy in the early 1950s, and is revered as a pioneer in the art form.
Phoenix, considered his magnum opus, captures his unique, intricate style in a series that spanned over 12 years, never receiving a conclusion due to Tezuka's death in 1989. The 12 volume series occurs throughout different time periods, allowing Tezuka to illustrate symbolic and highly stylized content.
11. Kokou No Hito
Kokou no Hito is the story of a solitary high school student, Mori Buntarō, who develops a deep interest in mountain climbing after transferring to a new school. The theme of climbing mountains throughout the manga represents Buntarō's coming of age, as he deals with isolation and depression.
The illustrations in Kokou no Hito encapsulate the conflicted and reclusive protagonist, with hyperrealistic designs blended with darker, abstract elements. Each panel draws the reader in, evoking feelings of solitude and beauty.
10. The Voynich Hotel
The Voynich Hotel, a horror-comedy manga created by Douman Seiman, takes place in a small hotel in Blefuscu, a small war-torn island. The story follows Kuzuki Taizou, a former Yakuza member, who travels to Blefuscu to escape a life of crime.
The hotel's eclectic villainous characters' diversity and uniqueness, including the owner who wears a wrestling mask from his former glory days, put Seiman's artistic skill in the spotlight. The style feels fresh and immersive while adding a comedic twist.
9. Gunnm (Battle Angel Alita)
Gunnm (Battle Angel Alita), created by Yukito Kishiro, has seen a resurgence in popularity, thanks to the release of a live-action adaption in 2019. Set in a dystopian future, the manga centers around the titular character, Alita, a cyborg with no memory of her past. Her partial body is discovered by Daisuke Ido, who rebuilds her and gives her the name Alita.
8. Dorohedoro
For manga readers looking for a dark fantasy action series with violent and incredibly detailed artistic illustrations, Dorohedoro is a great place to start. The manga, created by Q Hayashida, was recently adapted into an Anime and takes place in a post-apocalyptic future set in two different dimensions.
The two dimensions are vastly different, one set in a dreary city occupied by humans and the other inhabited by sorcerers who can travel between dimensions. Given the themes, the manga is understandably packed with gorgeous, intricate illustrations with a recognizable "rough sketch" feel, helping to set the series' tone.
7. Horror Collector
As its name suggests, Horror Collector is a fantasy-horror manga centered around two main characters, Evillice and Sin. Both protagonists' purpose for existing is to amass collections of two types of items; cursed items and items used for murder. The story follows Evillice and Sin and their particular obsession with an old doll, cursed by a woman who Evillice once loved.
The illustrations are hyper-stylized and have a gothic feel, with angular lines and slender, stretched proportions. Each panel is haunting and darkly romantic, capturing the essence of the overarching themes.
6. Homunculus
Homunculus is a psychological horror manga initially serialized in Big Comic Spirits and even had a live-action film adaption. The manga discusses "trepanation," the gruesome medical procedure of drilling a hole in one's skull. In Homunculus, many believe that trepanation is the key to unlocking psychic powers.
The protagonist, Susumu Nakoshi, a homeless man living out of his car, agrees to undergo trepanation for a large sum of money to get him back on his feet. The procedure results in Nakoshi's ability to see "homunculi" or humanoid creatures. The illustrations are dark and haunting, yet masterfully intricate and well-drawn.
5. Inuyashiki
After a pair of men, a teenager named Hiro Shishigami and a fifty-eight-year-old man named Ichiro Inuyashiki, are hit with an extraterrestrial explosion, their lives are forever changed. After discovering that their bodies have been altered with alien tech, the two branch down very different paths. As one becomes a homicidal sociopath, the other begins to use his abilities for the good other the people in his community. The art in this series is both beautiful and devasting, joyful, and sickening. Manga fans simply cannot afford to miss the art or the story of these two men on converging paths.
4. Goodnight Punpun
With Goodnight Punpun, artist Inio Asano tells the heartbreaking story of a young man, Onodera Punpun, as he goes from a young boy in elementary school to a young man in his twenties. There are no crazy interstellar fight scenes, no massive explosions, simply heartbreaking moments in a young man’s life punctuated by brief instances of happiness.
Though the writing is incredible, the art not only drives the story but pushes readers to experience the world of Punpun as more than just a story they’re reading. Goodnight Punpun is an experience that will stay in readers’ minds long after they close the final volume.
3. Akira
No list discussing incredible artwork in manga would be complete without Katsuhiro Otomo’s masterclass in manga artwork, Akira. Though Akira finished its final arc back in 1990, the series is still regularly ranked among the greatest works in manga history.
Otomo brilliantly illustrates not only some of the most massive and hauntingly beautiful scenes of carnage and destruction, but he regularly illustrates the painstaking work he’s willing to force on himself in order to remain in line with his artistic vision. Otomo crafts scenes, sometimes full splash pages, with masochistic attention to detail. Something that very few artists before or after have ever lived up to
2. Kakegurui
This is a gambling manga series, and it's a new take on the "magical high school" trope. Hyakkou Academy is a private school for the sons and daughters of Japan's elite business leaders, and these students are learning how to evaluate the odds and stake it all in gambling matches. Every day, it's double or nothing.
The manga's visual style is highly detailed and dynamic, and it uses outlandish and extreme facial expressions and character postures to add extra oomph to the gambling scenes and the characters' excitement. The students here are betting it all, and they'll make a lunatic face to match.
1. Tokyo Ghoul
The animated version of this seinen series can be a visual treat, but the true experience comes from Sui Ishida's original, 14-volume manga series of the same name. It's a horror-action series, and manga-ka Ishida made sure that fact was reflected in every panel.
As expected, the backgrounds are lushly detailed and realistic, and the characters are drawn elegantly but also a bit rough, to show the dual nature of humans and ghouls in the story. Generous use of shadows, jagged shapes, and maniacal expressions really bring the horror to life.