We have discussed a lot of anime but we left out manga. So this list goes out to all the manga fans amongst our readers. This list features the top ten manga based on votes and number of views. No biases were involved while compiling the list so if we left any of your favorites out, please do not feel bad. You can still let us know about your favorites and opinions in the list. The manga name is followed by the original plot summary of the series. By the way, I heard that people who are die hard manga fans do not watch the respective anime. Is that true? Thank you ANN. Enjoy the read!
10. FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST
When two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric tried to revive their mother using Alchemy, something went drastically wrong. Edward lost his leg and his arm, and Alphonse lost his entire body. Now, a few years later, Edward becomes what’s known as a “State Alchemist” or a Nationally recognized Alchemist. Along with Alphonse, who’s spirit has been put into a metal suit of armor, and his Automail leg and arm, the two brothers set out to find a way to restore themselves.
9. AKIRA
In the year 2038. A police state, scheming politicians, religios sects, revolutionaries and a secret scientific project all combine to produce an explosive mixture in Neo-Tokyo. The rival groups all have their eyes on one prize: control of Akira, a boy of such destructive psychic ability that he has been held in cryo-stasis for over 30 years. A coup is planned, but there is a wild card in play: the psychic Tetsuo, an impetuous young biker who releases Akira and so forces all of the groups to make their move.
8. YOTSUBA
The Koiwai family, little Yotsuba and her father, have just moved to a new town. As their new neighbours get to know them, it becomes obvious that Yotsuba is one very weird little girl…
7. VAGABOND
Growing up in 17th century Sengoku era Japan, Shinmen Takezou is shunned by the local villagers as a devil child due to his wild and violent nature. Running away from home with a fellow boy at age 17, Takezou joins the Toyotomi army to fight the Tokugawa clan at the battle of Sekigahara. However, the Tokugawa win a crushing victory, leading to nearly three hundred years of Shogunate rule. Takezou and his friend manage to survive the battle, and afterwards swear to do great things with their lives. But after their paths seperate, Takezou becomes a wanted criminal, and must change his name and his nature in order to escape an ignoble death. Based on the book “Musashi” by Eiji Yoshikawa, Vagabond is a fictional retelling of the life of Miyamoto Mushashi, often referred to as the “Sword Saint” – perhaps the most famous and successful of Japan’s sword fighters.
6. 20TH CENTURY BOYS
Kenji and his friends start to notice a series of odd occurences related to their childhood. A mysterious cult-leader named “friend” is out to destroy the world, and it has something to do with Kenji’s childhood memories.
5. VINLAND SAGA
Thorfinn is son to one of the Viking’s greatest warriors, but when his father is killed in battle by the mercenary leader Askeladd, he swears his intent to have revenge. Thorfinn joins Askeladd’s group in order to challenge him to a duel, and ends up caught in the middle of a war for the crown of England.
4. YOKOHAMA KAIDASHI KIKOU
Set in a post-apocalyptic Japan of the near future where the sea level has risen and flooded much of the coastal areas and Mt. Fuji has erupted within living memory. The population has been considerably reduced and political and technological institutions have broken-down. Local communities have become nations and telephone and television no longer exist (although coffee vending machines and streetlights stubbornly continue to work). There are strange new animals and plants (like flying fish and glowing streetlight trees). The remaining people have adopted a slower-paced, simpler way of life and rely more on each other. Along with the human population are some intelligent, humanoid robots. One of the robots, a female named Alpha, runs a café by the same name in the country outside of what remains of Yokohama. With her trusty motorscooter and her camera she travels around the area making friends with the humans and robots, having new experiences and observing the passage of time.
3. NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND
A millennium has passed since “Seven Days of Fire,” an apocalyptic war that almost wiped out human civilization. Since then, the earth is covered with an ever-growing “Sea of Corruption,” a vast forest of fungi that secretes poisonous miasma and invasive spores, along with large and deadly insects inhabit within. In order to fight for more habitable lands unpolluted by the Sea of Corruption, the Kingdom of Torumekia has declared war against the Dorok Empire. Nausicaä, princess and heir of a small city-state named “Valley of the Wind” which pledged alliance with Torumekia, is now forced to join Torumekian to invade Dorok Empire. This war will change her life and the fate of human race forever.
2. MONSTER
When a Doctor makes the highly controversial decision to save a boy’s life over the mayor’s, it leads to the loss of almost everything he holds dear; his fiancé, his career, his social standing. The only thing he keeps is his own feeling of self-worth, knowing that he did the right thing in saving the boy, who came in first. Yet even that is threatened when he begins to learn that nothing is as it originally appeared. A trail of bloodshed pointing to the seemingly innocent child leaves him questioning even his beliefs. Whether, in the end, all lives are ever truly equal.
1. BERSERK
Guts, the Black Swordsman, wanders around in a mediaeval world slaying demons as they are attracted to a demonic mark on his neck. To his help he has inhuman strength gained from a harsh childhood lived with mercenaries, a gigantic sword, an iron prosthetic left hand and the elf Puck. In his search for vengeance on the one who gave him the mark, he meets many interesting persons and creatures, whom all is affected by him in one way or another.