Kodansha's monthly has quietly housed samurai epics, gem people, figure skaters and otaku clubs, many of them cult classics long before any anime arrived.
1Vinland SagaMakoto Yukimura's Viking saga of revenge and pacifism, serialized in Afternoon from 2005 to 2025.1000pts
2MushishiYuki Urushibara's quiet supernatural anthology following Ginko, a wanderer who studies primordial life forms.795pts
3Blame!Tsutomu Nihei's near-wordless cyberpunk odyssey through an endless megastructure.664pts
4Spirit of WonderKenji Tsuruta's gentle retro-sci-fi short stories, starting with a Chinese restaurant owner and an eccentric inventor.605pts
5The Darwin IncidentShun Umezawa's thriller about a human-chimpanzee hybrid boy caught between society and animal-rights terrorism.605pts
6Land of the LustrousHaruko Ichikawa's strange, beautiful story of living gem people fighting moon raiders.537pts
7WandanceCoffee's street-dance manga about a stuttering boy who finds his voice through movement.537pts
8Mysterious Girlfriend XRiichi Ueshiba's offbeat romance about a girlfriend whose drool forms an odd emotional bond.537pts
9Skip and LoaferMisaki Takamatsu's warm high-school slice of life about a country girl starting over in Tokyo.454pts
10Big Windup!Asa Higuchi's long-running baseball manga about a timid pitcher and a brand-new high-school team.454pts
11Knights of SidoniaTsutomu Nihei's space-opera about a seed ship's pilots defending humanity from shapeshifting aliens.454pts
12Oh My Goddess!Kosuke Fujishima's 1988-2014 romantic comedy about a college student who accidentally summons a goddess.454pts
13Yakuza FianceAsuka Konishi's tense romance about the granddaughter of one yakuza boss engaged to the heir of another.454pts
14Yokohama Kaidashi KikouHitoshi Ashinano's serene slice of life about an android running a café as the world quietly winds down.353pts
15Blade of the ImmortalHiroaki Samura's blood-soaked samurai epic about a cursed swordsman who cannot die.353pts
16HistorieHitoshi Iwaaki's historical drama about Eumenes, the Greek scribe who became Alexander's secretary.353pts
17Heavenly DelusionMasakazu Ishiguro's post-apocalyptic mystery split between a ruined Japan and a walled facility of children.353pts
18Blue PeriodTsubasa Yamaguchi's coming-of-age story about a delinquent student who discovers painting and aims for art school.353pts
19MedalistTsurumaikada's figure-skating drama about a failed skater coaching a girl everyone else wrote off.353pts
20Gunsmith CatsKenichi Sonoda's Chicago action series about a gun-shop owner bounty hunter and her explosives-loving partner.353pts
21Little ForestDaisuke Igarashi's food-and-seasons manga about a young woman living off the land in a mountain village.0pts
22ParasyteHitoshi Iwaaki's body-horror classic about a teen whose right hand is taken over by an alien parasite.0pts
23GenshikenShimoku Kio's comedy about a university club of otaku and the friendships inside it.0pts
24Shadow StarMohiro Kitoh's Narutaru, a deceptively cute tale of girls and star-shaped creatures that turns brutal.0pts
25Wave, Listen to Me!Hiroaki Samura's comedy about a Sapporo woman whose drunken rant turns her into a late-night radio host.0pts
26Shion no OA shogi thriller about a mute girl prodigy hunting the man who murdered her parents.0pts
27MokkeTakatoshi Kumakura's tale of two sisters living with their grandfather and the spirits only they can see.0pts
28I Want to Hold Aono-kunUmi Shiina's horror romance in which a girl's dead boyfriend returns as a ghost she cannot safely touch.0pts
29Sora no ManimaniMako Kashiwagi's astronomy-club comedy about a bookish boy dragged into stargazing by his childhood friend.0pts
