# What is the most influential manga of all time?

> Sales charts and influence charts rarely agree. These are the series later artists actually copied.

*By YPB Team · Published September 5, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-most-influential-manga-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Astro Boy** — score 1000/1000
   Osamu Tezuka's 1952 series, the template for postwar manga and the industry that followed it.
2. **Dragon Ball** — score 763/1000
   Akira Toriyama's adventure-turned-fighting series, the blueprint for modern shonen battle structure.
3. **Fist of the North Star** — score 658/1000
   Buronson and Tetsuo Hara's postapocalyptic epic, which set the look of 1980s action manga.
4. **Akira** — score 625/1000
   Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk work, the book that made Western publishers take manga seriously.
5. **Death Note** — score 625/1000
   Ohba and Obata's thriller, proof that a mainstream Jump hit needed no fighting at all.
6. **Slam Dunk** — score 500/1000
   Takehiko Inoue's basketball series, credited with the sport's popularity across Japan.
7. **Attack on Titan** — score 500/1000
   Hajime Isayama's siege story, the 2010s series that pushed manga toward serialised prestige drama.
8. **Naruto** — score 500/1000
   Masashi Kishimoto's ninja series, the export that carried manga into Western bookshops in the 2000s.
9. **Sailor Moon** — score 500/1000
   Naoko Takeuchi's series, which built the magical-girl team format the genre still runs on.
10. **Golgo 13** — score 433/1000
   Takao Saito's assassin series, running since 1968 and the longest-running manga in print.
11. **Berserk** — score 269/1000
   Kentaro Miura's dark fantasy, the reference point for a generation of grim fantasy artists and games.
12. **Doraemon** — score 269/1000
   Fujiko F. Fujio's robot-cat series, a fixture of Japanese childhood and the country's soft-power mascot.
13. **Rose of Versailles** — score 269/1000
   Riyoko Ikeda's 1972 historical drama, the work that redefined what shojo manga could carry.
14. **Demon Slayer** — score 269/1000
   Koyoharu Gotouge's 23-volume series, which put 220 million copies into circulation in under a decade.
15. **One Piece** — score 269/1000
   Eiichiro Oda's pirate epic and the best-selling comic series by a single author.
16. **Ghost in the Shell** — score 167/1000
   Masamune Shirow's cyberpunk manga, whose ideas reached far beyond comics into film and philosophy.
17. **Lone Wolf and Cub** — score 167/1000
   Koike and Kojima's samurai series, an early crossover that reshaped American comics art.

Tags: books, japan, classics, manga