As is the case across many industries, it should not come as a surprise that the field of manga has long been dominated by men writers. In fact, the literary world has historically been exclusive to men so much so that many women writers often published under a male-sounding alias. Today, although there are still too few women mangakas, their works continue to add new depths and layers to the manga genre.
While there have been recent global pushes for diversity and inclusion across the literary genre, pioneering women mangaka long broke the glass ceiling to produce some of the greatest stories of all time even when the world may not yet have created space for them.
10 Deadman Wonderland
Writer Jinsei Kataoka and illustrator Kazuma Kondou produced Deadman Wonderland in 2007 and it was published by Kadokawa Shoten until 2013.
Gorier than most shonen, the series follows Ganta Igarashi who is falsely accused of a school massacre and sentenced to execution at the Deadman Wonderland prison, which is really a theme park where the prisoners are forced to battle to the death.
Unfortunately, there are only 13 volumes of the manga and the anime was canceled before reaching the series’ conclusion but Deadman Wonderland is full of the superpowered humans and intense fight scenes that draw fans to the shonen category but perhaps a twist on the genre the strongest character is a childishly dangerous young woman.
9 Noragami
Noragami premiered in the January 2011 issue of the Kodansha Monthly Shonen Magazine and would become the 14th top-selling manga series in Japan in 2014. Noragami follows the story of a recently deceased middle school girl, a nameless god, and a live regalia who endeavor to take back the things they’ve lost but must face their pasts along the way.
The series was created by Adachitoka, which is the pen name (and a portmanteau) of its two female creators - Adachi who serves as the character artist, and Tokashiki who serves as the background artist. Amazingly, Noragami was the first original work of Adachitoka.
Noragami is still active today and Adachitoka’s run is going strong.
8 Blue Exorcist
First serialized in Jump Square in 2009, Kazue Kato’s breakout series Blue Exorcist follows the adventure Rin Okumura, the half-human twin son of Satan, who must use his demon powers to defeat the devil that created him.
Blue Exorcist sales topped 15 million copies and the seventh volume was the first and only Jump Square manga to reach one million copies. The series continues to publish today and there is also an adapted two-season anime series and an anime film.
In 2006, Kato also created the series Robot to Usakich, which won the Osamu Tezuka Award.
7 Ouran Highschool Host Club
Fans of modern anime are sure to have heard of Ouran Highschool Host Club. It is a romantic comedy and parody of otaku culture and the shojo genre that follows the relationships of students revolving around a popular host club.
Written and illustrated by Bisco Hatori, Ouran Highschool Host Club was serialized in Hakusensha’s LaLa magazine from 2002 to 2010. The manga was adapted into audio drama series, an anime television series, a Japanese drama series, a live-action film, and a visual novel.
Critics have characterized Ouran as a pioneer of the fujoshi anime genre predating the intense rise in the fandom of fujoshi merchandise, culture, and similar anime.
6 D. Gray-man
Serialized in 2004 by Weekly Shonen Jump, Katsura Hoshino’s D. Gray-man is one of Shueisha’s best sellers having sold over 25 million copies and appearing in weekly top-ten lists in both Japan and North America. Furthermore, in North America D. Gray-man was the best-selling shonen manga and manga overall from 2009-2010, and in France, it won the 2007 French Grand Prize for manga. This year, TV Asahi’s Manga Sosenkyo poll of the top 100 manga series saw D. Gray-man rank #95.
While D. Gray-man has changed publications several times and gone on hiatus, the stories of Allen Walker and the Black Order continue in Jump SQ. Rise The success of D. Gray-man has led to a spin-off novel series D.Gray-man: Reverse by Kaya Kizaki that explores the history of several characters.
5 Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
First serialized in the 2009 Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic is based on the stores from 1001 Arabian Nights and features many memorable tales such as that of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad the Sailor. Shinobu Ohtaka wrote and illustrated the successful series that would go on to sell over 25 million copies and win the award for best shonen manga at the 2014 Shogakukan Manga Awards.
Magi would be adapted into a two-season anime and spin-off series before the end of its publication in 2017. IGN ranked Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic as one of the best anime series of the 2020s and the manga earned the #75 spot on the 2021 TV Asahi 100 Most Popular Manga of all time poll.
4 Cardcaptor Sakura
In a tie for the earliest published manga on this list, Cardcaptor Sakura graced the world in 1996 eventually selling over 17 million copies and leading to an anime series, two films, video games, and even picture books and comics. Written by CLAMP, an all-female Japanese mangaka group, Cardcaptor Sakura transcended its shojo label reaching fandom in young boys and also young adults.
In 1999, it won the Animage Grand Prix award for Best Anime and in 2001, it won the Seiun Award for Best Manga. Clearly, ahead of its time, Cardcaptor Sakura continues to achieve critical acclaim decades later having placed 8th in the 2017 Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) 100 Best Anime of All Time poll and earning the #62 spot on the 2021 TV Asahi 100 Most Popular Manga of all time poll.
3 Black Butler
Written and illustrated by Yana Toboso, Black Butler was serialized in Square Enix’s Monthly GFantasy in 2006 and continues publication today! A commercial success, the series has sold over 28 million copies worldwide and has the #53 spot on the 2021 TV Asahi 100 Most Popular Manga of all time poll.
Black Butler has been adapted into three anime series, an original video animation that screened in Japanese theaters, a live-action film, and an animated film. The series follows thirteen-year-old crime-solver Ciel Phantomhive who contracts with a demon disguised as a butler to get revenge against his parent’s murderers in London’s underworld.
It seems the world is always eager for another English crime-solving protagonist.
2 Inuyasha
Mangaka Rumiko Takahashi wrote and illustrated Inuyasha, a story about a middle school girl from modern-day Tokyo and a half-demon, half-human warrior from Sengoku Era Japan who journey to recover the fragments of a sacred jewel before it falls into the ends of evil.
Inuyasha was serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday from 1996 to 2008 culminating in 56 volumes, two anime series, four feature films, an original video animation, a light novel, video games, and a sequel anime that recently aired in 2020.
Inuyasha sold over 50 million copies with manga volumes appearing various times in The New York Times' and Diamond Comic Distributors' top-selling lists in North America. It also won the 2002 Shogakukan Manga Award for shonen and ranks #28 on the 2021 TV Asahi top 100 manga of all time poll.
1 Fullmetal Alchemist
Arguably one of the best manga of all time, Fullmetal Alchemist has sold over 70 million volumes and is the 31st most selling manga of all time. Writer and illustrator Hiromu Arakawa produced Fullmetal Alchemist in 2001 and it was serialized in Monthly Shonen Gangan until 2010. Fans praised the show for its darker themes that grappled with philosophy and human nature.
In 2005, the English language release of the first volume was the top-selling graphic novel of the year in a cross-industry victory for the animated art form. The series won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shonen in 2004, the UK’s Eagle Award for manga in 2010 and 2011, the Seiun Award for best science fiction in 2011, and it ranked 3rd at the Tsutaya Comic Awards for All-Time Best in 2007.
Arakawa also won the New Artist Prize in the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2011. Fullmetal boasts #9 rank on the 2021 TV Asahi top 100 manga of all time poll.
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