Top Classic Literature Manga Recommendations

Vagabond

Also known as Vagabond.

Status: Hiatus
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama

At seventeen years of age, Miyamoto Musashi--still known by his childhood name, Shinmen Takezo--was a wild young brute just setting out along the way of the sword.

In the aftermath of the epic Battle of Sekigahara, Takezo finds himself a fugitive survivor on the losing side of the war. Takezo's vicious nature has made him an outcast even in his own village, and he is hunted down like an animal. At this crucial crossroads in Takezo's life, an eccentric monk and a childhood friend are the only ones who can help him find his way.



Tags: Swordplay , Seinen , Samurai , Historical , Philosophy , Travel , Coming of Age , Male Protagonist , Martial Arts , Tragedy , Survival , Cultivation , Biographical , Gore , Rural , Heterosexual , War , Outdoor Activities , Ghost , Agriculture , Classic Literature , Fugitive , Language Barrier , Nudity , Afterlife ,

Aku no Hana

Also known as The Flowers of Evil.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Romance

The story opens as middle school student Takao Kasuga receives an F on a math test. But he doesn't even seem to notice because he's too engrossed in surreptitiously reading Beaudelaire's The Flowers of Evil. And the day goes downhill from there. In a moment of weakness, he finds and takes home the gym clothes belonging to sweet, pretty Nanako Saeki on whom he has a major crush. Unfortunately for Takao, there's a witness to the theft: Nakamura, who has a huge chip on her shoulder and a sadistic streak.

As the saga unfolds, we see Takao struggling to decide whether to confess or cover up his misdeeds at the same time that he tries to win over the girl of his dreams, and avoid the blackmail attempts of Nakamura, his new ”BFF.”

Smart, funny, and emotionally engaging, The Flowers of Evil introduces a character who's not a hero, but just an ordinary teenager in search of true love and real friendship.



Note: Includes 1 extra chapter.

Tags: Coming of Age , Psychosexual , Philosophy , Denpa , Love Triangle , School , Rehabilitation , Classic Literature , Tragedy , Time Skip , Shounen , Male Protagonist , Sadism , Bullying , Suicide , Female Protagonist , Writing , Rural , Urban , Heterosexual , Blackmail , Nudity , Crossdressing

Bungou Stray Dogs

Also known as Bungo Stray Dogs.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Drama , Mystery , Supernatural

Having been kicked out of the orphanage, a despairing young man by the name of Atsushi Nakajima rescues a strange man from a suicide attempt--Osamu Dazai. Turns out that Dazai is part of an armed-detective agency staffed by individuals whose supernatural powers take on a literary bent!



Tags: Urban Fantasy , Detective , Super Power , Mafia , Crime , Male Protagonist , Classic Literature , Fugitive , Seinen , Primarily Male Cast , Gods , Tragedy , Work , Ensemble Cast , Primarily Adult Cast , Orphan , Anti-Hero , Philosophy , Terrorism , Conspiracy , Gore , Swordplay , Assassins , Found Family , Criminal Organization , Suicide , Vampire , Monster Boy , Police , Guns , Torture , Circus , Sadism , Time Manipulation , Tsundere , Shapeshifting , Animals

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e

Also known as Classroom of the Elite.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Slice of Life , Thriller

Students of the prestigious Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School are given remarkable freedom—if they can win, barter, or save enough points to work their way up the ranks! Ayanokoji Kiyotaka has landed at the bottom in the scorned Class D, where he meets Horikita Suzune, who’s determined to rise up the ladder to Class A. Can they beat the system in a school where cutthroat competition is the name of the game?



Includes Volumes: 4.5, 7.5, 11.5
Included Chapters: 14 Prologues, 13 Epilogues, 1 Extra

Tags: School , Primarily Teen Cast , Male Protagonist , Anti-Hero , Battle Royale , Ensemble Cast , Politics , Revenge , Fugitive , Survival , Heterosexual , Denpa , Coming of Age , Boarding School , Classic Literature , Conspiracy , School Club , Bullying , Disability , Athletics , Torture , Delinquents , Martial Arts , Rehabilitation , Tragedy , Love Triangle , Female Harem , Kuudere , Tsundere , Suicide , Board Game , Yandere , Teacher

Banana Fish

Also known as Banana Fish.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama , Psychological , Thriller

Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A runaway brought up as the adopted heir and sex toy of "Papa" Dino Golzine, Ash, now at the rebellious age of seventeen, forsakes the kingdom held out by the devil who raised him. But the hideous secret that drove Ash's older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into Papa's insatiably ambitious hands--and it's exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to make Ash Lynx's acquaintance...



Tags: Mafia , Tragedy , Gangs , Conspiracy , Noir , Drugs , Primarily Male Cast , Crime , Revenge , Criminal Organization , Ensemble Cast , Anti-Hero , Fugitive , Coming of Age , Shoujo , Delinquents , Urban , Foreign , Male Protagonist , Politics , Guns , Primarily Adult Cast , Adoption , Orphan , Tanned Skin , Assassins , LGBTQ+ Themes , Boys' Love , Police , Cars , Bisexual , Photography , Classic Literature , Heterosexual , Time Skip , Prison

Medaka Box

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Comedy , Ecchi , Romance

Kurokami Medaka, a first year, is elected as Student Council President, and the first thing she does is establish a suggestion box, later dubbed by students the "Medaka Box". Medaka encourages students to submit any problem to the box without hesitation and promises to take on any issue from anyone.

Since Medaka won the Student Council elections with a staggering 98% of the vote, she ends up as the Council's only member. She asks her childhood friend, Hitoyoshi Zenkichi, for help and he grudgingly agrees, becoming the Student Council's lowest ranking member. Soon Medaka recruits two more people to the Student Council, the former judo club member Akune Kouki as secretary and the current swim club member Kikaijima Mogana, on loan for 300 yen a day, as treasurer.

Now the Student Council members spend their days solving the problems submitted through the Medaka Box, whether they be hooligans in clubs where they don't belong, girls who need help writing love letters or people who've lost their pets, gradually earning the respect and admiration of the entire school.

Included chapters:
Volume 15 contains the gaiden "Good Loser Kumagawa" (グッドルーザー球磨川); Jump NEXT (2011/12/26)
Volume 22 contains the gaiden "Good Loser Kumagawa Final" (完結編).

Tags: Large Breasts , Coming of Age , School , Super Power , Shounen , Meta , Anti-Hero , Parody , Surreal Comedy , Female Protagonist , Satire , Martial Arts , Ensemble Cast , Afterlife , Chuunibyou , Male Protagonist , Yandere , Nudity , Primarily Teen Cast , Nekomimi , Assassins , Card Battle , Time Skip , Swordplay , LGBTQ+ Themes , Robots , Guns , Classic Literature , Swimming , Judo , Cyborg , Band , Idol , Incest

Yuukoku no Moriarty

Also known as Moriarty the Patriot.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Mystery , Psychological , Thriller

In the late 19th century, Great Britain rules over a quarter of the world. Nobles sit in their fancy homes in comfort and luxury, while the working class slaves away at their jobs. When young Albert James Moriarty’s upper-class family adopts two lower-class orphans, the cruelty the boys experience at his family’s hands cements Albert’s hatred of the nobility he was born into. He asks the older of the two boys—who has a genius mind and a killer instinct—to help him rid the world of evil, starting with Albert’s own family!



Tags: Historical , Anti-Hero , Crime , Foreign , Male Protagonist , Conspiracy , Detective , Primarily Adult Cast , Classic Literature , Politics , Gore , Suicide , Orphan , Primarily Male Cast , Class Struggle , Gender Bending , LGBTQ+ Themes , Found Family , Shounen , Transgender , Bisexual , Crossdressing , Urban

Ningen Shikkaku

Also known as No Longer Human.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Slice of Life

Set in modern day Tokyo, Dazai's tale details the life of a young man originally from a well-off family from Japan's far north. Yozo Oba is a troubled soul incapable of revealing his true self to others. A weak constitution and the lingering trauma from some abuse administered by a relative forces him to uphold a facade of hollow jocularity since high school. The series is composed of three parts, referred to in the novel as "memorandums," which chronicle the life of Oba from his teens to late twenties.



Adaptation of the original work of Dazai Osamu.

Tags: Seinen , Classic Literature , Suicide , Tragedy , Philosophy , Primarily Adult Cast , Drugs , Psychosexual , Nudity , Autobiographical

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e: 2-nensei-hen

Also known as Classroom of the Elite: Year 2.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Thriller

Students of the prestigious Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School are given remarkable freedom–if they can win, barter, or save enough points to work their way up the ranks! Ayanokouji Kiyotaka started at the bottom in the scorned Class D, where he met Horikita Suzune, who was determined to rise up the ladder to Class A. Who can beat the system in a school where cutthroat competition is the name of the game? The second year of this intense school drama begins now!



Includes Volumes: 4.5, 9.5, 12.5
Included Chapters: 15 Prologues and 15 Epilogues.

Tags: School , Male Protagonist , Anti-Hero , Ensemble Cast , Boarding School , Philosophy , Conspiracy , Heterosexual , Coming of Age , Survival , Primarily Teen Cast , Battle Royale , Politics , Fugitive , Bullying , Revenge , Classic Literature , Delinquents , Card Battle , Orphan , Seinen , Torture , Martial Arts , Disability , Dissociative Identities , School Club , Athletics , Tsundere , Calligraphy , Love Triangle , Kuudere , Female Harem , Suicide , Yandere , Maids , Tragedy

Ningen Shikkaku

Also known as No Longer Human.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Psychological

Mine has been a life of much shame.

I can’t even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.

Plagued by a maddening anxiety, the terrible disconnect between his own concept of happiness and the joy of the rest of the world, Yozo Oba plays the clown in his dissolute life, holding up a mask for those around him as he spirals ever downward, locked arm-in-arm with death.

Osamu Dazai’s immortal—and supposedly autobiographical—work of Japanese literature, is perfectly adapted here into a manga by Junji Itou. The imagery wrenches open the text of the novel one line at a time to sublimate Yozo’s mental landscape into something even more delicate and grotesque. This is the ultimate in art by Itou, proof that nothing can surpass the terror of the human psyche.



Tags: Tragedy , Philosophy , Classic Literature , Nudity , Seinen , Suicide , Biographical , Family Life , Primarily Adult Cast , Drugs , Body Horror , Urban Fantasy , Non-fiction

Gosu

Also known as GOSU.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Comedy , Supernatural

A young man set forth to avenge his master, a once powerful martial artist who was betrayed by his own men and barely escaped with his life. Armed with his master's supreme martial art techniques, he is ready to bring terror and wreak havoc among the murim. But before he even got started, he learns that the ones who had betrayed his master are already dead... Erm, so what happens now?

Tags: Martial Arts , Revenge , Primarily Male Cast , Full Color , Wuxia , Crossover , Assassins , Super Power , Classic Literature , Episodic , Ghost , Time Skip , Male Protagonist

Baraou no Souretsu

Also known as Requiem of the Rose King.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Supernatural

Richard, the ambitious third son of the House of York, believes he is cursed, damned from birth to eternal darkness. But is it truly fate that sets him on the path to personal destruction? Or his own tormented longings? Based on an early draft of Shakespeare's Richard III, Aya Kanno’s dark fantasy finds the man who could be king standing between worlds, between classes, between good and evil.



Tags: Historical , Classic Literature , War , Boys' Love , Tragedy , Mixed Gender Harem , Shoujo , Ghost , Foreign , Royal Affairs , Philosophy , Medieval , LGBTQ+ Themes , Bisexual , Revenge , Politics , Male Protagonist , Anti-Hero , Love Triangle , Age Gap , Nudity , Incest , Witch , Swordplay , Amnesia , Inseki , Time Skip , Transgender , Assassins , Cheating

Chang Ge Xing

Status: Hiatus
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama

Chang An in the Tang Dynasty of China (618-907): The demon star is passing through the sky, clamity is about to befall the Tang Dynasty - because of a woman.

The story is set in early Tang Dynasty, after the Xuanwu Gate Incident, in which Li Shimin the prince of Qin, killed the crown prince and usurped the throne soon after. It is under such background that our female protagonist set out to discard her former identities and seek revenge against the most powerful man in her world.

Note: This story was put on hiatus on March 2016. The author's contract with SUMMERZOO ended in Sept 2017 and she has since founded her own studio. Until she is able to get the rights back to Chang Ge Xing (and Zi Bu Yu), she won't continue publishing it, but she has promised and reassured that it lives on somehow.

Tags: Historical , Female Protagonist , War , Philosophy , Politics , Survival , Ancient China , Royal Affairs , Revenge , Conspiracy , Crossdressing , Foreign , Acting , Fugitive , Heterosexual , Swordplay , Age Gap , Classic Literature

Wo Zhen Bushi Xie Shen Zougou

Also known as I’m Really Not the Devil’s Lackey.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Fantasy , Horror

Lin Jie, who has transmigrated into this world, runs a bookshop. Nice and passionate, he always recommends books that are capable of healing one's soul to customers who find themselves in a rough patch in life. Occasionally, he would recommend his own work to them as well. Over time, these customers have grown to respect him a lot. They bring him some simple souvenirs every day to repay him and ask him for recommendations of literary works. At the same time, they tell the people around them about this bookstore owner as well. They have respectful and affectionate ways of addressing him-"The Devil's Hyena", "The Communicator of Flesh Gospel of Books", "The Author of the Corpse Ritual" and " The Star Shepard".



Tags: Urban Fantasy , Magic , Philosophy , Cosmic Horror , Classic Literature , Surreal Comedy , Witch , Isekai , Full Color , Male Protagonist , Religion , Fairy Tale , Steampunk , Rehabilitation , Gore , Shapeshifting , Cult , Elf , Adoption

Huo Feng Liao Yuan

Also known as The Ravages of Time.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama

Nearly 2000 years ago, the prosperous Han dynasty of China collapsed. Heroes rose and fell, and three nations emerged--Wei, Shu, and Wu. Historians refer to this period as the Three Kingdoms period. The romance of the three kingdoms is an intriguing tale of heroic deeds, of alliance forged and broken, of loyalty and betrayal.
Hong Kong artist Chan Mou retells this classic tale in "The Ravages of Time" from the perspective of the Sima clan, which in the end united the three kingdoms. Readers will be attracted by an array of well-developed characters and Chan Mou's own unique top-notch art-style.

Tags: Historical , War , Military , Ensemble Cast , Politics , Classic Literature , Ancient China , Martial Arts , Swordplay , Tragedy , Foreign , Wuxia , Crossdressing

#DRCL midnight children

Also known as #DRCL midnight children.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Horror , Mystery , Psychological , Supernatural

As Mina struggles to find her place as Whitby School’s first and only female student, a devilish horror is unleashed upon the academy and its unsuspecting students: Count Dracula. However, when this unspeakable evil lays claim to her beloved Lucy Westenra, Mina stands ready to join forces with her fellow students and fight against it with everything she has.

Loosely based on Bram Stoker's Dracula.



Notes:
- Nominated for the Eisner Awards in the Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Asia and the Best Adaptation From Another Medium category in 2024.
- Chapter count includes one extra chapter.

Tags: Vampire , Historical , Seinen , Cosmic Horror , Classic Literature , Urban Fantasy , Female Protagonist , Primarily Teen Cast , Foreign , Gore , LGBTQ+ Themes , School , Primarily Male Cast , Nudity , Dissociative Identities , Gender Bending , Tragedy

Hyouka

Also known as Hyouka.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Mystery , Slice of Life

Oreki Houtarou is an "energy-saver" kind of guy, who expends as little energy as possible to do only things he has to. When he starts high school, his older sister sends him a letter asking him to join the Classics Club. The club meant a lot to her, and its number of members has been reduced to zero.
Houtarou reluctantly signs up for the club, only to find that someone else has joined, too! She's Chitanda Eru, a cute, big-eyed girl with an overwhelming sense of curiosity. A mystery crops up that catches Eru's interest, and also draws in Houtarou's friend, Fukube Satoshi. They continue solving mundane mysteries together, and soon they draw in Satoshi and Houtarou's friend, Ibara Mayaka, as well. Mayaka has had a blatant crush on Satoshi since middle school, but he always fends off her advances. Together, they search for the truth in a mystery that involves the history of the Classics Club.

Tags: School , Shounen , Classic Literature , Male Protagonist , Detective , School Club , Primarily Teen Cast , Otaku Culture

Hyouka

Status: Finished
Genres: Mystery , Slice of Life

Oreki Houtarou is a self-proclaimed "energy-saver" - that is, he will not actively waste energy doing things that aren't necessary. Though he had no interest whatsoever in joining any clubs upon entering Kamiyama High School, he was commanded by his older sister Tomoe to enter the school's Classics Club, which was in danger of getting abolished as all previous members have graduated. Together with his old friends Fukube Satoshi and Ibara Mayaka, as well as the elegantly ladylike and curiously inquisitive Chitanda Eru, the newly reformed Classics Club find themselves involved in all sorts of mystery-solving escapades. Houtarou soon finds out that the Classics Club, as Tomoe has promised, is actually "quite interesting".

Note: Book one of the Koten-bu Series.

Tags: School Club , Coming of Age , School , Detective , Classic Literature , Ensemble Cast , Primarily Teen Cast , Male Protagonist

Zetsuen no Tempest

Also known as Blast of Tempest.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Mystery , Psychological

One day, a princess was stuffed into a barrel and washed ashore an island. One day, a young girl was unexpectedly killed, the culprit yet unidentified. Thus, one day, a battle wrapped in revenge and magic that transcends time and space had begun.

Tags: Magic , Time Manipulation , Urban Fantasy , Shounen , Ensemble Cast , Revenge , Classic Literature , Tragedy , Love Triangle

Are you Alice?

Also known as Are You Alice?.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Fantasy , Mystery , Psychological

After throwing away his dreams a boy wanders into "Wonderland" and he holds the name of "Alice" which is the primary requirement in the "Game to kill the White Rabbit". In a crazy story where common sense does not apply and everything is bound by the rules of the game and the orders of the Queen of Hearts, Alice decides to take the gun in his hand.



Tags: Josei , Classic Literature , Male Protagonist , Primarily Male Cast , Death Game