Top Noir Manga Recommendations

MONSTER

Also known as Monster.

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

Everyone faces uncertainty at some point in their lives. Even a brilliant surgeon like Kenzo Tenma is no exception. But there’s no way he could have known that his decision to stop chasing professional success and instead concentrate on his oath to save peoples’ lives would result in the birth of an abomination. The questions of good and evil now take on a terrifyingly real dimension.

Years later, in Germany during the tumultuous post-reunification period, middle-aged childless couples are being killed one after another. The serial killer’s identity is known. The reasons why he kills are not. Dr. Tenma sets out on a journey to find the killer’s twin sister, who may hold some clues to solving the enigma of the “Monster.”



Tags: Seinen , Conspiracy , Tragedy , Philosophy , Twins , Amnesia , Fugitive , Noir , Foreign , Male Protagonist , Memory Manipulation , Primarily Adult Cast , Historical , Detective , Ensemble Cast , Police , Medicine , Time Skip , Crossdressing , Suicide , Adoption , Achronological Order , Assassins , Torture , Gore

Hurejasik

Also known as Bastard.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Mystery , Psychological , Romance , Thriller

High school life is hard enough, but it’s even harder for Seon Jin. A sickly disabled boy, Jin might as well be invisible. No one ever pays attention to him, except for the bullies who prey on him for being weak. Jin, however, keeps a very dark secret—there’s a serial killer in his house…and it’s his father!



Note: Includes the prologue.

Tags: Crime , Tragedy , Male Protagonist , Gore , Bullying , Anti-Hero , Full Color , Coming of Age , Disability , Noir , Heterosexual , Delinquents , Suicide , Philosophy , Memory Manipulation , School , Assassins , Amnesia

PLUTO

Also known as Pluto.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mecha , Mystery , Psychological , Sci-Fi

In an ideal world where man and robots coexist, someone or something has destroyed the powerful Swiss robot Mont Blanc. Elsewhere a key figure in a robot rights group is murdered. The two incidents appear to be unrelated...except for one very conspicuous clue - the bodies of both victims have been fashioned into some sort of bizarre collage complete with makeshift horns placed by the victims' heads. Interpol assigns robot detective Gesicht to this most strange and complex case - and he eventually discovers that he too, as one of the seven great robots of the world, is one of the targets.



Tags: Seinen , Robots , Artificial Intelligence , Detective , Police , Tragedy , Urban Fantasy , Philosophy , Politics , Foreign , Anti-Hero , Memory Manipulation , Real Robot , Ensemble Cast , Amnesia , Conspiracy , War , Noir , Anachronism , Post-Apocalyptic , Male Protagonist , Cult , Suicide , Cyberpunk , Agender

Banana Fish

Also known as Banana Fish.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama

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 , Noir , Conspiracy , Drugs , Primarily Male Cast , Foreign , Primarily Adult Cast , Crime , Male Protagonist , Shoujo , Delinquents , Guns , Revenge , Urban , Adoption , Criminal Organization , Boys' Love , LGBTQ+ Themes , Politics , Bisexual , Cars , Police

Sanctuary

Also known as Sanctuary.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Thriller

Two young men vow to transform the destiny of Japan, by any means. As children, they survived the horrors of the Cambodian killing fields together. Now, can they topple the leaders of both the Japanese Parliament and the yakuza crime syndicate?

Although cold and calculating when need be, Hojo and Asami exemplify the traits their colleagues lack: loyalty to friends, compassion for the downtrodden...and an irresistible way with women.

Deputy Police Chief Ishihara sets out to expose their ingenious machinations, but instead falls helplessly in love with Hojo...

Tags: Yakuza , Politics , Seinen , Crime , Primarily Adult Cast , Urban , Noir , Nudity , Police , Tragedy , Triads , Gore

Dead Mount Death Play

Also known as Dead Mount Death Play.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Fantasy , Supernatural , Thriller

It's a showdown for the ages as the legendary hero takes on the corpse god necromancer, but when the dust settles, something isn't quite right... In the final moments of their epic confrontation, the corpse god's final gambit shot was wholly unexpected — reincarnation magic! Across space and time, a boy named Polka Shinoyama awakens feeling...not quite himself...... Who could've expected that the climactic battle between good and evil would turn out like this??

Note: Twentieth place of Tsugimanga 2020 Award in the Manga Category.

Tags: Urban Fantasy , Magic , Assassins , Police , Reincarnation , Gangs , Ensemble Cast , Necromancy , Seinen , Skeleton , Isekai , Noir , Ghost , Nudity , Zombie , Vampire , Exorcism

No Guns Life

Also known as No Guns Life.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Sci-Fi

When a fellow Extended showed up in Inui’s office—on the run from the Security Bureau with a kidnapped child in tow and asking for help—Inui almost throws the guy out. But Inui’s loyalty to a brother Extended makes him take the job. Keeping the child safe won’t be easy, since everyone wants him, from the mob to the megacorporation Berühren, which sends out a special agent who knows exactly how to deal with the Extended…



Tags: Seinen , Cyborg , Cyberpunk , Crime , Urban , Dystopian , Male Protagonist , Guns , Robots , Noir , Amnesia , Disability , Body Horror , Class Struggle

Old Boy

Also known as Old Boy.

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

Ten years ago, they took him in. He doesn't even know who. And for ten years, he has been confined in a private prison. He doesn't know why. For ten years, his only contact with the outside world has been a television set and the voices of his jail mates. In time, he lost himself. He changed...transformed himself into something else...something hard...something lethal. Suddenly, one day his incarceration ends, again without explanation. He is sedated, stuffed inside a trunk, and dumped in a park. When he awakes, he is free to reclaim what's left of his life...and what's left is revenge.



Includes an epilogue in the final volume.

Tags: Revenge , Noir , Crime , Urban , Suicide , Amnesia , Seinen , Bar , Fugitive , Male Protagonist , Memory Manipulation , School

Yuureitou

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Mystery , Romance , Supernatural

In the 1950s, an old woman was brutally murdered on the face of a clock tower by her adopted daughter. Two years later, the clock tower is known as the 'ghost tower' and it is supposedly haunted. Through an unusual series of events, a young NEET man named Amano Taichi is attacked by someone or something in the same clock tower, and finds himself bound to the clock face to be killed in the same way as the old woman. Luckily for Amano, he doesn't meet the same fate. He's rescued by a mysterious person who claims his name is Tetsuo.

Tags: Seinen , Noir , Transgender , Historical , Conspiracy , Tragedy , Crime , Detective , Male Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Anti-Hero , LGBTQ+ Themes , Crossdressing , Boys' Love , Body Horror , Bisexual , Body Swapping , Nudity , Adoption

Cowboy Bebop

Also known as Cowboy Bebop.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Comedy , Sci-Fi

Spike, Jet, Faye and Ed—cowboys on the new frontier. Together this band of interplanetary bounty hunters takes on the jobs that anyone in their right mind would turn down.



Tags: Space , Shoujo , Ensemble Cast , Crime , Guns , Tragedy , Primarily Adult Cast , Noir , Gambling , Philosophy , Cyborg , Cult

Canis: Dear Mr. Rain

Also known as Canis: Dear Mr. Rain.

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

Business is tough at men's haberdashery Dante. A big sale is coming, and they are extremely understaffed. So after getting chewed out by his staff a broken Satoru heads home to find a stray napping in the rain. Ryou isn't your standard American longhair, though. He is a mysterious nineteen-year-old with charisma, good looks and an air of someone with a past, despite their age. After a meal, a nap and a shower Ryou was ready to model for Satoru. But their contract was for just one day. And the reason why Ryou had to go was he had a meeting with the mafia.



Tags: Boys' Love , Primarily Adult Cast , Noir , Mafia , Age Gap , Crime , Gangs , Suicide , Fashion , Male Protagonist

Ningen Konchuuki

Also known as The Book of Human Insects.

Status: Finished
Genres: Psychological , Thriller

"Human Metamorphosis," a satirical Manga depicting human society compared to the insect world, focuses on the life of a devious woman. Tomura Toshiko, who is said to be a genius, is a rising star writer. Her novel wins the Akutagawa Prize for the best novel of the year. While she attends the award ceremony, another woman named Usuba Kageri commits suicide in another place. It turns out that Kageri and Toshiko used to live together, and the awarded novel was copied from Kageri's transcript. Toshiko is like a parasite: approaching talented people one after another, squeezing everything out of them and stealing their works for her own fame. Behind her success story, she has her secrets.

Tags: Anti-Hero , Revenge , Seinen , Psychosexual , Female Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Writing , Bisexual , Assassins , Male Harem , Nudity , Crime , Economics , Tragedy , Acting , Noir , Urban , Suicide , Yuri , Foreign

Private Opinion: Banana Fish Another Story

Also known as Private Opinion.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama

A collection of Banana Fish sidestories. Contains:

- Private Opinion
- Fly boy, in the sky
- Ura Banana

Tags: Shoujo , Male Protagonist , Primarily Male Cast , Foreign , Gangs , Mafia , Noir , Crime , Criminal Organization , Urban , Athletics , Photography , School Club , Rural , Delinquents , Anthology

Hae-Gu

Also known as Kill Me Now.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Romance

Hae-Gu, a proficient and merciless hitwoman, executes a man in front of his own daughter and takes the child under her wing. She decides to name her Mian, the word for "sorry" in Korean, and gives her one mission: "Kill me when you can." From that moment on, Mian decides that she will do this by choking Hae-Gu with feigned love and emotionally manipulating her into submission. But as Mian grows into an adult, she's thrown into confusion as what was supposed to be pure revenge turns into lust... and possibly real love. Meanwhile, Hae-Gu grapples with her own feelings for Mian while continuing to carry out life-threatening missions. Can Hae-Gu and Mian ever learn to truly love each other, or are they doomed to drown in their toxic cycle of violence and revenge?



Tags: Crime , Yuri , Age Gap , Nudity , Revenge , Fugitive , LGBTQ+ Themes , Assassins , Orphan , Female Protagonist , Noir , Yandere , Torture , Amnesia , Suicide , Drugs

Wet Moon

Status: Finished
Genres: Mystery , Romance , Thriller

The story takes place in the '60s, in a mysterious city where madness and lust seem to be the citizens' constant companions. A detective named Sada (with a "certain" wound) pursues a woman accused of murder.

Note: The French edition won the Prix Asie de l'ACBD in 2014.

Tags: Police , Amnesia , Seinen , Achronological Order , Noir

Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku

Also known as Magical Girl Raising Project.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Fantasy , Mahou Shoujo , Thriller

Sugar and spice--but not playing nice!

The hit smartphone game Magical Girl Raising Project is not only free, but one in tens of thousands of players will win real-life powers. In N City, sixteen of these lucky girls help the city's citizens--until upper management announces that each week, the least productive magical girl will lose her gifts. But this is no ordinary contest, and as the rules become increasingly sadistic, the competition to keep their powers becomes a vicious battle for the girls' very lives...



Tags: Magic , Battle Royale , Death Game , Noir , Tragedy , Primarily Female Cast , Survival , Urban Fantasy , Gore , Female Protagonist , Bisexual , Yuri , Memory Manipulation , Virtual World , Henshin , Terrorism

Taineun Jiogida

Also known as Hell is Other People.

Status: Finished
Genres: Horror , Psychological , Thriller

Jong-U Yun is a young man in his 20s who moves to Seoul and rents a cheap room in a run-down building because he is low on money. The place is dilapidated and the residents are creepy, but Jong-U decides to stay until he has enough money to move elsewhere. However, when mysterious events occur, Jong-U realizes that the residents may be more suspicious than they seemed.

(Sources: WEBTOONS, edited)

Tags: Survival , Denpa , Work , Male Protagonist , Anti-Hero , Primarily Adult Cast , Crime , Urban , Full Color , Noir , Cannibalism

Benkei in New York

Also known as Benkei in New York.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama

Manga doesn't get much more noir than this. Benkei is just another expatriate Japanese arist living in the Big Apple. Or so it appears. As there "diabolical hard-boiled stories" show, surfaces aren't always what they seem. Flashbacks delve into sordid, secret past lives, and old scored, long festering, emerge without warning, asking to be settled.

And Benkei's secret? Maybe it's just that he's the only artist in town who isn't having fantasies of being a hitman-for-hire. He is one.

Tags: Seinen , Male Protagonist , Foreign , Noir , Guns , Nudity , Drawing , Primarily Adult Cast

Canis: Dear Hatter

Also known as Canis: Dear Hatter.

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

After taking him in on that rainy day, the mysterious Ryo now lives with the mad hatter, Kutsuna. With his stellar staff's help, business has been booming. However, one fateful day, Kutsuna's rival and long-time friend Gotou informs him that he has been entered into New York Fashion Week. Initially Kutsuna was hesitant to travel, but over time he steels his resolve. Once in New York, Kutsuna encounters some of Ryou old acquaintances...



Tags: Boys' Love , Noir , Primarily Adult Cast , Age Gap , Fashion , Work , Mafia , Foreign

Area 51

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Fantasy , Mystery , Sci-Fi , Supernatural

In the American Area 51, there is a society where many varied supernatural creatures--kappa, vampires, aliens, gods and goddesses of various mythologies, mythological figures (like King Arthur), and more-- make their home. In addition to the non-humans, there's also a population of humans, people who can't live in the ordinary world for one reason or another. One of these people is Magoi Tokuko, commonly known as Makkoi, a tough woman who works cases with the help of her kappa associate, her deep knowledge of the area, and her pistol. In her office, which she's built in an unfinished subway station, she takes on all kinds of jobs (recovery of stolen goods, infiltration, etc.) from the many humans and non-humans who come to pay for her help.



Tags: Seinen , Gods , Noir , Youkai , Urban Fantasy , Mythology , Detective , Crime , Female Protagonist , Guns , Aliens , Foreign , Gore