Shōnen stories like Dragon Ball, My Hero Academia, and the like can be fun, but they can sometimes get old. Not every problem can be solved with a heavy punch, a power-up, and “MY FRIENDS!”. Seinen manga is aimed at teens and older readers and often tells stories with more mature themes and content.
It can cover many genres too, like fantasy (Berserk), sci-fi (Ghost in the Shell), or mystery thrillers (Erased). However, just as not every shōnen manga gets an anime, some seinen series get left behind on paper too. Whatever the reason for that, here are a few popular entries that currently haven’t been adapted to animation.
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Updated on July 20, 2024, by David Heath: In the time since this list was last updated, there hasn't been any fresh news. All the old entries here are still print-only, or have been adapted to anything but anime. There are still plenty of likely candidates, like Chōjin X and Spirit Circle, but there's always a chance a more left-field choice like The Old Frontier Knight Bard Loen or Solanin could get the nod.
This list has received a few more top seinen manga without anime adaptations, and it's been rearranged in order of MyAnimeList (MAL)scores. In addition to helping readers gauge the entries' qualities, they also show how popular seinen manga can be with readers. Perhaps it's because of its more mature focus, but their storytelling and art quality often come highly rated. This list's best choices are as close to MAL's perfect 10 score as they could be.
24 Maka-Maka
MyAnimeList Score: 7.19
- Written and illustrated by Torajirō Kishi.
- 2 Volumes, 24 Chapters.
- Originally published in English by Media Blasters.
As gentle as some stories can be, seinen manga can be mature in other ways. This list has plenty of domestic dramas, psychological horrors, violent action stories, etc. Maka-Maka instead tells an adult story without shying away from adult content, so to speak. Created by Torajirō Kishi for Pent-Japan Special, it's about two women who, despite their differences, develop a strong bond with each other.
Nene has a love of fashion and likes to socialize, yet she's also insecure and clingy. While Jun is a cocky artist who skips uni classes, smokes, and is a general delinquent. The two click over their shared interests and trust issues, but also in their contrasts, as Nene likes how forthright and independent Jun is, and Jun loves Nene's approach to creativity. It's a romance where the storytelling is as engaging as the scenes are titillating.
23 Chōjin X
MyAnimeList Score: 7.41
- Written and illustrated by Sui Ishida.
- 10+ Volumes, 52+ Chapters.
- Available in English via Viz Signature.
Tokyo Ghoul creator Sui Ishida's other original manga started in May 2021 and has had an irregular schedule on the Tonari no Young Jump website since then, alongside a brief run in Weekly Young Jump from the end of 2021 to early 2022. So, chances are Chōjin X's lack of anime is due to a lack of material at the moment. There are only five tankobons released, with three in English, and more chapters waiting for collection.
The Chōjin are super-powered humans who have destroyed much of Japan, including Yamato Prefecture, which leads Azuma and Tokio to try to make a living. When the two are cornered by a Chōjin, they try taking a drug to turn themselves into superhumans. While it doesn't work on Azuma, it does work on Tokio, who now has to learn how to use his powers against the other Chōjin while hiding them from his friends and family.
22 The Old Frontier Knight Bard Loen
MyAnimeList Score: 7.57
- Written by Shienbis.
- Illustrated by Morio Kikuishi.
- 10+ Volumes, 70+ Chapters
- Available in English via Kodansha USA & K Manga.
If Guts' journey is still ongoing in Berserk, The Old Frontier Knight Bard Loen follows a warrior whose journey is almost over. Bard Loen had developed a reputation as the People's Knight, helping others and serving the noble Tersia Family for years. They want to reward him with riches and prestige but, with no family of his own save his students, Bard decides to retire and go on one last journey, seeking a quiet place to take his final rest.
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Things aren't quite that simple, as new threats turn up to challenge the Tersias and their daughter Aidra, whom Bard helped raise from birth. So, his last journey ends up beginning the start of a new adventure. For people burnt out on flashy isekai tales, Bard Loen will be a relief. It has a little magic to spice things up, but it's otherwise a mature, touching tale with realistic sword battles and intriguing world-building.
21 I Am A Hero
MyAnimeList Score: 7.66
- Written and illustrated by Kengo Hanazawa.
- 22 Volumes, 264 Chapters.
- Available in English via Dark Horse Comics.
Drama is all well and good, but how about a horror story? Kengo Hanazawa’s I Am a Hero is about Hideo Suzuki, a 35-year-old manga assistant suffering from low self-esteem and hallucinations. He feels stuck in a rut with no place in the world, just as the world ends. Japan is struck by a viral outbreak that turns people into homicidal cannibals. With only a shotgun in his hands, Hideo tries to escape Tokyo and the zombie-like hordes.
He meets some uninfected people along the way and learns the hard way what it takes to survive. It’s kind of like The Walking Dead, but it goes further as the virus does more than turn people into zombies. The series ran from 2009 to 2017 in Big Comic Spirits and also had 3 spin-offs set in Osaka, Ibaraki, and Nagasaki. None of which became an anime. However, the prime series did become a live-action film in 2016.
20 All You Need is Kill
MyAnimeList Score: 7.76
- Light Novel Written by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and Illustrated by Yoshitoshi Abe.
- Adapted into a manga by Ryōsuke Takeuchi and Takeshi Obata.
- 2 Volumes, 17 Chapters.
- Available in English via Viz Media.
Hiroshi Sakurazaka and Yoshitoshi Abe's light novel All You Need is Kill has been adapted to nearly every medium except animation. Originally published in Super Dash Bunko in 2004, their work got turned into a manga by Moriarty the Patriot's Ryōsuke Takeuchi and Death Note's Takeshi Obata, a Western graphic novel by Nick Mamatas and Lee Ferguson, and a Tom Cruise action movie, as Edge of Tomorrow.
Inspired by an online gamer recounting how they restarted a game after dying to improve their play, Sakurazaka's story sees new United Defense Force soldier Keiji Kiriya die in a skirmish against alien invaders called Mimics. Except he then wakes up at the start of that day's events. Caught in a Groundhog Day-esque time loop, Keiji has to find a way to break the cycle and live beyond his first day in battle.
19 Blood On The Tracks
MyAnimeList Score: 7.98
- Written and illustrated by Shūzō Oshimi.
- 17 Volumes, 153 Chapters.
- Available in English via Vertical Comics.
Some fans might recognize this manga from SuperEyepatchWolf's YouTube video essay "The Manga That Breaks People." Others might recognize its creator, Shūzō Oshimi, as the one behind the equally grim Flowers of Evil manga. Whether it's one, the other, or both, people can expect Blood on the Tracks to be more chilling than its title lets on. All because Seiichi Osabe's ordinary life takes a turn for the worse when he goes on a family hiking trip.
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After his cousin Shigeru nearly knocks him off a cliff edge, his mother retorts by throwing him off a taller one when no one aside from Seiichi is looking. It becomes the first sign of a personality disorder that sees her become more obsessed with controlling her son under the guise of protection. The strip reached its climax on September 8th, 2023, so readers can now experience Seiichi's struggle from beginning to end.
18 Solanin
MyAnimeList Score: 8.21
- Written and illustrated by Inio Asano.
- 2 Volumes, 28 Chapters.
- Available in English via Viz Signature.
Solanin ran for a year in Weekly Young Sunday in 2005 and follows two university graduates wondering what to do with their lives. Meiko works as an Office Lady to pay off rent, while Taneda provides illustrations for a press company. Tired of the drudge, they take a chance on Taneda's band to break their routine and embark on a more exciting, unpredictable future...with disastrous results. Like most of Inio Asano's work, it never got turned into an anime.
However, it did get turned into a live-action movie in 2010. It was the breakout film for director Takahiro Miki, who managed to capture the strip's feelings of melancholy and frustration in a convincing fashion. So, perhaps an anime version of Solanin would feel redundant by comparison. Miki also directed live-action versions of Ao Haru Ride, Love Me, Love Me Not, and, curiously enough, Robert A. Heinlein's sci-fi novel The Door into Summer.
17 Eden: It's An Endless World!
MyAnimeList Score: 8.22
- Written and illustrated by Hiroki Endo.
- 18 Volumes, 127 Chapters.
- 14 Volumes were published in English by Dark Horse Comics.
Hiroki Endo's sci-fi story ran in Monthly Afternoon from 1997 to 2008 and most of it made it westwards via Dark Horse Comics. While fellow Monthly strips like Vinland Saga, Oh My Goddess! And even Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō got animated series and OVAs, Eden: It's an Endless World stayed in print and had to make do with critical acclaim from publications like Wizard magazine and Newtype USA.
That said, its premise fits modern times better than the 2000s. Eden takes place in a world that's been ravaged by the Closure Virus. 15% of humanity was killed off, and many more were left disfigured. Elijah Ballard is one of the few who are immune to the virus, and he has to grow up in a post-apocalyptic world where he has to oppose the multinational Propator Foundation and join mercenaries to save his family.
16 Shiori Experience: My Plain Self and an Odd Old Man
MyAnimeList Score: 8.40
- Written and illustrated by Yu-Ko Osada and Kazuya Machida.
- 22+ Volumes, 108+ Chapters.
- Fan Translations only.
One of the topics seinen manga often deals with is the failure of big dreams. It's something a lot of older readers can relate to, as they may have hoped to become star athletes, big-name actors, top scientists, etc., only to end up in a desk job, retail, or as a nameless researcher. Shiori Experience tells a similar story of Shiori, a young girl whose band looked promising, but had their dreams of performing live dashed when her brother ran off to Tokyo to go solo, leaving Shiori with his debt.
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A decade later, Shiori is now a teacher, still trying to pay off the rest of her brother's debt. But hope is not lost when she bumps into the ghost of Jimi Hendrix! With his help, Shiori's life is about to get more colorful and musical. He isn't the only music legend to turn up, as Shiori has also met the posthumous likes of Kurt Cobain, Prince, Janis Joplin, and Brian Jones, a founding member of the Rolling Stones.
15 Holyland
MyAnimeList Score: 8.45
- Written and illustrated by Kōji Mori.
- 18 Volumes, 182 Chapters.
- Fan Translations only.
If Our Dreams at Dusk is a little too sweet, this manga will give readers something with some edge. Kōji Mori’s Holyland ran in Young Animal, the same magazine that published Berserk, throughout the 2000s. Its lead character, Yū Kamishiro, is an outcast abused by his peers at school. Frustrated, he drops out and takes to the streets, where he feels more at home. There's something about the lawless brutality that clicks with him. He sharpens his fighting skills, particularly one boxing-style strike, and makes a name for himself as the ‘Thug Hunter’.
As he gets stronger with each beaten competitor, he feels he’s getting close to his peak: his ‘Holy Land’. The series never got turned into an anime. Yet it did become a live-action TV drama—twice. Once in Japan for 13 episodes in 2005, then in Korea in 2012 for 4 episodes. Mori is now in charge of Berserk, taking over for the late Kentaro Miura, so this would be a good strip for Berserk fans to check out to see how his storytelling compares.