Seinen manga are filled with some of the darkest, creepiest, and most beautiful art that the medium has to offer. The demographic caters to more mature audiences, meaning gratuitous violence, shocking body horror, and a deeper appreciation for the breathtaking scenery. There are hundreds of amazing seinen manga out there, and countless artists just waiting to be discovered, but this list focuses on the best of the best.
It takes a lot of skill to become a good manga artist. But it takes something truly special to be an all-time great one. These 10 mangakas frequently and consistently tell amazing stories that are emphasized by some of the best art available in manga. These are the 10 best seinen manga artists — it should go without saying, but if you haven’t read their works, go and read them as soon as you’re done with this list!
10) Junji Ito
No one does horror quite like Junji Ito. The cat-obsessed mangaka is behind some of the most acclaimed horror manga ever written, including Uzumaki (pictured above), Tomie, Sensor, and so many more. Junji Ito doesn’t necessarily have a unique art style, but it’s his expert use of the craft that makes him such an acclaimed mangaka.
Being a manga artist is about more than just being able to draw well. Of course, this is a major component, but an equally important component of drawing manga is pacing and paneling. This is what Ito uses so well to build tension and create effective jump scares in his stories. It is on his page turns that Ito then unveils a gruesome masterpiece.
9) Kentaro Miura
Kentaro Miura is, to many, the greatest seinen author of all time. Berserk is the acclaimed masterpiece that remains unfinished following his passing in 2021. To not include Miura on this list would be sacrilegious, and Berserk‘s gothic art, which inspired the likes of Dark Souls, always deserves appreciation.
The most beautiful quality of Miura’s artwork is the contrast in tone. He doesn’t use elaborate shading to make images seem lifelike. Instead, Berserk has great juxtaposition between light gaps and dark ink to create a harsh image that exemplifies Guts’ rage and the brutal world he inhabits.
8) Kensuke Nishida
How can you not be impressed by that panel above? Kensuke Nishida might be one of the most underrated seinen authors working today. Jagaaan is definitely his most lauded work, but I Am a Hero in Nagasaki is also a gorgeous read.
Jagaaan follows a police officer who has the strange ability to transform his hand into a disfigured weapon. The vibrancy with which Nishida is able to show off the weapon and its damage using just black and white is nothing short of masterful. He somehow makes the above panel feel as though it’s in neon.
7) Kamome Shirahama
There’s fine-line artwork, and then there’s Witch Hat Atelier. Kamome Shirahama is one of the more contemporary artists on this list, who is best known for Atelier (which will soon be getting an anime adaptation by BUG FILMS). Despite being newer to the world of manga, Shirahama has quickly made a name for herself as one of the best seinen artists around.
Witch Hat Atelier is a masterclass in fine-line art. The fantastical world features a simplistic magic system that incorporates art into its worldbuilding. The better a witch can draw, the more powerful their spells become. If Kamome Shirahama were a witch in that world, she’d have godly powers, given the beauty of the art she pens in the series.
6) Inio Asano
Only Inio Asano can make depression and extremely dark themes so beautiful. The acclaimed artist behind potentially the most depressing manga ever written, Goodnight Punpun, as well as Dead Dead Demons Dedede Destruction, Heroes, and Sun Village, doesn’t pull any punches with his realistic stories, and the beautiful art immerses the audience even further into his lifelike worlds.
Inio Asano’s works blend hand-drawn characters with traced backgrounds. The technique adds a further level of realism to his stories. Take Punpun, for example, a story where many of the supporting characters are drawn to be relatively realistic, juxtaposed by the cartoon bird that represents the eponymous Punpun. It’s unique, memorable, and stunning.
5) Naoki Urasawa
Naoki Urasawa is the legendary mangaka behind not one, not two, but three world-renowned series. The author of 20th Century Boys, Pluto, and Monster doesn’t just tell twisted and twisting stories; he backs them up with breathtaking panels.
One of Urasawa’s greatest strengths is knowing when to jump between a more cartoonish style and when to assault the eyes with brutal realism (like in the panel above). The hyper-real panels are sparse, but their rarity makes them even more effective.
4) Masasumi Kakizaki
Masasumi Kakizaki is one of the most unique manga artists working today. His works might not have blown up in the same way as the other artists on this list (although they definitely deserve to), but Kakizaki absolutely ranks as one of the best seinen manga artists around.
What makes Kakizaki stand out is the horrifying realism. His darkest works, like Hideout, Green Blood, and The Tree of Death, all feature horrifying panels, many of which feel a close to monochrome photography as an artist can get.
3) Shinichi Sakamoto
Shinichi Sakamoto has two major series under his belt. While they couldn’t be more different in terms of tone and genre, they’re both beautiful. #DRCL and The Climber are two of the most acclaimed seinen series, and it’s partly down to how Sakamoto captures psychology through art.
Take The Climber as an example. The series started off as a fairly bog-standard sports manga with some beautiful art. But, as the story progressed, Sakamoto dug deeper into Buntarou Mori’s psyche and brought his fears and loneliness to life in strange and stunning panels.
2) Tsutomu Nihei
Nobody draws landscapes like Tsutomu Nihei. His stories can be divisive, due to their interpretive nature, but no one can argue against Nihei’s artistic talents. Blame! and Knights of Cydonia are his two flagship series, and his ability to bring hard sci-fi elements, like mech suits and cyberpunk worlds, to life in realistic detail is second-to-none.
If you want a perfect showcase of Nihei’s artwork, please check out Blame! The series features very little dialogue, and lets the artwork take centre stage as Killy traverses through an ever-expanding cybernetic world to save humanity.
1) Takehiko Inoue
It was always going to be Takehiko Inoue in the top spot. Inoue was a decent artist when he first started writing Slam Dunk in 1990. Across the manga’s serialization, Inoue grew exponentially as an artist, and the contrast between the first and final chapters is astonishing.
But it’s Vagabond where his artwork truly shines. The fictional account of Miyamoto Musashi’s life is one of the most beautiful manga ever written, as Inoue uses his distinct style of drawing character portraits, blended with brutal landscapes, to great effect.
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