Highlights
- Some manga creators dare to break artistic conventions, like Crayon Shin-chan, with its minimalist art style that matches its simple premise.
- Dragon Ball Z’s famous spiky hair and muscular characters are what make it stand out, and the over-the-top action is its biggest draw.
- One-Punch Man’s unique art style switches between simple and detailed characters, capturing the humor and intensity of the story effectively.
Those who think of manga will undoubtedly summon forward images of what is generally assumed to be the standard style for manga: exaggerated eyes, spiky hair and bodies that may be a little too small to match their heads. While many manga may follow this style to a certain degree, there are some that dare to diverge from the expected.
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The mangaka behind these manga have their own unconventional style that offers something different, and normally without sacrificing a great story. Series such as Mob Psycho, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and One Punch Man are examples of popular manga that break artistic conventions.
8 Crayon Shin-Chan
Cutesy Minimilast Art
- Author: Yoshito Usui
- Release Year: 1990
- Genre: Slice Of Life/Comedy
Crayon Shin-chan is a charmingly adorable slice of life manga with plenty of laughs involved, following the daily life of five-year-old Shin-chan along with his parents, younger sister, pet dog, neighbors and his best friend. Those who are parents or older siblings know all too well the hijinks a five-year-old can get up to when left to their own devices, which mangaka Yoshito Usui exaggerated to hilarious effect.
Such a simple manga premise doesn’t need an overly complicated art style, and Usui delivers his simple yet charming manga in art to match. The characters and background are all drawn in a minimalist style that does the job of facilitating Shin-chan’s mischievous adventures.
7 Dragon Ball Z
Over The Top Muscles And Action
- Author: Akira Toriyama
- Release Year: 1988
- Genre: Action/Fantasy
Even those who have never picked up a manga or watched a single episode of an anime know what Dragon Ball Z is, and can probably even quote a few lines that have gained recognition outside its fanbase. Goku and company are some of the most famous characters of all time, and their Super Saiyan fights have become memes and jokes outside DBZ’s sphere of influence.
The art style of the manga is also famous, namely the spiky Saiyan hair that has been added as a cosmetic to many video games. The spiky hair and overtly muscular builds are what Akira Toriyama is known for, and Dragon Ball Z just wouldn’t be the same without it, nor without the over-the-top action that are the biggest draw of this manga.
6 One-Punch Man
Switches Between Minimal And Detailed Characters
- Author: One
- Release Year: 2009
- Genre: Action/Comedy
Those who are familiar with Mob Psycho 100 might recognize some similarities in his other works, such as One-Punch Man. As the title suggests, the manga tells the story of a super-hero who can defeat most of his enemies with a single punch, but wishes to find a foe who can match his strength.
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As the manga is drawn by One who is known for simple character designs, this is what readers can expect when reading the original self-published run of OPM, but what makes it more unique as MB100 is that when Saitama is going in to deliver his punch, his character becomes way more detailed. The shift from the simple and harmless looking Saitama to the frighteningly focused Saitama is done to hilarious effect, and has become a hallmark of the OPM franchise.
5 Mob Psycho 100
Minimal Character Design
- Author: One
- Release Year: 2012
- Genres: Action/Comedy/Supernatural
Though Mob Psycho 100 drew fans thanks to the fantastic anime adaptation, the manga is just as deserving as praise, perhaps even more so, as the anime would not exist without it. Mob Psycho tells the story of Mob, a high school boy with esper and psychic powers that are so immensely strong he must keep his emotions in check to stop himself from reaching 100%. He works part-time for Reigen, a con-men masquerading as a medium.
Mob’s ‘normal’ life is constantly upended by pesky spirits, and the story of Mob’s abnormal life has an equally abnormal art style. Some readers have over-critically referred to it as ‘ugly’, but in truth, One has a unique style of art he brought to this manga. His focus is more on the background, which appear more abstract and detailed when compared to the character design. But even with minimalist character design, each one looks distinct enough to be memorable.
4 JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
Unique Outfit Design And Muscular Heroes
- Author: Hirohiko Araki
- Release Year: 1987
- Genres: Action/Adventure/Supernatural
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a long-spanning manga series that initially debuted all the way back in the 80s, spanning a long-line of JoJo’s and serializing each of their bizarre adventures. In this manga series, there are chosen people who have a Stand, which is a unique power that takes the form of a humanoid-like creature or object that has combat prowess and unique abilities, all apart from the first two parts that deal with Hamon, a type of energy used in martial arts.
JoJo is as known for its zany and insane plots as it is for its unique art style, which depicts each Stand or Hamon user standing out from the crowd with their overly tall and buff appearance as well as the outfits they wear, which is a running gag among the community. The art style is perfect for the world and story of JoJo, as it is just as bizarre as the adventures readers will be taken on.
3 One Piece
Thin, Tall Characters
- Author: Eiichiro Oda
- Release Year: 1997
- Genre: Action/Adventure
One Piece is a world-famous and successful manga that has over 100 volumes to date in its vast library, with more to come. It follows the story of Luffy and his crew as they sail the high seas on a quest to find the treasure of legends called One Piece, which will raise his status to that of the King of Pirates.
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These high-sea sailing pirates are all drawn in Oda’s unique art style, resulting in characters that seem impossibly tall and slender, which may be off-putting at first, but when readers dive through a few more volumes, they soon can’t imagine the Straw Hat Pirates drawn any other way. Not only that, but each character’s face is drawn completely distinct from the others, showcasing Oda’s versatility.
2 Goodnight Punpun
Protagonist Drawn As A Bird
- Author: Inio Asano
- Release Year: 2007
- Genre: Coming Of Age/Slice Of Life
For those looking for something a bit more grounded and down to earth, Goodnight Punpun is the manga for them. It is a coming of age story for main character Onodera Punpun, following him from his childhood all the way through to his 20s. Readers get a look into his dysfunctional family, life goals, romance, and his friends and how he copes with everything. The manga doesn’t shy away from dealing with topics such as death, depression, and isolation, so it definitely is not for younger audiences.
The art style for Goodnight Punpun, while beautiful, is for the most part rather generic and expected of manga readers…until they look at Punpun. Rather than drawn as a person like the rest of the cast, Punpun is characterized as a sort of bird creature, with the body of a normal human and the face and head of a cartoonish bird. This was done to render him to a blank-slate character so readers could better identify with him.
1 Berserk
Pays Homage To Famed Artists
- Author: Kentarou Miura
- Release Year: 1989
- Genre: Dark Fantasy
Berserk may be one of the most infamous manga series of all time, with some very infamous scenes still branded into the minds of readers years later. In the dark fantasy world of swords and sorcery, Guts is a warrior with a dark past who has walked alone, garnering a fearsome reputation as a sellsword, eventually joining the Band of the Hawk mercenary group, headed by the dangerous Griffith.
Compared to most other manga, Berserk has the most detailed art style of all, said to be inspired by the likes of Devil May Cry, while paying homage to artists such as Bosch, Esher and Giger, illustrated in some of Berserk’s more unusual panels. The strangeness of Miura’s art and the darkness of the story are the perfect marriage that resulted in this fantastic manga series that every manga fan should read at least once.
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