Summary
- Noir manga explores moral gray areas, delving into dark human psyche with intricate plots and cynical characters.
- Unique blend of crime and mystery in manga series, like Old Boy, showcases twisted narratives and psychological depth.
- Cyberpunk genre in manga like No Guns Life tackles societal issues through action-packed, sci-fi storytelling.
The Noir style is hardly explored in the Japanese entertainment industry despite being an extremely interesting and intriguing one. This style of filmmaking is characterized by cynical characters, extensive plots, and a deep philosophy. It also delves into the darker corners of the human psyche and explores the murkiest depths of morality and society.
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Noir manga, inspired by the classic film genre of film noir, has etched its own unique identity in the world, reveling in the moral gray areas where incredible story elements keep readers on the edge of their seats. Here are some of the best noir manga series ever created.
10 Hard-boiled Stories From The Cat Bar
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.6 / 5
- Author: Yourei Ono
- Genre: Crime & Mystery
- Number Of Chapters: 7
Kitty and Me is a unique establishment that caters to specific people, battle-hardened men who hold an affection for cats. However, the rule governing the place states that the cherished cats that call it home shall remain unharmed. Grieving the recent loss of his cherished companion, Cheriko, Undertaker, a hitman, faces a huge problem.
His next assignment involves eliminating a target who shares his love for cats, incredibly complicating the task. As Undertaker grapples with his emotional turmoil, the grim truth of his latest mission steadily encroaches.
9 Benkei In New York
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.4 / 5
- Author/Illustrator: Jinpachi Mori/Jiro Taniguchi
- Genre: Crime Fiction
- Number Of Chapters: 7
Benkei In New York is a classic masterpiece by Jinpachi Mori, featuring a collection of short stories that follow the daily life of Benkei, a Japanese artist who moved to New York. However, he works as a hitman in his spare time and, as a result, is involved in a lot of crime featuring mafias and large drug rings.
The story as a whole has been described as ghoulish, with blood and death depicted in a maniacally calm fashion. The short story approach also helps tell the story in a better manner.
8 Old Boy
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.7 / 5
- Author/Illustrator: Garon Tsuchiya/Nobuaki Minegishi
- Genre: Action, Psychological, Thriller
- Number Of Chapters: 79
This is also a classic, but a much twisted one, fiddling with the mind and psyche of the protagonist and the reader. Shinichi Goto has ten years of his life taken from him when he is irrationally and illegally imprisoned without knowing the reason behind it.
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Placing him in solitary confinement degraded his sanity over the years, with only the thought of revenge keeping his sense of self intact. After his release, he began to hunt down those responsible for his predicament, and as it turns out, they aren’t done with him either.
7 No Guns Life
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.5 / 5
- Author/Illustrator: Jinpachi Mori/Jiro Taniguchi
- Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
- Number Of Chapters: 84
No Guns Life by Tasuku Karasuma is one of the few great cyberpunk manga one can come across. In a futuristic world where most human soldiers have become cyborgs called Extended. The resolution of a great war left most of them without a job, and as a result, they turned to crime to survive.
Inui Juzo decides to become a Resolver instead, tasked with solving problems caused by the Extended. However, when an Extended on the Run from the Security Burea breaks into his office with a boy and asks for help, he has no choice but to stand for one of his own.
6 Yuureitou
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.8 / 5
- Author: Nogizka Tarou
- Genre: Horror, Mystery
- Number Of Chapters: 80
Sometime in the 1950s, a chilling crime unfolded as an elderly woman met a brutal end on a clock tower’s face at the hands of her adopted daughter. Hence, two years after, the cock tower, once an architectural masterpiece was now widely known as a sinister place, christened the “ghost tower” and believed to be haunted.
A young man with no social life suddenly finds himself on the face of the tower, about to meet the same fate as the old woman. Still, thankfully a savior emerged from the shadows, identifying as Tetsuo, and intervened just in time to avert the grim destiny that awaited the young man and kickstart the story.
5 Akira
Anime-Planet Rating: 4.3 /5
- Author: Katsuhiro Otomo
- Genre: Gore
- Number Of Chapters: 120
This post-apocalyptic cyberpunk manga filled with politics is one of the mangas that paved the way for Japanese work to cross the language barrier, being one of the first works to be fully translated into English.
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Set in a Neo-Tokyo, the story revolves around a lot of characters, particularly Kaneda and his childhood friend who has enough power to destroy the city and awaken Akira, an old entity with immense psychic ability. This masterpiece pioneered the cyberpunk genre in anime and employed elements to highlight corruption and politics.
4 Sanctuary
Anime-Planet Rating: 4.1 / 5
- Author/Illustrator: Buronson/Ikagami Ryouichi
- Genre: Political Thriller
- Number Of Chapters: 108
This manga series by Sho Fumimura features Akira Hojo and Chiaki Asami, two close friends who decide to take opposite paths in life and promise to meet at the top. Due to their harsh upbringing, they are both tenacious people with survival instincts.
Akira chooses to become a Yakuza member while Asami takes up the challenge of becoming the youngest member in the legislative arm of the Japanese government. The series shows their rise to the top through several obstacles and development and caps it off with a sad ending.
3 Pluto
Anime-Planet Rating: 4.3 / 5
- Author/Illustrator: Urasawa Naoki/Tezuka Osamu
- Genre: Crime Fiction
- Number Of Chapters: 65
Based on one of the best manga of all time, Astro Boy, Pluto by Naoki Urasawa is one of the seinen manga artist’s best works. It follows the futuristic adventures of a Europol detective, Gesicht, in a world where robots and humans live side by side.
A series of murderers, which can be linked to hate crimes towards robots, have been committed, and the killer impaled the victims' heads in disturbing ways afterward. Gesicht, the humanoid robot, must challenge his past to find the killer and stop them if he is to preserve the International Robot Laws and save his friends.
2 Psycho-Pass
Anime-Planet Rating: 3.9 / 5
- Author/Illustrator: Hashino Saru
- Genre: Crime Fiction
- Number Of Chapters: 27
Psycho-Pass is also a dystopian cyberpunk series by Gen Urobochi that features Kane Tsunemori, a new Inspector who is assigned to Division One of the Public Safety Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division.
They are tasked with investigating and solving crimes in combination with latent criminals employed by the government known as Enforcers. Humans are judged according to a numeric Crime Coefficient that determines their likelihood of committing a crime. There is a very interesting dynamic between the Enforcers and the Inspectors.
1 Monster
Anime-Planet Rating: 4.5 / 5
- Author/Illustrator: Urasawa Naoki
- Genre: Drama, Mystery
- Number Of Chapters: 162
Naoki Urasawa’s masterpiece, Monster, is one of the most gruesome manga pieces of all time. It follows a great surgeon, Kenma Touzo, who chose to save the life of a young boy at the expense of a politician, a decision that changed his life forever.
Following that incident, he was introduced to darkness that claimed the lives of his colleagues and threatened to do the same to those around him. Kenzou lost his standing in the medical world too but slowly climbs his way back to the top through various circumstances and faces the consequences of his action.
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