The Essential Manga Guide: 50 Series Every Manga Fan Should Know

by Briana Lawrence

Dive into the world of manga and discover 50 of the most influential and essential series and standalone titles—from Boys Run the Riot  to Chainsaw Man to Sailor Moon —with this must-have guide for manga fans by Crunchyroll senior editor Briana Lawrence.

With profiles on 50 unforgettable series and ground-breaking single volume stories written by an expert in the anime and manga field, The Essential Manga Guide provides a comprehensive, behind-the-scenes look into the history and growing legacy of manga. Both casual fans and serious otaku alike will discover an entertaining and personal look at the impact of these outstanding manga titles and their authors, as well as great recommendations of what to read next.

From classic series to contemporary favorites, this guide  

Genres: Manga

256 pages, Paperback

Published June 11, 2024

About the author

At the age of nine, like most kids, Briana Lawrence had a dream. She wanted to be the best “WRITTER” in the whole wide world. Her fourth grade class laughed and wondered how one hoped to become a “writer” if they couldn’t even spell the word. Back then her stories were created with crayons and construction paper. As she grew older they progressed into notebooks and colored ink pens of pink, blue, and purple. When she lost her older brother, Glenn Berry, in a car accident, she stopped writing.

Dreams, however, have a funny way of coming back.

Before she realized it she was grabbing her notebook and pens again. She would write stories that ranged from high school romance to her imagination running wild with the likes of Goku, Vegeta, and the other characters of Dragonball Z. This continued throughout college where she would always end up writing about the space exploits of the pilots of Gundam Wing and other works of fan fiction. Soon she realized that she wanted to do more than that. Her head was full of ideas, full of original characters and worlds that she wanted to share with others.

Thus, she stepped into an English Major with some Women’s Studies on the side.

She graduated Iowa State University in 2006 and moved to Minneapolis with her partner. Here, she tried to get into graduate school, but things didn’t pan out the way she wanted. She ended up working retail, her dream becoming buried by Black Fridays and other busy times of year. Once again, however, that dream returned. She went from immersing herself in geeky fan fiction to actually writing about the geeky things she loved for several anime and video game review sites. However, it was her discovery of National Novel Writing Month that made her go back to creating her own characters and plots.

Now, here she is, an author in the writing world.

Reviews

[Sarah Ryder · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel the title is very misleading as most of these are only going to be “essential” for some. Many of the titles listed I’d either heard of or tried while others I hadn’t at all. And while I added a few to my TBR, there weren’t as many as I’d hoped which was disappointing.

And if you’re like me and not into reading about gay romances or books eluding to those types of relationships and themes, then this book isn’t going to be helpful as a good majority of the titles recommended are those types of stories. There were also several agenda driven type comments throughout that I don’t think need to be in a manga recommendation book, but that’s just me.

Ultimately not very helpful in what I was hoping it would be.

[Caleb Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a pretty disappointing book. The author eschews traditional encyclopedia entries or attempting to give readers a foundation of influential and important manga series. Instead, she largely focuses on manga that she has enjoyed - that’s not a bad thing, but I would have been better prepared if this book was titled “50 manga I Enjoyed as a Black, Gay Woman” rather than “50 Series Every Manga Fan Should Know.”

Some examples that felt crazy to me: nothing by Osamu Tezuka, Naoki Urasawa, or Kaoru Mori; Inuyasha to represent Rumiko Takahashi with no mention of Maison Ikkoku; only 15 titles from before 2000; and 22 of 50 series are from the last 10 years. Also, about 20 of the series mentioned are LGBT which feels way overrepresented considering a lot of readers may not be interested in these types of stories. A letdown.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with any essential list, it's always going to be subjective and based on what the person making the list likes, no matter how hard they try to be impartial. However, I have only been reading manga for about 10 years so perhaps I am not an authority. What is funny is that while I haven't read some of the main manga she has recommended, I have read a lot of manga that fell into the "Read this if you liked this" section. I will say though that I am disappointed that the "Read this if you liked this" section so heavily overlaps, some manga are mentioned in multiple sections which is fine but surely there might have been an alternative to help people broaden their manga horizons.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read my full review here.