The appearance of "quirks," newly discovered super powers, has been steadily increasing over the years, with 80 percent of humanity possessing various abilities from manipulation of elements to shape-shifting. This leaves the remainder of the world completely powerless, and Izuku Midoriya is one such individual. Since he was a child, the ambitious middle schooler has wanted nothing more than to be a hero. Izuku's unfair fate leaves him admiring heroes and taking notes on them whenever he can. But it seems that his persistence has borne some fruit: Izuku meets the number one hero and his personal idol, All Might. All Might's quirk is a unique ability that can be inherited, and he has chosen Izuku to be his successor.
Enduring many months of grueling training, Izuku enrolls in UA High, a prestigious high school famous for its excellent hero training program, and this year's freshmen look especially promising. With his bizarre but talented classmates and the looming threat of a villainous organization, Izuku will soon learn what it really means to be a hero.

Note: Nominated for the 8th Manga Taisho Award. Won the Harvey Award for Best Manga of 2019.

Japan is hit by a series of monumental natural disasters that leave the country fragmented and its people devastated. Follow the lives of its citizens as they deal with massive emigration to refugee camps on the Asian mainland and try to solve the political task of rebuilding their nation.

A Spirit of the Sun is also a retelling and melding of two well-known stories in Japan. The setting is directly lifted from the early '70s disaster science-fiction book and movie "Nippon Chinbotsu," (Japan Sinks) while many of the characters are allegorical to the key players in the Eastern classic "Sangokushi" (The Three Kingdoms). Sangokushi aficionados may discover greater entertainment by watching the characters in A Spirit of the Sun closely to spot these resemblances.

From Kaiji Kawaguchi, the author of Silent Service, Eagle and Zipang (as well as the artist for Confession).

A Spirit of The Sun received the 2006 Shogakukan Manga Award for the seinen/general category along with Rainbow by Masasumi Kakizaki and George Abe.

Winner of LINE Manga Award: I don't have the normal kind of communication problem! If it's kids, I can get along with them just fine - my communication problems are limited! Nashikawa, a high school student with this kind of troublesome disposition, enters a "Volunteering Club", in which he watches kids!? Will Nashikawa be able to overcome his communication problems while being surrounded by quirky club members and little kids!?

Doraemon, a cat shaped robot which came from the 22nd century in the future, goes back in time in order to help Nobita, a below average lazy kid, to make his life less miserable and improve his descendent's life. With many of Doreamon's gadgets from the future, Nobita's life will never be the same.

Note: It was awarded the first Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga in 1982 and also won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Grand Prize in 1997.

Iwakura Mitsumi always had big dreams, of leaving her small town, advancing to the top tier university, and then contributing to the country before retiring back to her home town. So focused is she to her goal that she is oblivious to all the other ways she comes up short, much to the chagrin and concern of her friends and family. Can a naive country girl make it in Tokyo?

Note: In 2023, this manga won the 47th Kodansha Manga Award in the general category.

Before the Pirate King was executed, he dared the many pirates of the world to seek out the fortune that he left behind in one piece.
As a child, Monkey D. Luffy dreamed of becoming the King of the Pirates. But his life changed when he accidentally gained the power to stretch like rubber...at the cost of never being able to swim again! Now Luffy, with the help of a motley collection of nakama, is setting off in search of "One Piece", said to be the greatest treasure in the world.

Note: The best-selling series in manga history.

Was a finalist for the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize from 2000 to 2002. The German translation of Vol 44 won the Sondermann audience award at the Frankfurt Book Fair Comics Centre in 2005.
Won the 41st Japan Cartoonists Association Award Grand Prize alongside Neko Darake in 2012.

-from Baka-Updates: A manga that revolves around an old-fashioned all-night food stall, the various dishes that the stall owner prepares to suit the tastes of different customers, and the joys, griefs, trials and tribulations of his faithful patrons. Nominated for the 2nd Manga Taisho Award (2009). Won the 39th Japan Cartoonist Awards Grand Prize (2010).

A youth named Kiriyama Rei, who lost his family as a child, endures loneliness to become a professional shogi player. Then, through a chance meeting, he develops a relationship with the three Kawamoto sisters (Akari, Hinata, Momo), who hail from a working-class district of the city, and little by little his frozen heart begins to thaw.

Note: Nominated for the 2nd Annual Manga Taishou in 2009 and won this award in 2011.
Won the Kodansha Manga Award in the general category (shared with Space Brothers) in 2011 and won the Grand Prize of the 18th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2014.

The story of a crossdresser who receives a confession from a junior.

The master spy codenamed has spent his days on undercover missions, all for the dream of a better world. But one day, he receives a particularly difficult new order from command. For his mission, he must form a temporary family and start a new life?! A Spy/Action/Comedy about a one-of-a-kind family!

Won the Tsugi ni Kuru Manga Award 2019 in the web manga category.

Azumi focuses upon the life of the titular young female assassin. The manga begins an indeterminate number of years after the Battle of Sekigahara.
As Azumi begins her duty, the manga introduces its characters into mainstream history. Many of the early missions that Azumi undertakes are the assassinations of the prominent supporters and generals of the Toyotomi Clan, against whom Tokugawa Ieyasu expected to again go to war. The manga 'reveals' that many of the Toyotomi leaders who conveniently died of diseases or accidents prior to the final confrontation between the Toyotomi and Tokugawa were actually victims of assassinations by Azumi and her comrades, thus indicating to the reader when the events were taking place.

Note: Won an Excellence Prize at the 1997 Japan Media Arts Festival and the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1998.

In his second to last year of high school, the dispassionate but studious, Yataro Yaguchi finally finds a calling in art. With no prior art experience, he decides to work towards applying to an art university. A decision with potentially disastrous results.

After his sister was devoured by a dragon and all their supplies were lost in a failed dungeon raid, Lyos and his party are completely broke and have resorted to eating the monsters they hunt, but are still determined to save her before she gets digested. They then meet a dwarf who introduces them to the world of Dungeon Meshi: delicious cuisine made from ingredients such as the flesh of giant bats, walking mushrooms and even screaming mandrake.

Note: Nominated for the 9th Manga Taishou Awards in 2016.

Aono Hajime was a prodigy violinist until he grew jaded with playing the violin due to personal reasons. Now in his third year of middle school, he struggles to decide his academic path. One day in school, he meets Akine Ritsuko, a hotheaded novice violinist who wants to enroll in a high school with a distinguished orchestra club. When he finds himself getting closer to Ritsuko and being brought back to the world of violinists, time starts moving again for him.

This is the beginning of a youthful drama where sounds and hearts alike resound in harmony.

Note: Winner of the 68th Shogakukan Manga Awards for best shounen manga (alongside Yofukashi no Uta).

In the year 1947, the people of Shinjuku are down on their luck. With little money to buy food or necessities, some resort to gambling in order to survive. Traveling Tetsuya chooses to spend his time at Mahjong parlors where he is wiping the floor clean with his adversaries. However, Tetsuya meets the intensely-skilled Boushu-san, this is when he realizes that his skills are still lacking.

Note: Won the 2000 Kodansha Manga Award for shounen.

Risa Miyakozawa, aka Zawa-san, is the only female member of the Nissen High School baseball team. She's talented, but being a girl, she doesn't get to participate in any official matches, and yet she trains just as hard as the rest of the team anyway, just for her own personal satisfaction.

Nominated for the 3rd Manga Taisho Award (2010).

On a daring quest to save a life, two friends are hurled into another world, where an evil sorceress seeks to enslave them. But then the lion Aslan's song weaves itself into the fabric of a new land, a land that will be known as Narnia. And in Narnia, all things are possible.

Sasaki, an overworked salaryman, goes through an average stressful day just for a single light at the end of the tunnel: Yamada, the always-cheerful clerk at his favorite convenience store.

One day, Sasaki takes an extra amount of time at a company meeting, and by the time he gets to the convenience store Yamada has already clocked out. However, as he leaves, he notices a young woman with piercings smoking behind the store?

Note: The manga won the 2022 Next Manga Award in the web manga category.

The story revolves around three teenagers: Nomiya Tomomi, a high school dropout, Togawa Kiyoharu, an ex-sprinter who now plays wheelchair basketball and Takahashi Hisanobu, a popular leader of the high school's basketball team who now finds himself a paraplegic after an accident. Real features a cast of characters who find themselves being marginalized by society, but are all united by one common feature: a desire to play basketball, with no place to play it in. Nomiya, being a high school dropout, has no future in his life. Togawa, being a difficult personality, finds himself constantly feuding with his own teammates. Takahashi, once a popular team leader, now finds himself being unable to move from the chest down. Real also deals with the reality of physical disabilities, and the psychological inferiority that the characters struggle against. The characters break through their own psychological barriers bit by bit.

Note: Received the Excellence Award at the 5th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2001.

As a child, Thorfinn sat at the feet of the great Leif Ericson and thrilled to wild tales of a land far to the west. But his youthful fantasies were shattered by a mercenary raid. Raised by the Vikings who murdered his family, Thorfinn became a terrifying warrior, forever seeking to kill the band's leader, Askeladd, and avenge his father. Sustaining Thorfinn through his ordeal are his pride in his family and his dreams of a fertile westward land, a land without war or slavery... the land Leif called Vinland.

Note: Was nominated for the 2008 Manga Taisho award. Won the Grand Prize in the manga division of the Japan Media Arts awards in 2009. Won the 36th Kodansha Manga Award for Best General Manga in 2012.