Summary
Comics, manga, manhwa, manhua. Whatever the term used for graphic panel storytelling, they’re as much a visual treat as they are food for thought. Otherwise, it’d be a novel told through some dodgy pictures. Some strips catch on even when their art isn’t conventionally attractive, likeCrayon Shin-chanorMob Psycho 100, as they play into their charm.
But stunning art can also make a comic a must-read experience, either by pulling the reader directly into its world, or just bowling them over in general with its eye for detail and visual impact. While shōnen and shojo manga have their own stunning examples, many of the best displays of penmanship come from seinen manga, like in these famous strips.
1Berserk
Awe-Inspiring & Horrifying In Equal Measure
Anyone familiar with seinen manga knewBerserkhad to be here. Though the late Kentaro Miura’s imagery could often be horrifying with its demonic monstrosities and graphic depictions, his detailing and composition were unparalleled and could make even the simplest scenes stand out. The nightmarish scenes get the most chatter, but even its quiet moments often have a tender vibe to them.
Like Guts and Casca by the waterfall, or Guts watching the sunset, which became a meme for how it captured the warrior’s weariness. That’s without mentioning the Black Swordsman’s little buddy Puck, who’d offer more cartoony antics between the more gritty scenes of action and horror. Altogether, they showed thatBerserk’s imagery is more versatile than the shots from the Eclipse or its big battlefields would suggest.
2Kingdom
Grand Illustrations For Grand Warfare
Speaking of big battlefields, this list wouldn’t be complete without mentioningKingdom. Yasuhisa Hara’s historical epic is as epic in its artwork as it is in scale. As the orphaned Xin’s quest to become the “Great General of the Heavens” in China’s Warring States era takes some influence fromBerserkwith its armored warriors and brutality.
But, instead of illustrating Bosch-esque nightmares, Hara’s eye for detail gives grandeur to its more grounded settings. Cities built into cliff faces look immense, army units become a vast sea of soldiers sweeping across the landscape, and their mounted captains and generals look powerful enough to turn the tide with a single spear swipe.
3Vagabond
The King Of Ronin Samurai Manga
Takehiko Inoue had already made some of the most stunning shōnen manga art inSlam Dunk, and he only got better when he did seinen strips likeRealandVagabond. The latter especially stood out, as his adaptation of Eiji Yoshikawa’s novel breathed new life into the adventures of the Edo Period’s most famous swordsman. The strip has beenon hiatus for years, and one can see why just from the effort Inoue puts into his panels.
From Musashi’s bloody battles to his countryside wandering, to overlooking the seas and rivers across feudal Japan, each one of them would look just at home in frames on the walls as they would in print or digital apps. It’s no wonder, then, that many of them have been made into posters or framed pictures for that purpose.
4Vinland Saga
A Brutal Story With Beautiful Backdrops
WithBerserkandKingdomsetting the bar for dark fantasy and historical epics, Makoto Yukimura managed to meet them withVinland Saga. But instead of giving readers ancient Chinese troopers or wandering samurai, he gave them the hairier world of the Vikings. Though it’d approach the topic in a similar way toKingdom.
Namely, while it’s not a 1:1 historically accurate retelling, nor a direct adaptation of the originalVinland Sagas, its artistic license still tells a believable tale of war, revenge, remorse and adventure. Each sold well by Yukimura’s art, as his bloody battles, warships and mighty warriors are contrasted with its beautiful landscapes and faces of weary regret.
5Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run
The Shōnen Series Goes Seinen & Takes An Artistic Leap
It feels like a cheat to mentionJojo’s Bizarre Adventurehere, as it started life as a shōnen strip. It didn’t make the jump to seinen until about a year intoPart 7: Steel Ball Run’s lifetime. Yet it warrants a mention as Hirohiko Araki’s art changed a lot between pitting Jonathan Joestar against Dio Brando and havingJohnny Joestar try to outrace Diego Brando.
His early artwork looked like a cross betweenFist of the North Starand the fashion pics of Antonio Lopez, where anatomy took second place to style. BySteel Ball Run, his figure work got better, and his style was enriched with a variety of shading styles, alongside detailing more varied vistas through its cross-country USA premise. The only downside is that his new figures could suffer from same-face syndrome, but at least they were attractive ones.
6One-Punch Man
Over-The-Top Art For An Over-The-Top Hero
One-Punch Manis an odd one to place, as ONE’s original webcomic was a good showcase for how people don’t need to be a Miura-level talent to be a success in making comics. His art was often scrappy and tough to look at, yet his framing, storytelling, and premise of a superhero being able to defeat anything and everything in one punch made it a smash hit.
Yet one can’t deny that Yusuke Murata’s redrawn version is impressive. It turns One’s original monsters intoBerserk-esque titans that could drive normal people to their knees from their sheer size alone, with composition only the series’ anime adaptation (first season specifically) could match. Then it switches back to ONE’s original art style and expressions now and then to break the tension.
7Oyasumi Punpun
Funny-Looking Bird Boy Grows Less Funny Over Time
Style contrasts aren’t always just for laughs. InOyasumi Punpun, Inio Asano would often draw realistic-looking cities and people, going as far as looking photo-realistic for some characters, before toning them down to more humble-looking kiddy characters, who’d still stand out next to the sketchy-looking birds he’d use to representPunpun and his family.
The contrast plays into its storytelling, as the domestic horror Punpun goes through warps him in ways that are apparent to the reader, but not to the people around him, who see him as realistically mundane as they would themselves. Even as he grows more malevolent, with or without the malign influence of his “God,” he always feels like a fish out of the water, or a bird out of the sky in this case.
8Innocent
Son Of An Executioner Finds Work In The Family Business
Innocentmay not be a household name likeBerserk,Vinland Saga, or other big-name seinen strips, though manga aficionados know how hard its art goes. On paper, it’s a domestic drama about Charles-Henri Sanson coming face to face with his destiny. That being as the official executioner to the French royal family, and then to the French Republic when the revolution turned the tables.
It’s another historical tale, though Shinichi Sakamoto’s art gives ita more dream-like look. His nobles are as ethereally beautiful as their fanciful clothing, and the commoners less so. Its misty cemeteries and overcast skies look as hallucinatory as the characters’ visions of brutish men, skull-laden carriage roads, and fluttering rose petals. It’s striking in its eeriness but has an underlying horror behind its beauty.
9The Climber
Manifesting The Mental Toll Climbing Alone Takes
Images of hacked-up bodies on battlefields offer enough brutality without much need to spice them up one way or another. But when a manga tries to get into the head of a dedicated mountain climber, it needs to take some artistic license to illustrate what would drive a person to scale some of the most difficult peaks on Earth by himself.
Before Shinichi Sakamoto worked onInnocent, he co-adapted Jiro Nitta’s novelThe Climberinto a manga. His art skills capture how harsh and brutal mountain climbing can be, complete with vertigo-inducing angles and stress-induced visions, while also capturing the elation and relief of a successful climb through its vast, beautiful views. In other words, his art captures the peaks and valleys of mountain climbing.
10Usogui
High Risk In High Detail
Many of the entries on this list back up its figure work with richly detailed backgrounds, which often help frame its lead character’s mindset, or to show the scale of its locations.Usogui, where Baku “The Lie Eater” Madaramebets against the oddsin a bid to take over an underground gambling organization, doesn’t offer many chances to go out into the countryside, so to speak.
Instead, it captures the intense risk of Madarame’s extreme bets through its different close-ups and encounters. The only thing wilder than Madarame’s hair is his determination, as he calls his opponents’ bluffs, which Toshio Sako captures with aplomb. Tensions mount, fists fly, and characters find themselves in death’s clutches, which readers can feel just from Sako’s art alone.
