Life can feel like a rush sometimes, where everyone wants instant gratification. Work demands tighter deadlines. TV shows drop their entire seasons on streaming services in one go, with shorter intros and even shorter credits. Then, some movies seem to be selections of big moments pieced together with fluff to pad out the runtime.
Altogether, it feels like everyone’s got to get to their destination ASAP, because the journey isn’t worth it. But there are plenty of works out there that are worth the time. Just as a restaurant-quality dish beats out fast food, or a good novel beats its cliff notes, these great slowburn manga use their steady pacing to their advantage.
8 I Am A Hero
MyAnimeList Score: 7.68
- Written & Illustrated by Kengo Hanazawa.
- 22 Volumes, 264 Chapters.
- Available in English via Dark Horse.
I Am a Hero is perhaps the best zombie manga that hasn't been turned into an anime as of this writing. It received a live-action movie in 2016 — and spin-off mangas showing how the zombie apocalypse affected Osaka, Ibaraki, and Nagasaki. But neither they nor the Tokyo-based original have been picked up by an animation studio thus far.
It might be because Hideo’s journey from a frustrated manga art assistant to a struggling, gun-toting survivor takes a while. The manga’s early goings focus on establishing Hideo’s old life and how it feels like a dead end, with the zombifying ZQN disease slowly lurking throughout the city in the background. As such, readers used to things going to hell immediately will find a more methodical approach to storytelling.
7 Maison Ikkoku
MyAnimeList Score: 8.20
- Written & Illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi.
- 15 Volumes, 162 Chapters.
- Originally published in English by Viz Media.
Slowburn stories aren't necessarily slow-paced. It just means its big, defining scenes are more spread out with more gradual character development in between. That's a bit of an obvious statement, but it can affect first impressions. For example, readers checking out Maison Ikkoku for the first time would think it was some crazy comedy about Yusaku getting annoyed by his neighbors at the titular boarding house.
But after enough yuks, the tenants meet their new manager: Kyoko, a widow still mourning her late husband. Yusaku falls in love with her on sight, but between her grieving and his haplessness, it takes time for them to warm up to each other. Throw in two love rivals, and the not-so-helpful Ikkoku residents, and readers will get a lengthy romcom that balances out its laughs with drama at a pace that’s gradual — but doesn’t drag.
6 Akagi
MyAnimeList Score: 8.29
- Written & Illustrated by Nobuyuki Fukumoto.
- 36 Volumes, 306 Chapters.
- Fan Translations only.
If readers used to slowburn stories want to challenge themselves, they could give Akagi a try. Created by Nobuyuki Fukumoto of Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor fame, it follows the titular Akagi as he shakes off the police by entering a mahjong parlor run by the yakuza. Though only a teen, he manages to beat the group’s best players.
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Six years later, he’s called back into the fold to face Washizu, the most powerful figure in the Japanese underworld, and a master mahjong player. If that chapter length alone seems big, that might be because the match against Washizu alone took Fukumoto 20 years to draw with no hiatuses in between. That’s enough time to fit in plenty of psychological suspense as Akagi puts more than money on the line.
5 Attack On Titan
MyAnimeList Score: 8.55
- Written & Illustrated by Hajime Isayama.
- 34 Volumes, 141 Chapters.
- Available in English via Kodansha Comics USA.
At first, it seems Attack on Titan is as straightforward as a shōnen series can be. In a world where humanity has closed itself off in walled cities to protect themselves from the titular, man-eating titans, Eren Yeager vows to avenge his late mother and the destruction of his hometown by wiping out all the Titans. However, things aren’t quite that simple.
On top of following Eren’s past and present, and that of the supporting cast, his quest leads him down some grim paths. The reader finds out who and what the Titans are and why they came to be, the conspiracies lurking within the walled cities, and how Eren ties into all of them. What sounds like a standard revenge quest becomes something darker, more complex and nerve-wracking.
4 A Bride’s Story
MyAnimeList Score: 8.56
- Written & Illustrated by Kaoru Mori.
- 14+ Volumes, 101+ Chapters.
- Available in English via Yen Press.
Kaoru Mori made her name with Emma: A Victorian Romance, which offered one of the most realistic depictions of late 19th century England in a manga ever made. Once that story was done, Mori turned her meticulous eye for detail to Central Asia for A Bride's Story, when the Russians pressed into the territory and turned it into ‘Russian Turkestan’ in the late 1800s. On the surface, it’s about a woman called Amir traveling across the mountains to wed her fiancé, Karluk.
But it’s also an insight into how the different people in the area handle engagement, marriage, and the invading Russian Army. For example, Amir’s friend Pariya puts off her suitors by speaking her mind often. It’s more out of social anxiety than defying standards, but it made her charming enough to get her own, shorter spin-off manga Pariya-san’s At That Age.
3 Golden Kamuy
MyAnimeList Score: 8.66
- Written & Illustrated by Satoru Noda.
- 31 Volumes, 314 Chapters.
- Available in English via Viz Media.
Golden Kamuy isn’t the longest manga around, ending just short of an 8-year run. Its premise isn’t hard to grasp either: veteran soldier Saichi Sugimoto seeks a large supply of gold hidden in the mountains in Hokkaidō. But that’s just the skeleton of the story. The rest is dense with details, lore, and culture.
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For one, Saichi isn’t seeking wealth for himself, but to help the family of his late comrade from the Russo-Japan War. The gold also has its own backstory, involving a daring prison escape and hidden maps. Then, the story also goes into the Ainu, the native people of Hokkaidō, exploring their language, rites, and culture — particularly through Asirpa, a young girl who aids Saichi on his journey to avenge her father’s death.
2 Yona Of The Dawn
MyAnimeList Score: 8.82
- Written & Illustrated by Mizuho Kusanagi.
- 44+ Volumes, 252+ Chapters.
- Available in English via Viz Media's Shojo Beat imprint.
Just the backstory alone to Yona of the Dawn would make for an epic manga, as the Crimson Dragon King descends to the land of Kōka in human form to free it from evil rulers. Just as his fate seemed sealed, he was saved by four other dragons who helped purify the land and, after the King’s passing, formed the tribes who’d populate Kōka generations later.
Instead, the main story takes place 2,000 years later. Framed for the murder of her father, King Il of the Sky Tribe, Princess Yona and her bodyguard, General Hak of the Wind Tribe, seek to rediscover the four dragons to save Kōka once again from corruption. The series did get a relatively brief 24-episode anime, but the original manga, which began in 2009, is still running as of this writing.
1 20th Century Boys
MyAnimeList Score: 8.95
- Written & Illustrated by Naoki Urasawa.
- 22 Volumes, 249 Chapters.
- Available in English via Viz Media.
Any of Naoki Urasawa’s works could count for this list, as their length, dense details, and storytelling make them epic reads. It’s also why anime adaptations of his work are thin on the ground, between the 74-episode long Monster, and the wait fans had to go through before Pluto’s anime went from being announced to turning up on Netflix.
20th Century Boys avoided that by receiving a trilogy of live-action movies instead, and even they had to cut stuff out. On the surface, it’s about Kenji and his friends trying to stop a cult leader called ‘Friend’ from taking over the world. However, that doesn't mention that Friend’s plot is suspiciously similar to that written in the ‘Book of Prophecy’ Kenji and co made up as kids. It’s a labyrinthine plot full of mystery that’ll keep readers guessing even after they read the final page.
8 Best Slowburn Manhwa
Not all manhwa start off bombastic and high energy. Some spend a good amount of time building up the story and world before really taking off.
