Where to Get Started Reading Manga and Manhwa
Task #22 of the 2024 Read Harder Challenge is “Read a manga or manhwa,” so I am here to give you recommendations…but it feels as silly as giving recommendations for paperbacks or for the entire mystery genre. Manga is simply Japanese comics, and manhwa is Korean comics. Like American comics, they’ve been around for roughly a century and encompass a wide range of genres, audiences, formats, tones, and more.
It’s hard to overstate how popular manga especially is: sales of manga within Japan in hit ¥677 billion (that’s billion with a b) yen in 2022: the equivalent of about $5.26 billion USD.
Whatever the genres and art styles you gravitate towards, you’re sure to find something you’ll love under the umbrella of manga and manhwa. Personally, I find them to be perfect palette cleansers between prose books: most of the manga I’ve picked up have been quick, moreish reads. I recommend grabbing the first few volumes at once, because you won’t want to stop at the end of book one.
I can’t possibly cover the variety of manga and manhwa out there, so I’ll just share some of my personal favorites as well as some recommendations from other Book Riot manga and manhwa readers. I highly recommend browsing our Manga category for many, many more recommendations, especially the 50 Best Manga You Must Read.
She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat by Sakaomi Yuzaki
I had to start with my all-time favorite manga series. It’s a slow-burn romance between two neighbors who begin spending time together because one of them loves cooking and the other has a big appetite and is happy to chip in for the groceries. Along the way, we learn about their families and why they don’t fit in there, as well as their coming out journeys. It also explores the intersection between gender and food in a really interesting way.
Uzumaki by Junji Ito
From a gentle contemporary comic to the most disturbing panels you’ll ever lay your eyes on, I think this gives you an idea of how much variety there is within manga and manhwa. Junji Ito’s name is synonymous with horror manga, so if you’re looking for a Halloween manga read, you really can’t go wrong picking up any of his books. Uzumaki is his most popular, and it’s about a town haunted by a spiral pattern. If that doesn’t sound scary to you, believe me, you will change your mind after reading this.
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This does not even scratch the surface of the manga and manhwa out there. Here are just a few more Book Riot lists to get you started:
- The Most Influential Manga of All Time
- A Beginner’s Guide to Shōnen Manga
- The Best Completed Manga Series to Read from Start to Finish
- 12 Single-Volume Manga for When You’re Short on Time
- 18 of the Best Manhwa You Can Reread Over and Over Again
What’s your favorite manga or manhwa? Let’s chat in the comments!
Check out all the previous 2024 Read Harder posts here.
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