Though it might be fairly surprising to those who are fans of both anime and manga, there are a lot of seinen manga in particular that are well-loved, both in Japan and in the West, that have never been adapted into anime.

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“Seinen” refers to manga that are geared toward young men, a slightly older audience than stories that are aimed at shonen audiences, though there is certainly some overlap between them. These manga have more adult themes and more complex focuses, with intriguing art styles that don’t necessarily match what is popular in anime, but which make them classics in their own right.

10 Goodnight Punpun

The cover of Goodnight Punpun.

Goodnight Punpun is a series by Inio Asano, a well-regarded manga author who has more than one series on this list. The story follows a boy named Onodera Punpun as he grows up, with a very narrow slice of life focus on Punpun and his friends and family.

The story spans the time from when he’s in elementary school until he’s in his 20s, and it deals with everything from the problems in his immediate family and the struggles of life.

9 20th Century Boys

Friend from 20th Century Boys seeing Earth as a small ball

20th Century Boys, by manga creator Naoki Urasawa, is considered by many to be one of the greatest manga ever written, so it’s especially interesting to realize that this series has never been adapted into an anime. However, the series has been adapted into three live-action films.

The story follows a group of friends who, as children, wrote a story in which a villain tried to take over the world. When they’re older, they realize that someone is using the ideas they came up with to begin a real cult.

8 Pluto

Pluto by Osamu Tezuka & Naoiki Urasawa

Pluto is another series on this list written by 20th Century Boys creator Naoki Urasawa. Pluto is a series that is an adaptation of the classic Osamu Tezuka manga Astro Boy and is even named after one of the manga’s main villains.

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The sci-fi manga is, at its core, a murder mystery, as a robot detective tries to solve the case of a series of murders of both humans and robots in which the victims have objects shoved into their heads to look like horns.

7 Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction

Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction

Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction is Asano’s most recent manga and, unlike Goodnight Punpun, is still ongoing. Despite the fact that it has only recently begun its run as a manga, it’s already beginning to claim classic status.

It is a series that both plays with many of the themes often seen in Asano’s work and also branching out into a new direction regarding genre. It is a science-fiction series in which a girl deals with alien spaceships descending on Tokyo, and how surprisingly mundane the event is.

6 Solanin

the cover of solanin manga

Solanin is Inio Asano’s most well-regarded manga. A slice of life manga about a group of friends who are trying to survive the monotony of salary jobs while yearning for a future as musicians, the friends are struck unexpectedly by tragedy. As they recover from the heartbreak, they discover new reasons to go on, even if they’re a bit sadder than before.

Like many manga on this list, Solanin does have a live-action film starring Aoi Miyazaki, best known for playing Nana Komatsu in the live-action film adaptation of NANA.

5 Eden: It’s An Endless World!

Eden: It’s An Endless World!

Eden: It’s an Endless World! is a very interesting and complex series, and it seems clear that, despite its 10-year run in Monthly Afternoon, that it would be a difficult series to adapt. A post-apocalyptic story, it takes place non-linearly over the course of several decades and not always following the same characters.

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But the beautiful artwork and timely themes, as the main character attempts to survive while remaining true to his morality, make it interesting to consider what it might be like as an anime.

4 Billy Bat

Billy Bat manga Urasawa

Unsurprisingly for such a well-regarded and prolific manga creator, Naoki Urasawa is on this list for a third time with Billy Bat. Perhaps the surprising thing about the amount of Urasawa projects is really the fact that no one has thought to make the work of such a well-regarded creator into manga series more often.

Billy Bat in particular is a difficult story to adapt, as its focus is on a comic book creator, perhaps making manga the best medium in which to tell the narrative.

3 A Bride’s Story

A Bride’s Story characters posing

A Bride’s Story is another long-running series that has been serialized since 2008 and hasn’t yet reached its finale. The popular story takes place at the end of the 19th century in a small town along the Caspian Sea, one of the few manga series that takes place in settings that don’t approximate Japan.

The historical slice of life story follows a woman who arrives in the town to marry a man younger than her, as he and the other men in the village make livings along the Silk Road.

2 Real

Real manga

Real is a long-running manga that began its publication in 1999 and is still being published today. Thematically, the series is ahead of its time when it comes to subject matter regularly seen in manga.

The series follows a group of wheelchair basketball players as they pursue their love of the game and deal with the adversities that come with being in wheelchairs, as well as their own personal shortcomings as they try to get along with each other and play the game that they love.

1 Lone Wolf And Cub

Ogami Ittō holding his son Daigorō from Lone Wolf And Cub

The famed 1970s manga Lone Wolf and Cub is maybe the most surprising manga to not have been adapted into an anime.

Like 20th Century Boys, it’s been adapted into several live-action films and one series, and Fast and the Furious director Justin Lin has been in talks to do a Hollywood adaptation, not to mention the clear influences of the series on The Mandalorian. But despite the fact that the series originated as a manga, it has never had its natural adaptation as an anime.

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