15 Best Manga Like Chainsaw Man You Need to Read
Chainsaw Man is a shōnen manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, the first part of which was published in Shūeisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine between December 2018 and December 2020. It is also published in bound volumes. The second part of the manga will debut in 2022. An anime adaptation produced by studio MAPPA is also scheduled for a 2022 release.
To honor the overall popularity and acclaim of Chainsaw Man, we have composed a list of the best manga series like Chainsaw Man that every fan needs to read. The list is going to include a total of 15 different titles which resemble the Chainsaw Man manga in one way or the other.
1. Uzumaki
Original Run: January 19, 1998 – August 30, 1999
Number of Volumes: 3
The first entry on our list of best manga like Chainsaw Man is Uzumaki. Uzumaki revolves around Kirie Goshima who lives in the small town of Kurouzu, a bit isolated between the sea and the surrounding mountains. She’s a perfectly normal high school girl, but her boyfriend’s father begins to behave in a disturbing way: he is obsessed with observing spiral-shaped objects. This form is becoming more and more present in the small town, as if under the effect of a curse.
2. Parasyte
Original Run: 1988 – 1995
Number of Volumes: 10
If you’re a fan of the bizarre manga you’ve probably heard about Parasyte. One night spheres the size of tennis balls, containing snake-like creatures, fall in unknown numbers all over the world. They are programmed to take the place of human brains. One of these attacks a young man, Shinichi, during his sleep, trying to enter through his ear but cannot reach him, the latter having kept his headphones on for the night.
Jolted awake as the parasite tries to enter through his nose, he tries to defend himself but ends up having his right hand punctured. The high school student then takes his headphones and wraps them around his arm, preventing the parasite from climbing to the brain.
Unable to leave his arm, the latter finally merges with his right hand. Meanwhile, other parasites, having managed to take over their host’s brain, begin to feed on human beings, while the creature and Shinichi are forced to cohabit. Parasyte draws some not overly obvious similarities to the Chainsaw Man manga, either way, if you’re a fan of Chainsaw Man you will love Parasyte.
3. Tokyo Ghoul
Original Run: September 8, 2011 – September 18, 2014 / October 16, 2014 – July 5, 2018
Number of Volumes: 14 / 16
How can we make this list of best manga like Chainsaw Man without mentioning Tokyo Ghoul? In the city of Tokyo, creatures named ghouls have appeared and feed on human flesh to survive. One day Ken Kaneki is attacked by one of them and suffers a serious injury.
To stay alive, he receives a transplant from the ghoul that attacked him and becomes a hybrid, half-human half-ghoul (artificial one-eyed). Quickly, he realizes that he can no longer eat the same foods as before. He then enters the service of the café “L’Antique”, a den of ghouls, where he learns to feed himself without harming humans.
But he will soon find himself at the heart of a bloody war between the CCG (Ghoul Control Center), determined to find and exterminate them to the last, and the Aogiri Tree, an organization of merciless ghouls. . He discovers that ghouls are not so different from humans, and little by little he will begin to adapt.
4. DEATH NOTE
Original Run: December 1, 2003 – May 15, 2006
Number of Volumes: 12
Another classic on this list of best manga like Chainsaw Man is Death Note. Death Note revolves around Light Yagami. He is a gifted high school student who judges the current world to be criminal, rotten, and corrupt. His life changes completely the day he accidentally picks up a mysterious notebook entitled “Death Note”. Its user manual states that “the person whose name is written in this notebook dies”.
At first skeptical, Light however decides to test the notebook and discovers that its power is very real. He meets the former owner of the Death Note, a death god named Ryuk. This one declares to have voluntarily dropped his notebook in order to entertain himself. Light decides to use the Death Note to exterminate the criminals, with the aim of building a perfect world in which he will be the god.
He gradually learns to use the powers of the notebook and its rules: the user can only kill a person if he knows their face, by writing their first and last name. He can also specify the cause and detailed circumstances, the default cause being a heart attack.
The many unexplained deaths of criminals around the world attract the attention of Interpol and the mysterious L, a particularly talented detective, but whose identity no one knows. L decides to investigate the serial killer, nicknamed “Kira” by the general public.
5. Dorohedoro
Original Run: November 30, 2000 – September 12, 2018
Number of Volumes: 23
Dorohedoro series is set in a fantasy world divided into three distinct realms: Hole, a dirty, degraded, polluted, and violent metropolis where humans live; the world of sorcerers, a rich, colorful, and magic-dominated kingdom, connected to the human world through magically created doors; and hell, where the souls of dead sorcerers gather and demons live.
Although indistinguishable in appearance, humans, and sorcerers belong to two different species: the former developed naturally, and the latter created by the primeval demon Chidaruma. Sorcerers have a unique circulatory system, which allows them to produce smoke from their fingers or mouth through which they perform their magical abilities. Each sorcerer possesses a specialized type of magic, which can be either common or highly sought after, such as healing, the ability to bring the dead back to life, or control time. If you like well-developed worlds with a mix of environmental themes Dorohedoro is perfect for you.
6. Another
Original Run: April 3, 2010 – December 3, 2011
Number of Volumes: 4
Another is set in 1972, a 3rd-grade student in Yomiyama died in a fire. This studious and athletic person was admired by all his classmates. After her mysterious death, in full denial, the latter decided to act as if she was still among them and this, until the end of high school. In 1998, a young boy named Kôichi Sakakibara was transferred to this same class.
There he encounters a mysterious atmosphere and frightened students. His curiosity is aroused by a strange and very beautiful teenager, wearing an eye patch and to whom no one speaks. Her name is Mei Misaki. As the months go by, students in the class and those around them die one after the other. Another is a tense story veiled in mystery that will surely entertain fans of Chainsaw Man.
7. The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection
Original Run: 1997 – 1999
Number of Volumes: 16
The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection revolves around Tomie. Tomie is a student hated by her peers for her arrogance and selfishness. She is attracted to Professor Takagi. One day she is inadvertently pushed by her boyfriend Yamamoto following an argument, and she falls off a cliff. Her body is mutilated by schoolmates and the teacher, and her pieces are hidden in various places, so as to hide what happened from the authorities. The next day, Tomie returns to class. The girl makes men fall in love with herself, drives them crazy, causes them to kill her, and then regenerates herself indefinitely.
The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection includes a variety of different horror stories.
8. Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan
Original Run: August 2004 – June 2006
Number of Volumes: 3
Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan or Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan focuses on the life of Sakura, a high school boy destined to discover immortality, which offends God and has sent Dokuro from the future to kill him in order to prevent his discovery.
However, Dokuro-chan begins to grow fond of Sakura by saving him from other angels’ threats, but at the same time frequently murders him in a horrible and bloody manner only to revive him right after with her powers, which puts Sakura in a cycle. endless death and resurrection.
9. Jujutsu Kaisen
Original Run: March 5, 2018 – present
Number of Volumes: 18
Jujutsu Kaisen is one of the most famous manga on this list of best manga like Chainsaw Man. In Jujutsu Kaisen, Yuji Itadori is an out-of-the-ordinary high school student who lives in Sendai with his grandfather. Despite his innate talent for sports, he refuses to join the sports team due to his aversion to athletics. Instead, he chooses to join the occult research club, where he can relax and leave school by 5 pm to visit his grandfather in the hospital.
While on his deathbed, his grandfather invites him to “always help others” and recommends that he “die surrounded by people”. After his grandfather’s death, he meets Megumi Fushiguro, a sorcerer who informs him of the existence of a high-level cursed talisman in the school Yuji attended. Meanwhile, his friends from the occult club, in possession of the talisman, open the seal placed on it and attract all the curses in the school on them.
Reaching the school but unable to defeat the curses due to her lack of magical powers, Yuji swallows the finger (the true form of the talisman) to protect Megumi and her friends, becoming the host of Ryomen Sukuna, a very powerful curse. Despite being possessed, Yuji is still able to maintain control of his body.
As a curse, Yuji should have been executed, but thanks to Gojo Satoru (the most powerful and responsible sorcerer of the first-year alumni at the Tokyo Institute of Occult Arts), the upper echelons of the world of witchcraft agree to postpone the execution. until he has absorbed all 20 fragments of Sukuna’s soul (i.e., her 20 fingers), so as to definitively exorcise the curse.
10. Sankarea: Undying Love
Original Run: December 9, 2009 – September 9, 2014
Number of Volumes: 11
Sankarea: Undying Love tells us the story of Chihiro Furuya, the son of a priest, and a Japanese high school student. Chihiro Furuya has a particularly strong attraction to zombies. He avidly collects everything related to the latter, whether video games, films, or manga, and he maintains the dream of seeing a young girl brought back to life to declare her love for him.
Faced with the death of his cat Babu, he decides to bring him back to life with the help of an old manuscript describing the process of creating a “resurrection” potion. Around this time, he meets a young girl named Rea Sanka, who has run away from home. In a suicide attempt, she drinks a sample of the “resurrection” potion which is created from a poisonous herb known as “Hydrangea macrophylla”, but it fails to kill her.
After an argument with her father, she falls off a cliff and dies, but thanks to the potion, she returns as a zombie. Although she has become undead, she chooses not to give in to her murderous instincts and survives by frequently consuming hydrangea leaves.
11. Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
Original Run: May 2, 2016 – November 5, 2018
Number of Volumes: 4
Next on the list of best manga like Chainsaw Man is Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. During the Industrial Revolution, a mysterious pandemic strikes the world and soon spreads to the far reaches of the Orient, even to the sovereign island of Hinomoto. People themselves infected or bitten by other infected humans are transformed into Kabane, fearsome undead, bloodthirsty whose extermination is extremely difficult.
Indeed, the heart of the Kabane is covered with a film of special steel which renders most of the conventional weapons (bladed weapons and steam rifles) of the bushi ineffective. Deterred from any idea of a frontal attack against the Kabane, the remaining Humans will take refuge in “stations” resembling fortresses linked to each other by armored trains, the hayajiro.
It is in this context that one day, an infested hayajiro from Kabane comes crashing down at the gates of Aragane station. A young mechanic named Ikoma musters up his courage and chooses to fight against the invader. Injured in his fight, he has no choice but to try to stem the progression of the virus in his body, which he succeeds in doing: he then becomes a Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, a being endowed with extraordinary strength who is located at the border between the Human and the Kabane.
Thanks to Mumei, another Kabaneri, Ikoma somehow embarks on board the Koutetsujou with the survivors heading for the most fortified city in the country. Thus begins the long and perilous journey of the survivors of Aragane station.
12. BLOOD+
Original Run: December 26, 2005 – April 26, 2007 / April 26, 2006 – December 26, 2006 / April 26, 2006
Number of Volumes: 5 / 2 / 1
The story of BLOOD+ takes place in Koza, on the island of Okinawa, near the American base of Kaneda, nowadays (or in September 2005, according to the story). Saya normally lives under the protection of her adoptive family. Suffering from a “disease” she is obliged to be transfused regularly. Saya does not remember her past or her origins. The young girl then prepares for a high jump competition.
However, one day she is attacked by a monster, called a Chiroptera. It is then that a mysterious man appears, from her past, and saves her life. Saya’s memory slowly resurfaces, and she must resume her (forgotten) fight against the bats. Moreover, Saya is a half-vampire. Chiroptera is hybrid humanoid giant bat-like creature of unknown origin.
They possess superhuman strength and speed, as well as regenerative abilities. They are also able to fly by transforming their arms into wings. In the movie Blood: The Last Vampire, Saya notes that the only way to fight them is with an effective edged weapon causing profuse bleeding. This point is changed in the anime to enforce Saya’s blood ability to kill them, though decapitation seems to work as well. BLOOD+ has many similarities to Tokyo Ghoul and we think it’s a great fit for a list of best manga like Chainsaw Man.
13. Hellsing
Original Run: May 1997 – September 30, 2008
Number of Volumes: 10
Hellsing centers around the Royal Order of Protestant Knights, which are an organization founded by Abraham Van Hellsing and run by his descendants. His mission is to protect the queen and the borders of the country from any supernatural threat. The organization is led by Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, the last living member of the family, who inherited her responsibility as director after her father’s death when she was 12 years old.
Under her command are Walter C. Dornez and Alucard, a powerful vampire who was captured by the family a hundred years ago. Later the ex-policewoman Seras Victoria also joins, who after being bitten by Alucard becomes her offspring and by extension a Hellsing soldier.
14. CLAYMORE
Original Run: June 6, 2001 – October 4, 2014
Number of Volumes: 27
Claymore takes place in a fictional world co-inhabited by the human species and by a species of demons known as Yōma, which are natural predators of human beings (in the manga they are also known as Specters). The innate ability of the Yōma is to take human form, which allows them to live hidden among humans.
The only beings capable of identifying these creatures and eliminating them are the female warriors known among humans as Claymores, who are beings created by a secret organization from humans. The name given to these warriors is due to the large sword they carry, known as a claymore. Although their appearance is very similar to humans, they have some peculiarities. The most outstanding physical feature is their silver eyes, which have also earned them the name “silver-eyed witches”.
15. Hunter x Hunter
Original Run: March 16, 1998 – present (on hiatus)
Number of Volumes: 36
Last but not least is Hunter x Hunter. Twelve years before the start of the story, Ging Freecss abandoned his son Gon in the hands of his aunt Mito on Whale Island. Gon, who always believed that his parents were dead, discovers one day thanks to his father’s apprentice, Kite, that he is still alive and has become one of the best hunters, elite individuals, and accredited for tracking secret treasures, exotic beasts, and even other individuals.
Motivated by this revelation, Gon decides to leave his home and take the Hunter Exam, a series of challenges that seek to test the skills, survival, and teamwork of its participants.
And that would be all, we hope you enjoyed our list of best manga like Chainsaw Man, and hopefully, you will find something entertaining to read!
