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A selection of titles from the gekiga scene, a short-lived yet influential artistic movement that flourished during the 1960s to the 1970s and maintains a prominent underground presence today. While mostly known as a pioneer of cinematic paneling and close attention to realism, it would be more accurate to consider gekiga as a counterculture. Surrealistic, autobiographical, and experimental works emerged as an alternative to the Tezuka school of aesthetics and paved the way for other artists to different modes of expression.

This is in NO WAY a comprehensive list and should be treated more as a starting point for diving into this movement. There are so many more important artists and titles in the scene that MAL unfortunately does not have entries for, and probably never will. Since I can't speak Japanese, there may also be some titles that I am unfamiliar with. The 50-title limit doesn't help either, but I hope this gets you started in this often-unexplored side of manga.

Note: Not all of these titles are available in English.
11/04/2022 Updated to include more underground artists.

If you enjoyed this interest stack and want to learn more about gekiga, feel free to check these other outlets:
The MAL Gekiga Club
Taniguchi Scanlations
Habanero Scans
Illuminati-Manga
Hox Scanlations
Stinky Scans
Ryan Holmberg's translations
Star Fruit Books
Glacier Bay Books
Koenji Shawn Reviews
The Comics Journal
Breakdown Press
Drawn and Quarterly
New York Review Comics
AX Volume 1: A Collection of Alternative Manga

A stack containing anthology manga series.
Anthology; a collection of artistic works or stories that have a similar form or subject.

An attempted list of the most important/influential post-war mangaka, and some of their most important series. All of the mangaka/manga here are well worth checking out.

Post-war refers to after World War II. So the list will exclude figures most known for works which came out prior to the War like Tagawa and Yokoyama(Ryuuichi).

Series that are heavily overlooked on MAL (at the time of writing, under 2k members). Most, if not all of them are also underrated. Will likely add series in the future as I read them.

In 2006, the Japan Media Arts Festival held a special 10th anniversary awards festival for manga, anime, art and entertainment. For manga and anime, the rankings were split into a popularity poll (general public vote), and a 'professionals' ranking (critics, mangaka, etc.). The only 3 series in the 'professionals' ranking for both manga and anime were 'Astro Boy', 'Doraemon', and 'AKIRA'.

These are the manga voted by the 'professionals'. First place in the popularity poll was 'Slam Dunk'.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070320171620/http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/hundred/choice.html

From psychedelic/trippy stories to overall unique and bizarre reads, this stack definitely has the "wtf" factor. Read at your own discretion 🤓

A list of 1960s manga that has been released physical in English. Any manga that goes out of print will be removed

Every manga covered by the Mangasplaining podcast in Season 4.

List of all the manga published in Brazil by the publisher Veneta, in order of release.

Lista de todos os mangás publicados no Brasil pela editora Veneta, em ordem de lançamento.

Trippy mangas constantly unfolding like a dream

Complete list of the book 501 mangas to read in Spanish

I couldn't find the manga (Miss 130/Miss DD) It's on myanimelist's to-be-approved list, it's practically a hentai manga

I couldn't find the manga (Dekoman - Asoko mangaka ga kimyō-na art o tsukutta riyū) but the author, Rokudenashiko, is more interesting than the manga itself.

According to advanced search
Part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/50202
Anime firsts part 1 (1910s-1960s): https://myanimelist.net/stacks/49208
Anime firsts part 2 (1970s-2010s): https://myanimelist.net/stacks/49378