There is no doubt that manga can play a very important part in any otaku’s life, which is why “manga community service” Alu received such a positive response to their recent ‘Elements of Me’ campaign. This campaign asked users to choose five manga that they felt “define” then, generate an image with their choices and share it on social media with the hashtag #私を構成する5つのマンガ. So numerous were the responses, in turn, that the hashtag quickly entered into the top trending.
Alu also recently shared some of the results from the Elements of Me campaign, drawing from 627,236 entries during the period between March 21 and April 2 to create a list of the top 50 most commonly chosen series. The results may shock you.
Alu’s Top 50 ‘Elements of Me’
- Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa
- One Piece by Eiichiro Oda
- Gintama by Hideaki Sorachi
- Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi
- Slam Dunk by Inoue Takehiko
- Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto
- Haikyuu!! by Furudate Haruichi
- Bleach by Tite Kubo
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn by Amano Akira
- Cardcaptor Sakura by CLAMP
- Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama
- The Prince of Tennis by Takeshi Konomi
- Kimetsu no Yaiba by Koyoharu Gotouge
- Yu Yu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi
- Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya
- JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki
- Detective Conan by Gosho Aoyama
- D.Gray-man by Katsura Hoshino
- Soul Hunter by Ryu Fujisaki
- My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi
- Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi
- Ranma ½ by Rumiko Takahashi
- Kuroko’s Basketball by Tadatoshi Fujimaki
- Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki
- Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama
- Zatch Bell! by Makoto Raiku
- Shaman King by Hiroyuki Takei
- Black Butler by Yana Toboso
- Black Jack by Osamu Tezuka
- Inuyashi by Rumiko Takahashi
- Phantom Thief Jeanne by Arina Tanemura
- Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic by Shinobu Ohtaka
- Pokemon Adventures by Hidenori Kusaka (scenario) and Mato (art)
- Doubutsu no Oisha-san by Sasaki Noriko
- Tokyo Ghoul by Sui Ishida
- Honey and Clover by Umino Chika
- Natsume’s Book of Friend by Yuki Midorikawa
- Saiyuki by Kazuya Minekura
- Magical Circle Guru Guru by Hiroyuki Etou
- Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori
- Hetalia: Axis Powers by Hidekaz Himaruya
- Doraemon by Fujiko Fujio
- World Trigger by Daisuke Ashihara
- Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
- Assassination Classroom by Yusei Matsui
- Fairy Tail by Mashima Hiro
- Sket Dance by Kenta Shinohara
- Ushio to Tora by Kazuhiro Fujita
- Hellsing by Kouta Hirano
- Fushigi Yugi by Yuu Watase
An Imperfect Barometer
One of the first things that you will notice about the top 50 results for the Elements of Me campaign is the abundance of titles that belong to the shonen demographic. This makes sense, given that shonen series tend to sell the most and make the biggest impact, but there are also several notable shoujo series, such as Cardcaptor Sakura and Fruits Basket. There are almost no seinen or josei series, however, which is a shame.
Furthermore, although the top spot belongs to Fullmetal Alchemist and Square Enix’s Monthly Shonen Gangan, the majority of the most popular series were published in Weekly Shonen Jump at one point or another; One Piece, Gintama, Hunter x Hunter and Slam Dunk make up the rest of the Elements of Me campaign’s top 5. If that isn’t enough to cement the absolute dominance of Shueisha’s magazine, then I don’t know what is.
Of course, these sorts of public votes always have flaws. In the first place, what exactly goes into a manga that “defines” you is subjective, which inevitably turns the whole thing into a popularity contest – hence why you can see such series as Kimetsu no Yaiba and My Hero Academia so high up. These series probably haven’t been around long enough to “define” anyone, let alone come to a conclusion.
In any case, what the results for Alu’s Elements of Me campaign do show us are the top 50 manga most present in the minds of Japanese consumers right now, as well as the current shonen-dominated state of the industry. If I were to pick my top five, in turn, they’d be something like this in no particular order:
I made these choices on the basis of those series that I feel have most influenced me, both on a professional and personal level. In the case of Bakuman, you can read a little bit more about that here. What about you? What are the five manga that best define you? You can use Alu’s image generator to share your picks, as well as get in touch with us on social media.