It might seem obvious, but there truly is a lot of manga out there. Just in a week, there are over one hundred different chapters of manga published in Japan alone. The most popular releases tend to get anime adaptations, especially when it comes to popular demographics such as shonen.
That said, there are still some standout examples of widely beloved manga series that have yet to be adapted into anime. So, let's take a look at some of the most obvious examples from just the 2010s and talk about why they're worth adapting into animation.
8 My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness
My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is nothing like the other series readers will see on the rest of this list. While there are some darker, more adult themes in some other entries, nothing is even close to how blunt, painfully real, or heartbreakingly honest this story is. The story is told in primarily first person by Kabi Nagata, and it has a cold open seen on the cover of the book with her laying naked in a love hotel, face to face with an escort she hired.
My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness isn't long, nor does it have some grand overarching narrative, it's just a genuine introspective look at a person's life, how they reached their lowest lows, and what they learned from all their worst and best moments. It's a story that goes to some dark and deeply psychological places, but that's exactly why it's a series that so many people seem to connect with.
7 Goodnight Punpun
Anyone who hasn't read Oyasumi Punpun, AKA Goodnight Punpun, might wonder how this manga manages to capture and resonate with its readers, given the cartoony nature of its main character. To be more clear, the protagonist of this story, Punpun Punyama, is always depicted as this unrealistic bird-like caricature even though he's a human, which is usually why, at a glance, people underestimate the emotional weight of this manga. But, be warned, it's actually incredibly heavy, and not at all an entry-level manga.
Not to spoil too much about it, but Goodnight Punpun is a heavy emotional rollercoaster, with a lot of surreal, nihilistic, and bittersweet moments sprinkled throughout. More than anything, it's a coming-of-age story, and anime has been sorely lacking a hard-hitting oddball surrealist coming-of-age narrative since the days of classics like FLCL or Neon Genesis Evangelion. That said, if it ever does get adapted, it has to be done right, or this great manga will end up falling by the wayside thanks to a lackluster adaptation.
6 Birdmen
Next up isn't exactly one of the most well-known series out there, but everyone who does know about Birdmen will always go up to bat for it. There's just no other manga that manages to preach about the concept of "freedom" and actually achieve that feeling like Birdmen does.
In a way, Birdmen is a very stereotypical shonen. A group of friends go through some tragic event and come out the other side with supernatural powers. Naturally, they have to learn how to use them while also living their normal lives. But, once readers get past the first ten or so chapters, Birdmen really opens up and starts innovating on these stereotypes gradually until the reader is entirely hooked.
5 Delicious In Dungeon
Every day that goes by it becomes more and more of a tragedy that a series like Dungeon Meshi AKA Delicious In Dungeon still doesn’t have an anime adaptation. Sure, there was that promotional animation made by Studio Trigger back in 2019 to promote the release of the eighth volume of the manga, but all that did was make the fans pine for a full adaptation even more.
Delicious in Dungeon is another one of those fantasy series that has a heavy focus on cooking and food, but it’s a masterful execution of it. The characters have interests and lives outside of monsters and cooking, the ways they approach the cooking and ingredients are minutely detailed, and there's even a larger overarching narrative that pulls the reader in. Plus, it manages to do all this while also effortlessly asserting itself as a fantastic comedy manga as well.
4 Dragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated As Yamcha!
With Dragon Ball Super being such a success, the newer movies like Dragon Ball Super: Broly selling tons of tickets, and games like Dragon Ball FighterZ keeping a dedicated playerbase, it's clear that the classic Akira Toriyama franchise is fully back in the limelight. That's also why it’s never been a better time to adapt Dragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha, a hilarious DBZ-spinoff manga.
Basically, the idea of this manga is that a high school kid who is a big DBZ fan falls down a set of stairs, hits his head, and wakes up as Yamcha during the events of the original Dragon Ball before Vegeta and Nappa even came to Earth. From there, in his new body, this kid realizes that Yamcha dies multiple times throughout the franchise, and he now needs to stop that from happening by righting all of Yamcha's past mistakes.
That concept alone is just so absurdly hilarious, and it really manages to capture how it would play out if a true Dragon Ball fan had to utilize their knowledge of the series in order to survive. Sure, it isn't a very long story, but there's assuredly enough to make about six to eight episodes, or it may even work better as a standalone movie.
3 Witch Hat Atelier
Defining the ironclad rules of the world in a fantasy setting, whether it's anime or manga, is much more important than one might initially think. If the characters can just cast spells with a word infinitely without any sort of consequence or tradeoff, fans usually have their suspension of disbelief shattered. But, when a story sets up a well-established system flush with understandable rules and restrictions and then also makes sure to keep to these rules, the story and characters become a lot more believable.
And, Witch Hat Atelier does this perfectly with its magic system that uses ink and paper to cast spells, rather than vocal casting. In Witch Hat Atelier, there's an established system for Witches, how their magic is used, and why they're so secretive. Combine this believable system with the picture book-esque art style of the manga, the lovable cast of characters, and all the slight twists on common tropes, and it's obvious why this series is so widely and universally beloved.
2 A Man & His Cat
Thankfully, the next manga on this list does have an anime on the way in the Summer 2022 season, and not only that but it also already has a live-action adaptation. A Man and His Cat is a pretty simple concept, as the title would suggest, it's about a man, named Kanda, who adopts an old and apparently "ugly" cat named Fukumaru.
And, while that may seem like a cute concept with no substance, A Man and his Cat actually deals with some pretty heavy topics such as learning to live again after loss, dealing with loneliness, and learning to love again.
However, it's also a story that has tons of adorable moments relatable to any cat owner. The manga also has minimal amounts of overarching narrative elements, allowing readers to jump in at any point. Similar to something like Way of the Househusband, A Man and His Cat would be a perfect anime to watch once a week to feel all warm inside.
1 The Ride-On King
Much like how Dragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated As Yamcha is good enough to be adapted on its concept alone, so is the Ride-On King. A man named Alexander Purchinov, essentially a knockoff version of Vladimir Putin, runs a country named Pursia (AKA Russia).
Alexander is obsessed with this concept of dominance and conquest, and it manifests itself in him as true love for the act of riding on and taming different beasts, from horses to jets, to even tigers. Suddenly one day, Alexander is hit by the head of his own statue and is either reincarnated or transported to a fantasy world with magic. Now, this ex-president has to survive in this new world on nothing but strength and taming skill alone, but he sees it as more of a vacation that allows him to experience a slew of new rides on creatures he's never seen before.