About this site
Where did that work come from, and where did it leave its mark? I wanted to look at a hundred years of manga on a single map. This site grew out of that private wish.
With the deepest respect to everyone who built manga as a form, and to the artists drawing at the front line right now.
Why I am making this
Start from curiosity; finish by returning something to the people who draw
This map came out of curiosity. Where did the work I love come from, and how is it connected to the rest? Once it was all on one map, manga stopped looking like a pile of masterpieces and started looking like one current, grown by a great many people over a hundred years.
The map's job ends at pointing. If you like something you met here, please go to the real thing — read it, buy it, get the next volume. If it becomes a doorway through which attention and money find their way back to the artists, the map has done its job.
Handing culture to the next generation is, I think, the same act as handing on the natural world. I hope this map adds a little to someone's stock of good feeling.
What this site does
A map for meeting manga again
A family tree of genres, the places stories are set in, the eras they take place in, and down to the single panel that moved someone — I am growing a map you can enter from many doors.
Promises
This map is not the one right answer. It is a hypothesis with a good view.
- No scores and no rankings. Culture is not a competition.
- Links to works go only to official sales and official streaming.
- Sources are shown, and where opinions differ, the differences stay in.
- Mistakes get fixed. Tell me when you find one.
- A human does the choosing. AI helps with the looking-up, but respect is a person's work.
Founding years and lines of influence are debated. The lines drawn here are one reading of the sources, and if you think one of them is wrong, please say so — the more people who know the field speak up, the more accurate and the more interesting this map becomes. Anything you notice, please send to X (@emo_matsuishi).
Who runs this
MANGA MAP is the front; behind it there is one reader
Keisuke Matsuishi. A private individual who likes manga. This site is made together with AI: a human does the planning, the choosing of what goes in, and the final calls, while AI does much of the implementation. It doubles as a demonstration of how far one person working with AI can get.
Contact: X @emo_matsuishi
This map is made as part of REGEN, an effort to add to people, nature and culture. About REGEN
The map series
From any map, you can reach the other seven
- 01KAMI MAPThe gods and shrines of Japan
- 02MANGA MAPyou are hereA century of manga, in one map
- 03JAPAN MUSIC MAPThe music scenes of Japan
- 04ANIME MAPThe anime of Japan
- 05WORLD ART MAPHow art evolved, in one map
- 06REGEN WORLD SONGS MAPSongs of regeneration around the world
- 07WORLD FILM MAPHow cinema evolved, in one map
- 08BUSINESS MODEL MAPHow business models evolved, in one map
- 09WORLD GAME MAPHow games evolved, in one map
- 10WORLD DRAMA MAPHow TV drama evolved, in one map
- 11MATSURI MAPFestivals of Japan and the world, on one map
- 12JAPAN SHUN MAPThe micro-seasons and shun of Japan
- 13BOOK MAPThe books that changed how we see the world
- 14FONT MAPThe typefaces that gave letters a voice
- 15MICRO MAPA map of the invisible world
About covers and links
This site takes part in the Amazon Associates Programme
Book covers and read links use Amazon's data, and this site earns from qualifying purchases. What it earns goes to keeping the site running and extending the map.