What this genre is
Yoshihiro Tatsumi and the Gekiga Kobo group declared themselves against Tezuka's round-lined children's manga. With realistic drawing and adult subjects, they raised the age of the manga reader.
Seinen — about this band: Manga for adults, born out of gekiga. Realism, society, work, science fiction.
Connections
Three kinds of line: direct evolution, influence, and born in reaction against.
↓ Flowed into this
↑ Grew out of this
Key works
A sweeping gekiga about the rigid class system of the Edo period. The magazine Garo was founded so this could run. A bible for the student-movement generation.
A boxing gekiga following Joe Yabuki, a boy out of the doss houses, until he burns out. When Toru Rikiishi died, a real funeral was held for him.
The work of Duke Togo, a sniper of the first rank. It holds the world record for the most volumes of a single manga, and is the high point of gekiga.
The hard-boiled comedy of Ryo Saeba, Shinjuku's crack sweeper. Adult glamour and gags in alternation brought seinen readers in too.
The dark medieval fantasy of the swordsman Guts, his revenge and his causality. Ferocious detail and a weighty story make it the summit of dark fantasy.
Based on Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi, on a swordsman's life and what strength is for. Overwhelming brushwork lifted period gekiga to a new height.
Seinen — walk the band
Genres in the same band, in order of year. You are at the highlighted one.
All genres
About this entry
Genre boundaries are drawn where the network of manga happens to concentrate, not by decree. Years are approximate. Where opinions differ, this page says so rather than picking a winner.