Here at Recommend Me Anime, we don’t do manga series in our recommendations, just anime. However, that doesn’t mean that anime fans don’t also like to lie in bed and read a few good chapters of manga every now and then.
And besides, where do many good anime series come from in the first place – The pages of manga.
If you want to read some good action manga, and want to be someone who can potentially say you enjoyed a good series before it was all cool and animated, then check out these great action manga recommendations that don’t have anime adaptations – yet.
Best Action Manga With No Anime
Vagabond
Shinmen Takezou is wild and aggressive, leading to the villagers being fearful of him. However, he and his friend Matahachi end up running away and joining the Toyotomi army for glory.
Unfortunately, after a crushing defeat at the Battle of Sekigahara, they barely make it out alive and are separated. From there, they each go on a journey.
Takezou walks the path that will eventually see him immortalized as Musashi Miyamoto, legendary swordsmen.
Lone Wolf and Cub
Once the shogunate’s chief executioner, treachery saw Ittou Ogami framed with treason. Furthermore, they killed his wife, but his young son was left alive.
Ittou and his son travel the country on a quest for revenge as he takes on the new mantle of an assassin.
Eden: It’s an Endless World
After a pandemic kills 15 percent of the world population and cripples many, the secret organization Propater takes over control of the world government.
Propater tries to capture a boy and girl immune to the virus and raised in an old virology research center, but they escape. 20 years later, the boy, now the largest drug lord in South America, begins his fight back against the tyrannous Propater.
Historie
This is the story of the childhood and life of Eumenes, a secretary and general to Alexander the Great.
Though Eumenes was a real person, not much is known of his past, so this manga tells the largely fictionalized story of his early life featuring characters from Macedonia’s rapid expansion.
Akumetsu
After her father’s company went bankrupt, Nagasaw Shiina searches for a way to ease their financial burden. Unfortunately, she had unknowingly sold herself into prostitution.
During her first job, a mysterious masked man crashed the party and doled out some vigilante justice. Even stranger, she knows the man as Hazama Shou from her class.
He is a man that dons a mask and carries out his vision of justice under the name Akumetsu.
Psyren
After a classmate disappears, Ageha Yoshina calls the number on a mysterious card that his missing classmate had. After a brief interview, they close with a cryptic question – Would you like to go to Psyren?
Agreeing, he finds his classmate and himself in a mystery world inhabited by monsters. With the psychic powers to fight these monsters, the pair try to stay alive in order to make it home.
Battle Royale
In order to motivate the future generations, the Japanese government decided that one class would be randomly chosen each year, placed on a deserted island, and forced to kill each other until one remained.
Shuuya Nanahara, thinking his class was on a graduation trip, finds that their class is the unlucky one chosen for the program.
Now, with collars around their necks that will detonate if they try to leave the island, they must choose how much they are willing to sacrifice to stay alive.
Cage of Eden
On the way back from a school trip to Guam, Akira and his classmates survive a plane crash and find themselves stranded on a jungle island.
However, this island is not what it seems. It is inhabited by mysteries, and more importantly, animals that have been extinct for millions of years. With death and danger around every corner, Akira must protect his friends and unravel the mystery.
Fire Punch
With a mysterious Ice Witch causing the world to slowly freeze, the cold has brought out the worst sides of humanity. This comes out in the usual ways as well as newfound persecution of the Blessed, those with supernatural abilities.
Agni and Luna are two Blessed orphans with the power of regeneration who live in a small community of the elderly. However, when the army passes through, the fire-wielding Army Commander Doma puts the village to the torch. With his powers, his flames do not extinguish until his target turns to ash.
While Luna with her weaker powers succumbs, Agni’s stronger regeneration ability keeps him alive, in agony, and continuously on fire. After decades of conditioning himself to the pain, he sets out on a path of revenge.
Holyland
This is the story of Yuu, a high schooler with no place to belong. He doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere, but will do anything to be accepted.
Eventually, he finds that his place is on the streets. Through constant fights, he hones his boxing-style punches, coming to be known as the “Thug Hunter,” for seeking out and beating delinquents. This nickname attracts even stronger foes and Yuu loses himself in the dark backstreets of society.
Shamo
Ryo was once regarded as a genius and had a bright future in Tokyo University among society’s elite.
However, one summer, he cracks.
He murders his parents with a small knife and leaves his sister alive and cowering in the corner. He is sent to a reformatory facility where an instructor teaches him martial arts to defend himself against the other violent children.
However, when he is freed two years later due to his young age when he committed the crime, Ryo has only learn strength and that having it means taking anything.
Freesia
In an alternate version of Japan, a law has been passed that legalizes retaliatory killings.
This means if someone killed your loved one, you can legally kill or hire someone to kill them. This is the story of one such contract killer and the jobs he takes.
Crows
Suzuran is a school of delinquents. With the students labeled as “Crows,” they lack future prospects and are left to establish their place in the world through their fists.
In this difficult and violent school, strength is king. However, the school still lacks one central leader – the strongest of them all.
Harumichi Bouya is a typical delinquent who has been thrown into Suzuran. Excited to prove himself among the toughest of the tough, he aim to stand at the very pinnacle.
Meteor Methuselah
Rain Jewlitt is a forever-young, 624-year-old immortal nicknamed Methuselah. As such a long-living man, he has amassed a sizable price on his head due to constantly having to deal with those chasing him down in order to learn his secret to immortality.
Machika Balfaltin is an energetic tomboy that has recently set out on her own journey to try and kill Methuselah. He was the only person that her recently deceased grandfather, an assassin named Zol the Grim Reaper, couldn’t kill.
However, instead of killing Rain, Machika finds herself constantly saved by him as they both elude the array of bounty hunters that seek to kill them both.
Detonation Islands
After moving to a new school, Kazei Takeshi is invited by a motorcycle enthusiast he met to hang out with his gang. Eventually joining this motorcycle gang, called the Zeros, Takeshi comes to love motorcycles himself.
However, joining this gang means more than just enjoying the open road. He finds that he has to deal with increasingly violent issues to defend their pride.
More Manga Recommendations
There are literally thousands of more action manga series out there that haven’t been animated yet. Do you have any more manga recommendations? Let action manga fans know in the comments section below.
Soo glad they animated Vinland Saga