Where to Start with Naoki Urasawa
Naoki Urasawa is a Japanese manga artist known for meticulous plotting, deeply human characters, and a cinematic sense of pacing that rivals the best thriller novelists. He has won virtually every major manga award in Japan and is widely regarded as one of the greatest storytellers the medium has produced.
Start here
Monster
Naoki Urasawa · 3500 pages · 1994 · Moderate
Themes: identity, morality, psychological suspense, nature vs nurture
The best place to start with Naoki Urasawa. Monster is a psychological thriller about a brilliant surgeon who saves a young boy’s life, only to discover years later that the boy has grown into a serial killer. What follows is a gripping chase across Europe as Dr. Kenzo Tenma tries to stop the monster he inadvertently set free.
Why Start Here
Monster is Urasawa’s masterpiece of sustained tension. Unlike 20th Century Boys, which juggles a massive cast and multiple timelines from the start, Monster gives you a single protagonist with a clear moral dilemma. You’re hooked before the complexity builds.
The series reads more like a European literary thriller than a typical manga. If you’ve never read manga before, this is the one that converts skeptics. The pacing is deliberate but never slow, and each volume ends with the kind of cliffhanger that makes you immediately reach for the next.
What to Expect
A dark, atmospheric journey through 1990s Germany with echoes of Cold War-era paranoia. Long stretches of investigation, character study, and moral questioning punctuated by moments of genuine terror. Urasawa draws faces with extraordinary subtlety, so pay attention to expressions. The art tells as much of the story as the dialogue.
At 18 volumes, it’s a commitment, but one that rewards every page.