The Best Horror Manga That Debuted In 2024

Summary

• Isekai genre surge reduces horror manga availability.
• Hydra explores the consequences of desires through sentient clones.
• Centuria offers a shocking, supernatural twist on survival at sea.

In the world of manga, one genre has been ruling the industry for quite some time now: the isekai. There are so many new isekai series every year that it is practically impossible to keep track of them all. While there’s nothing inherently bad about one genre being more dominant than the rest, the rise of isekai means the fall of other less-popular genres, such as horror. Horror is already a niche genre, but when an industry hyper-focuses on chasing the isekai trend, the result is a concerningly low number of horror manga.

As if the selection is not small enough, we also added two more parameters to this list: (1) The manga has to be available in English so that it can be read by Western audiences, and (2) it has to have at least a MyAnimeList Score of 6.00. This is a “best of” list after all, so any score lower than that is hard to justify. To ensure readers have quite a few selections of manga to choose from, we decided to include One Shots as well. So here they are, the best new horror manga in 2024, ranked based on their MyAnimeList score.

8

Hydra

Living With Murderous Copies Of Me

• Japanese Title: Hydra
• Author(s): Kawabata, Iyu
• Release Date: Sep 20, 2024
• MyAnimeList Score: 6.19
• Type: One-shot
• Available at: Manga Plus

Through a series of unfortunate incidents, a young girl named Luca is infected with a new kind of parasite called the Hydra. Whenever the user has a clear and strong desire, Hydra will create a perfect copy of the user that will act on that desire. This copy will usually exist for only a few minutes before it dissolves like a clump of mud in the rain. However, that is not the case at all with Luca. Her copies are not only able to retain their shape, but they are sentient as well.

Hydra is a story about desire and acceptance. Sure, there are murders and body horrors as well, but it is mainly about how one’s desire affects their surroundings and the need to accept one’s current situation, no matter how absurd it may seem. Hopefully, Hydra can receive a proper manga serialization in the future, because at present, the story feels incomplete.

7

House Of The Yamauba

A Familiar Horror With An Unsettling Twist

• Japanese Title: Yamanba-tei
• Author(s): Yaka, Ichi
• Release Date: Sep 14, 2024
• MyAnimeList Score: 6.55
• Type: One-shot
• Available at: Manga Plus

A careless young girl misses her train stop and finds herself stranded at an abandoned station in the dead of night. Not far from the station, she spots a single house with its lights on. Desperate for help, she knocks at the door. The one who answers the door is a creepy old woman. Despite her unsettling appearance, the woman is kind, offering the girl a room for the night. However, as the girl drifts off to sleep, she remains unaware of the dark truth: the old woman is a Yokai with sinister intentions. What unfolds next is a twist no one will see coming.

The first thing that stands out from the story of House of the Yamauba is its tone. It is undoubtedly a horror story, but for some reason, the tone remains lighthearted throughout the whole thing. Even at its most gruesome moments, the story manages to keep this lighthearted nature. The result is a deeply unsettling reading experience that will stay with readers long after they finish the story.

6

Yattara

A Story About A Hell Beast That Plays With Its Food

• Japanese Title: Yattara
• Author(s): Ooyamada
• Release Date: Oct 8, 2024
• MyAnimeList Score: 6.68
• Type: Manga
• Available at: Manga Plus

While the people who live in the city go about their day as usual, a man in a small apartment sacrifices himself to summon a sinister creature that could destroy the world. Its name is Yattara, the Beast of Gluttony. Yattara can devour anything, but he prefers the tender and juicy taste of human flesh. Once Yattara gobbles up the man who summoned him, he moves on to the room next door. That’s where he finds his favorite meal, human children. Since Yattara always wanted to find a new flavor that could satisfy his palate, he decides to raise these orphan children instead. After all, there’s nothing better than the food that you grow yourself.

Yattara has one of the most, if not the most bizarre premise for a horror story. The idea of a voracious beast from hell deciding to raise orphaned children so that he can savor them later when they’ve become healthier and more delicious is wild and outrageous. That’s what makes the story great, and readers won[t be able to get enough of it.

5

The Urban Legend Files

A Story About A Man Who Reluctantly Attracts Urban Legends

• Japanese Title: Toshi Densetsu-senpai
• Author(s): Hiraoka, Kazuki
• Release Date: Nov 16, 2024
• MyAnimeList Score: 6.89
• Type: Manga
• Available at: Manga Plus

This is a story about a young man named Kugutsu. He is cheap, he likes to play Pachinko, and he will do a lot of things for money. However, his greatest gift by far is the fact that he can attract urban legends, particularly Yokai. What’s more, they often appear out of nowhere and when he least expects it. When he is eating by the river, a Kappa appears beside him. When he stands around in a relatively empty street in the middle of the day, the Slit-Mouth Woman suddenly walks right up to him. Thanks to this unique ability, Kugutsu reluctantly joined his university’s Occult Club and basically became the club’s official yokai magnet.

The Urban Legend Files is an outlier on this list because, rather than a horror story with drama and comedy elements in it, it’s more appropriate to say that it is a drama and comedy story with some horror elements in it. So if readers want a laidback horror story that can make them smile and creep them out at the same time, then The Urban Legend Files is the one for them.

4

Herald

Tiptoeing The Line Between Insanity And Demonic Possession

• Japanese Title: HERALD
• Author(s): Hayashi, Tetora
• Release Date: Oct 31, 2024
• MyAnimeList Score: 6.90
• Type: One-shot
• Available at: Manga Plus

Ian once jokingly says to Neil, “If you see evil spirits, do not talk to them. To those spirits, a conversation is permission to do whatever they want to you and the people around you.” Neil never thinks much about what his brother said until the day they lost their mother in a terrible car crash. Since that day, Neil notices a drastic change in Ian, and in their father’s appearance. Their faces look like hideous demons. Are they really Neil’s family? Or are they actually demons disguised as his family? One thing’s for sure, Neil keeps his mouth shut.

Herald begins with a straightforward premise: a young boy starts seeing demons after a tragic incident. Yet, beneath this simplicity lies a tangle of deeper mysteries. Is something wrong with Neil’s mind? Are these visions hallucinations, or has his family truly been overtaken by demons? This short story pulls readers into Neil’s terror, leaving them to question what’s real and what’s not.

3

MAD

A World Where Madness Is The Only Way To Survive

• Japanese Title: MAD
• MyAnimeList Score: 7.23
• Author(s): Ootori, Yuusuke
• Release Date: Jun 18, 2024
• Type: Manga
• Available at: Manga Plus

What can a person do if bloodthirsty aliens invade the Earth and kill every single person that they care about? Would they continue to fight in the name of vengeance? Or will they succumb to this new dystopian world because there’s no reason for them to fight anymore? These are the sorts of questions that go through John’s mind as he traverses the barren wasteland with his fellow survivors. However, everything changes when they stumble upon a group of people who claim to have found a way to fight those ferocious aliens.

MAD unfolds in a world where aliens have devoured most of humanity. After the initial panic, what’s left behind is a desolate place and oppressive silence. As such, every page is designed to convey that suffocating feeling of dread, frustration, and isolation. There’s only a handful of dialogue because there’s hardly anybody to talk to. The background looks flat and unassuming because there’s nothing to see. All that’s left is grief and rage, and it only takes a couple of pages for the readers to drown in this emotion as well.

2

Omori

An Ambiguous Horror Story

• Japanese Title: OMORI
• Author(s): OMOCAT (Story), Konoito, Nui (Art)
• Release Date: Jun 25, 2024
• MyAnimeList Score: 7.50
• Type: Manga
• Available at: K Manga

Since a mysterious incident four years ago, Sunny has been locking himself away in his room, refusing to see anybody apart from his family. Even then, he is still haunted by the dark creature that only he can see. He finally decides to go out one day when Kel, one of his old friends, invites him to hang out. The world looks the same, but everything feels different. Every step takes Sunny back to the day he lost his dear sister to the darkness. The same day their friend group started to drift apart. Once he’s outside, it doesn’t take long for Sunny to realize that that same creature is still around.

The story of Omori can be a little hard to understand at times. From the silent main character to the constant back and forth between the past and present, to the fact that none of the characters are willing to reveal what has actually happened, this series is the definition of ambiguity. Once readers let fully immerse themselves in the story, however, they’ll begin to notice the clues—pieces of the puzzle that reveal the terrible events of the past. This type of story feels incredibly rewarding to read for those who give it their full attention.

1

Centuria

Vinland Saga With Supernatural Elements

• Japanese Title: Centuria
• Author(s): Kuramori, Tooru
• Release Date: Apr 8, 2024
• MyAnimeList Score: 7.58
• Type: Manga
• Available at: Manga Plus

A ship carrying 101 slaves is caught in a massive storm, adrift in the open ocean. To reduce weight, the captain decides to kill the slaves and dump the bodies into the sea, and so the massacre begins. After the crew kills 99 slaves, only a teenage boy and a pregnant woman remain. Right before the slave trader’s bloody sword struck them both, the ocean fell silent. Tentacles of different sizes crept up every corner of the ship. Then, a shadowy figure who looks like a human with a body made out of clumps of tentacles slowly ascends from the ocean and stands behind the two slaves, freezing the slave traders in their place.

“One of you will be my sacrifice,” it says. “One shall die, while the other shall be blessed and obtain great power.” The woman refuses to let the boy die. So she picks up a dagger, slices open her own stomach, and takes her baby out. Before the boy can say anything to her, she hands her baby to him and immediately jumps off the ship. Now that the sacrifice has been fulfilled, the Mother of the Sea granted the boy the strength, speed, endurance, and the lives of the 100 slaves that were massacred that night.

The easiest and fastest way to describe Centuria is to say it is Vinland Saga with supernatural elements. Being compared to Vinland Saga is obviously a flattering thing, but even that description can’t do justice to how shocking, mind-blowing, and unbelievable this manga actually is. Anyone who likes horror manga, or really, anyone who likes good manga in general, should give Centuria a try.