Crunchyroll Manga is home to a cornucopia of stories with enchanting characters, devastated worlds, and mysteries worth exploring. The app was relaunched in October 2025, after a first version was shut down in 2023. Crunchyroll Manga is bundled with Crunchyroll streaming services with monthly premium plans of $14 or $17.
What makes Crunchyroll Manga stand out against major rivals, like Manga Plus and K Manga, is its access to series from multiple Japanese publishers, such as Shueisha, Square Enix, Kadokawa, AlphaPolis, and more. It also features some of the biggest names in the industry, like Jujutsu Kaisen and One Piece, while still offering a solid mix of comedy, horror, and other genres for a wide range of manga readers.
With so much to choose from, it might get tricky knowing where to start when on the hunt for the best books in the Crunchyroll Manga app. To save you some time, here’s a list of some of the best works to find across a variety of genres.
10
The Summer Hikaru Died
If you’re into weird stories, The Summer Hikaru Died is the perfect manga for you. It’s dripping with some of the trippiest imagery in the medium and finds the perfect way to mix a tale of maturation and friendship into something horrifying. The Netflix series was released almost a year ago, and it was celebrated as one of the most skin-crawling narratives in recent memory.
As the title suggests, Indo Hikaru meets an unfortunate end in the middle of his village’s local mountain range. But his story doesn’t end there. When Hikaru returns after missing for several days, his childhood friend Yoshiki notices something off about him. And, sure enough, his intuition is correct when he discovers Hikaru’s body has been possessed and warped by a mysterious creature whose intentions aren’t clear.
Beneath its nail-biting supernatural mystery, The Summer Hikaru Died deals with subtle themes like queer representation, fear of the “other,” and the suffocating nature of small-town life. With season 2 of The Summer Hikaru Died officially confirmed and in production, there’s no better time to catch up before the anime returns.
9
My Dress-Up Darling
Valentine’s Day might be well and gone, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore one of the best romance manga on the Crunchyroll Manga app. This one’s a cosplayer’s dream come true, and it features arguably the “best girl” in the medium: Marin Kitagawa. With her striking pink eyes and flowing blond hair, how could protagonist Wakana Gojo not fall head over heels for her?
As all anime rom-coms go, the power of this story rests in the unspoken emotions shared between both characters, as Gojo tries his best to keep up with Marin’s cosplay dreams. Watching their chemistry evolve is truly spectacular. My Dress-Up Darling is far more subtle than most other romance manga, fitting two characters with drastically different personalities together like perfect puzzle pieces. It will make you weep and smile in one sitting.
8
Daemons of the Shadow Realm
With the Daemons of the Shadow Realm anime series finally debuting on Crunchyroll, now’s the perfect time to dive into this spicy dark fantasy from the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist. The story feels like the perfect counter to the tried-and-true fantasy genre we’ve been bombarded with these past several seasons, from Frieren to Sentenced to Be a Hero.
Daemons of the Shadow Realm focuses on a pair of siblings named Yuru and Asa, born in the mysterious Higashi village and separated after their parents flee, taking only Asa with them and leaving Yura behind. In this world, supernatural creatures called Daemons exist, and humans can bond with them to wield their powers.
Daemons of the Shadow Realm takes many of the lessons learned in author Hiromu Arakawa’s previous work to new heights. It blends both the past and present in some fascinating ways as you get to see modern-day from the eyes of Yuru, who has lived most of his life in an isolated village without technology.
7
Lycoris Recoil
Most anime are typically adapted from manga, but Lycoris Recoil is one of the few exceptions, as the comic is an adaptation of the breakout action-comedy series, considered one of the best anime of 2022. Lycoris Recoil veers away from its counterparts by blending high-octane shootouts and girls with guns with light slice of life hijinks that make it particularly endearing.
By day, orphaned teenage girls Takina Inoue and Chisato Nishikigi run a local café, but at night the pair serve as badass assassins under the all-female Lycoris program, which is handled by the Direct Attack organization. The group is intended to keep Tokyo safe from various bad actors, from minor criminals to dangerous terrorists.
Slice of life on the Crunchyroll Manga app is a bit sparse, making Lycoris Recoil one of the best reads you can find that fit the genre. While the action in the series is a definitive strong suit, and one of the main reasons why it became such a smash hit, I find the many real-world situations the protagonists get into far more engaging.
6
Sanda
Seemingly out of nowhere, Sanda quickly became this past December’s breakout holiday hit anime and, judging by its source material, I can see why. The story follows Kazushige Sanda, who discovers he can turn into Santa Claus whenever he wears anything red.
Sanda is set in the year 2080, a time when the birthrate in Japan has dwindled. Various policies, such as arranged marriages from birth and sleep deprivation to minimize development, have been enacted by the Japanese government to keep minors in check.
With Christmas a long and forgotten custom, likened to a fictional legend by many, it’s up to Kazushige Sanda to remind the people of the power of giving. Penned and illustrated by Paru Itagaki of Beastars fame, Sanda is a surprisingly disconcerting look into a future Japan that mixes a silly premise with more serious themes.
5
Bungo Stray Dogs
Channeling its inner League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Bungo Stray Dogs is the manga for every hardcore literature fan. The series spotlights a group called the Armed Detective Agency in their efforts to keep the Port Mafia at bay in Yokohama, Japan.
A total of ten light novels have been released so far, all of them gripping mysteries with enticing characters that are named after famous 19th-century and 20th-century authors. The manga finds its footing in bringing these characters to life, showing their varied personalities and powers, which directly correlate to their respective novels in the real world.
The Bungo Stray Dogs anime just turned 10. Celebrate in style by diving into its unconventional world on the Crunchyroll Manga app.
4
Delicious in Dungeon
Although it’s yet another manga in the bloated fantasy genre, Delicious in Dungeon uses a noticeably different approach. It’s still got the violence and action you’d want from a series about dungeon crawling, only it adds a literal twist of lemon to the mix in its focus on the characters’ daily appetites.
Ryoko Kui’s narrative follows a group of adventurers led by Laios Touden on a quest to find the dragon that ate his sister. However, it reads more like a Food Network series set in a fantasy land, and the delicacies are the many monsters that make up its dungeons. It’s a fun, lighthearted, and comedic adventure, filled with incredible imagery and hilarious characters.
It’s no surprise that Delicious in Dungeon was such a smash hit when it landed on Netflix in 2024, and with its second season just around the corner, it’s high time you dug in.
3
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
Rom-coms are a dime a dozen in manga, but few are as odd as Rascal Does Not Dream. The star of the story isn’t so much a person, but the supernatural “Adolescence Syndrome” that has taken over the lives of various high school girls. When afflicted with the syndrome, emotional distress manifests as physical conditions.
The first volume of the light novel series from which the manga is adapted, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, focuses on how this Adolescence Syndrome is directly impacting the lives of Sakuta and Mai as the two spark up an unexpected relationship. It leads to some hilarious moments, and can be surprisingly deep at times despite its supernatural and humorous subject matter.
You’ll want to dive into Rascal Does Not Dream on the Crunchyroll Manga app pronto if you want to catch up before the Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dear Friend film premieres later this year.
2
Penguin Highway
A drastic detour from many other entries on this list, Penguin Highway is among the most underrated manga you’ll find on the Crunchyroll Manga app. It reads more like a Haruki Murakami novel than a manga, featuring a surreal mystery about the sudden appearance of penguins in a small town.
Both the story of Penguin Highway and its art are utterly breathtaking. The manga mainly follows a precocious young boy named Aoyama, who takes a strong interest in the penguin mystery. His aptitude for feeling like an adult in training makes Aoyama believe he’s the only one who can uncover the secrets of the penguins — but the mystery is far more bizarre and complex than he could ever have realized.
Penguin Highway bundles a wide swath of interesting themes into its narrative, highlighting the power of magic over science, maturity, and relinquishing the past. The story was adapted into an anime film by Studio Colorido in 2018, which you can watch for free on YouTube.
1
The Color of the End: Mission in the Apocalypse
The Color of the End is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi story featuring a young girl named Saya as she traverses a world left in ruins by crystallosis, a deadly virus brought by invading aliens that turns humans into crystals.
Melancholic, bleak, yet bursting with originality, The Color of the End is a fascinating depiction of human resilience. It reminds me a lot of Berserk in its dark themes of loneliness and despair, plus Haruo Iwamune’s art feels just as detailed and dense as the late Kentaro Miura’s.
The Crunchyroll Manga app only offers the first two volumes, and it’s unclear when to expect the third to debut on the platform. Since volume four is slated for release in August 2026, better to dive in early than wait for the explosion of interest.
