Summary
If everyone in fiction were split between being total angels and complete devils, they’d provide some simple, shallow stories. The most tantalizing tales see good guys try to overcome their flaws and resist temptation, and bad guys recount their fall into the depths of evil, and even their attempts to climb back out of them.
It puts them in a sympathetic, underdog position, and if the rotter seeks to genuinely mend their ways, or make up for the time they lost, they can really pull people in. That is, if they can truly be redeemed. The path to redemption is a long and hard one, and these manga show how harsh its pursuit can be.
8Onanie Master Kurosawa
Antisocial Kid Gets His Worst Habits Turned Against Him
The grimmer the circumstances, the harder it can be to get redemption, if it’s possible at all.Onanie Master Kurosawasees its titular lead unable and unwilling to connect with his classmates, seeing himself as superior to them while gratifying himself (so to speak) in the school bathroom. Then things take a turn when he sees a girl getting bullied by her classmates. He decides to intervene by “dispensing justice,” even if it was just him being gross.
Except the bullied girl, Aya, decides to use it against him, blackmailing him into continuing his “crusade” against her bullies. Having his worst habits used against him, Kurosawa slowly realizes where his “justice” may lead him, and leaves him with a choice: go down it and become an outcast, or come clean and hope he can withstand his due punishment. It’s short and makes for a brutal read in the early going, but it makesthe redemptive finaleall the sweeter when it hits.
7Back When You Called Us Devils
Amnesiac School Student Discovers He May Have Been a Monster
Back When You Called Us Devilsis a curious one since, as far as Yusuke knows, he’s just an ordinary high school student. He just can’t remember the last six months of his life. But he’s got no shortage of people willing to remind him, as more of them come out of the woodwork to remind him about all the awful stuff he did to them in the past.
From extortion and torture to the worst kinds of assault, they’re insistent that Yusuke did all these things. Now he must try and find a way to recall his past, and learn for sure how and why he committed those crimes, and what his just deserts for them may be. What starts as a mystery becomes a thriller with a battle of wits, as Yusuke and those around him ponder over whether a devil can truly become good.
6Tetsugaku Letra
Failed Basketball Player Finds a New Direction in Helping Others
Not every tale about redemption involves atoning for crimes. It can be about proving one’s worth against all odds and making their naysayers eat their words. Like inTetsugaku Letra, where Ichinose loved basketball, and even taught his friends how to play. But once they began getting better at the game than him, he got left behind. He lashed out at them and ended up as a social outcast.
He was about to give up the sport for good until he came across a girl similarly frustrated over getting rejected from the dancing club because of her big hands and feet. He suggests she take up basketball instead and, on entering high school, learns she has become a star player. Which leaves him wondering if he might also do well if he took up dancing in her stead. By giving it a shot and meeting new people, Ichinose may discover he’s more talented and worthwhile than he thinks.
5Fullmetal Alchemist
Alchemist Seeks to Cure His Brother of a Condition He Caused
The Elric Brothers, Edward and Alphonse, go through all sorts of adventures, with the former using his position as a state Alchemist to serve the people of Amestris. But the story at the heart ofFullmetal Alchemistis one of redemption, as Edward once tried to use alchemy to bring their late mother Trisha back from the dead.
However, the process proved to betoo tricky for him to manage. It failed horribly, taking Edward’s leg and obliterating Alphonse. Guilt-stricken, he used another spell to restore Alphonse’s soul into a suit of armor at the cost of his right arm. Since then, his rise through the ranks has all been part of his plan to restore Alphonse completely and make up for his awful mistake.
4Vinland Saga
Man Regrets the Murderous Actions They Took as a Boy to Seek Revenge
The path to vengeance can lead people to do things they never thought they were capable of doing. InVinland Saga, Thorfinn joins Askeladd’s band of mercenaries in the hopes of getting strong enough to kill him in a duel. That way, he could avenge the death of his father, who died at the Vikings’ hands when he was a child. Yet to hone his skills, he had to do whatever was asked of him. Which includedkilling innocents and pillaging their property.
Once the matter is taken out of his hands, he’s left as a slave in East Anglia, haunted by his memories of Askeladd and his victims. It left him wondering whether it was all worth it or not. Given the name of the series, the answer seems to be no, as he’ll eventually decide to seek peace elsewhere. Like in this mystery land west of Greenland that “Lucky” Leif Erikson once told him about.
3Space Brothers
Underachieving Big Brother Gets a Shot at Reaching the Stars
FMAandVinland Sagaare grislier tales of redemption, but if readers want one more along the lines ofTetsugaku Letra, where the protagonist seeks a second chance to prove their worth, there’sSpace Brothers. As kids, Mutta and his younger brother Hibito both decided to become astronauts and explore space. Hibito wanted to walk on the moon. Mutta wanted to fulfill his role as a big brother by going that bit further and walking on Mars instead.
Nineteen years later, Hibito managed to make it into JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) as an astronaut, ready to become the first Japanese man on the moon. While Mutta is left grounded and between jobs after being fired from his automobile industry job. Left in despair, he gets a second chance when JAXA invites him to participate in their next astronaut selection process. With a little luck and a lot of hard work, he may finally join Hibito in achieving their dreams together.
2Real
Guilt-Stricken School Dropout Finds His Calling in Wheelchair Basketball
Takehiko Inoue practically made basketball the game to play among ’90s kids when he madeSlam Dunk. But he wasn’t done with the sport after he concluded that series. Instead, he went on to make amore mature story about itinReal, where three men from different backgrounds find common ground in wheelchair basketball. Starting with ex-basketball coach turned delinquent Tomomi, who dropped out of school to take care of a young girl who was paralyzed in an accident he caused.
But when Togawa, a former sprinter who switched to wheelchair basketball after losing his leg, showed him what the disabled could do on the court, he rediscovered his passion for the sport. By helping Togawa and Takahashi, his replacement at school, who was rendered paraplegic after a traffic accident, he might find a future worth working toward.
1A Silent Voice
Awful Bully Tries to Make Things Right With Their Victim
No list of manga with redemption stories would be complete withoutA Silent Voice.Both it and its anime movieare some of the most famous examples of how the path to redemption can be as brutal as the pain its malefactors inflicted on others. As a child, Shouya often bullied Shoko, the deaf transfer student, both out of peer pressure and out of sheer boredom. But soon his classmates turn on him, and single him out as her sole bully.
Betrayed by his “friends,” he takes out his frustrations on Shoko, who ends up transferring out, and Shouya spends the rest of his school days treated with contempt. By the time he reaches high school, he’s left bitter and suicidal. Though when he sees Shoko again, he decides to try and make amends with her before ending his life. Then he could pass without regrets. Yet, as harsh as the process is, as Shoko isn’t exactly happy to see him again, it helps him become a better person and find a reason to keep living.
