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Best Based on manga Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of based on manga cinema — measured across 1,660 indexed frames from 22 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Based on manga films over-index on kimono, motorcycle and sword — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2019)

    Rosendo RuízDP Brandon TrostIMDb 8.6TMDB 8.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    From the earliest times, the humanity knows about human-flesh eating monsters, lurking in the darkness to devour an unfortunate soul that does not trust rumors. However, the rumors also mention an elite corps of demon hunters, skilled assassins, killing demons. Demon Slayer focuses on Tanjirou Kamado, who is still very young, but is the only man in his family. One day, Tanjirou decides to go down to the local village to make a little money, selling charcoal. When he returns back, he becomes an unwilling part of these horrifying rumors: his family is slaughtered and the only survivor, his sister Nezuko, is turned into demon. For some reason, Nezuko still acts as a human, which is the reason for Tanjirou to join demon slayers and cure his sister. Will he manage to join the elite corps and cure his sister?

  2. 2

    Alita: Battle Angel

    Robert RodriguezDP Bill PopeIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    Alita is a creation from an age of despair. Found by the mysterious Dr. Ido while trolling for cyborg parts, Alita becomes a lethal, dangerous being. She cannot remember who she is, or where she came from. But to Dr. Ido, the truth is all too clear. She is the one being who can break the cycle of death and destruction left behind from Tiphares. But to accomplish her true purpose, she must fight and kill. And that is where Alita's true significance comes to bear. She is an angel from heaven. She is an angel of death.

  3. 3

    Akira (1988)

    Katsuhiro OtomoDP Katsuji MisawaIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    2019. 31 years after being destroyed during World War 3, Tokyo (now 'Neo-Tokyo') has been rebuilt and is a thriving metropolis. Shotaro Kaneda is the leader of a biker gang. His friend Tetsuo is injured in an accident and taken to a top-secret government facility. He develops telekinetic powers but decides to use them for evil rather than good. He has the same powers as Akira, the force that destroyed Tokyo in 1988, and now it appears that history will repeat itself.

  4. 4

    Attack on Titan (2013)

    Spike LeeDP Shôji EharaIMDb 9.1TMDB 8.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    Humans are nearly exterminated by giant creatures called Titans. Titans are typically several stories tall, seem to have no intelligence, devour human beings and, worst of all, seem to do it for the pleasure rather than as a food source. A small percentage of humanity survived by walling themselves in a land protected by extremely high walls, even taller than the biggest of titans. Flash forward to the present, and mankind has not seen a titan in over 100 years. One day, 10 year old Eren and his childhood friend Mikasa witness something horrific as the city walls are destroyed by a colossal titan that appears out of thin air. As the smaller titans flood the city, the two kids watch in horror as Eren's mother is eaten alive. Eren vows that he will murder every single titan and take revenge for all of mankind.

  5. 5

    One Piece Film: GOLD (2016)

    Hiroaki MiyamotoDP Naoyuki WadaIMDb 7.1TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    Set in Gran Tesoro, an independent country chartered by the World Government, home of the world's greatest entertainment city where well-known pirates, Marines, and millionaires throughout the world gather in an "absolute sanctuary" that even the World Government can't touch. There, the Straw Hat Pirates meet the ruler of the country, the golden emperor, Gild Tesoro, who easily wins pirates, the Marines, and even the World Government over to his side with money. He is about to take action to satisfy his bottomless ambition which may result in major changes in power relationships in the New World.

  6. 6

    Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

    Hayao MiyazakiIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    An animated fantasy-adventure. Set one thousand years from now, the Earth is ravaged by pollution and war. In the Valley of the Wind lives Nausicaä, Princess of her people. Their land borders on a toxic jungle, filled with dangerous over-sized insects. Meanwhile, two nearby nations are bitterly engaged in a war and the Valley of the Wind is stuck in the middle.

  7. 7

    Ghost in the Shell (1995)

    Mamoru OshiiDP Hisao ShiraiIMDb 7.9TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    It is the year 2029. Technology has advanced so far that cyborgs are commonplace. In addition, human brains can connect to the internet directly. Major Motoko Kusanagi is an officer in Section 9, an elite, secretive police division that deals with special operations, including counter terrorism and cyber crime. She is currently on the trail of the Puppet Master, a cyber criminal who hacks into the brains of cyborgs in order to obtain information and to commit other crimes.

  8. 8

    Death Note (2017)

    Adam WingardDP David TattersallIMDb 4.5TMDB 4.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    Light Turner, a bright student, stumbles across a mystical notebook that has the power to kill any person whose name he writes in it. Light decides to launch a secret crusade to rid the streets of criminals. Soon, the student-turned-vigilante finds himself pursued by a famous detective known only by the alias L.

What based on manga films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a based on manga frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — kimono is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • kimono12.9×
  • motorcycle8.7×
  • sword8.1×
  • straw hat6.4×
  • skyscraper4.7×
  • debris2.9×
  • clouds2.6×
  • teeth2.3×

How based on manga films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate based on manga from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 14%low anglevs 5% baseline
  • 15%high anglevs 6% baseline
  • 16%high keyvs 12% baseline
  • 26%widevs 20% baseline
  • 34%dayvs 43% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Oldboy (2003) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,660 frames from 22 films carrying the based on manga label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/based-on-manga

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These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used