Most Popular Manga of 2026 — 8 Series and Where to Read Them

Every week a new chapter drops in Japan, the spoilers hit your timeline by lunchtime, and — if you don't read Japanese — you're stuck waiting. Sometimes the wait is hours. Sometimes it's a year of untranslated volumes. This is a tour of the manga people are actually reading in 2026, where each one lives, whether there's an official English release, and what to do when you want to read the raw Japanese now.

Official English isn't the same as your language

Here's the thing most "read the raws" guides miss. In 2026 a huge share of the biggest manga has same-day official English — Shueisha's MANGA Plus and VIZ's Shonen Jump app publish the newest chapters of many Weekly Shonen Jump and Shonen Jump+ series in English, free, the moment they release in Japan. When an official English chapter exists, read it: it's free, it's excellent, and it supports the author.

But official English is not the same as your language. Most manga is only ever localized into English — or stays Japanese-only. If you read in Portuguese, Spanish, French, German or any of a dozen other languages, you're usually stuck choosing between a language that isn't yours and no translation at all. That's the real gap: Sumi translates the same page into 20+ languages, so a reader in Brazil or Latin America can read the newest chapter in Portuguese or Spanish, not just English.

The other gaps a translator fills: a series never licensed at all, volumes the official release hasn't reached (looking at you, The JOJOLands), raws you bought, or reading the Japanese original to learn the language. That's the lens for the list below.

The manga everyone's reading in 2026

1. Hunter × Hunter

Yoshihiro Togashi's masterpiece is the definition of "read the raw the second it's out" — not because there's no English, but because it comes back from long hiatuses in unpredictable bursts, and when it does, the fandom races to read every page. Serialized irregularly in Weekly Shonen Jump, with official English on VIZ / MANGA Plus when it's running. If you're catching a fresh batch of chapters and can't wait for the localized version to catch up, the raw is where the conversation is. → Full guide: how to read Hunter × Hunter.

2. Kagurabachi

The breakout of the last couple of years — a revenge story about a young swordsman that went from meme to genuine sales juggernaut. Serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump with strong same-day English on MANGA Plus, so for the newest chapter you're usually covered. The raw matters most if you're reading it to study Japanese, or want the original lettering and sound effects exactly as drawn.

3. Dandadan

Occult meets aliens meets a genuinely great romance — Yukinobu Tatsu's Shonen Jump+ hit exploded further with its anime. It's one of the most-discussed series online, which means spoilers travel fast. Official English is on MANGA Plus — but no official Portuguese or Spanish — and Jump+ is one of the sites Sumi's in-app browser bookmarks by default, so reading a chapter in your own language is a couple of taps. → Full guide: how to read Dandadan.

4. Chainsaw Man (Part 2)

Tatsuki Fujimoto's chaos machine runs in Shonen Jump+, and Part 2's irregular, swing-for-the-fences pacing keeps the fandom glued to every drop. Official English on MANGA Plus is same-day. Reach for a translation tool if you're re-reading imported volumes, or reading the raw to catch the nuance in Fujimoto's deliberately blunt dialogue.

5. Sakamoto Days

A retired hitman runs a corner store and tries very hard not to kill anyone — until he has to. A Weekly Shonen Jump action-comedy with a 2025 anime that pulled in a wave of new readers. Official English on MANGA Plus / VIZ. Great "learn Japanese" material, too: short, punchy bubbles and lots of everyday speech.

6. Kaiju No. 8

Naoya Matsumoto's monster-fighting hit runs in Shonen Jump+ with a hugely popular anime behind it. Official English is on MANGA Plus. Like the other Jump+ titles, it's a clean case for reading on the web and translating in place when you want a specific line in your own language.

7. The JOJOLands

This is where raw-reading demand is real. Hirohiko Araki's ninth JoJo part runs monthly in Ultra Jump, and the official English volume releases lag the Japanese serialization by a long way. If you follow JoJo and don't want to wait a year-plus for localized volumes, the raw is often the only way to keep up — exactly the gap a translator fills. → Full guide: how to read The JOJOLands.

8. One Piece

Still, after all these years, the center of gravity. Eiichiro Oda's Weekly Shonen Jump epic has excellent same-day English on MANGA Plus, so read that for the newest chapter. The raw comes into play if you're working through the Japanese to learn, or reading imported tankōbon volumes you own.

How to read the raws with Sumi

Once you've found a page you have the right to read — an official free chapter, a volume you bought, a title with no English — here's how to get it into your language. Pick any of 20+ target languages (English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, and more) in the settings; all three methods below share the same translation engine, so the result is the same — you're just choosing how the page reaches you.

• On your phone or Mac: Sumi's reader app has a built-in browser with MANGA Plus, Shonen Jump+, ComicWalker, pixiv Comic, WEBTOON and more bookmarked. Open a chapter, turn on translation, and pages translate as you scroll — with the English set back inside each bubble, not dumped in a sidebar.
• On your computer: Sumi for Chrome translates manga in place on the reader sites you already use. Install once, open the chapter, and read.
• A saved file or screenshot: drop it into the online translator — no install, works on any device.

Phone/Mac: bookmarked licensed sites — open a chapter and translate as you scroll.

Desktop: translate the page you're already on.

Saved image or screenshot: drag-and-drop, no install.

If part of why you're chasing raws is to learn Japanese, the reader app also shows furigana over the kanji, a tap-to-define dictionary, and drops the words you look up into a spaced-repetition deck — so the series you're already following does double duty.

For the full breakdown of when to use each method, see how to read raw manga in English. Reading a Korean webtoon instead? The vertical-scroll format needs its own approach — see translating manhwa and webtoons.

What the translation actually looks like

The before/after at the top of this post is a single page run through Sumi: the original Japanese lettering erased and the English typeset back inside the speech bubbles, the way a human scanlator would do it — not a flat grey box over the art. That page is from Black Jack ni Yoroshiku, a series whose author has released it for free use; it's the same seamless result you get on your own pages. Running that clean → redraw → typeset pipeline automatically is what makes it a scanlation app rather than a caption overlay.

FAQ

Is it legal to translate raw manga? Translating manga you have a right to read — your own purchases, official free chapters, public-domain or creator-freed titles — is fine for personal use. The tools only convert text on a page you already have in front of you; they don't host or distribute manga. When an official English release exists, read and support it.

What's the fastest way to read a new chapter in English? For most big Shonen Jump and Jump+ series, the official same-day English on MANGA Plus is the fastest and free. A translation tool is for the gaps — unlicensed series, lagging volumes (like The JOJOLands), imported raws, or reading the original to learn.

Can I read these to learn Japanese? Yes — that's one of the best reasons to read the raw even when English exists. Sumi on iPhone, iPad and Mac adds furigana, a tap dictionary, and flashcards on top of the manga you're already reading.

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Found a raw you want in your language? Drop the page into the online manga translator — one page is free without an account, signing up adds 5 more, and you can claim 5 more every day after that. For a chapter on a website use the Chrome extension, and for reading on the go, the app.

Sample page: Black Jack ni Yoroshiku (「ブラックジャックによろしく」) by Syuho Sato, released by the author for free use via the Ge-Sen (電書) free-use program. All other series named above are the property of their respective authors and publishers and are referenced for identification only.