Even before German publishers' interest in manga began to expand at the turn of the millennium and Carlsen Comics and Egmont became the first two publishing houses to include Japanese manga in their program, two German artists were already laying the foundations for the subsequent manga boom of the 2010s and thus for 'German manga' with their manga-style works.

In 2000, Jürgen Seebeck's work Bloody Circus, begun in 1997, was the first two-volume manga to be published by Carlsen-Verlag, which was still printed in full color at the time and was based on a collaboration between Seebeck and the Japanese publisher Kodansha. At the beginning of the 2000s, with the start of the slow internationalization of manga, Kodansha was looking for a team of well-known foreign illustrators who were willing to use their artistic talents to develop Japanese comics. Seebeck had already shown a certain soft spot for manga through his work as a translator at Carlsen Verlag, where he was responsible for the translation of Akira and Dragon Ball, among others. This led to the creation of Bloody Circus, the first 'German manga'.

The manga Jiraishin, for which Matz Mainka was the author and Tsutomu Takahashi the illustrator, was the first collaboration between a Japanese illustrator and a German author in the creation of a manga back in 1995. 

The German manga scene emerged together with the first German trade magazines, which presented their readers with monthly chapters of current manga in line with Japanese models such as Shounen Jump. Early pioneers of the genre such as Robert Labs (*1982), Judith Park (*1984), Christina Plaka (*1983) and Alexandra Völker (*1986) were able to establish manga culture in German with their works and made it possible for many artists to realize their dream of German manga-ka with respected publishers. In addition to the trade journals, the newly emerging German manga drawing culture primarily used the first emerging conventions (cons) to bring their own works to the people, e.g. at the Connichi, Manga-Magie or AnimagiC.

Chapters of Crewman 3 (2003-2004, Robert Labs), Dystopia (2004, Judith Park) and Dream Catcher (2004, Martina Peters) provided the material that the first magazines were able to turn into their content. With the discontinuation of numerous specialist periodicals, many members of the first generation of manga-ka also ended their active careers. What remained was the cornerstone of German manga, which subsequently established itself alongside a wide range of Japanese titles. At the same time, the representatives of this 'first generation' remained present at conventions or in their own workshops and spread their knowledge and art among future illustrators. 

The start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 caused problems for many manga artists in Germany, as the organization of fan meetings and the opportunity to promote their own works at conventions in particular had to be suspended. Nevertheless, many illustrators remained true to their manga and continued to create new stories based on the characters they had drawn. Compared to previous decades, there is now an even greater focus on distributing their own works on the internet.

But the publishing culture has not come to a standstill either. In particular, the Hamburg-based publishing house Altraverse, which was founded in 2017, stands for the continuation of German manga culture in book form. Well-known German-language manga artists such as Sozan Coskun (*1996), Ban Zarbo, Gin Zarbo, Jenni Liz and Sabrina Steinert have published numerous works of their own since Altraverse was founded and brought them to the public at various conventions (e.g. the Leipzig Book Fair 2023). Since 2020-2021, Sozan Coskun's Green Garden series, which comprises three volumes to date, has been published. In 2020, Gin Zarbo launched her manga The Secret of Scarecrow.

The distribution of German-language manga on the internet also continues to develop positively. Inga Steinmetz, for example, has been publishing her digital manga Final Smile on Patreon since 2020. 
 

At the end of 2024, various German-language mangaka from different publishers dominate the German manga scene. The manga and webtoon publisher Altraverse with its mangaka Sozan Coskun (Kiela und das letzte Geleit), Racami (Der Fluch des purpurnen Rauches), Gin Zarbo (Das Geheimnis von Scarecrow), Ban Zarbo (Cold - Die Kreatur), Tamasaburo (Charon 78), Jenny Liz Lachenmeier, Sabrina Steinert (Die Tänzerin des Königs), SchornEE (Lets Cast Off) as well as Natalie Schiller and Marcel Hugenschütt (Teddy Boys Love) are among the leaders. Altraverse is therefore currently dominating the manga market with its German artists.

Many of the current multi-volume Altraverse manga have not yet been completed and will be with us for some time to come.

The announcement of the new international European manga magazine Manga Issho in March 2025, which will be published by altraverse, Kana, Planeta Cómic and Star Comics, also marks a new milestone in German manga history.

Carlsen Comics is also still active in the German manga scene with Dominik Jell (Mortalis & Crossing Borders) and Egmont with Daniel Eichinger (Jovanture).

In addition to the publishing mangaka, however, independent mangaka have also been on the rise again for some time. These mangaka include Meiteimiu (INCIDENTS), Nashi (Sometimes she is the light) and the webtoon artist Cloverloy (Black Horda).