Gon (manga)
A silent manga about a small dinosaur's adventures.
Masashi Tanaka’s *Gon* is a Japanese manga series that ran in Kodansha’s *Morning* magazine and its special editions from September 1991 to March 2002. It follows a small dinosaur named Gon as he wanders a wilderness set long after the Age of Dinosaurs. The comic is entirely silent—no dialogue or sound effects appear—and each chapter works as a self-contained episode. Gon usually seeks food, sleep, or solitude, but his efforts pull him into the lives of nearby animals, sometimes friendly, sometimes violent. Thanks to his unnatural strength and invulnerability, he always overpowers larger opponents, and there is very little ongoing story between chapters.
The manga was collected into seven *tankōbon* volumes under Kodansha’s “Wide KC” imprint between March 1992 and March 2002. A compilation called *Gon Selection*, released in August 2012 under the “KC Deluxe” imprint, includes a one-shot titled *Gon to Yukaina Nakamatachi* that originally appeared in *Evening* in May 2003. In North America, Paradox Press (a DC Comics imprint) published eight volumes from 1996 to 2000, with pages reversed for left-to-right reading. CMX, another DC imprint, reissued the series in seven volumes from July 2007 to January 2009, this time preserving the original right-to-left format. Kodansha Comics reprinted those seven volumes between August 2011 and August 2012. In the UK, Mandarin Books released a single volume in 1994.
A spin-off, *Gon-chan*, ran in Kodansha’s children’s magazine *Comic BomBom* from December 2005 to December 2006. Tanaka resumed the main series in full color in *Monthly Afternoon* from March 2012 to February 2013, and a 98-page black-and-white one-shot appeared in the same magazine in September 2013.
Video game adaptations include a Super Famicom platformer by Bandai (November 1994), a Nintendo 3DS platformer called *Gon: Baku Baku Baku Baku Adventure* (June 2012 in Japan, later in South Korea), and a playable appearance in the PlayStation version of *Tekken 3*. A computer-animated film was announced in July 2005, with Motonori Sakakibara attached to direct and Sprite Animation Studios producing, but no further news emerged after the planned 2007 release.
The only animated adaptation is a 2012 Japanese-French CGI film titled *Gon: The Little Dinosaur* — no anime series was ever produced.
- creator
- Masashi Tanaka
- first_serialization
- September 1991
- final_serialization
- March 14, 2002
- publisher
- Kodansha
- genre
- Seinen manga
- notable_for
- Silent comic with no dialogue or sound effects
Lore & Background
Gon was written and illustrated by Masashi Tanaka and began serialization in Kodansha's Morning magazine in September 1991. It also briefly appeared in the special issue Morning Shin Magnum Zōkan between 1998 and 1999. The manga completed serialization on March 14, 2002, and its chapters were compiled into seven tankōbon volumes under Kodansha's 'Wide KC' imprint from March 19, 1992, to March 22, 2002. A compilation volume titled Gon Selection was published on August 23, 2012, including a one-shot story titled Gon to Yukaina Nakamatachi that had been published in Evening on May 13, 2003.
The manga was published in North America by Paradox Press (a subset of DC Comics) from 1996 to 2000 in eight volumes, with pages reversed for left-to-right reading. CMX, another DC Comics subset, reissued Gon in seven volumes from July 31, 2007, to January 27, 2009, in the original right-to-left format. Kodansha Comics reprinted the seven-volume series between August 30, 2011, and August 21, 2012. In the United Kingdom, Mandarin Books published a single volume in 1994. A spin-off manga titled Gon-chan was serialized in Comic BomBom from December 15, 2005, to December 15, 2006. Tanaka resumed Gon in full color in Monthly Afternoon from March 24, 2012, to February 25, 2013, and a 98-page black-and-white one-shot was published on September 25, 2013.
Reader's Guide
Gon is significant as a pioneering silent manga that relies entirely on visual storytelling, with no dialogue or sound effects, making it accessible to readers regardless of language. Its episodic format follows the invincible dinosaur Gon as he interacts with other creatures, often with violent or humorous outcomes. The series won multiple awards in 1998, including the Excellence Award at the second Japan Media Arts Festival, the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material and Best Humor Publication, and the award for Best French Edition of Foreign Material at the 1998 Manga Festival in France. Its legacy includes video game adaptations for the Super Famicom and Nintendo 3DS, a playable appearance in Tekken 3, a proposed computer-generated film announced in 2005 but never released, and a CGI anime series that aired from April 2, 2012, to March 25, 2013, with a second season from April 4, 2015, to September 26, 2015. The manga's lack of dialogue has been praised for enabling universal comprehension.
Did You Know?
- Gon is a silent comic with no dialogue or sound effects.
- The manga won the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material in 1998.
- A computer-generated animated film was announced in 2005 but no further news emerged.
- The anime series aired on TX Network from April 2, 2012, to March 25, 2013, for 50 episodes.
More in Animated television series about animals 1-24
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record