Forum - View topicFavourite Manga of 2010
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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For the last couple of years, every December I start a discussion of what series was people's favourite for the year. You can see last year's discussion here (and that post has links to previous years).
The general "rules" per ce have been that the only requirement for your pick is that you read it in 2010, it does not need to have been published this year. I actually wasn't sure what to pick for this year, since I originally was thinking I'd read Solanin this year but apparently it and Clover were my picks for last year, so obviously that's out. This year I really haven't started any new series though, except for one. And that series is not Japanese in origin but the format is basically the same as manga so I'm going to make my pick for the year Scott Pilgrim. This series was very original, hilarious, and definitely deserves to be read by manga fans, even if you generally aren't the type to go for OEL series. For something that is "manga" by any definition, my pick probably goes back to NANA because I've been playing catch-up with it these last couple of months and really remembered all the reasons I love the series. Also a special mention goes to Ooku. I can't give it the top slot because I've only read one volume (and vol #3 at that) but I really enjoyed it and I expect it might be a solid contender for next year's title. So, what did you guys really enjoy reading and why did you like it? I've always found this thread is a great place to pick up some recommendations (the 2008 thread was the main reason I looked into Solanin and I'm still so glad that I did). |
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jmfsilenthill
 Posts: 1863 Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz |
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For me, it's a very tight race between Gantz and The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, with Pluto as a runner up. I buy a volume of Gantz or Kurosagi, and I seriously can't put it down until I've read it all.
Gantz's current arc is just bonkers (actually it just got finished up in vol 14), what with the spoiler[epic dinosaur battles and Izumi going on his terrorist rampage just to get back into the world of Gantz. And now there are those ridiculous vampires who can turn their bodies into swords and guns?!] Gantz is just so over the top and ridiculous that I can't help but love it. Kurosagi has been consistently strong, and I always appreciate the episodic layout of the various stories. Kuratsu is certainly one of my favourite manga characters ever. Everyone in the Kurosagi club is just the definition of cool  . And the artwork is always top notch. It's kind of a shame Dark Horse is neglecting the artists/writer's other work, MPD Psycho. But Kurosagi is a much better series anyway so I guess I can deal.
Eden It's an Endless world! has also been very good. It's a very adult manga, with lots of brutal violence and sexual themes. But it's great cyberpunk/scifi action for those who aren't intimidated by adult themes. Too bad this is another one of Dark Horse's properties that have fell by the wayside. I have hope though, they did start publishing Ghost Talker's Daydream again (which is kind of boring from what I've read  ).
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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Hmm, well first I've gotta think what I've read in the past year that wasn't a re-read (sadly, Hikaru no Go vol 1-9 is a re-read, had I gone up to volume 20 or so that'd be new mostly new material to me and I might count that).
Well I did read all of GTO, yes, the first 18 volumes back in January-February, then a re-read of volumes 14-18 through to 25 when I finally got vols 19-25 and read them last month in November. I'd seen the anime so that's why I read starting from 14 onward but for the new stuff, reading it made me feel like they'd cut the anime short just before it got really good! The manga surpassed the anime for me easily. I also saw the Toward the Terra anime back in the spring then read the To Terra... manga right after I got it at Otakon (for a steal, $25 for all three volumes straight from the Vertical booth!) The similarities and contrasts between them are quite interesting, almost like I felt the need to have experienced both to get the full story, if anyone's holding back on the manga for having seen the anime (or vice versa), don't. And especially don't hold back if you've only seen the movie, that thing's like a cliffnotes. But this was my best "anime vs manga" of the past year, the anime did some parts better, but I think the manga had plenty of subtleties over the anime that made the experience of Keiko Tekmiya's world come off as even more of a distopian future (for example: spoiler[in the anime, Jomy's mother has nothing but love for him but in the manga, she's the one who calls Universal on her son for showing weird tendencies, that to me was just a "oho! puts the world in a slightly different light here!" moment]. For favorite ongoing, Future Diary man, this series is like crack for me! Many will critique it's writing, but shut up, I'm having fun! I don't mind that it's over the top ridiculous but I am adoring how incredibly crazy Yuno is and how she appears to get crazier with every volume. I hang on every reveal and I'm a slave to its next release date. My favorite one-shot award is tied between Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga, which I also got at Otakon, and A Drunken Dream, which I just read a few hours ago after getting in the mail but I'm still pretty confident about this one. Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga is a biting satire of how to create a popular manga that feels like it was written by cracked.com. It's a mix of "oh man, that's so true, yet so hilarious!" and "wow, they really do know how to design a manga to rake in a ton of money, note to self...." and despite easily being the wordiest manga I've read this past year, like I said, it's like reading a cracked.com article, wordy but so worth it! Shame only one volume came over here, because it was a riot! And yeah, I just read A Drunken Dream a few hours ago, but they picked those stories wisely, each one sticks with you after having read it (though the one about the conjoined twins has stuck with me most). If you're not a believer that one-shots of only 15-50 pages can be great as their own standalone piece, this is the book to make you a believer (I personally have not experience one-shots up to this level ever before, and this is not counting one shots related to another series, therefore not counting the two Banana Fish one shots here). And we get ten of these! I'll admit I was a bit underwhelmed by the title short story, oddly enough. The Fantagraphics release is simply beautiful, a large, sturdy, hard bound book with a beautiful cover and spine. And all the color pages are in color, including the title story which is entirely in color! This is how you make a deluxe release, pick something actually good and unique, put everything in color that needs to be, print it on nice, thick paper, and just put a lot of care in general into your book. I think Fantagraphics took a big risk with this release, sure it would easily appeal critically and has in fact gotten a lot of critical acclaim, but just convincing the average joe to get it is a bit tougher though. And I'll admit, I don't think the person who only reads manly things and still thinks shojo is only meant for Twilight fans is going to appreciate it, but even part time shojo fans like me should definitely appreciate this. It is well worth the $25 admission price (and it's down to around $16 on amazon anyway so where's your excuse?!) Haven't read the interview in the back yet though. However, they can't all be winners, this year I also have a "loser of the year" award for most disappointing manga series that everyone says is an amazing story. spoiler[Simply put, it is Saikano]. I just felt like too many characters answers to life was to have sex and see if that helped. It helped draw me out of the story. I didn't get the drama quite as much either, I just think I've seen better drama and romance. I just don't get all the hype! |
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Divineking
 Posts: 1298 |
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Future Diary is also an ongoing favorite of mine. The story comes together pretty well, and the writing's solid, though the characters are what makes the story to me and both Yuki and Yuno make for interesting protagonists. Hopefully the OVA coming out will lead to an anime adaption so the series can gain more fans.
Out of what's actually come out this year though, Enigma is the best I've read. It;s a thriller series by a mangaka who studied under Akira Amano, the author of Katekyo Hitman Reborn. The writing for this series is really solid, and the characters all have their own depths. The real hook to the series though, is that each of the main cast has their own unique powers and they all play a part to the story. It's definently the best series to come out of JUMP this year and I hope Viz brings it hear as soon as possible. |
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Imperialkat
 Posts: 227 |
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I'll third Future Diary because that story always keeps me on edge and the characters are fun to watch, especially the dynamic between Yuki and Yuno. Top 10 all time.
This year's MVP would have to be Children of the Sea. The story is light yet engaging, like slice-of-life crossed with a small enough dash of sci-fi/magical/folk-tale mystery that you can't tell which one it is. The art is kinda chicken-scratchy in a good way, and the underwater scenes are just plain beautiful. What else have I read this year? 20th Century Boys, Pluto, and Monster are all good thrillers (and I really need to catch up on them), D. Gray-man and Bleach are still insta-buys for me, and my first foray into shoujo is going very well (that would be Love*Com). And I can't forger about the final volume of Scott Pilgrim. Awesome end to an awesome series. This could change in the coming weeks because I have a lot on my docket for holiday catch-up reading: Nausicaa, Drifting Classroom, Ayako, and Arisa are still waiting. |
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JGonspy
Posts: 70 Location: Toronto |
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Although this is the year we enter the hiatus for it (and likely won't see any new volumes until 2012 if we're lucky), NANA is still my favourite manga of the year. I think I chose the same one last year, but I can't help it if Ai Yazawa has a direct line to what I enjoy most.
Similarly, I also enjoyed Paradise Kiss which I only read this summer. It really made me appreciate Yazawa's craft and I can only hope that her earlier titles will someday be released over here. I'm slightly annoyed I wasn't able to start any new titles this year, but I caught up quite a bit with 20th Century Boys. Although it takes me a while to get to the small pile that tends to pile up, I really relished the few days I spent reading several volumes of that title. But they're starting to pile up again, so I might have the same experience all over again before the year is out, or maybe I'll just save it for next year. |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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You and me both. I actually still can't understand why we haven't seen more of her stuff, with how much Viz totes NANA (pretty sure it has very strong sales too, especially compared to the rest of the Shojo Beat catalogue). I would absolutely love it if Kagen no Tsuki was licensed. But it's one I've been wishing for for awhile so I'm not holding my breath (also, Yuu Watase has a long backlist someone could pull some gems from!). |
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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My fave manga series that launched this year-
1- Dorohedoro- Lizard faced bounty hunter and his restaurant-owning partner in mayhem battle evil wizards, zombies, street bums who box, and eat lots of tasty food! 2- 7 Billion Needles- A pretty compelling, fast-paced scifi tale, as a strange alien force starts making voices in a young girl's head, makes her face life again after retreating from it, and battle shapeshifting evil alien dinosaurs! 3-Bokurano- SigIkki really impressed me this year, and this one was a very much so heartbreaking tale of young kids who get to pilot a giant robot and save the world- at a cost. 4-Stolen Hearts- CMX might be gone, and this series only managed 2 volumes before they collapsed, but what a cute, fun concept, a romantic comedy centered around a used kimono shop. 5-Kobato- technically, it launched in Newtype a few years ago, but we'll overlook that :) This is a cute, fun little series, and CLAMP's inserted a few elements that counter its cutesy exterior, mildly mocking some manga trends while building it's own world. 6-Chi's Sweet Home- I just loved the cute kitties and colour printing :) 7-Toriko- like Dorohedoro, violence and food just go well together I guess :) Honourable mentions- [consider them my 8, 9 and 10 :)] Demon Sacred- it's not quite the best manga of the year yet, but it is among the most insane. We appreciate your people-disintegrating, demonic Unicorns, Natsumi Itsuki! Kurozakuro- only one volume out so far, but very brutal, very insane, as a young boy slowly turns into a demon, and tries his best to stay human, and not devour his family and friends 0_o Awesome! Super Pro K.O.- really fun, shonenjump-inspired OGN series from Oni Press, that is a parody and somewhat realistic take on the world of Professional Wrestling, as a young pro heads to a new league that's starting to fall apart, with a bit of a cliffhanger in the first volume. Fun, stlylish art. Might come back and add more to the list once I've read some Vol.1's I've heard good things about [Cross Game and Arisa await me!]. In terms of ongoing titles, Rin-ne [which launched in 2009, and is a big change for everyone w/it's simultaneous release in print and online. It seems to be doing well too] has really grown on me, and the artwork on Ross Campbell's Shadoweyes is insanely pretty, and well worth your money/time http://www.shadoweyes.net/ [the story's cute too :)]. In terms of other reads, I also really enjoyed Bamboo Blade [hope to get the anime sometime], NightSchool [can't wait for Svetlana's next series, and her eventual sequel to this], enjoyed collecting Trigun Maximum, xxxhOlic and One Pound Gospel, which I finally got around to getting [need to get vol.4 to finish it off- such a cute series!]. I'll also miss Two Flowers for the Dragon, Mushishi, Tsubasa [still need to get 28, but it's done!!! So wierd to know that 0_o] and WaqWaq. |
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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To Terra is so fun and trippy- I really enjoyed her Andromeda Stories series too. It's a bit of a different tone [though still very much so scifi doom], and worth checking out if you liked TT. Drunken Dream was indeed an excellent book. I should of mentioned it! I need to get my own copy [a friend lent me hers to read, and it was amazing. I have the TCJ issue with Hagio's interview, and it's really compelling stuff. Hope they continue picking up manga like this. Stuff like this and D&Q's Yoshiniro Tatsumi and upcoming Shigeru Mizuki books make for fantastic presentations of classic works] Too many good manga this year! Re- Yazawa-- I'd love to see more of her work licensed too ,mostly because I like shorter shojo series, and she has a nice back catalogue of that sort of stuff. Liked Nana in SBeat, and want to get around to reading more of it sometime. |
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Monumension
 Posts: 268 Location: Norway |
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It is THAT time of the year again eh? I'm not sure what to say really, because this have been a year without any significant new discoveries (with a few exceptions I'll be be geting to in just a minute). In 2010 I've concentrated on the mangas I've already been into for a couple of years. Some of them are moving into risky territories, some are about to finish and some have even become interesting for the first time in several years (Gantz had a couple of good chapters lately! I almost fell off my divan...). Still: For me the year will live in infamy for being the year Gunnm: Last Order went to heaven. Let's be honest about it: It's nothing less than the collapse of all civilization and the end of mankind. Now, for the three series that stood out this year:
Ikigami - My personal favorite of 2010. Dystopian worldviews and unsymphatetic government-tactics have always been a favorite of mine (Battle Royale), and I think Ikigami managed to do a sophisticated turn on this premise. The threefold-episodic nature of the series have a few annoying limitatons (although they are doing creative stuff with it as well), and I'm not sure if the manga-ka will be able to avoid certain pitfalls that I can see coming, but it's been excellence so far and I'm excited to see how this one will continue. Shin Angyo Onshi - A manhwa, but I include it here nonetheless since Marie-antoinette picked Scott Pilgrim. Many compare it to Berserk which is understandable. Clearly not as much medieval evil (and not as gritty, although it tries sometimes) as in Miura's series, but it definitely falls under the EPIC category and that's why it's in the Top 3. I actually think one of the most spectacular main-scenes from the manhwa's later half could rival some of Berserk's best bits. It's got great artwork too, and some truly memorable characters, even though they tried a little too hard sometimes. Also great to see a good series end in a satisfying way. That's extremely rare these days. Devilman - Heard about it before, but never got into it. Decided to start reading after certain articles on this site. Engaging in spite of my problems with Nagai's old-school art. Devilman Lady had more matured graphics, but the story seemed like a rehearsal. As a fan of the spectaculary morbid and apocalyptical this was suited to satisfy my apocalyptical end-of-the-world-fetish. Fun for the whole family! |
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Jaymie
Posts: 915 |
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My favorite manga that was just released in North America in 2010 would be Bakuman. It takes a pretty basic real-life concept and adds all of the shonen tropes to it to make a really interesting slice-of-life series with occasional suspense.
My favorite brand-new manga of 2010 would be Enigma, which is the new "Death Note" in terms of story, suspense, and fast pacing. I'm looking forward to Viz licensing this. |
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JGonspy
Posts: 70 Location: Toronto |
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Maybe Viz can be convinced to license some of the older stuff to fill this void with NANA on hiatus. Especially with those 'Family Times' pages at the back of each volume. It's bad enough knowing there's something you're missing, but seeing ads for it is even more frustrating. I really hope it has nothing to do with them being older stories and possibly less interesting to audiences today. There seems to be a bias towards the new hot stuff from Japan, but there are all sorts of gems, like Yuu Watase's as well, we're still missing. |
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mcknux
 Posts: 1 Location: Philadelphia |
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To me, I think my favorite Manga of 2010 is .hack// just because all the series connects very well. Going from the story in BlackRose's POV to the Legend of the Twilight series with the contest winners to Albeiro's story and then merging to the G.U. universe. AND IT DOESN'T END!! With .hack//Link and .hack//Cell out too!! Things just keep getting better and better with the story. I just like how in .hack//Cell where the main character is a school girl named Midori Shimomura, when I found out that she feel into a coma in the same hospital as Shino Nanao who was also into a coma too. For those that remember the timeline of .hack, you will see that careful detail is a major factor in this story too, you'll remember similar lines especially connecting the .hack//G.U. Trilogy movie to the Manga. I mean THERE IS SO MUCH to the .hack// world and I hope they continue to make more of it, I don't care if they add another brand new character! As long as it connects somewhere!!!
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Mushi-Man
 Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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I'm not good at picking "favorites" so I guess instead I'll just name off the ones that stuck out in my mind.
A manga I just started reading a few weeks ago is Bokurano. I've bought the first 2 volumes and it's really interesting so far. I really like the design of the story and how unique the characters are. Each chapter offers just as much intrigue as the last. I'm just really looking forward to seeing what comes later on in the series. I also started Natsume's Book of Friends this year. I watched the anime via crunchyroll a while back and loved it so naturally I wanted to see if the manga was just as good. I was not disappointed. Even though allot of it is material that was covered in the anime, it still feels fresh and new. And I really enjoy the art of the manga along with the author's notes that are included throughout the volumes. I had the pleasure of reading my first Jiro Tanigushi manga this year. It was called The Walking Man. I was shocked at how simple in concept it was yet how interesting and addictive it became. I was unsure of how a manga about fallowing a guy as he goes on walks would turn out. But in the end I finished it in no time, I just couldn't put it down. As abstract as the concept is I still think even people who aren't into real artsy manga could enjoy The Walking Man. After reading the Dextar series over summer break I felt like it would be a good time to start MPD Psycho. Right from the get-go it blew me away. It's such an intense and involved crime drama, and it's quite intelligent. It goes beyond your typical crime drama and adds complex levels of psychological trills to it and just the right amount of gore. To top it off the content is just creepy enough to make me want to read it with the lights on. Great read, now I see why my friends kept pushing me to read it. And for a bit of comedic light I read Yotsube&! which has become one of my new favorite comedies. The light hearted nature of the manga is intoxicating and fills you with joy. It's just a wonderfully simple comedy about a strange little girl. I love how, evene through the a paper medium, you can almost see Yotsube's mind working in it's own unusual way to figure out to complex situations of ever day life. Sadly I've missed allot of good manga releases this year so my list may come off as a bit lack luster. But soon I plan to catch up with all the great manga I've been missing lately. |
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Tamaria
 Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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classicalzawa is a ninja
I saw the To Terra anime series for the first time two weeks ago and reread the manga at the same time to compare. My thoughts are pretty much the same as her's. I also echo her sentiments on A Drunken Dream. That is pretty much my favourite manga of 2010. Other series/short stories... I finally managed to get Four Shoujo Stories! Bump A Drunken Dream down a notch, this is my number one favourite of 2010! Though I have to admit it's more because of the epic quest than the actual contents. The four stories are very good, of course. What else... Oh, I got xxxHolic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle at Boekenfestijn and I liked those way more than I thought I would! CLAMP's artstyle still makes me cringe at times, but I liked the characters, so I'll keep reading. It's kind of weird, but for some reason Tsubasa reminded me of Xenogears. That may be one of the reasons why I enjoy it so much. |
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