Forum - View topicFavourite Manga of 2012
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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It's time for my annual favourite manga post, hurrah! Still not sure how it's December already but I guess we'll just have to roll with it.
So, for those who have not been around for these threads before, we've done one every year since 2006. The idea is to share the manga you read this year that you enjoyed best. This does not have to be a manga that only came out this year, just one that you read during that time. Also, we've had mentions of graphic novels that are not, strictly speaking, manga so feel free to bring those titles up as well. To find out even more, here is a link to last year's thread. For this year, I am going to be going with Sailor Moon as my pick. While I started reading it just for nostalgia, I was often surprised by just how good it was and how well parts of it have held up after all these years (other parts have not aged quite as gracefully, to be sure). I also find that it's been getting progressively better with each volume released, though I don't think 7 and 8 were quite as good as 6. I'll admit, I haven't been reading a lot of manga these days, I sort of ended up obsessively reading the new 52 from DC (my favourite so far of those is Batman and Robin, for the record, though since I am a wait-for-the-trades person I have not yet read all the titles I plan to). But Sailor Moon is the one title I have been picking up regularly because I'm just so pleased that it is available in English again. I'm also going to give an honourable mention to Soul Eater of all things. I write manga reviews for Kuriousity.ca and was sent review copies for two volumes of Soul Eater and despite the fact that it is shounen and something I probably wouldn't really consider normally, I found myself enjoying it a lot, enough that I actually plan to start reading the series from the beginning and maybe even checking out the anime. And Soul Eater Not as well, though I think I'll be checking out the original series first, at least to get the first couple of volumes and have a better understanding of the world. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2655 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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I'll jump in with my more personal thoughts than show up in my ANN reviews, though I should warn you that a few of these will be things I read in French.
Favorite Older Series this year was definitely Izumi Aso's Hikari no Densetsu, a 1985 manga about rhythmic gymnastics. It's like Swan with less whiny characters and the energy that radiates off the page is amazing. It doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of an English release, but if you read French (or any Latin-based language) and you miss Swan, you should absolutely read this. Now I need a French DVD player so I can watch the anime too... Depressed Me But I Liked It, which is saying something, since I rarely enjoy sad books, would be Sakuran. I have to admit that I'm not always a Moyoco Anno fan, but this was so well done that even though it left me feeling terribly empty, I enjoyed it. (And then I hugged my dog.) Potential Train Wreck of the year is another French translation, Miki Aihara's From 5 to 9. It's about the intertwined love lives of young working women, and because it's Miki Aihara, you know it's going to get messy. In a good way. Well, not really, but at least in a hard-to-stop-reading way... This Series Will Accompany Me to the Ends of the Earth is Princess Jellyfish. I just love it beyond all reason. I can't even coherently tell you why. Even if it comes out in English, I'll keep getting it in French too, because otherwise there'll be a fight for it when my sister reads it and no way is she getting my copy in her room. 
Manhwa of the Year for me is Lizzie Newton. Victorian era, mystery, and relative fidelity to the period? It's like Seven Seas looked inside my brain and chose the series based on my childhood fantasies. (And if you did, Seven Seas, I'm waiting for my manga/manhwa/manhua about a lighthouse keeper.) Not Manga I Enjoyed is a combination. I finally read Reina Telgemeier's Smile and loved it for its honesty and charm, and I've also been sucked in by DC's New 52 books. I wasn't thrilled with their new interpretation of Wonder Woman, but I'm loving Justice League, Voodoo, and Supergirl. (And Aquaman, somewhat to my chagrin.) Biggest Disappointments were in non-manga Fables, which I feel is dragging, though I'm hoping the new "Fairest" spin-off will help and in manga OreImo. I couldn't even get through that. The art just grossed me out for whatever reason. I was also disturbed to the point of not reading Flowers of Evil, though I got a bit further in that than the previous. I haven't listed any shounen, have I? I'm still reading a lot, but I guess none of it has really impressed me one way or the other so far...maybe I'll think of something later. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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Best series that ended is easily Twin Spica for me, which also has to win the Can't believe it's already OOP award, lol. It was a fantastic series from start to finish and I am damn proud that it is on my shelf. Yes, Kekkaishi is ending its US manga release as of the 4th, so it's a tough choice, except I have yet to read the ending for Kekkaishi and it's hard to argue that Twin Spica isn't one of the best manga to ever get an English release anyway.
Best Osamu Tezuka release...now I did read a fair number of Tezuka books this year, Princess Knight, Barbara, Adolf got re-released too. I think I'm going to go with Barbara in the end, Adolf tends to depress the reader and Princess Knight can come off as really retro sexist quite often, so I think Barbara might have been the best of the bunch. Biggest Disappointment, I want to say it's Flowers of Evil, I just wasn't very impressed with this one. I blind bought the first two volumes, but I think this one is being edgy just for the sake of being edgy, I didn't notice too much of a difference between the first and second volume and I don't plan to continue it. Best Rescue, Viz saved and re-released a few things this year, as did Yen. 07 Ghost though was my favorite rescue. I actually have the first two Go Comi! volumes, but seeing how only 3 ever came out and there's so much more story that's gotta be there, I'm psyched to buy 3+ from Viz. Strangest new discovery, it's hard to surprise me, I feel like I normally hear about everything manga through some source or another, so seeing a manga published by GEN Manga on the shelf at the comic shop came off as very weird. I've read both Wolf, a decent enough sports manga for people craving some sports manga, and Kamen, something I'm surprised Afternoon didn't pick up. I'm interested to see where they'll go in the future. Best license announcement. This was a year of fantastic license announcements. DMP had that triple Tezuka thing of Unico, Triton, and Astrocat. Vertical announced Wolfsmund, which looks like it should be pretty sweet. Viz announced tons of stuff, Strobe Edge, Demon Love Spell, and lots of other stuff I can't even recall. But my award has to go to Kodansha for Vinland Saga, easily the one I'm most excited to read! I've heard nothing but awesome from this series and it's by Planetes dude, so I plan on forking over my money right away. They also got No. 6, I'd like to check that out when I get a chance too. Granted, I think I should give Vertical more credit on this one as it appears that they almost got the license until Kodansha decided to swipe it. I probably would have preferred Vertical get it, but I'm glad it's coming out at all. As for other categories, I'll think on it. |
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victor viper
 Posts: 630 Location: The deep south |
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My manga highlights of 2012:
Older Manga Discovered in 2012: This honor would go to Parasyte. For a long time, I was a little put off by the mildly grotesque cover art. However, a number of positive reviews finally convinced me to read it, and I'm glad I did. It's a very original and intelligent take on the alien-invasion genre. Sad to See it Ending: This has to go to Gunslinger Girl. After reading volumes 11-12, it's clear that spoiler[the Social Welfare Agency as it exists as well as many of the main characters are on borrowed time]. It looks like we'll get an omnibus release of volumes 13-14 in the US, and a single release of volume 15. The Japanese version of vol. 15 looks like it's getting a color booklet, so maybe Seven Seas can somehow get that bundled together with the last volume over here. Sad to See it Ending, but I'll Still be Sad to See it Ending for the Next Several Years: Neon Genesis Evangelion. Volume 13 has arrived, and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto himself wrote 'onward to volume 14', so it looks like there will be more. However, since we're now into the Third Impact, surely the end is near. However, who knows when volume 14 will actually get released. Guilty Pleasure of 2012: A Certain Scientific Railgun. Its first volume wasn't overwhelming, but the next few volumes proved to be quite fun and the characters are growing on me. The I'm Not Sure Why, but New Volumes Keep Showing up on My Shelves Award for 2012: Is This a Zombie? By all accounts, this should be a trainwreck with its mishmash of harem tropes, shonen action tropes, and non sequitur humor. But, I keep picking up each volume. The Manga I Didn't Expect to Drop in 2012 Award: Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei. Maybe I was just miffed that Media Blasters dropped the ball on the DVD release of the anime, or maybe the formulaic humor just started to grow old but for now this series and I are taking a break from each other. |
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yotsubafanfan
 Posts: 653 |
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I'd have to say Sailor V and Sailor Moon, for the favorite of 2012, as for favorite Manga series are started reading in 2012 that wasn't released in 2012, I'd say GTO. Its quickly becoming one of my favorites and the anime is already extremly high on the list of my favorite animes.
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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Here we go:
Surprise of the year This one has to go to Blue Exorcist. I was expecting just another generic shonen manga, but it's really really fun to read. The characters are pretty well thought out as well, and there's more than just a monster of the week story. I just finished volume 8 and I'm still looking forward to the next volume. Grown up manga of the year Drops of God, hands down. I'm not sure when Vertical started releasing this, but I only discovered it this year and I love it. I just wish the timeskip in the English release hadn't happened 
Publisher of the year This one has to go to Seven Seas, for bringing out so many awesome things like Girl Friends, Alice in the Country of Clover, Lizzie Newton and Toradora. Vertical is a very close second though, thanks to Ed being so informative about everything. Worst publisher of the year This is a 3 way tie between Yen Press, Dark Horse and DMP. Yen Press, because although they rescued Alice in the Country of Hearts, they did not release the 6th volume as an individual volume, instead electing to republish the entire series as 3 x 2 in 1 omnibuses. This meant I had to rebuy the entire series as the perfectionist in me couldn't stand having different sized books on my shelf, which also means I'm now stuck with the first 5 Tokyopop released which no one wants. Dark Horse, because they came up with that horrible new spine design which means my 4th CCS omnibus doesn't match the rest and it makes me sad. DMP, for announcing they're putting all print releases back 6 months and focusing on digital releases. Just when I thought I was finally going to get my hands on Alice the 101st 3 and 4, no, not yet. For reference, volume 2 came out in 2010. I had actually given up on them ever releasing the rest. Also, Lovephobia is a 3 volume series, and it's going to take them 3 and a half years to release it from start to finish. Not cool. Rescue of the yearThis is a tie between 07-Ghost and Loveless, both rescued by Viz. I owned 07-Ghost 1 many years ago but sold it when Go Comi died and I thought I'd never see the rest in English. It's just a shame Viz's release doesn't have the colour pages like Go Comi's did. Looking forward to reading the rest. I'm glad to see Loveless being continued, although I'm going to wait till it's over to read the whole thing from start to finish!! I'll add more if I can think of them! |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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Hm....I think it's still Watashi Ni XX Shinasai!! Because this is the one I get the most hyped for each month (on-going series). Honorable mention goes to Suki Desu, Suzuki-kun.
=_= I absolutely HATE when companies do this!! It sucks mostly because you get cheated out of cover art! |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 10030 Location: Virginia |
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@st owly & Chiibi
I'm going to have to disagree. When something is a license rescue or is otherwise required to get the title out, I'll take any any omnibus volumes required. I've had too many titles simply disappear to fret about format changes. With regard to Dark Horse, I didn't even notice the spine changes until people started to complain. My favorite for the year is Skip Beat. It has been my favorite since it first was issued. It is one of the few long run titles I haven't tired of before it quit. Great characters and an engaging story. Other favorites: the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service an interesting look into the occult Japanese style. Blood Alone an engaging little vampire and a new take on vampire lore Spice & Wolf The interplay of the two main characters it the best part. Yotsuba&! A free range child La Corda d'Oro only one volume to go. I'm going to miss these characters. |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Yeah, I have to agree with you here. I'm still enjoying the series but it doesn't quite have the same level of awesomeness that it used to. Though what I've seen of Fairest is promising, plus the Cinderella series has been very enjoyable as well, especially since she is my favourite character from the series. Since people are pulling in a whole bunch of new categories this time (love to see it, evolve thread, EVOLVE!), I can say that my biggest disappointment of the year was xxxHolic. It had, until the last volume, been my favourite CLAMP manga but man, that ending was bad. It sucked enough that I actually knocked down my ranking of the series here because yeah ... that was not a proper ending. Boo. I also was both happy and disappointed with the Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden volume because, while it was great to see it again, the volume itself wasn't the strongest. But I'm really looking forward to reading the next one, especially with the ending in sight. |
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Keichitsu0305
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Favorite Continuing:
Skip Beat (Yoshiki Nakamura; Publisher: Viz Media)- Sort of feel bad that Viz is now doing the 3-1 Omnibus but this series still puts a smile on my face. Favorite Indie (non-manga): Jinchalo and Ojingogo(Matt Forsythe; Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly)- The lack of dialogue pretty much invites the reader to "up" the story as you go along. Somehow these trippy fantasies manage to be charming and fun. Must Read Next Year: Ooku: The Inner Chambers (Fumi Yoshinaga; Publisher: VIZ Signature); 20th Century Boys (Naoki Urasawa Publisher: VIZ Signature); The Strange Tale of Panorama Island (Suehiro Maruo; Publisher: Last Gasp) and lots of other stuff on Jmanga. Favorite New Discovery: Basically everything from Jason Thompson's 1000 Manga column. Lots of older (and a few new) titles I'm still searching for. Saturn Apartments (Hisae Iwaoka; Publisher: VIZ Signature)-Love the artwork and the casual Sci-Fi elements. It reminds me alot of Twin Spica (sad that's incomplete & OOP). Main character was a bit whiny at first but I've grown attached to him and the side cast. Thermae Romae (Mari Yamazaki; Publisher: Yen Press)-I didn't like the anime (horrible animation mainly) but the manga is better IMO. The use of time travel to parallel Ancient Rome and Japan bath culture is quite fun to read and a bit informative. GEN Manga- Want to see more self-published manga websites next year so I'm glad I tried this one out. Favorite "Old School" Release: Without a doubt, Moto Haigo's Heart of Thomas, published by Fantagraphics. I wished more Year 24 would be released but I'm glad I can own other manga such as Toward the Terra and A Drunken Dream. Favorite Mature Titles: On Toward Our Noble Deaths (Shigeru Mizuki; Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly)- Crude characters, tropical scenery, war is hell message, and some odd toilet/black humor was quite entertaining for me. Sakuran (Moyoco Anno; Publisher: Vertical)- Beautiful yet harsh reality on historical courtesans; what more can I ask? Message to Adolf: (Osamu Tezuka; Publisher: Vertical)- I found out about this manga after reading Kingyo's Used Books. Bought the first Omnibus at my local comic store; been satisfied ever since. Favorite Artbook Import: While not a manga, I love Daisuke Igarashi's Kaijuu to Tamashii. Quite a few of the art is from Children of the Sea but I just enjoy his sea creatures and ocan scenery. Manga that made me get a JManga account: Edo Nekoe Jubei-Maru Nagao (I just really like cats and kimonos!); Sweet Blue Flowers-Takako Shimura (Favorite yuri on the website so far); Doukyusei - Asumiko Nakamura (Sure it's just a one volume fluff BL but Asumiko needs more love!! Plus, I already own Double Mints-DMP; So glad Vertical will be picking up some of her work) |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Well yeah, omnibus volumes are better than nothing but I just hate losing art from covers....especially when it's COLOR art. I still buy them....while bitching about it. lol |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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From someone sadly looking at my collection of the Nodame Cantabile manga, I wish I could be complaining about missing cover art
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lys
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1017 Location: mitten-state |
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But you don't actually lose the art with the Yen Press releases. They always (as far as I know) include the original covers as colour insert pages. And their omnibus editions of Alice are so prettily designed!! (the Thermae Romae omnibus is pretty fantastic too, while we're at it.) January was so far away, I don't even remember what I read longer than a month ago... but let's see what sticks out to me. I've been picking up more titles in Japanese lately, for practice and because the companies that published the sort of titles I really love (CMX, Tokyopop) are gone now. I'm totally completely in love with Akatsuki no Yona, and wishing and hoping that Viz (or anyone) might license it. If someone other than Viz picked it up, they could market it as Dawn of the Arcana, except better in every way (no offense to fans of the latter, but I was disappointed by Dawn, and the two series start out with a very similar premise, so it's hard to keep myself from comparing them.) Koi dano Ai dano (the sequel to Tokyopop's Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko) continues to be a highly amusing cynical shoujo romance. And Tadaima no Uta (by the author of Stellar Six of Gingacho) is an incredibly sweet series about siblings, and being a family. The art makes me happy, the characters, the stories... As for titles published in English, I'm really enjoying Devil and Her Love Song (the most recent volume, 6, was rather intense!), and Kamisama Kiss is a lot of fun. And of course—Skip Beat! is always the best, and Kaze Hikaru is even better!! And I read a lot of shoujo manga. Well. Oh, I did really enjoy Cross Game too (I still have to finish the last volume!). I'd fallen behind since it first came out, but caught up this spring/summer just in time for baseball season. It got me all nostalgic for the high school sports that I had determinedly ignored when I was actually in high school... (heh.) |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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I definitely need to catch up with Devil and Her Love Song, I've only read the first volume and they seem to be coming out really fast. I can't believe the series is already at volume 6!
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lys
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 1017 Location: mitten-state |
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Haha! Weren't you the one with an avatar of Maria for like the longest time, before it got licensed? (sorry if I'm thinking of someone else...) I do love Viz's every-other-month schedule for newer/non-caught-up series :D |
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