One of the great things about the manga-blogging contingent on Twitter is its spontaneity. Within hours (or more likely minutes) of David Welsh (Precocious Curmudgeon) noting the total absence of manga on the New York Times’ Graphic Novel Gift Guide, the notion of the Great Manga Gift Guide was born. (Here’s the Twitter hashtag, for the curious.) With no set rules and only a few practical guidelines to follow, the results so far have covered a wide spectrum of material and approaches–go to David’s round-up post to see some of the lists people have come up with!

My own manga reading skews heavily towards shoujo (girls’) series–a trend that was only strengthened when I began receiving predominantly shoujo review copies from VIZ Media. I’ve tried to compensate for that in my list, though, in hopes that there’ll be something for everyone here. And while the temptation at the end of the year is to suggest new series that started coming out in 2009, I’ve decided to focus on ten series which are currently available in English in their entirety so that new readers have the option of reading a complete story without waiting on new volumes.

None of these comments are terribly spoilery, but in a couple of cases may refer to events past the first volume when the series takes a while to establish the premise.

For those who’re fascinated by the mysterious (and sometimes twisted) things lurking in the human psyche and/or exploration of gender roles and perceptions: After School Nightmare.

Mashiro has a closely-guarded secret: although he looks and identifies as male, he’s actually caught between genders. Male from the waist up and female from the waist down, he badly wants to be “truly” male, but is desperately insecure and questioning about his identity. A school nurse brings him into a special class conducted after school, in which students–none of whom know each other’s identity–enter into a dream world, where they appear as reflections of their individual issues and neuroses. Mashiro develops relationships with two other students, Kureha and Sou, forming a very unusual triangle as they all try to overcome their demons. After School Nightmare is an intriguing piece of work, with good characters and interesting plot twists.

(10 volumes, available from Go!Comi.)

For those who crave a sweet story that tugs at the heartstrings: Aishiteruze Baby.

Kippei, a popular 15 year old boy, has his life changed overnight when his 5-year-old cousin Yuzuyu is abandoned with his family, none of whom have time to take charge of her. The task of being her primary caregiver falls on Kippei’s shoulders, and although he initially resists the idea, he and Yuzu gradually become close. It’s all incredibly cute, but it also deals well with Yuzu’s experience of losing her mother, and while Kippei and Yuzu’s relationship is at the heart of the story there’s also a strong love interest between Kippei and a classmate, Kokoro. Bonus points for Yuzuyu being a believable little kid.

(7 volumes, available from VIZ Media.)

For those who enjoy epics, mistaken identities, and star-crossed lovers: Basara.

My only reservation in recommending Basara is that some volumes are apparently difficult to lay hands on these days, which is a shame, because this is a fantastic story. Growing up in a post-apocalyptic Japan, Sarasa is a normal girl whose twin brother, Tatara, is the prophesied “child of destiny” who everyone believes will overthrow the tyrannical rulers of the country. But when Tatara is killed, Sarasa sacrifices her identity and adopts his name, starting a revolution in his place.

There’s a lot of great stuff in here. Sarasa is the kind of heroine who gets things done through pure determination, and is a fallible but gifted and charismatic leader. The people who surround her are a diverse and interesting bunch, and the romantic subplot is important without taking away from the epic scope of the events that unfold as Sarasa tries to fulfill “Tatara”’s destiny.

(27 volumes, available from VIZ Media.)

For those looking for a story about love and friendship with a touch of fantasy (which just happens to be one of the best-known manga around): Fruits Basket.

A recently orphaned, tender-hearted girl winds up living with a classmate and his two cousins, and as she gets to know them, she discovers that their family is cursed by the spirits of the Chinese zodiac animals. If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because Fruits Basket has become incredibly popular in North America, and rightly so. There’s something here for just about everyone, with the mood ranging from the light humor you expect from a high school romantic comedy to a painful yet hopeful depiction of a family trying to break free of both a literal curse and a longstanding cycle of abuse. This is a powerful and skillfully crafted story with an amazing cast of characters, and it takes its potentially silly-sounding premise and explores the implications in a meaningful way.

(23 volumes, available from TOKYOPOP. Gradually coming out in a hardback omnibus edition as well. ^_^)

For those who know geeks, love geeks, or are geeks: Genshiken.

Genshiken is the epic tale of an otaku club at a Japanese college [read: all of the geeks who don't fit in with the more specialized geek clubs] and a normal girl who gets sucked in via her boyfriend. Only not so much with the epic. Genshiken takes a group of people whose hobbies and ways of approaching life make them social outcasts, and both empathizes with them and pokes fun at them in a way that lets you know that the author loves them and expects readers to as well. The series tells their story and explores their passions–whether for cosplay, model building, doujinshi, anime, manga–and shows the people behind the stereotypes, through their own eyes and the eyes of an outsider who…doesn’t exactly come to love them, but develops a strong sense of “no one messes with my geeks but me”. And admit it–that’s more fun.

(9 volumes, available from Del Rey Manga.)

For those who appreciate a high school romantic comedy that has fun playing with its genre’s conventions: High School Debut.

Athletic, tomboyish Haruna starts her first year of high school with a mission: having devoted her junior high days to sports, she’s ready to find the romance promised by the countless heaps of shoujo manga she’s devoured. When it turns out that manga hasn’t really taught her how to catch herself a guy, Haruna concludes that what she really needs is a love coach, and she chooses Yoh, a popular older boy, to show her the ropes. Given that the next part of the premise is “he accepts, on the condition that Haruna can’t fall in love with him“, it may be obvious what happens next–but it happens with irresistible charm and enthusiasm. Haruna is a bit like the anti-shoujo heroine: she tries to do things by the book (literally), but her own personality is too strong. Her relationship with Yoh is one of those lovely ones where it’s obvious why the characters like each other, and what each of them brings to the table. High School Debut is a funny and heartfelt story that should appeal to new manga readers as well as fans of the genre.

(13 volumes, available from VIZ Media. Well, 12 of them are, and 13 will be out pretty soon.)

For those who love psychological drama, layered stories, and a driven, intelligent hero: Monster.

There are two Naoki Urasawa series that are all the rage right now: 20th Century Boys and Pluto (the latter being a retelling of Astro Boy) are both amazing pieces of work, and deserve all the praise being heaped on them as each new volume comes out in English. But this list is for complete-in-English series, so let’s talk about Urasawa’s Monster. Set in several cities across Europe, Monster gives us Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a brilliant brain surgeon who follows his ideals at the cost of his promising career, choosing to operate on a young boy instead of the prominent man admitted after him. Tenma is ostracized within the hospital for his politically-unwise decision, but the child survives…and grows up to become a fiercely intelligent sociopath, a fact Tenma discovers when he himself is falsely accused of murder. When no one believes his incredible story, Tenma becomes a wanted man, pursuing the boy he once saved in order to rectify his mistake and prevent any more deaths. In the process he uncovers a truth and a conspiracy far darker than he had imagined, and learns that countless lives are at stake.

Monster is a fascinating story, full of twists and turns and intriguing characters. It’s also very different from many non-manga readers’ image of “manga”, and could be just the thing for that person you know (we all know at least one) who insists that manga is all wide-eyed shallow fluff.

(18 volumes, available from VIZ Media.)

For those who’re drawn to fashion, creative minds, and difficult romances: Paradise Kiss.

A short, engaging series from the creator of NANA. Yukari is a high school student with no real sense of purpose whose life is turned upside down by a group of eccentric fashion design students who persuade her to model for their label, Paradise Kiss. As they befriend her and pull her into their world, Yukari discovers how much she’s been missing in her life and finds herself falling for George, the group’s designer. It’s a glittering world populated with believably flawed, charming, and (mostly) wonderful characters. I have a particular soft spot for the supporting cast, whose stories are just as interesting as the leads’ without ever quite taking the focus from them.

(5 volumes, available from TOKYOPOP.)

For those who want to read about self-discovery in a soft sci-fi package: Please Save My Earth.

Like Basara, Please Save My Earth can be a bit tricky to come by in its entirety, but it’s well worth tracking down. This shoujo classic tells the story of six high school students and a young boy who share similar dreams about living on the moon and observing Earth. As they meet each other and compare notes, they realize that what’s happening to them is something much bigger and more life-changing than a dream. Please Save My Earth manages to have a complex, intriguing story while focusing heavily on the characters’ relationships, particularly the connection between Alice, a shy teenage girl who can’t quite bring herself to accept what’s happening, and Rin, the little boy who lives next door to her and knows far more than he lets on. It also has some interesting world-building, although the sci-fi elements take a backseat to the characters’ journey of self-discovery.

(21 volumes, available from VIZ Media.)

For those interested in historical drama, the politics of a rapidly-changing society, or heroes seeking redemption for past sins: Rurouni Kenshin.

Kenshin begins in 1878, just over a decade after Japan went through the massive social upheaval called the Bakumatsu and began to westernize. A wandering swordsman, Kenshin Himura winds up at a dojo run by a young woman named Kaoru, who isn’t at all sure what to make of him. Kenshin is unassuming and apparently harmless, but it quickly comes out that he’s also a former assassin once known as Hitokiri Battōsai, whose reputation as a brilliant swordsman haunts him as he travels the country, trying to atone for the lives he took for the sake of the cause he fought for. He tentatively settles at Kaoru’s dojo and begins to build a life and friendships there, but peace is impossible to come by when his legend still brings people after him to challenge him, settle old scores, or force him out of retirement.

(28 volumes, available from VIZ Media. Also currently coming out in shiny omnibus editions!)

After having a few adaptations come out all at once earlier this month, it looks like the only book I have left for the rest of 2009 is volume 13 of DN Angel (out this week or next, depending on who you ask). That catches us up to the Japanese release, I believe–at least, I haven’t heard anything about vol. 14 being out in Japan yet, and Alethea & Athena are big enough fans of the series that I suspect I would’ve heard.

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Recent reviews:

Boys Over Flowers: Jewelry Box (B+)
The Gentlemen’s Alliance † vol. 10 (B)
Love*Com vol. 14 (B+)
Rin-ne vol. 1 (B+)
Vampire Knight vol. 8 (A-)

I also wrote another round-up of short reviews (although they were longer than usual for this format; a few could probably have gone up as stand-alone reviews, but I wanted to get them posted). This time I covered vol. 19 of Skip Beat!, vol. 11 of La Corda d’Oro, vol. 7 of B.O.D.Y., vol. 6 of Haruka -Beyond the Stream of Time, vol. 3 of Honey Hunt, vol. 8 of Wild Ones, and vol. 14 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs.

I only had one adaptation come out this month (the second Character Guide for Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, which was my second project for Del Rey Manga), but there are three volumes coming out right at the beginning of next month: Phantom Dream vol. 4, Shinobi Life vol. 3, and Zone-00 vol. 2.

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Reviewing is still going slowly but steadily, and here are the reviews that have gone up in the last few weeks:

Honey and Clover vol. 7 (A+)
Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You vol. 2 (A-)
St. Dragon Girl vol. 4 (B)
We Were There vol. 6 (A)

As you can see, I think those were some really good books. I’m always a little sad that Hagu is a deal-breaker for some people who read H&C, although given my own initial reaction to her, I can’t say I don’t understand at all. Kimi ni Todoke kind of falls under the category of “more charming than it has any right to be”; the concept is extremely simple and would so, so easy to do badly. Instead, the execution is remarkably endearing.

Today I’m writing a couple of reviews that’ll go up within the next few weeks, and I’ve got to say, I’m suddenly a lot more interested in Vampire Knight than I was before. (I just read vol. 8, and haven’t read any further, so please don’t spoil me.) What was just revealed might not have been much to write home about if it had been part of the premise all along, but as something coming up so far into the series it’s a complete shake-up of what the story has been about, and that interests me.

It looks like I never made it as far as mentioning that three of my upcoming adaptations have shiny new cover art–the second Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle Character Guide (due next month), Phantom Dream vol. 4 (due in November), and Zone-00 vol. 2 (also due in November). The lime green spines on Zone-00 keep startling me for some reason.

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My manga reviewing has slowed down quite a bit over the last month, due to a number of factors (starting with moving and ending with massive computer issues), but it’s still been reasonably steady. Recent reviews include:

Haruka -Beyond the Stream of Time- vol. 5 (C+)
Mixed Vegetables vol. 5 (B)
NANA vol. 17-18 (A+)
Sand Chronicles vol. 6 (A+)
Vampire Knight vol. 7 (B+)

Life has been crazy lately, but the reviews keep on going up! There’s a new title, Ōoku, in this batch, and I’ve been really looking forward to reading it. It’s by Fumi Yoshinaga, the author of Antique Bakery, Flower of Life, and a number of other things, and it’s an alternate history story in which 3/4 of Japan’s male population dies in a plague and women take on most or all of the vital roles in society. I didn’t write much about the characters in my review, for reasons which I hope I explained well enough, but it’s very interesting.

Since I’m talking a bit about individual series here, I also want to recommend Kaze Hikaru. I hadn’t read it before I started getting review copies (around vol. 10), and have never read the earlier volumes (since the local library system sadly doesn’t have it), but it’s really good. It’s…also a historical story, actually, about a girl who disguises herself as a boy and joins the Shinsengumi. It’s funny and touching and generally awesome.

Anyway, these are the reviews that have gone up on MangaLife recently:

Crimson Hero vol. 11 (B-)
Kaze Hikaru vol. 14 (B+)
Ōoku: The Inner Chambers vol. 1 (A)
S.A (Special A) vol. 11-12 (C-)

Last week may have been a first for me: three of my adaptations were released all at once. DN Angel vol. 12 (one of TOKYOPOP’s two most popular advance August releases at SDCC, according to their Twitter), Phantom Dream vol. 3 (now with a glossary and character list), and Zone-00 vol. 1 (created by the Trinity Blood artist).

Recent reviews over at MangaLife, all from VIZ:

Black Bird vol. 1 (B)
B.O.D.Y. vol. 6 (C+)
Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You vol. 1 (A-)
Ouran High School Host Club vol. 12 (A)
Skip Beat! vol. 18 (B+)
We Were There vol. 5 (A)

I’ve had four manga reviews up at MangaLife recently, and it’s back to being all VIZ, all the time. This selection includes the final volume of Boys Over Flowers (one of THE classic shoujo titles), my first look at Mixed Vegetables, and a new volume of Honey and Clover, which I love more and more as the series continues. (Since I’d seen the anime before picking up the manga, the love was already pretty solid.) And then there’s Honey Hunt, from the author of Hot Gimmick. If they send me enough volumes of Hunt to review, maybe I’ll manage to write a review that doesn’t include references to the trauma of Hot Gimmick. But maybe not.

Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango) vol. 36 [series finale] (B+)
Honey and Clover vol. 6 (A)
Honey Hunt vol. 2 (B)
Mixed Vegetables vol. 4 (B)

Keiko Tobe’s With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child has been on my mental to-read list for a while, and I finally tracked down a copy of the first volume from my library.* I was a bit startled by the sheer heft of the book; Yen Press isn’t the only manga publisher to release double volumes, but this volume is much more substantial than any others I’ve come across.

There’s absolutely no false advertising here: With the Light begins with the birth of a baby boy who delights his young mother, Sachiko. Sachiko is thrilled to be a mother, and looking forward to building a family with her husband, Masato, but almost at once reality impinges on her dreams. Masato’s job demands so much of his time and energy that he’s rarely home or emotionally available, which disappoints Sachiko but is well enough within cultural norms that no one around her expects anything different of him. And worse, she soon realizes that their son, Hikaru, isn’t at all what she expected: he screams when she holds him and is unresponsive to stimuli that usually engage a baby or child’s attention.

It doesn’t take long (from the reader’s perspective) before Sachiko seeks help and is informed that Hikaru might be autistic, but for a long time (from her perspective) no real support is forthcoming. Autism is poorly understood, and people ranging from Masato and his mother to their neighbors don’t accept it as an explanation for Hikaru’s increasingly age-inappropriate behavior and slower development.

Happily things do improve, albeit after a health scare that brings Sachiko and Masato closer together, and they begin to figure out how with deal with Hikaru’s unique challenges. As they find new resources and support, they’re better and better able to help him grow and to find a balance that lets them live their own lives while being good parents to him.

Volume 1 of With the Light covers Hikaru’s life from infancy through the first years of elementary school, and it’s an insightful, compassionately written book that does an excellent job of delivering on its subtitle: this is the story of raising a particular autistic child–Tobe takes great pains to emphasize that each case of autism is unique–and it maintains a good balance between being an enjoyable story and being a tool to demystify and destigmatize a condition that’s often misunderstood.

The series includes many footnotes mentioning statistics and resources on autism, as well as noting when Hikaru’s particular symptoms are individual rather than universal. (Yen Press notes that the statistics were current when the book was originally released in Japan, and provides a link to more up-to-date sources of information.) There are also essays from Japanese parents of autistic children, which describe their real-life experiences.

The book is translated by Satsuki Yamashita, who also translated both of the projects I’ve adapted for Del Rey Manga (the Genshiken Official Book and the second Tsubasa Character Guide), so my preexisting familiarity with her translation style** helped to make this a fairly comfortable read for me.

*Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have any subsequent volumes as part of their collection. It may be time to file a few purchase requests–and I’d just like to be publicly grateful that they offer that option. Apparently it’s not as common as it should be.

**It’s not exactly the same, of course; a translation intended for adaptation usually focuses more on conveying the most accurate meaning possible than on making it sound as smooth as possible.

A couple of weeks ago, AstroNerdBoy reviewed vol. 1 and vol. 2 of Phantom Dream, which, coincidentally, I just finished adapting a few days ago. (It’s a five-volume series, and the second one I’ve adapted in its entirety; the first was White Night Melody, although only one volume was released.) When he reviewed vol. 1 and wasn’t terribly impressed, I commented and said that vol. 2 is stronger than vol. 1, and happily he agreed.

I think I want to write a real post about Dream sometime soon, but today is not that day.

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Quick roundup of my recent MangaLife reviews:
High School Debut vol. 10 (A-)
The Lapis Lazuli Crown vol. 1 (B) [CMX]
Tail of the Moon Prequel: The Other Hanzo(u) (B+)

I also wrote up a batch of short “what I’m reading” reviews, including vol. 6 of Monkey High!, vol. 13 of Love*Com, vol. 4 of Haruka – Beyond the Stream of Time, vol. 7 of Wild Ones, vol. 2 of The Magic Touch, vol. 13 of Inubaka: Crazy For Dogs, and vol. 3 of St. Dragon Girl.

I don’t often waffle on whether or not to check out a new manga title, but I’m seriously unsure about whether or not to try Detroit Metal City. Since the review copies that get sent my way are almost exclusively shoujo, this one isn’t likely to fall into my hands if I don’t seek it out. I hear really good things, and I certainly read and work on a fairly wide variety of titles/genres, but I can’t decide if DMC sounds like something I’d enjoy. (It doesn’t help that I avoid reviews of things I haven’t read, since most other reviewers tend to talk about more plot details than I usually want to know in advance.)

I already collect a fair number of series, so I’m trying to avoid adding too many new titles to my list for the next little while. But several titles I collect are ending in just a volume or two, which makes it hard to keep from just trying everything that catches my eye. And the DMC waffling continues.

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On the work front, TOKYOPOP now has a preview of ZONE-00 vol. 1 up on their site. That may just be the single most challenging volume I’ve ever worked on, and I say that in full awareness of having done three full-length fanbooks and multiple volumes of Sgt. Frog. ^_^ (Volume 2 was much, much easier than volume 1, for a few reasons.) I’ll be very interested to see what people think of vol. 1 when review copies start going out.

Meanwhile, I’m currently at work on the final volume of Natsuki Takaya’s Phantom Dream, and I’ll be very sorry to see it go. It’s interesting as an early work, as I’ve said to many people, and it also improves noticeably from volume to volume. The artwork in vol. 5 is much, much different from vol. 1 (it looks fairly similar to her style in early volumes of Fruits Basket), and while her plotting isn’t as masterful as it is in Fruits Basket (which I think is structurally brilliant), I really like the characters and the story comes together quite well. I have a long history of really enjoying various series right up until the end and then being disappointed by the way they wrap up, and that didn’t happen here.

And while I’m mentioning Dream: Lillian (Diaz-Przybyl, the current series editor) has given me the go-ahead to tell readers that vol. 3+ will include a glossary and character guide, which should come as a relief to the people who find the plethora of Japanese mystical terms a little, er, overwhelming.

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And as always, a small batch of MangaLife reviews (including some CMX books):
Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea (B-) [CMX]
Sand Chronicles vol. 5 (A+)
Venus Capriccio vol. 1 (B-) [CMX]