2008 Best OEL / Global Manga Readers' Poll Winner: Anima

Last year, I only offered four categories for the 2007 Readers' Polls. This year, I opened things up a bit by adding seven new categories, including this one, the 2008 Best New Original English Language (OEL) Manga / Global Manga Poll. What I totally didn't expect was the huge rush of votes that came in, almost as soon as the poll opened. By the time all the votes were counted, a whooping 1011 votes were cast in this one category.

For a while, the race was a toss-up between Anima by Dany & Dany from Yaoi Press, and Yokaiden by Nina Matsumoto from Del Rey Manga. But toward the end of the voting period, Anima took the lead and never let it go. With its mix of science fiction, drama and boys love romance, Anima inspired passionate support from the fans of this Italian manga-ka duo, enough to rack up 40% of the total votes cast in this category.

Nina Matsumoto's supernatural shonen manga comedy Yokaiden claimed second place. Meanwhile, another supernatural action series, Dæmonium by Spanish creators Kôsen from TokyoPop made a strong showing to earn third place. So with stories by creators from Italy, Canada and Spain, the top three nominees definitely represent a range of global manga in the true sense of the term.

See the rest of the nominees and see how they placed at the Best New Original English Language (OEL ) / Global Manga poll page, and view the full results of the voting. Also, see the rest of the results in all of the 2008 Readers' Polls. Thanks for voting! Next up: the results of the Best New All-Ages Manga and Best New One-Shot Manga polls.

Image credit: © Dany & Dany