This year was the first time that I included 2008 Best New Yaoi / Shonen Ai Manga Poll in the readers' polls. While I knew that fans of yaoi manga tend to be very passionate about stories from their favorite creators , I was still caught off guard by the intensity of the voting action.
In the 8-day voting period, over 1,900 votes were received in this poll, with the majority of the votes going to A Foreign Love Affair by Ayano Yamane (June Manga / Digital Manga Publishing), Future Lovers by Saika Kunieda (Deux Press / Aurora Publishing) and Anima by Dany & Dany from Yaoi Press. Fans of Anima tried their best to give their favorite a two-fer win (It's the readers poll winner in the equally heated Best New Original English Language / Global Manga poll). In the end, the dedicated fans of Yamane-sensei's A Foreign Love Affair gave this title just enough votes to prevail and claim first place.
So what makes this one-shot such a hit with yaoi manga aficionados? Could it be its exotic Mediterranean setting? Or perhaps it is the tantalizing combination of a smooth Italian hunk with a rough and tumble Japanese gangster. Or is it because of Yamane-sensei's knack for drawing very hot guys in sizzling situations? Short answer? Probably all of the above and more.
See the rest of the nominees and find out how many votes they got at the Best New Yaoi / Shonen Ai Manga poll page, and view the full vote-count. Also, see the rest of the results in all of the 2008 Readers' Polls. Thanks for voting! Next up: the last batch of poll results for the Best New Book About Manga.
Image credit: © Ayano Yamane
Comments
I liked a Foreign Love Affair, but loooooved The Prime Minister’s Secret Diplomacy. Such a shame that is in limbo right now, with quite possibly no end in sight.
I think this was a great anime, good job!