2007 Best New Manga List

Author and Artist: Yuki Urushibara
Publisher: Del Rey Manga
Visit Del Rey Manga's Mushishi page
Read a review of Mushishi Volume 1
Compare prices for Mushishi Volume 1

Mushishi is a rare breed of manga: a smartly-written, original story that's told with simple yet mesmerizing imagery. It defies one-sentence descriptions: Is it a Japanese ghost story? Is it a haunting fable of strange events and supernatural beings? Is it a heartwarming tale of compassion, friendship and love? Mushishi is all of these things and more.

Author: Kyo Shirodaira
Artist: Eita Mizuno
Publisher: Yen Press
Visit Yen Press' Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning page
Read a review of Spiral Volume 1
Compare prices for Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning Vol. 1

Compared to the other new shonen manga series who were up for this title, Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning is free of demons, shinigami and swords. Instead, what you get is an entertaining detective story with a savvy sleuth who doesn't always have all the answers.

10th grader Ayumu is a fiercely intelligent teen who can solve crimes that leave older investigators baffled. But he's haunted by the specter of his older brother who's been missing for the last two years, and mysterious clues that lead to a group called "The Blade Children."

Author and Artist: Matsuri Hino
Publisher: Shojo Beat / VIZ Media
Visit Shojo Beat's Vampire Knight page
Read a review of Vampire Knight Volume 1
Compare prices for Vampire Knight Volume 1

I know, a tie is a cop-out. But it was hard to choose between Vampire Knight and Translucent because they succeeded on different levels.

Matsuri Hino's gothic high school fantasy got the nod for its dark, erotic undertones, cosplay-bait uniforms and luscious artwork. It's little hard to follow what's going on sometimes, with all the arcane vampire blood ties, twisted rivalries and romances. But maybe that's what kept me intrigued enough to buy the next two volumes that followed the first. And that's not a given when I read a first volume of anything!

Author and Artist: Kazuhiro Okamoto
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Visit Dark Horse Manga's Translucent page
Compare prices for Translucent Volume 1

Like its publisher, Translucent was a definite "dark horse" in the race for Best New Shojo Manga. But its sheer originality, genuine sweetness and sincerity won me over.

Shy 8th grader Shizuka is ill, but not in the way you'd expect. She has Translucent Syndrome, and when she's stressed out, she slowly goes from translucent to transparent to invisible. Thankfully, Shizuka is not alone. Her classmates and her best friend/maybe boyfriend Mamoru is there to share their love, laughs and support that maybe, just maybe might prevent Shizuka from fading away forever.

Author: Eiji Otsuka
Artist: Sho-U Tajima
Publisher: Dark Horse
Visit Dark Horse's MPD-Psycho page
Compare prices for MPD Psycho

Dark, bizarre and totally mind-blowing, MPD-Psycho is a sci-fi/suspense/horror seinen manga that is definitely for grown-ups.

"MPD" stands for "Multiple-Personality Disorder" and the "MPD" in question is Yosuke Kobayashi. Kobayashi was a respected Tokyo Police detective until the grisly murder of his wife pushed him over the edge and uncovered the evil hidden in his soul. Now a profiler specializing in serial killers, Kobayashi has a knack for getting into murderer's minds, especially since his other selves are also cold-blooded killers. It's like Silence of the Lambs and Dexter, but much, much more twisted.

Author and Artist: Mari Okazaki
Publisher: TokyoPop
Visit TokyoPop's Suppli page
Compare prices for Suppli Volume 1

Once you get past its odd title, Suppli is compelling modern romance enhanced with stylish art and mature storytelling.

Minami is a young advertising executive who struggles to balance the demands of her career with her love life. This twenty-something single gal's inner dialogs about her insecurities and her matter-of-fact assessments of her prospective suitors are refreshingly real and relatable. Suppli is not for everyone, but for the manga reader who grew up with shojo but is looking for something more sexy and sophisticated, Suppli serves up the perfect vodka martini in a sea of Kool-Aid comics.

Author and Artist: Masashi Tanaka
Publisher: CMX Manga
Visit CMX Manga's Gon page
Compare prices for Gon Volume 1

As a re-issued edition of a manga that was originally released by DC in 1996 and rated "T-Teen," this new CMX edition of Gon technically doesn't qualify for the best "new" all-ages manga series. But what can I say? 2007 was a wasteland out there for manga for readers under age 13, so I take what I can get.

This pint-sized dinosaur makes lots of big-time trouble wherever he goes. Giant grizzly bears, fierce bobcats and lions are no match for this tiny prehistoric terror. With no dialogue or narration to get in the way, the entire story is told solely with artwork, making it instantly appealing for readers from 8 to 80.

Author and Artist: Madeleine Rosca
Publisher: Seven Seas Manga
Visit Seven Seas Manga's Hollow Fields page
Read a review of Hollow Fields Vol. 1
Compare prices for Hollow Fields Volume 1

As a runner-up in the First International Manga Award competition, Madeleine Rosca's Hollow Fields hardly needs my seal of approval. But this quirky story of a young girl who gets enrolled in a school for mad scientists certainly deserves your attention as one of the most enjoyable and inventive OEL manga stories published this year.

Hollow Fields is a skillfully-written tale full of suspense, adventure and yes, cuteness too. It's drawn in an intricate, appealing style that builds upon, rather than just imitates manga's artistic roots.

Author and Artist: Keiko Takemiya
Publisher: Vertical Inc.
Visit Vertical's To Terra pages
Compare prices for To Terra… Volume 1

Keiko Takemiya's groundbreaking sci-fi saga To Terra… arrived on American shores this year and introduced many readers to this influential manga from the Seventies. To Terra… is part sci-fi, part social commentary and is almost always artistically innovative.

Raised in an environment where conformity is the norm, Jomy is a rebellious teen whose telepathic powers have caught the attention of a mutant race of psychics. A sci-fi epic that spans galaxies and decades, To Terra… asks the eternal question: What does it mean to be human? Why are we here, and what is our place in the universe?

Author and Artist: Fumiyo Kouno
Publisher: Last Gasp
Visit Last Gasp's Town of Evening Calm page
Read a review of Town of Evening Calm
Compare prices for Town of Evening Calm

Another "little manga that could" title, Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms is an award-winning graphic novel about two young girls and the impact that World War II has upon their families and friends. Compared to its thematic predecessor Barefoot Gen, Town of Evening Calm is an atom bomb story that's told in whispers rather than screams.

Kouno's delicate artwork and subtle storytelling depicts the true human cost of war quietly but effectively. She resists the urge to pile on melodrama to convey a deeply moving story.

Author and Artist: Hitoshi Iwaaki
Publisher: Del Rey Manga
Visit Del Rey Manga's Parasyte page
Compare prices for Parasyte Volume 1

Shinichi is an ordinary Japanese teen whose right arm has been possessed by an alien "parasyte". Migi and Shin try to learn to co-exist and stay alive as other aliens seek them out and try to kill them, along with the rest of humanity.

Back in the day, Parasyte was one of the first manga published by a nascent TokyoPop. After the TokyoPop editions had gone out of print, Del Rey Manga picked up the license and spiffed it up with fresh translations and re-presented the story in its original right-to-left format. Now "Lefty" is "Migi" again, and all is right in the universe.

Author and Artist: Taiyo Matsumoto
Publisher: VIZ Signature / VIZ Media
Visit VIZ Media's Tekkon Kinkreet page
Read a review of Tekkon Kinkreet: Black and White Compare prices for Tekkon Kinkreet

Another title rescued from publishing limbo, Taiyo Matsumoto's Black and White came back to the bookshelves in its new incarnation, a deluxe all-in-one edition with a new title, Tekkon Kinkreet. Even years after its first go-round, Matsumoto's story of two orphans battling for their place in a surreal, merciless city has lost none of its graphic and emotional impact. Tekkon Kinkreet proved that great manga can be even better the second time around.