2009 Best New Manga

Author and Artist: Tomoko Yamashita
Publisher: NETComics
Compare prices for Dining Bar Akira

When his co-worker Yasuyuki confesses that he's attracted to him, restaurant manager Akira is beyond flustered. He's never thought of himself as gay, so he can't quite figure out whether to be creeped out or intrigued by the proposition. Things just get more and more awkward each day that he has to work next to Yasuyuki. Akira can't quite figure it out -- does he want this or not? If he doesn't, why can't he just turn it down?

This modern and matter-of-fact romance is awkward, funny and sexy, sometimes all three at once, as Akira and Yasuyuki bumble through their fears and feelings, defenses and desires.

Author and Artist: est em
Publisher: Deux Press / Aurora Publishing
Compare prices for Red Blinds the Foolish

Far from the Japanese high schools, offices and bars of most yaoi manga, Red Blinds the Foolish takes readers to Spain. In the short stories featured in Red Blinds the Foolish, est em introduces readers to the world of the bull fighters, soccer players, shoe makers and dancers, and infuses them with the kind of sophisticated storytelling and sensual scenes of men loving men that made Seduce Me After the Show such a standout release in 2008.

Author and Artist: Junko Mizuno
Publisher: Last Gasp
Compare prices for Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu Vol. 1

Pelu is a lonely alien who wants to meet the right girl so he can make babies. But Pelu's quest is doomed from the start, because besides being an asexual zygote, Pelu just has lousy luck in love. As he meets, befriends, falls in love and gets snubbed romantically as "just a friend" by a parade of tragic women, Pelu just wonders if there's any real love to be found on Earth.

Cute, grotesque and absurdly melodramatic, Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu is a comedy with a taste for low-brow tragedy. It's anyone's guess if Pelu will ever find happiness, but at the rate he's going, his chances don't look good.

Authors: Mana Takahashi, Trend-Pro Co. Ltd.
Artist: Shoko Azuma
Publisher: No Starch Press (US)
Compare prices for Manga Guide to Databases

In Japan, manga is frequently used to teach kids about science, math and history. Now No Starch Press is out to make even the most mind-boggling science and math subjects easier to understand with their manga guides to physics, calculus, statistics and even the Universe!

In the Manga Guide to Databases, a princess has problems managing her kingdom's fruit import/export business. Thanks to a helpful fairy and a little database magic, her problems are solved. A quirky, but fun niche of manga publishing that demystifies dense subjects for the masses.

Author and Artist: Jiro Taniguchi
Publisher: Fanfare - Ponent Mon (US)
Compare prices for A Distant Neighborhood Vol. 1

Hiroshi Nakahara is a middle-aged businessman who finds himself transported back to the days when he was a school boy, but with all of his adult memories and knowledge intact. Now that he's been given another chance, Hiroshi revels in the opportunity given to him to do things differently: to talk to the cutest girl in school, to smoke and drink, and more seriously, to try to prevent his father from abandoning his family.

While Fanfare - Ponent Mon books continue to be challenging to find in your local book or comics shop, this touching two-volume manga mid-life crisis tale is well worth seeking out.