2013 Roundup: Manga

I've read a lot of great manga this year, so I wanted to share with you guys a bit about them.

End of an Era

Of the "big three" shounen manga (One Piece, Naruto and Bleach), the latter two have entered their final arcs (although I expect Bleach to go on for a while, given its languid pace.) But that's not what I'm going to talk about here. Other really great manga finished their runs this year, and some are my very favorites:

I'm probably going to post something about Blade of the Immortal (JP: Mugen no Jyuunin) once the English language editions come out, probably later next year or in 2015. But the manga's Japanese run came to an end early this year, and some intrepid scanlators have posted the last three volumes somewhere in the internets.

Long story short, Blade of the Immortal is one of my favorite manga EVER. It tells the story of an immortal samurai, Manji, who is tasked with killing 1000 evil men in exchange for the opportunity to die. In the process, he helps a young girl, Rin, take revenge over the people who killed her parents. Of course, nothing is as simple as it seems.

The last three volumes are a frenzy of great fighting and resolves most of the hanging threads of the manga. I've collected this manga for more than ten years, and the plots and character interactions are so good, it's worth the often one year wait between volumes. Add that to Hiroaki Samura's wonderful (sometimes gruesomely brutal) pencil art and interesting characters, and we have a winner.

Another Seinen manga that ended its run recently is Gantz by Hiroya Oku. This one attracted me due to the insanely high character turnaround in the first few volumes, although one can argue the plot really takes off once a stable team is formed.

Gantz is an acquired taste, and I know a lot of people who don't like it because it basically is action, gore and boobs. (That's why I like it, ironically.)

Gantz really dropped off my radar when the final arc began to kick into gear. Upon picking up the series again, I see that the series ends in a kinda rushed manner, but at least there is some resolution. A few chapters where our Gantzers encounter some very high level beings serves as an infodump revealing all the secrets of the manga's plot. It's still a decent end but I'd want a little more out of it.

If it's closure you want, the ending of Deadman Wonderland delivers. For those not in the know, it's about this kid who gets thrown into this amusement park style prison with inmates who can use blood as a weapon. Lucky for the kid, he can use blood as a weapon too. 

Its finale is all about our protagonists (?) Shiro and Ganta (as we've known all along) and the relationship between the two. Of course all the lingering questions about the prison, Shiro's origin and the true nature of that disastrous earthquake that set all these events into motion are answered.

There's an epic battle here, although the true battle is an emotional one. I enjoyed the anime adaptation of this one, but it focuses more on the darker, bloodier early chapters of the manga. Although it doesn't get any lighter, Deadman Wonderland really sets in the shounen formula at the point in the manga where the anime ends. I'd have liked to see a season 2 of this manga, but we'll see.

 On the other hand, the anime adaptation of Soul Eater was really great. Good character designs, a complex world, and great animation. When the anime started to diverge from the manga, you can see the drop in quality.

The ending of Soul Eater is... a non-ending. Nothing really gets resolved. It's as if the anime ending at least gives a bit of closure. I'm not a big fan of the manga ending one bit but hey, that's how the cookie crumbles.

Of all the manga that ended this year, none have the same emotional heft as Inio Asano's masterpiece Oyasumi Punpun. A coming of age story about a guy who sees himself and his family as cartoon birds, it's one of those rare manga that manages to pack an emotional punch. (I may write up something about it once a good translation comes out.)

The last few volumes really had it in for poor Punpun, as the manga had turned darker than ever. Life really sucks for the poor guy, but that's how life goes sometimes. If you haven't read this manga before, I recommend it wholeheartedly. No work has ever conveyed the pain of growing up, or living as an adult, or falling in and out of love quite as well as this manga.

Interesting Choices

Other new (or relatively new) manga caught my attention this year. Some are good, some are just okay, but I'm entertained, so what do I care, right?

Chihayafuru was my favorite anime of 2013. It simply defies description. It's part romance manga, part sports manga, part slice of life. I loved every minute of it and I hope they make a lot more episodes.

Now, Chihayafuru the manga is more or less the same. How can you make a manga about a card game so freaking interesting? Read Chihayafuru and find out.

Like Chihayafuru, Helter Skelter is classified as Josei (catering to adult women) but it cannot be more different. Readers of this blog (all three of you) might be familiar with a review of a live action adaptation of this manga.

It's not very violent in the physical sense, but this one might be one of the more emotionally violent manga I've read this year.

Attack on Titan is one of the year's runaway hits. Granted, the manga may not have the best artwork in the world (I personally think it's horrible) but the plot is excellent and keeps the reader on his or her toes.

There are still a lot of questions unanswered, and I look forward to reading a bit more about it every month. If the art is too much of a problem, there's always the great anime adaptation.

Aku no Hana is a coming of age/slice of life story as well, but vastly different from anything out there. It's been described as a "tainted pure love story" and I think the description fits really well.

An anime adaptation that lasted 13 episodes has come out and has   polarized the fanbase. Some stand by it and laud it as a great series, others totally hate the adaptation for using rotoscoping and pacing the story too slowly. Personally I like the anime adaptation, especially how the animation team adapted the classroom scene, which IMO is one of the single greatest anime moments of the year.

It's surprising that Akira Hinamoto, the mangaka of Prison School, is also responsible for the fantastic Me and the Devil Blues.

That's not to knock of Prison School though. It's art is top notch, and an ecchi series like this, which is two boobs short of a hentai show, needs good art.

It's also good comedy, if you're into that kind of stuff.

Wolf Guy has werewolves and boobs.

There's also rape in there somewhere. Huh.

There are a lot of other one shots and horror shorts that I've either forgotten or haven't included on this list. So, what manga did you appreciate in 2013?