Sakura of DOOM

At least this year I'm getting it out before Chinese New Year! Though that's mostly because it's super late this year...

As usual, these are my favorites out of the sequential art I've read this year, as opposed to what came out this year. The "new-to-me" series aren't actually always new to me; some series in particular are on the list because though I started the series earlier, what I read this year was enough to put them on my favorites list.

I was pretty terrible about writing things up this year, thanks to grad school getting increasingly busy every semester. If it's linked, I wrote it up, but feel free to ask in comments about anything!

Overall, I largely paused in my attempt to read more manhua, as there's still not very much being published in Taiwan right now, and the quality isn't so great. I am so sad there has been nothing new by Nan Gong Yu! At least I saw her series running in a magazine, so I'm fairly sure she's still writing. Just... very slowly?

I also read much less new stuff, at least, that's how I feel. I started two massive rereads during the summer (FMA and Fruits Basket), and mostly I was looking for rereading or at least a continuation of a series I knew thanks to my brain being extremely worn out by school. I also went on a brief superhero comics run to find out what happens to Catwoman; unfortunately, aside from Selina's Big Score, which I loved (and which started me on said spree), the rest largely reconfirmed that I'm not much of a superhero comics fan.

( Favorite new-to-me series )

( Also recommended )

( Favorite ending series )

( Favorite continuing series )

Total: 236 (74 rereads)

( All sequential art read in 2009 )

I read volume one of this in the summer and promptly forgot it. Shiina Sakuya loves the stars and star-gazing and draws strength from them. She's the president of her school's tiny star-gazing club, which consists of her and her two best friends, demon-with-perfect-lady-exterior Honjo Hijiri and goofball Murakami Yuri. Given their frequent spats, I am sure the two will end up with each other. Sakuya seems to be a perfect shoujo heroine, like Fruits Basket's Tohru: she's perky and always smiling even though she lives with her deadbeat cousin Kanade. But much like Tohru, there's more to the story than that.

On her eighteenth birthday, Sakuya meets a mysterious boy, Chihiro, who gives her a present and eats with her and Kanade. But it turns out that neither Sakuya or Kanade know him, and soon after, he transfers to Sakuya's school.

As noted, volume one is not very notable; like most series, a great deal of it is set up. I could not for the life of me figure out why Sakuya was obsessed with Chihiro when she hardly knew him. My assumption was that he was actually some star in human form and figured the series would follow the Fruits Basket formula, with cheerful girl gradually poking more into cute guy's past traumas.

Instead, volumes two and three deepen the mystery of Sakuya. It's hard avoiding the FB comparison when it looks like this series will also examine issues like child abuse, emotional abuse, and very hurt teenagers, but so far, I like it a lot. Sakuya has quickly become her own character, not another Tohru, and oh, I feel for her so. Takaya's paneling and art is as excellent as always, and it makes some of the revelations about Sakuya even more painful.

I'm hoping that future volumes will continue development of the secondary characters—I'm particularly interested in Hijiri, who's model-student-perfect on the outside but has a ruthlessness that reminds me a great deal of Shigure. Mostly, though, I'm really hoping we get more of Sakuya and that Chihiro's angst (I am certain he has angst) will not overshadow it.

Definitely recommended so far, although it takes a little time for things to get really good.