Sakura of DOOM

Spoilers through Tsubasa ch. 187 as well.

( Spoilers )

This is why I don't make New Year's Resolutions to read less manga: the statistics would come out the next year, and I would laugh in my own face. The scary thing is this list doesn't include random scanlations or recent chapters of series I follow, and it's still at 275 volumes!

As usual, these are my favorite things read this year, not published this year. I'm also keeping manga separate from comics; this is an entirely arbitrary distinction and depends not only on the paper size of the book, but also whether or not I feel it's going for the manga feel or not. For 2008, I'm going to stick everything together as "sequential art," but since my spreadsheet from last year was set up to separate manga from everything else, no such luck for now.

Sadly, I have skimpy numbers for manhwa, which I am going to try to remedy this year. I was surprised to see I only have two repeats from last year (Emma and Cain Saga/Godchild), though I have four author repeats (Mori Kaoru, Minekura Kazuya, Mizushiro Setona and Yuki Kaori). I liked my runner ups much more than I liked my runner ups from last year, though that's mainly because I've been reading more manga. I know, what a shocker.

Continuing series Naruto, Fruits Basket and Saiyuki (including Reload and Gaiden) fell off my list this year. I don't even have Naruto on my list of manga read, but that's largely because I read chapters as they came out. Possibly reading individual chapters instead of volumes of manga dampened my enthusiasm, although I think a larger part of it is because we're stuck in another long fighting arc I don't care much about. I'm still waiting for my favorite characters to get back into action and very sick of Sasuke's angst about twenty volumes ago, thankyouverymuch. I just haven't read any Fruits Basket this year, aside from rereads, and while new volumes of Saiyuki Reload came out this year (most notably the exciting volume 7), they're all volumes I read last year in Japanese.

The only reason Honey and Clover isn't on here is because the first three volumes a) aren't out in the US and b) follow the anime so closely that I can't quite figure out what to say.

I have individual volume write ups linked via tags for the top ten and runners up, but I'm too lazy to link the entire list of stuff I read. Anything without an asterisk has been written up before; check my tags or memories. If you're curious about something I haven't written up, feel free to ask!

Series alphabetized by author.

1. ( CLAMP, xxxHolic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle )



2. ( Higuri You, Cantarella )



3. ( Minekura Kazuya, Wild Adapter )



4. ( Mizushiro Setona, After School Nightmare )



5. ( Mori Kaoru, Emma )



6. ( Soryo Fuyumi, Eternal Sabbath )



7. ( Urasawa Naoki, Monster and 20th Century Boys )



8. ( Urushibara Yuki, Mushishi )



9. ( Yazawa Ai, Nana and Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai )



10. ( Yuki Kaori, Cain Saga/Godchild )



11. ( Yumeka Sumomo, The Day I Became a Butterfly )

Also recommended: Arakawa Hiromu, Fullmetal Alchemist; Svetlana Chmakova, Dramacon; Hayakawa Tomoko, The Wallflower; Ogawa Yayoi, Tramps Like Us; Takeuchi Mick, Her Majesty's Dog; Yoshinaga Fumi, Antique Bakery; Yun Mi-Kyung, Bride of the Water God

( Notes )

Total read: 275 (40 rereads)

( Complete list of manga read in 2007 )

Watch me scrabble to finish writing up manga and books!

( Spoilers )

I'm not quite sure how this manga will go. The structure is such that it seems more like a string of short stories that are facilitated by the premise.

Watanuki Kimihiro has been prone to seeing ghosts and other supernatural beings all his life. One day, he wanders into a very odd little store, owned by Ichihara Yuuko, also called the Space-Time Witch.

From what I've seen, I really like Yuuko. She has Arashi's long, straight black hair, slitted eyes, and she is completely random and seems to have no remorse whatsoever. Very interesting, and very different from what I've come to expect from CLAMP female characters, who are generally the cute, innocent girls or older, sophisticated women.

Anyhow, most of what happens is that Yuuko grants wishes, for a price. Watanuki ends up getting roped in -- Yuuko says after a year of service to the store, she'll grant his wish and make him not see the supernatural anymore, and in the first vol. there are just stories of a few people who wander in. Yuuko's price for granting wishes is always very high; whatever will cost the person the most, she'll take, and she doesn't always guarantee that her wish granting will come true. It's usually a pretty high risk asking a boon of her.

I like the flavor of the series so far, but I'm not very involved with the characters so far. I might just keep reading if volumes keep turning up at the library, just because I like the character designs.

It also crosses over with the first volume of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, but it's not necessary to read one before the other.