2008 was all about Morning

Hrmm… a little late, but it’s better late than never! \o/

This year, rather than talking about the animes I’ve seen and loved this year, I’d share to you one of the best things I’ve had for a year.

I’ve always been hesitant to buy manga magazines. I think for the longest time, I’ve been pondering over subscribing to Shounen Sunday or Shounen Jump. For a while, I even pondered about subscribing to Kiss. Somehow, I never really had the chance to subscribe even if I was actually interested in it. Until last year, when a little trip to the grocery store got me wondering if I could actually get a subscription locally.

When 2008 started, I realized that a local Japanese Grocery store ((For Metro Manila residents, this is Yamazaki, the Japanese Grocery store near Makati Cinema Square)) carried the magazine, Morning. Now, I’ve been eternally curious about Morning since Ed from Mangacast spoke highly of it. More so, a couple of titles I’ve been interested in were running there, such as Kami no Shizuku and Kinou Nani Tabeta. It wasn’t my usual cup of tea (really, I was more interested in Shounen Jump), but I thought I’d give it a shot. So I bought a copy. The next thing I know, I was already asking the manager if I can get a subscription.

Sure, Morning doesn’t have the most popular titles among kids but it does have a great array of reads that I did not expect. It ranges from the unexpectedly cute with Chi’s Sweet Home to the intense Zipang.  As I flip through the pages, I fell in love more and more with the magazine, unexpectedly drawn to read stories that I’d probably wouldn’t give a second look if I was browsing a shelf. And for this I’m grateful for the magazine. Morning has nice stories to tell and if I hadn’t read the magazine, I wouldn’t know how wonderful these stories are.

In a year, I found myself enjoying a couple of titles. Here’s a rundown of my favorites currently running in the magazine.

• Kami no Shiziku (The wine manga we’ve all been dying to get translated!)
• Kinou Nani Tabeta (The Yoshinaga Fumi foodie manga we long to read about.)
• Piano no Mori (A story of a young boy who found love for music in the middle of a forest)
• Uchuu Kyoudai (A story of brothers gunning to take over space)
• Shima Shima (Can’t sleep? Then let the boys of Strip Sheep cuddle you to bed)
• Chi’s Sweet Home (Ah~ Cute little Chi~! Who can’t resist this kitty!?)
• Himawari (The dreams of a small town OL to become a mangaka ((Don’t know much about this, but I caught Himawari during this said arc)))
• Billy Bat (Urasawa’s Morning contribution. It’s becoming more trippy by the chapter! I love it!)

See, I didn’t expect to actually end up reading more than the 2 titles I actually bought Morning for.  Last year, they even published a New Year’s St. Oniisan chapter in Morning and I owe it to that chapter for introducing me to St. Oniisan.

If there’s one thing I love about Morning, it’s how their catch phrase is not a lie. On every cover of Morning, there’s a catch phrase that says “読むと元気になる” (When you read this, you’ll feel great). And certainly my mornings feel great, thanks to Morning.