Posts Tagged ‘Kodansha’
Sukitte Ii na yo (Say “I Love you”) by Kanae Hazuki
Serialized in Dessert
Published by Kodansha
We’ve read this story before. The girl who can’t trust anyone and the guy who tries to bring her faith back in humanity. Kanae Hazuki’s Sukitte Ii Na Yo‘s heroine, Mei Tachibana, is a girl who has been betrayed by many leaving her without friends or boyfriends for the past 16 years. And while she tries to get by with things on her own, our hero, Yamato Kurosawa, tries to convince her that there are people she can rely on and the most real of kisses can taste like karaage (fried chicken).
Wow. What a year.
As compared to last year, 2012 was good to me — very good to me.
However, because it was good to me, it also meant it ate my time. Lots of my time. Particularly, my champloo and manga reading time. In terms of my time for this blog, I didn’t fulfill my wonderful spotlight series monthly. Nor did I even continue the columns I wish to continue! I wish I can do more and please don’t blame my tumblr habit. ; 3; It’s easier to reblog than write. My life in tumblr is filled with likes, porn, and tons of reblogs. But yes, in general, I have nothing but my life to blame on why I didn’t get things up to speed. At the very least, I was happy that I managed to host my first MMF quite successfully.
Despite this madness, 2012 was still a great year of manga. Here’s a list of 12 mangas I read in the last year. They’re not necessarily manga released in 2012 but they are all amazing manga that I’ve discovered and love this year. In no particular order, here are my favorite mangas read from last year.
Beck by Harold Sakuishi
Serialized in Monthly Shounen Magazine
Published by Kodansha and Tokyopop
If there’s a manga can transmit sound, then Beck‘s that title. You don’t even need to hear the music itself. The panels alone can cause a riot. For a good long while, a lot of its readers were mute to the music but many of them know the sound Beck/Mongolian Chop Squad plays. That music that shatters your bone. That voice that saves your soul.
Beck is the loudest manga I’ve read.
So why haven’t we read the next manga that’ll rock our world?
This was a difficult set to write because it was difficult to whittle down the list to seven. This week/month, I’ve been reading various food manga and here are the seven titles that I enjoyed… right now. I have a feeling that if I read the other stories, I’d probably go to my wits and them here. But right now, these are the titles that we’ll all probably enjoy, regardless if we love manga or food a little more than the other.
Aku no Hana, Flower of Evil
by Shuzo Oshimi
Serialized in Shounen Magazine
Licensed by Vertical
A young boy falls in love with prettiest girl in class and makes a crucial mistake.
A girl witnesses the young boy’s act and uses it against the boy’s fragile heart.
Another girl longs to save the boy.
This shounen title about adolescents and their control issues may have a lot of contemporaries but it is immature to assume that this story is nothing but erotic fanfare. Unlike Sundome and Nana to Kaoru, Flowers of Evil understands that ‘strength’ comes from great insecurities and weakness. However, this ‘strength’ is not about climbing mountains and emerging victorious. This involves strength in crossing the dark side of the mountain and how to bask in it — nourishing our personal demons.
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