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It's time for a new list. I always enjoy revisiting and catching up on the top manga of each year, even if it does give me the same headache as vetting my games of the year. Manga, too, are dominated by several massive, ongoing works with their own gravitational pull. Variety and newness are essential, but it can feel difficult to find time for the untried when there's so much of a proven comfort within arm's reach. In this sense, I'm blessed that my tastes have kept me out of the clutches of most of the time vampires of the shonen world, but with the likes of Komi Can't Communicate and Yona of the Dawn both well past 30 volumes, my manga reading time is getting divvied up either way.
Our list of the best manga of 2023 featured several new series as well as a few others that had recently reached a new peak. Those manga are still running, series like Dandadan are burning brighter than ever on the back of hit anime adaptations, and all of them are worth reading. I'm still reading them! But I won't mention them again here. This year, I've found it a bit easier to discover all-new manga that only just received an English release physically or digitally. Maybe there was a bumper crop of manga in 2024 or maybe I'm just one person with limited time and unavoidable favorites. It might be that.
10. Gachiakuta
After bouncing hard off Black Clover and Fire Force, I was convinced I no longer had the stomach or patience for archetypal shonen. Gachiakuta by Kei Urana, ironically the former assistant of Fire Force creator Atsushi Ohkubo, proved otherwise. Maybe I was just sick of magic systems and golden heroes – two things you won't find in the deliberately dingy slums of Gachiakuta. The plight of protagonist Rudo, a young boy framed for murder and thrown by discriminatory elites into an abyss of garbage that's spawned an otherworldly biome of monsters, immediately smears the stylish, urban world in grime. Striking, chunky art overflows with primal emotion and pours out so much ink that it's a wonder the pages aren't still wet. An inventive power system that turns normal items into bizarre weapons seals the deal. This is weird enough to work.
9. The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy At All
It is such a rare treat to hold a physical volume of a web comic in your hands. How nice it was to see this series make the transition to full-fat serialization. The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy At All started on the Twitter account of creator Sumiko Arai – a punk-rock, black-on-green romcom about a fashionable girl who doesn't realize her music shop crush is the nerdy girl who sits near her at school. It's snowballed into a sweet and stumbling series that, when not fervently dodging the yuri allegations, delivers some of the best expressions and illustrations drawn this year. Every chapter makes me smile.
8. Hirayasumi
Perfectly opposite Gachiakuta, Hirayasumi is a lighthearted and minimalist slice of life story drawn with a pen so light that I can only assume creator Keigo Shinzo had to tie it to a desk to keep it from floating away. The catalyst is simple: an old woman leaves her house to a young man. The two met by chance and quickly grew close, the old woman cherishing a bit of company in her lonely retirement. The house becomes a home anew, and soon the man's younger cousin joins him as she pursues arts school. Ordinary lives are made extraordinary by an aesthetic that's light on lines but never on detail in frames that deny conventional manga style. A timeless message about the trajectory of life and the relationships dragged behind it manages a few gut punches between the fluffy everyday routine.
7. Wild Strawberry
Comparisons can become a crutch as well as backhanded criticism, but I've found it impossible to read Wild Strawberry without thinking of several other series. Tokyo Ghoul rings in my mind like a fire alarm, but there are flashes of Chainsaw Man, Kaiju No. 8, and Parasyte too. A world overrun with infectious plant monsters called Jinka robs Kingo of his sister's humanity and then his own life, only for her Jinka form to parasitize and revive him, their minds loosely intertwined. Kingo wants his sister, Kayano, to truly live again. The anti-Jinka Flower Funeral Force – I simply cannot get over this name – wants them both under careful watch. The backdrop is a mysterious, irresponsibly detailed post-apocalypse filled with stunning cityscapes that mother nature has violently reclaimed. The series treats the plant motif as a blank check to churn out some of the most disturbing and memorable monsters to grace a manga in ages. Even the most familiar ideas feel fresh when they look like this.
6. A Brief Moment of Ichika
I've spent decades watching chronic illness steal from my loved ones, so a story about a terminally ill college girl pursuing a terminally ill professor was almost guaranteed to hit a soft spot. But A Brief Moment of Ichika is only this high on the list because creator Natsu Tadano handles the subject with grace and empathy. It's cleanly, cutely drawn slice of life stuff, so I was, predictably, immediately into it, but also a little on the fence for the first few chapters. It was chapter 10 that gave me the kick to the Adam's apple I'd been waiting for. This series is not always fun or easy reading, but it is compelling.
5. Gokurakugai
The best and prettiest character in Gokurakugai may be the titular city district itself, which is really saying something given the buckets of style and care that creator Yuto Sano has poured over absolutely everyone, human and beastmen and demon-like Maga included. There's a whiff of Jujutsu Kaisen's supernatural setup but it's quickly overpowered by an original, intricate, and lived-in world where our two heroes, the bounty hunter-coded Tao and the impish half-Maga Alma, grease the wheels with odd jobs and spirit shootouts. Gokurakugai presents a world you'd want to walk through and a tight-knit crew you'd love to talk to, and it's maybe the prettiest thing on this list so far.
4. Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You
It was a stellar year for former Twitter series. Jinushi's Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You burns slower than the cigarettes shared by exhausted office worker Sasaki and flirtatious convenient store worker Tayama, but the banter keeps you on the hook and the payoff is worth it. Finally, some world-weary adult romance. Tamaya, you see, is actually Yamada, the woman Sasaki always hopes to see around the store. Sasaki doesn't realize his supermarket savior is just his smoking buddy with her hair up and her smile polished. The result is a snacky, one-more-chapter read that's utterly perfect for anyone who's ever sold their time or labor to somebody else.
3. Kagurabachi
As I reflect on 2024's shipment of fantasy action manga, Kagurabachi does feel like the strongest competitor. Is it my favorite? I think so, but only after reading a bit more. Am I just getting caught up in the hype? It is possibly overrated, but only slightly. It is very much Another One of These, an action series seemingly engineered in a lab to absorb hype like a sponge. I'll inevitably prefer the anime, but there's a reason these things pop off. Kagurabachi is just plain good, and it is consistently getting better after starting off about as stamped-out as you can get. Six magic swords in a world of sorcerers! A mysterious seventh! A son with a flashy scar out for vengeance! Numbers and ranks and secret societies. But also: side characters I give a shit about. A miracle! The fact that Kagurabachi got me on board despite the sort of predictable edginess I usually avoid earns it a gold star.
2. Ruri Dragon
This is me cheating a little bit. Ruri Dragon technically debuted a while ago, but it was almost immediately pulled into hiatus by Masaoki Shindo's health issues. This year it thankfully returned with regular chapter updates, and every last one has been an utter delight. We are all lucky this was not canceled. This is the series I look forward to most week to week. Our protagonist, Ruri, wakes up one day with horns sprouting from her skull. Her mom casually informs her she's half-dragon and her life only gets weirder from there. Ruri Dragon is a coming-of-age story that views youthful hurdles like puberty and fitting in through a fantasy lens that somehow never derails the story. It is remarkably, sometimes audaciously down-to-Earth. Its ability to sell you on bizarre twists and seamlessly fold them into the story should be studied. And this is me pumping the brakes because I can't gush anymore without spoiling the best moments.
1. Medalist
Sometimes it's hard choosing the top spot for lists like these. This year it was not. Medalist is exceptional. It's a whip-smart work of dreams and regrets and anxieties and triumphs. An 11-year-old girl, Inori, and her ex-competitor figure skating coach, Tsukasa, weather obstacles of all kinds as they hungrily chase global renown – a journey that starts with small local rinks and novice tournaments and getting mom on board.
This sports drama has greater artistic and emotional range than the thriller and slice of life stories we've talked about, the strengths of manga on full display and wrung out for all they're worth. It is laugh-out-loud funny and stomach-churningly tense. It will grab your heart and pull. It has better kinetic vision and action sequences than the battle manga on this list. Panels and pages from Medalist are embedded in my brain like a pickaxe. It is arresting. When I think about everything I read this year, it was for these characters that I cheered the loudest.
