For a Male Audience
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Hajime no Ippo (The Fighting!) |
Beck (Mongolian Chop Squad) |
Air Gear |
What does "strong" really mean? Awkward high school student Ippo Makunouchi is a loner who gets bullied and thinks he's not tough enough to fight back. But a meeting with the boxer Mamoru Takamura reveals Ippo to be the possessor of a dynamite punch. Determined to become a pro, he takes the test to get into the Kamogawa training gym. (82 vols. ) |
Fourteen-year-old nerd Yukio Tanaka meets Ryusuke, a gifted guitarist who was raised in the United States, and gets drawn into his rock band Beck. This music manga shows the lead character growing up and the struggles of the band. (32 vols.) |
When Itsuki Minami is beaten up by the Stormrider gang, it's Air Treks--in-line skates that can fly--which offer him the chance to get even. A tale of high-speed street action from the brilliant Oh! great. (19 vols.) |
For a Female Audience
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Bishojosenshi Sailor Moon (Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon) |
Card Captor Sakura |
Nodame Cantabile |
| Once upon a time, Usagi Tsukino was just an ordinary junior high school girl, if something of a misfit and a crybaby. But an encounter with Luna, a talking cat, awoke her dormant powers and now she is Sailor Moon fighting to save the Earth. Action in a sailor suit! (12 vols.) | The characters on a series of magical Clow Cards are taking shape and causing havoc. It's up to ten-year-old Sakura Kinomoto to recapture the cards and seal them away so they can do no more mischief. (12 vols.) | Shinichi Chiaki is a gifted piano player who aspires to be a conductor, but things aren't going too well until he meets fellow student Nodame. She can't cook, clean or even read music, but she reminds Shinichi that ultimately music should be about having fun. This classical music-themed comedy has sold 26 million copies and been adapted into both a TV anime and a TV drama. (20 vols.) |
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Shugo Chara! |
Hotaru no Hikari |
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| Cool and cute Amu-chan is a popular student at Seiya Gakuen high school. But deep inside, she wants to be born again with a different personality. No sooner has the thought crossed her mind than three eggs suddenly appear. And from these Shugo Chara is born.... (5 vols.) |
She'd rather have a nice snooze at home than deal with the hassle of falling in love. So thought twenty-seven-year-old Hotaru, but somehow she ends up sharing a house with her boss. Then she acquires a boyfriend who's younger than she is. Can a "dried fish of a woman" who has closed down emotionally regain the ability to fall in love? This affecting love story has been turned into a TV drama. (10 vols.) |
Popular Manga Properties
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Vagabond |
Ah Megami-sama (Oh My Goddess!) |
Kokaku Kidotai (Ghost in the Shell) |
| Based on Musashi, the historical novel by Eiji Yoshikawa, this immensely popular series tells the story of Takezo Miyamoto, a young man full of wild rage who develops into Musashi, a samurai who strives to be without peer as a sword fighter. (27 vols.) |
Keiichi Morisato is an ordinary college freshman until he accidentally summons the goddess Belldandy to his dorm room. The anime based on this fantasy comedy about love and its trials is also enormously popular. (36 vols.) |
It's 2029 and the world has evolved into an ultra-high-speed information society in which technology-related crime is rampant. The Mobile Armored Riot Police exists especially to deal with such threats. When it came out in 1989, Ghost in the Shell was acclaimed for its sophisticated plot, extraordinary artwork and vividly imagined future. (2 vols.) |
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Hatarakiman |
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| Together with her colleagues in the editorial department of the weekly Jidai magazine, unmarried twenty-nine-year-old Hiroko Matsukata toils night and day to make sure every edition that goes out is a winner. When she gets into work mode, Hiroko forgets about everything else--eating, sleeping, boyfriends. A great read for anyone who has experienced the highs and lows of a high-pressure office job, Hatarakiman has been made into an anime and a TV drama. (4 vols.) |
Classics
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Kacho Shima Kosaku |
Ashita no Joe |
Kyojin no Hoshi |
| The salaryman's Iliad and Odyssey, with all the drama of company infighting, departmental transfers and office love. The eponymous hero started out as a ｔｈｉｒｔｙ-four-year-old department chief, but as the series has continued, Shima has risen up the organization, being promoted to section chief, director and, sometime soon, president. This much-loved classic has been turned into both a TV drama and a live-action feature film. (8 vols.) | Joe comes out fighting for a better tomorrow! Orphan runaway Joe meets ex-trainer Danpei Tange and takes up boxing, but the match against his archrival Toru Rikiishi turns into an all-too-literal fight to the death. Will Joe overcome the trauma and make it through to a better tomorrow? This classic 1968 boxing manga has been turned into a TV anime and a live-action feature film. (12 vols.) | This classic tale of baseball is the first--and many would say the best--in the sports manga genre. Hyuma Hoshi is an aspiring pitcher who wants to be a star like his father. The commitment of the pair to their sport and to one another is almost unbearable in its intensity. The down-to-earth realism of this series with its insights into baseball strategy has delighted generations of adults and children alike. (11 vols.) |