This year has not only been blessed with us great anime, but also with wonderful mangas. Thank God! Here is our list of the best mangas of 2021.
Remember, the list isn’t limited to new manga released this year, but includes those released in 2021 – whether in serialization or published volumes. The manga are listed below In no particular order.
(Full disclosure: my first two books were published by Kodansha.)
Sports manga can feel the same as well-established genre conventions. but Blue lock is unlike any sports manga I’ve read. It’s like Squid game, but with football – without all that killing.
The manga, which debuted in 2018, is picking up steam after finishing 16th in the Japanese national soccer team at the FIFA World Cup. Believing that the country’s football program lacks a world-class striker, the Blue Lock program was created to find the best of the best from hundreds of top young candidates. The catch is that those who have been disqualified will never be able to represent Japan in international football. The one who prevails will be a legendary striker who can lead Japan to World Cup victory!
Filled with INTENSE art and INTENSE characters, the whole premise is completely ridiculous, but absolutely wonderful. Some comments on Japanese football are utterly devastating.
If 2020 were the year of Demon Hunter, then 2021 was the year of Jujutsu Kaisen. The supernatural manga wasn’t one of the biggest titles of the year, it was the biggest title of this year, Selling everything better in Japan
Jujutsu Kaisen is about Yuji Itadori, a student who is transferring to Tokyo Prefecture’s Jujutsu High School, a school for wizards, after a paranormal event at his previous school. He and his classmates fight evil, trying to find cursed fingers for Yuji to consume. The manga has its influences up its sleeve but does a good job of balancing action, humor and the supernatural.
Freeze begins where other JPRG-like stories end: the hero and his group return after a decades-long adventure in which they defeated the Demon King. For Freeze, an elven magician, ten years is a short time – like a weekend to hang out. But for the human members of the group, their adventure was a huge part of their lives.
After freezing is confronted with the passage of time, he goes on another search and learns more about humans in the process. This is a moving, bittersweet manga that plays out tropes and genre conventions and at the same time underlines how precious time is with others.
School girl Momo Ayase believes in ghosts, not aliens. Schoolboy Ken Takakura (no, not that Ken Takakura) believes in aliens and ghosts. What starts out as an opportunity to change the other’s mind sets off a really wild streak. The result is fun, often indecent, and never boring. What keeps Danadan from tumbling to self-parody are clever characters with a heart, even when the madness and the blue humor are in full swing. And do they ever do it.
Can you believe that Eleven years ago, Hajime Iseyamas attack on Titan debuted, and the manga ended that spring. After more than a decade attack on Titan has come to a conclusion.
Whenever a long-running movie, TV show or manga comes to an end, people get disappointed. And some fans of attack on Titan are, well, disappointed. After so long, they may have their own ideas like that attack on Titan Manga should be ready. But in the meaty conclusion of the manga, Iseyama had his own ideas on how to bring the saga to an end and create a fitting but imperfect ending to his magnum opus.
The manga tells the story of Takemichi, whose life didn’t turn out the way he imagined. On a fateful day, he travels back in time when he was still a crook. The time-traveling Takemichi does not try to relive his youthful splendor, but rather to prevent the future death of his girlfriend at the time. The manga deals with the topics of growing up, friendship, young love, willingness to make sacrifices and second chances.
Tokyo Avenger is drawing to a close and the story is reaching its climax. Can’t wait to see how this ends.
Life is tough for Denji. He will do anything to make a dollar or two to pay off his father’s debt. Things change when he merges with his chainsaw dog Pochita and transforms into Chainsaw Man. Now, with chainsaws out of his arms and head, he’s ready to go hunting devils in this surreal, bloody manga.
As much as Denji is a tragic hero, he’s not even the most tragic in the world Chainsaw man. The pathos that flows through this manga lifts it above a mere splatter feast. It has a lot of heart and a sense of humor.
While the last of the first eleven Japanese volumes was published this year, the English versions will not be completed until next June. With Mappa’s anime adaptation hitting the airwaves in 2022 and the manga’s second arc kicking off next summer, this is a perfect time to jump in Chainsaw man.
Yuki, a deaf college student, runs into another cosmopolitan student who speaks multiple languages. However, he does not speak any Japanese sign language. There is an attraction and a relationship between the two is growing.
A secret expression. A shimmer in the eyes. A slight blush. Romance manga focus on mutual looks, but this is where those looks feel even more important. The manga does an interesting job of balancing the way Yuki communicates, be it through characters, text messages, or internal monologues. You will feel even closer to the heroine as the romance unfolds.
One version of Japan battling kaiju outbreaks involves 32-year-old Kafka Hibino who dreamed of joining the country’s defenses to fight the monster pests. However, since he repeatedly failed the entrance examination, Kafka was demoted to the monster sweep who cleans up the carcasses of dead Kaijus. It’s rough, ungrateful work. However, Kafka’s seemingly dead-end life changes after ingesting a parasite that gives him the ability to become a kaiju.
A clever riff about Kaiju movies and superhero comics, damn it, that’s a good manga. The art, action, characters, and story are all fantastic. If this year was the year of Jujutsu Kaisen, near year could very well be the year of Kaiju No. 8
Debut in 2019, Spy x Family is still one of the most interesting and entertaining manga. The story is about a super spy who has to raise a fake family to go undercover and catch the bad guy. So he has to adopt a child and marry a woman. Sounds easy doesn’t it? Things get complicated after he adopts a teenage girl using telepathy and marries a deadly assassin. All three characters have their own baggage and things to work through. You’re dysfunctional, sure, but isn’t that every family?
Sakamoto days follows Taro Sakamoto, the greatest hit man of all time. At the height of his powers, he fell in love and gave up his career as a professional killer for marriage and fatherhood. After a few years, Sakamoto was running a grocery store, a few pounds heavier, when his past caught up with him …
But Sakamoto made a no-kill promise to his wife, so he has to creatively defuse situations. The characters – the good guys and the bad guys – are all interesting and entertaining. Art would do well to sell humor. Consider John Wickbut carefree and silly.
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