SEAN: Ah, the pick everyone dreads as we try to remember things we enthused about months ago. I think my pick this year, mostly as it was SO hyped up by the publisher and bookstores and, when it was released, showed it deserved it, is The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All. Nicknamed ‘green yuri”, and you’ll see why when you open it, it’s also a great story that makes good use of its “4 page chapter” format.
MICHELLE: Despite my good intentions, I wasn’t able to read nearly as much in 2024 as I wanted to. That said, my favorite of what I did read wasThe Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency. I deeply wish there were more of it.
ANNA: I realize that the first volume of Neighborhood Story came out in late 2023, but between more volumes of Neighborhood Story and the Last Quarter it has been an excellent year for Ai Yazawa manga. So Ai Yazawa manga in general is my pick of the year.
KATE: One of my favorite titles of 2024 was Giga Town: The Guide to Manga Iconography, a charming collection of 4-koma strips by Fumiya Kouno (Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms.) Using characters from the famous Chojo-giga scroll, Kouno catalogs everything from sweat drops to steam clouds, demystifying the symbols, gestures, and facial expressions that manga artists use to bring their stories to life. Highly recommended for new (and curious) manga readers!
ASH: I picked Ashita no Joe just last week, so it seems too convenient to choose it again, but I am so incredibly pleased to have seen this classic manga make its debut in English. It was a great year for artbooks, too, with Shigeru Mizuki’s Yokai being one of my favorite releases of 2024 as a whole. But, I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to at least highlight the incredible work being done by Glacier Bay Books. It’s a niche publisher that isn’t widely distributed, so it can be a bit of a challenge to keep track of what is releasing when. But the effort needed to track down some of the best indie manga in translation is absolutely worth it. (Sorry… it’s really hard to pick just one thing!)