Gia (Anime Vice) Manry recently shared this year’s nominees for the Manga Taishou Awards, a new-ish but well-regarded program. For this week’s license request, I’ll just point out the three that sound most interesting to me. These choices are admittedly based on very little evidence, but they look and sound desirable, at least superficially.
Otoko no Isshou, written and illustrated by Keiko Niishi, Shogakukan, flowers, two volumes available so far. Nishi’s work was included in Viz’s Four Shôjo Stories, and they published Promise in 1994 and Love Song, a collection of her short stories, in 1998, so any work by her is a lock. Since I’m on the subject, it would be really lovely for Viz to put Four Shôjo Stories back in print.
Thermae Romae, written and illustrated by Mari Yamazaki, Enterbrain, Comic Beam, one volume available so far. I should probably start a category dedicated entirely to how much I love comics that were originally serialized in Comic Beam, which sounds like a wonderfully idiosyncratic magazine to me.
Mushi to Uta, written and illustrated by Haruko Ichikawa, Kodansha, Afternoon, one volume total. I like collections of short stories, and the cover is really lovely. That’s all I’ve got, but that seems like it’s enough. Also, I keep fixating on manga originally serialized in Morning and Morning 2, so I felt like I should throw some love to Afternoon. Update: Jog has some absolutely gorgeous samples of Ichikawa’s work in this post.
