Tobe, Keiko

Born during the sunrise—an auspicious beginning—the Azumas' newborn son is named Hikaru, which means "light." But during one play date, his mother notices that her son is slightly different from the other children. In this alternately heartwarming and bittersweet tale, a young mother tries to cope with both the overwhelming discovery of her child's autism and the trials of raising him while keeping her family together. This is a story that resonates not only for those whose families have been affected by autism, but also for all past, present, and future parents.

(Source: Yen Press)

Included one-shots:
Volume 15: Thank You Sensei!, Haru no Manazashi

Hikari to Tomo ni...: Jiheishouji wo Kakaete

With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child

光とともに… ～自閉症児を抱えて～

Yukimura, Makoto

Haunted by a space flight accident that claimed the life of his beloved wife, Yuri finds himself six years later as part of a team of debris cleaners on a vessel called the Toy Box charged with clearing space junk from space flight paths. The team consists of Hachimaki, a hot shot debris-man with a sailor's affinity for the orbital ocean; Fee, a chain-smoking tomboy beauty with an abrasive edge; and Pops, a veteran orbital mechanic whose avuncular presence soothes the stress of the job.

(Source: TokyoPop)

Planetes

プラネテス ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ

Suenobu, Keiko

Ayumu Shiiba has always struggled when it comes to her grades but decides to study even harder so that she can go to Nishidate High School with her best friend, Yuuko Shinozuka. When the results of the entrance exams came out, it turns out that Ayumu herself passed, but unfortunately, Shinozuka did not. Consequently, Shinozuka reveals everything she had felt about Ayumu—nothing but resentment.

Depressed that her closest friend has now deserted her, Ayumu finds a way to make her temporarily forget the loneliness: self-injury. As a result, she chooses to be alone and quickly becomes an outcast at her new school, refusing to socialize with anyone. Yet when her classmate Manami Anzai suddenly befriends her, Ayumu's world seems to brighten—but little does she know that something more horrible would start coming her way.

Life is the story of a certain girl's isolation, a tale filled with despair and persecution enough to bring any person to the brink of insanity. However, only the strongest will find the light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how impossible the odds may seem.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Life

ライフ

Tatsumi, Yoshihiro

Over four decades ago, Yoshihiro Tatsumi expanded the horizons of comics storytelling by using the visual language of manga to tell gritty, literary stories about the private lives of everyday people. He has been called "the grandfather of Japanese alternative comics" and has influenced generations of cartoonists around the world. Now the visionary creator of "The Push Man and Other Stories" and "Good-bye" has turned his incisive, unflinching gaze upon himself. Over ten years in the making, "A Drifting Life" is Tatsumis' most ambitious, personal, and heart felt work: an autobiographical bildungsroman in comics form. Using his life long obsession with comics as a frame work, Tatsumi weaves a complex story that encompasses family dynamics, Japanese culture and history, first love, the intricacies of the manga industry, and most importantly, what it means to be an artist. Alternately humorous, enlightening, and haunting, this is the masterful summartion of a fascinating life and a historic career.

(Source: Drawn &amp; Quarterly)

Gekiga Hyouryuu

A Drifting Life

劇画漂流

Obana, Miho

Sana Kurata, a child actress, faces many problems in her classroom, including a major one - her bullying classmate, Akito Hayama. Sana's outgoing and friendly nature leads her to work towards correcting all of the problems around her. Her 'meddling' irritates Hayama but at the same time captivates him, just as Hayama's gloomy nature irritates Sana and compels her to change him. As these two opposites attract each other, they face many hardships which bring them closer to a mutual understanding.

(Source: ANN)

Kodomo no Omocha

Kodocha: Sana's Stage

こどものおもちゃ

Umino, Chica

Takemoto lives in a run down student apartment, where his greatest worry is when he'll next be able to afford to eat meat and whether he'll get to class on time. Although he's away from home and living on his own, Takemoto is far from finished growing up. Along with his crazy cast of friends, Morita, Mayama, Yamada, and Hagumi, Takemoto sets out to discover life and his true self.

(Source: VIZ Media)

Included one-shots:
Volume 10: Sora no Kotori, Hoshi no Opera

Hachimitsu to Clover

Honey and Clover

ハチミツとクローバー

Taniguchi, Jiro

Fourty-eight-year-old salaryman Hiroshi Nakahara accidentally takes the wrong train to Tokyo after a business trip in Kyoto. He decides to accept his situation and sit back when he learns that the train is headed toward his hometown in Kurayoshi.

As he walks the streets of his childhood neighborhood, Hiroshi realizes how significantly the place has changed in the 20 years since his mother died. While visiting her grave in the Genzen Temple, he is transported back into the body of his 14-year-old self. Retaining the memories and wisdom of his middle-aged mind, he is now an eighth grader in junior high school.

Hiroshi's regained youth enables him to escape the reality of being an adult man with a wife and two daughters. Unaware how to return to his original time, he begins to relive his adolescence. During his time travel, Hiroshi attempts to uncover the reasons for his father's abandonment of the family in hopes of understanding him and his actions.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Haruka na Machi e

A Distant Neighborhood

遥かな町へ

Sekiya, Tetsuji

Shogo Ban, a college student from Fukuoka, likes to cook. Thanks to the owner of the restaurant where he works part-time, he finds himself working at the line of Roppongi's best Italian restaurant, Trattoria Baccanale, and discovers that the real deal isn't quite as easy as he'd thought. The manga follows Ban as he struggles to keep up with the hectic workload and his co-workers, along with issues outside the kitchen like his relationship with his girlfriend Eri, who he left behind in Fukuoka.

(Source: MU)

Bambino!

バンビ～ノ！

Miura, Kentarou

Studio Gaga

Guts, a former mercenary now known as the Black Swordsman, is out for revenge. After a tumultuous childhood, he finally finds someone he respects and believes he can trust, only to have everything fall apart when this person takes away everything important to Guts for the purpose of fulfilling his own desires. Now marked for death, Guts becomes condemned to a fate in which he is relentlessly pursued by demonic beings.

Setting out on a dreadful quest riddled with misfortune, Guts, armed with a massive sword and monstrous strength, will let nothing stop him, not even death itself, until he is finally able to take the head of the one who stripped him—and his loved one—of their humanity.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Included one-shot:
Volume 14: Berserk: The Prototype

Berserk

ベルセルク

Urasawa, Naoki

Kenzou Tenma, a renowned Japanese neurosurgeon working in post-war Germany, faces a difficult choice: to operate on Johan Liebert, an orphan boy on the verge of death, or on the mayor of Düsseldorf. In the end, Tenma decides to gamble his reputation by saving Johan, effectively leaving the mayor for dead.

As a consequence of his actions, hospital director Heinemann strips Tenma of his position, and Heinemann's daughter Eva breaks off their engagement. Disgraced and shunned by his colleagues, Tenma loses all hope of a successful career—that is, until the mysterious killing of Heinemann gives him another chance.

Nine years later, Tenma is the head of the surgical department and close to becoming the director himself. Although all seems well for him at first, he soon becomes entangled in a chain of gruesome murders that have taken place throughout Germany. The culprit is a monster—the same one that Tenma saved on that fateful day nine years ago.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Monster

MONSTER

Inoue, Takehiko

Tomomi Nomiya, former captain of his high school's basketball team turned delinquent, decides to drop out of school after he is crushed by the guilt of ruining a young girl's life in a traffic accident. As he dedicates his free time to helping her, he stumbles upon Kiyoharu Togawa, a former sprinter who has lost the use of his right leg and now plays wheelchair basketball as an alternate outlet.

After challenging Kiyoharu to a one-on-one game, Tomomi is completely defeated. Inspired by this encounter, he realizes that he can't let his love for basketball die so easily and decides that he will do what he can to help others while striving to become a professional player. Meanwhile, Hisanobu Takahashi, Tomomi's replacement as the high school's team captain, gets into an accident and finds himself permanently paralyzed below the waist. Real tells the touching tale of these three young men as they struggle to overcome their disabilities and inner conflicts in order to achieve their dreams while igniting a passion that will bring them together.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Real

リアル

As the 20th century approaches its end, people all over the world are anxious that the world is changing. And probably not for the better.

Kenji Endou is a normal convenience store manager who is just trying to get by. But when he learns that one of his old friends going by the name "Donkey" has suddenly committed suicide and that a new cult led by a figure known as "Friend" is becoming more notorious, Kenji starts to feel that something is not right. With a few key clues left behind by his deceased friend, Kenji realizes that this cult is much more than he ever thought it would be—not only is this mysterious organization directly targeting him and his childhood friends, but the whole world also faces a grave danger that only the friends have the key to stop.

Kenji's simple life of barely making ends meet is flipped upside down when he reunites with his childhood friends, and together they must figure out the truth of how their past is connected to the cult, as the turn of the century could mean the possible end of the world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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