The top 10 manga of 2023
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10. The Ancient Magus' Bride
Recent volumes of The Ancient Magus' Bride, a wistful fantasy story about a girl loved by fae and fairies and all things supernatural, most especially her shadowy partner Elias, have felt more like a sequel than a new arc. The manga’s initial premise has been mostly paid off, yet it hasn’t missed a beat in its newest act, which sends a more mature Chise to school for one of the least school arc-like school arcs I’ve ever read. Kore Yamazaki continues to dazzle with a wondrous magic system, creatures and characters that can captivate one moment and frighten on a primal level the next, and the root humanity of an increasingly inhuman cast.
It was an amazing year forinsomniacrepresentation. Kou Yamori can’t sleep worth a damn, nor can he cope with the social pressures of everyday life as a 14-year-old student. After withdrawing from school, he finds escape in nightly excursions, savoring the silence and freedom of his near-empty city. He soon stumbles into a girl named Nazuna – and this next bit is introduced so amusingly casually that it isn’t even a spoiler – who turns out to be a vampire after his extra tasty blood. Ko decides he’s just fine with that if it means having company. So begins a funny and light-hearted story about people coping with life, from writer and illustrator Kotoyama, who makesincredibleuse of negative space throughout.
Hikaru, you may have gathered, is dead. But his body isn’t. Schoolboy Yoshiki is alarmed to one day find his friend’s form inhabited by a being of unknowable horror. It insists that Hikaru died in an accident while out hiking and that it simply slipped into his body like a skinwalker. It has Hikaru’s memories but lacks human common sense and experience, so its behavior raises some eyebrows as it attempts to emulate Hikaru’s old life and personality. Yoshiki’s struggle to accept the loss of his friend and the feelings he had for him is punctuated with glimpses into a world that should not be seen, turning Mokumokuren’s latest into an unnerving slice of life story that sticks to you like tar.
Easily the most accurately named series on this list (so far), Insomniacs After School follows two teens who bond over their shared sleeplessness. This common struggle brings them together, and in their search for rest at the abandoned school observatory, Ganta Nakami and Isaki Magari end up becoming the founders of a new astrology club. Makoto Ojiro’s latest is an expressive slice of life about what people find in each other – peace, relief, validation, motivation. Ganta and Isaki are endearing individually and adorable together, and the series' backdrop is split between urban vistas and nighttime stargazing, both striking in their own right.
Immediately unsettling and tirelessly clever, Masakazu Ishiguro’s Heavenly Delusion balances two storylines: one inside a cloistered school with robot overseers, and the other in the world somewhere – and seemingly somewhen – outside it. Schoolkids like Tokio and Mimihime battle curiosity and uncertainty in isolation, while Maru and Kiruko wander a ruined world reclaimed by nature and crawling with malformed monsters. Hints at the bigger picture are shared casually and often unceremoniously, giving every chapter an almost scavenger hunt throughline behind the front-facing survival drama. It is incredibly uncomfortable, sometimes skin-crawlingly so, but its world begs to be explored.
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After a sizable gap between volumes and a similar leap within the story, Chainsaw Man’s returned in rare form, dropping two volumes almost back-to-back to prove it’s still got plenty of gas in the tank. It’s an ugly, unignorable story about fools and screwups and villains, a pulpy, grungy anti-hero devouring light among the sterling ranks of Shonen Jump’s shiny golden geese. Let us all be thankful that we are not characters in Tatsuki Fujimoto’s world, where cruelty, like blood, comes down like rain. Chainsaw Man remains laugh-out-loud funny, stomach-churningly brutal, and utterly allergic to happy endings.
Shonen Jump continues to find some of its greatest modern successes in stories that get away from the classic hero’s journey of a young boy. Dandadan is a rip-snortin' blend of the supernatural and extraterrestrial, led by heroine Momo Ayase and her now-nicknamed partner Okarun. An off-the-walls hurricane of aliens and spirits rages around a (so far) refreshingly small cast of likable characters who are constantly evolving. Momo and Okarun lean on each other in the face of ridiculous threats like the genital-stealing Turbo Granny, and underneath the zany veneer, Dandadan – from Yukinobu Tatsu, previously assistant on Chainsaw Man and Fire Punch – delivers incredible horror stills, exhilarating action sequences, and embers of romance.
Much like the long-running Chihayafuru series, Akane-banashi wins you over with palpable enthusiasm for its central craft – in this case, Rakugo, a sort of one-person play where you act out and narrate an entire story – and with a charismatic spitfire heroine. Inspired by her father’s craft and motivated by his unfair dismissal, Akane Osaki throws herself into Rakugo to prove that her family’s character-centric acting style can enthrall audiences. Writer Yuki Suenaga and illustrator Takamasa Moue in turn pull readers into a series with the heart of a coming-of-age manga, the fire of a sports anime, and spellbinding delivery for stories within stories.
The burden of near-immortality weighs heavily on Frieren, an elf cursed to watch her shorter-lived companions leave her in what feels like no time at all. Frieren’s journey is a contemplative examination of time and relationships, set in a novel fantasy world dripping with detail and filled with generations of likable characters. The series' hit anime adaptation is as pretty as it is in large part because the manga is filled with hard-hitting vistas and expressions. Writer Kanehito Yamada and artist Tsukasa Abe manage a powerfully bittersweet tale anchored to a protagonist who actually delivers the emotional depth you’d expect from someone so long-lived.
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