Itsuki Minami needs no introduction as everybody's heard of the "Babyface" of the Eastside. He's the toughest kid at Higashi Junior High School, easy on the eyes but dangerously tough when he needs to be. Plus, Itsuki lives with the mysterious and sexy Noyamano sisters. Life is never dull, but it becomes dangerous when Itsuki leads his school to victory over some vindictive Westside punks with gangster connections. Now he stands to lose his school, his friends, and everything he cares about. But in his darkest hour, the Noyamano girls come to Itsuki's aid. They can teach him a powerful skill that will save their school from the gangsters' siege and introduce Itsuki to a... more>> thrilling and terrifying new world.

Note: Won the 2006 Kodansha Manga Award in the shōnen category. A new edition named Air Gear Unlimited was released in 2014. The format is bigger and it contains some coloured pages. <<less

By night, junior high student Yoshimori Sumimura is a "kekkaishi"--a demon-hunter who specializes in creating magical barriers around his prey. By day, Yoshimori's got some other demons to battle: an addiction to sweets and a seriously crotchety grandfather! Yoshimori's pretty 16-year-old neighbor and childhood friend, Tokine Yukimura, is also a kekkaishi, but their families are feuding over who is the true practitioner of the art.... more>>

Won the 52nd Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shounen category. <<less

Eijun Sawamura had his heart set on the middle-school national baseball championships. But his team is eliminated thanks to a wild pitch thrown by Eijun himself. He’s planning to go to high school with his teammates and try again next year when he’s scouted by the famous Seido High School baseball team. When he goes for a campus visit, he finds himself on the receiving end of a baptism by fire! His experience forming a battery with up-and-coming catcher Miyuki rekindles his passion for baseball!!... more>>

Winner of the 53rd Annual Shogakukan Manga Award (2007) and the 34th Annual Kodansha Manga Award (2010) for the Shounen category. <<less

In the immediate future, a giant meteorite has collided with earth. All living organisms, including mankind, have been wiped off the face of the planet. The government, who had foreseen this outcome, took measures to counter the worst-case scenario. In particular was Project "7 SEEDS", in which five sets of seven gifted young men and women were carefully selected and placed into teams (Spring, Summer A, Summer B, Autumn and Winter). Each participant was then put under cryogenic sleep in hopes of preserving the continued existence of mankind.... more>>

When those men and women awoke, they found themselves suddenly thrust into a cruel world. While bereft and grieved over forever losing their loved ones, they sought to find ways to survive.

Note: Won the 2007 Shogakukan Manga Award for shoujo manga. <<less

Dr. Katou is an ambitious woman who seeks to revolutionize the corrupt and inefficient Japanese medical system from within by becoming a professor in a teaching hospital. She enlists a maverick surgeon, Dr. Asada Ryuutarou, to help her with research that would catapult her to a professorship should they succeed and publish. However, Asada's refusal to conform to the system soon threatens to destroy not only her plans but her entire career. Katou is prepared to do anything, including going along with the system, in order to achieve her end goal, but she begins to question whether she has gone too far as Asada's actions bring many of the system's shortcomings to light.... more>>

Note: Won the 50th Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga in 2005. <<less

It centers around the travels and battles of one Aotsuki Ushio, who is constantly being stalked and aided by a gigantic, supernatural and sometimes invisible tiger (Some people describe it as akin to Calvin and Hobbes on acid).... more>>

Ushio's family maintains a Shinto temple in Japan, where 500 years ago, his samurai ancestor battled that same tiger to a standstill, and eventually trapped him against a rock using, a blessed spear called the "Beast Spear", which in addition to its intrinsic formidability as a weapon, can also boost the physical powers of the user. While cleaning out the temple storage, Ushio accidentally unseals the chamber which Tora was trapped in. Initially, Ushio wisely refused to remove the spear pinning Tora (とら, Japanese for tiger) down, as Tora unwisely makes the strategic blunder of mentioning that the first thing he would do upon being freed would be to devour Ushio; but Tora's unsealed presence attracts various demons to the premises, and Ushio is forced to free Tora in exchange for his help. The series focuses on their relationship, interspersed with battles against mythological foes, and with Tora's attempts to grapple with modern life and gobble up Ushio.

Won the Seiun Award for Best Comic of the Year in 1997. It also received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shounen in 1992. <<less

This is a story about a piano, pitifully abandoned in the woods, and a young boy, Kai, who grew up playing it as his favorite toy. While Kai cannot even read sheet music, one day, he meets Shuhei Amamiya, an aspiring child pianist who transfers schools from Tokyo, and their music teacher, Sosuke Ajino. Ajino was also once a gifted pianist, until a tragic accident stole his promising future from him forever. Each from a different background, the trio's personalities gravitate to one another and rebound. All the while, the piano sits patiently, awaiting a hand to play it.... more>>

Note: Received the Grand Prize for best manga at the 12th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2008. <<less

The hilarious misadventures of the "Sket Dan"; a couple of high schoolers who help out people as part of their club activity: Himeko, the hot-headed ex-delinquent with a soft spot for cute things and a taste for strange food; Switch, the brainy otaku who only talks via a computerized speech-application; and Bossun, the atypical leader of this looney bunch, with the amazing power to... concentrate very hard!... more>>

Sket Dance won the 55th annual Shogakukan Manga Award in 2009 for best shounen manga. <<less

Touma Sou graduated from MIT, but he comes back to Japan because he wants to know how it feels to be a high school student. On the other hand, Mizuhara Kana is a strong girl who loves sports. Together, they are partners in solving cases that happen around them.... more>>

Won the 33rd Kodansha Manga Award for shounen in 2009 (shared with ). <<less

High school student Kindaichi Hajime - frequently accompanied by childhood friend and (future) love interest, Nanase Miyuki - travels to various places where baffling and convoluted murders have taken place, which he then proceeds to solve thanks to a combination of brilliant deductive skills, talent at performing and figuring out magic tricks, and plain ol' good luck.... more>>

Winner of the Kodansha Manga Award for shounen (1995).

Note: Tokyopop's release grouped volumes by mystery, so the English and Japanese volumes don't match up. Tokyopop's volume 17 ends with chapters that appear in the first half of the Japanese volume 23. <<less

Kitamura Koh has known the Tsukishima family for years. One of the Tsukishima daughters was even born on the exact same date as Koh! What will become of Koh when his best friend is no longer around?... more>>

Cross Game received the 54th Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen manga in 2009. <<less

Alone in his dorm on a Saturday night, Nekomi Tech's Keiichi Morisato dials a wrong number that will change his life forever: reaching the Goddess Technical Help Line. Granted one wish by the charming young goddess Belldandy--a wish for anything in the world--Keiichi wishes she would stay with him always! Complications are bound to ensue from this; the immediate first being the new couple getting tossed out of the dorm-it's males only. As the hapless student and his mysterious "foreign beauty" ride around looking for a new place to stay--risking the different dangers of seeking shelter with an otaku convinced Belldandy is an imaginary woman, and a Zen priest convinced she's a sinister witch--Keiichi's still... more>> got his classes on Monday morning! How is his new "exchange student" companion going to be received on the N.I.T. campus? A little too well for normal life to ever return.

Note: Won the Kodansha Manga Award for General Manga in 2009. <<less

In an alchemical ritual gone wrong, Edward Elric lost his arm and his leg, and his brother Alphonse became nothing but a soul in a suit of armor. Equipped with mechanical "auto-mail" limbs, Edward becomes a state alchemist, seeking the one thing that can restore his brother and himself... the legendary Philosopher's Stone.... more>>

Won the 49th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shounen category.

Won the 15th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Award New Artist Prize.

Won the Eagle Award's "Favourite Manga" in 2010/2011.

Won the Seiun Award for best science fiction comic in 2011. <<less

This is the story of Alpha Hasseno, an Alpha 7 M2 series robot. Left by her owner, she appears and acts fully human while running a small coffee shop named Cafe Alpha. It is a light-hearted story about the people Alpha comes into contact with behind the backdrop of a futuristic country-side in Japan. As we meet Alpha, she makes a shopping trip to Yokohama.... more>>

Note: Won the 2007 Seiun Award for Best Manga. <<less

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.... more>>

Bambino! received the 2008 Shogakukan Manga Award for seinen/general manga along with Takeshi Natsuhara's and Kuromaru's . <<less

IS (Pronounced Aiesu in Japanese) is not your everyday manga. This manga strictly deals with cases of intersexuality. ... more>>

This manga deals with issues concerning intersexual people. The pain they go through, the troubles they confront, and ultimately their inability to reproduce and even find a partner who will accept them as they are.

The series is consisted of cases, each dealing with different people - although some cases are much longer and more dramatic than others.

The series eventually ends up being about Haru, an intersex child, in a touching coming-of-age story.

Won the Kodansha Manga Award for Shoujo in 2007. <<less

Sawako Kuronuma is the perfect heroine... for a horror movie. With her jet-black hair, sinister smile and silent demeanor, she's often mistaken for the haunting movie character Sadako. But behind her scary facade is a very misunderstood teenager. Too shy to fit in, all she wants to do is make some friends. But when a popular boy in class befriends her, she's sure to make more than just that--she's about to make some enemies too!... more>>

Note: Won the Best Shoujo Manga award in the 32nd Annual Kodansha Manga Award and was nominated for the first Manga Taisho awards in 2008. <<less

Touch is a shounen story about two twin brothers, a pretty girl next door, and that good old pastime of baseball.... more>>

Won the 28th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shounen category. <<less

Pai is a strange, provincial woman who has come to Tokyo from the Tibetan highlands. Somewhere in Tokyo is a young man who can help her in her quest... to become human!... more>>

When Pai finally finds Yakumo, they set off in search of the artifact that can transform her, but it will take all of her mystical powers to keep the reckless Yakumo alive, even if she has to steal his soul to protect him!

Note: Winner of the 1993 Kodansha Manga Award for Shounen. <<less

Although Tsukushi Makino is from a poor family, she attends an elite school for the super rich, where her life has become intertwined with the "F4," the ruling boys of the school, in a whirlwind of love and confusion! [Viz]... more>>

Note: Won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo in 1996 and is the best selling shoujo manga in history.

Boys over Flowers officially ended with volume 36, but Yoko Kamio continued with further stories. Boys Over Flowers: Jewelry Box contains short stories taking place 1 year after the end of Boys over Flowers.

Included oneshot End of the Century:

Miki believes in destiny and spends most of her time fantasying. Lately, she has had a reoccurring dream of an unknown boy. One day, she meets him at the train station and tries to convince him that it is their destiny to be together. <<less

Narue is an adorable schoolgirl with a secret. She's really an alien with powers right out of a sci-fi comic! But growing up is never easy, and sometimes it doesn't help when you're from outer space. Join our spunky heroine as she faces androids, alien invasions, and (scariest of all) her very first date!... more>>

Note: Won the Seiun Award for Best Comic in 2014. <<less

England. France. Germany. What common thread binds these three nations together? Answer: each is famous for producing unique, distinctive, delicious bread.... more>>

But what of the island nation of Japan, home to rice and delicacies of the sea? Is there not a doughy, gastronomic delight they can claim as their own? The answer is no...until now!

Kazuma Azuma, a 16-year-old boy blessed with otherworldly baking powers, has taken it upon himself to create Ja-pan, the national bread of the land of the rising sun!

Note: Won the 49th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shounen category. <<less

Every 100 years, 100 demon children are sent to Earth to compete in a battle to become king of the Demon World. Each demon is paired with a human partner who is given a spell book of a specific color. The human can cast the demon's spells through their book. If a demon's book is burned, they disappear and return to the Demon World. The last demon remaining becomes the king. The show is oriented around Gash Bell and his human partner, Takamine Kiyomaro.... more>>

Won the 48th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shounen category. <<less

The series follows the adventures of Sabu, a young Edo bakufu investigator traveling with the blind master swordsman Ichi. In their travels, they assist the common people in solving mysteries and righting wrongs (usually committed by bandits or corrupt officials). Sabu is engaged to Midori, the daughter of his boss, who works as a police officer for the Tokugawa shogunate.... more>>

This series won the 1968 Shogakukan Manga Award. <<less

What would you do if a tiger skin bikini-clad alien followed you to school every day? Poor Ataru's life has never returned to normal since volatile extraterrestrial princess Lum fell for him. Now an excruciatingly wealthy and genteel rival, Mendo, adds to Ataru's torment. Not to mention an unending stream of extraordinary classroom visitors and educational materials including incompetent cherry blossom spirits, a legendary nightmare-eating tapir, and a fourth-dimensional camera that breeches alternate realities.... more>>

Note: In 1981, this series received the Shogakukan Manga Award.

Won the 18th Seiun Award for Best Comic (1987). <<less