Welcome to Manga Zubon, where I take a look at the manga that have come out each month and pick what I think are the best of the lot. These are the manga that I feel deserve recognition and readership more than the rest, so I’m singling them out. My focus in this column is mostly on first volumes to get you in on the ground floor of new series, but I will include standouts in ongoing series as well. Keep in mind that though I do my best, I can’t read everything that comes out each month, so if you have something you think I missed or just have something to say about the ones I’ve chosen, please chime in in the comments section.

Apollo’s Song
Creator: Osamu Tezuka
Publisher: Vertical, Inc.

The God of Manga explores the theme of love in this tragic story of a man cursed by a goddess. Shogo Chikaishi was born into an abusive home, and love was foreign to him. Jealous of it when he saw it, he would destroy it when he could, until he is finally put in a mental hospital. Electro-shock therapy, hypnotism, and other events bring on visions and dreams of other lives where Shogo had other experiences with love, and in the end the question becomes- Is it really better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? A compelling search for redemption and a story that manages to be both pessimistic and romantic.

Brave Story V.1
Writer: Miyuki Miyabe
Artist: Yoichiro Ono
Publisher: Tokyopop

Life for teenage Wataru is going okay. It’s all pretty normal, until he stumbles onto a gate to the world of Vision, where magic and monsters are real. That’s great, except the only other Traveler he knows is an asshole. Even worse, his Dad has been cheating on his Mom, and the girl Wataru likes likes someone else. And now monsters are coming through the gate from Vision and killing people on Earth. Can it get any worse? Looks like a hero is needed…

Le Chevalier d’Eon V.1
Writer: Tou Ubukata
Artist: Kiriko Yumeji
Publisher: Del Rey

Here we have a manga that takes history and adds some supernatural elements. That’s not uncommon. What’s cool here is that the history is eighteenth-century France, featuring famous cross-dresser and spy Chevalier d’Eon (recognized officially by King Louis XV as a woman even!) and the supernatural elements are magical psalms which inspire poets and philosophers to kills virgin girls and write with their blood. When a new poet is about to appear, his writings show up on the skin of King Louis’ own daughter. Cool ideas, impressive art and beautiful costumes make this a new series to check out for sure.

GinTama V.1
Creator: Hideaki Sorachi
Publisher: Tokyopop

Imagine how history might be different if, instead of Commodore Perry opening Japan with his infamous Black Ships, alien races landed there instead and used their advanced technology to force the island nation to open to interstellar trade. This tongue-in-cheek book is set some twenty years after the arrival of the aliens, and deals with samurai and their children trying to survive in Japan with swords outlawed and more aliens arriving every day. A samurai who loses control when his blood sugar gets low, a swordmaster’s son with no marketable skills, and an alien mercenary girl with a bad attitude do their best to make their way and not get in too much trouble in this inventive and hilarious new series.

King of Thorn V.1
Creator: Yuji Iwahara
Publisher: Tokyopop

Two twin sisters. One, Kasumi, is quiet and mousy. The other, Shizuku, is friendly and athletic. When the new disease Medusa, which actually turns people to stone, sweeps the globe and the twins catch it, only Kasumi wins a place among a group undergoing cryogenic suspension until a cure can be found. When some members of that group are awoken early, they find that the facility is overgrown with plants, mutant animals are everywhere, and there is no one to be found. What has happened? Why does it seem to have only been a few years? And who are the people in their group, really? Cool suspense and excellent action.

MPD-Psycho V.1
Writer: Eiji Otsuka
Artist: Sho-U Tajima
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Eiji Otsuka is either incredibly brilliant, or totally insane, or possibly both. He writes both this series and Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and in this one manages to go even farther than in Kurosagi. The basic rundown is that Yousuke Kobayashi, a police detective, has multiple personalities, one of which just happens to be a complete psychopath. This can be helpful for profiling serial killers, but it doesn’t do much for his mental health. When Kobayashi and several captured serial killers all turn out to be registered at the same eye bank, his suspicions are aroused, and a new mystery develops. The killers in this series are demented and scary, and Tajima’s artwork makes their murders stark and graphic. This is not for readers with weak stomachs.

Naoki Urasawa’s Monster V.8
Creator: Naoki Urasawa
Publisher: Viz Media

A thrill-ride of a suspense series, Monster keeps you constantly on your toes and never lets up. Once upon a time, a doctor saved a young boy. Now that boy has become a heartless killer, and the doctor is tracking him down while evading police for murders the boy commited. What does the now-adult murderer really want, and what kind of secrets doe she hide? Will the doctor actually be able to pull the trigger if and when he finds him? Conspiracies, mysteries, murders, and lies abound in this intricate tale of skeletons in the closet and tests of humanity.

Togari V.1
Creator: Yoshinori Natsume
Publisher: Viz Media

Tobei was responsible for killing over a thousand people in 18th century Japan before he was sixteen. Finally caught and decapitated, he has been tortured in Hell since then for his crimes, unrepentant and constantly trying to escape. Now he has been given his chance- if he can destroy 108 living manifestations of people’s sins (called toga) with a magic sword called Togari, he will be released from Hell. But there are catches; if he sins at all,his ancient wounds begin to reopen. If he hurts the people instead of the toga, he incurs the same physical damage. And Togari would like nothing more than to absorb him to increase its power!

XS Hybrid V.1
Creator: Song Ji-Hyung
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

A cool new science fiction manhwa, this one revolves around ‘hybrids’, which are people who have their brains invaded by entities that merge with them, then hide until times of great stress. When they show up, they give their hosts great powers, like resilience, speed, strength, and who knows what else. The beautiful Mina is thrust into the dangerous world of the hybrids when she discovers she’s one of them, and she drags Huin Chang, a daredevil in love with her, right along with her. Cool fight scenes, car crashes, and action abound in this series that blends sci-fi and street.

Yotsuba&! V.4
Creator: Kiyohika Azuma
Publisher: ADV Manga

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a volume of this endearing comedy from the creator of Azumanga Daioh, but it hasn’t been because of contract issues or anything bad- it was just rushed out so fast in the West that they had to take a break to let more volumes come out in Japan. Thankfully, a couple more have accumulated, so another book of tales of the wide-eyed child with the four green pigtails has arrived. Yotsuba isn’t dumb- she just doesn’t have the same preconceived notions about life and the world that most people do, and her excited innocence is amusing and heartwarming all at once. This volume sees Yotsuba take on fishing, her friend’s heartbreak, and the tsukutsuku-boshi cicada with an infectious verve.