Our introduction to ComicRankings generated an encouraging amount of interest and linkage, but one commonly asked question was about the accompanying Best & Worst of 2007 Year in Reviews and why Del Rey & Viz scored so high on the Publisher’s listing without any corresponding manga or mangaka appearances on the lists for Top 10 Books or Creators lists. The answer is that those lists were geared toward comics and the threshold used (minimum of X number of books/reviews) generally put most manga out of the picture. So, to rectify that, I’ve created a separate Year In Reviews piece for manga. (The revised comics-only list can be found here).
While checking these lists out, note that the tables are sortable by clicking on column header. You can also click linked Publishers/Creators/Books for details — be sure to check out some individual books as I’ve begun adding excerpts from reviews and other info there (one more small step toward getting the ComicRankings site going). But enough about that…
And now, as promised:
ComicRankings’ Best & Worst Manga of 2007
| Publisher | Books Reviewed | Reviews | Avg. Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vertical | 13 | 23 | 89.9 |
| Del Rey | 70 | 161 | 82.1 |
| Viz | 171 | 327 | 81.4 |
| DC/CMX | 46 | 78 | 80.9 |
| Dark Horse | 167 | 282 | 80.6 |
| Dr Masters | 22 | 30 | 79.5 |
| Go! Comi | 13 | 19 | 79.2 |
| Broccoli | 19 | 33 | 77.7 |
| Tokyopop | 115 | 241 | 77.3 |
Note that the criteria for this list was that the Publisher have at least 12 books reviewed in 2007. If it had been, say, half that Netcomics (7 books, 8 reviews) would have come in 2nd place with an average score of 83.5. while Udon (6 books, 11 reviews) would have been a distant last place with an average of 65.0.
| Creator | # of Reviews | Avg. Score |
|---|---|---|
| TEKKONKINKREET: Black & White TP | 4 | 93.8 |
| Gon Vol. 1 TP | 5 | 90.6 |
| Mushishi Vol. 2 GN | 5 | 90.0 |
| King Of Thorn Vol. 1 GN | 4 | 90.0 |
| Uzumaki Vol. 1 GN | 7 | 89.7 |
| Suppli Vol. 1 GN | 6 | 88.0 |
| Pantheon High Vol. 1 GN | 4 | 87.5 |
| Alive: The Final Evolution Vol. 1 GN | 6 | 86.7 |
| To Terra Vol. 1 TP | 4 | 86.5 |
| Mushishi Vol. 1 GN | 7 | 86.4 |
Re-Gifters from DC’s Minx line scored well enough (4 reviews averaging 87.0) to land in 8th place on this list, but most don’t consider it manga so it wasn’t included. Another Minx book, The Plain Janes, actually tied for 11th place with Jo Chen’s Other Side Of The Mirror (both had 4 reviews averaging 85.5)
| Creator | # of Reviews | Avg. Score |
|---|---|---|
| Shiki Tsukai Vol. 1 GN | 5 | 58.6 |
| Kanna Vol. 1 GN | 4 | 62.5 |
| Vampire Knight Vol. 1 TP | 4 | 64.5 |
| Shakugan No Shana Vol. 1 TP | 4 | 65.8 |
| Nabi The Prototype GN | 5 | 66.0 |
| Asian Beat GN | 5 | 68.0 |
| Voice Or Noise Vol. 1 GN | 4 | 69.5 |
| Psycho Busters Vol. 1 GN | 7 | 70.0 |
| I Hate You More Than Anyone Vol. 1 TP | 4 | 70.0 |
| Le Chevalier d’Eon Vol. 1 GN | 5 | 70.6 |
| Creator | Books | # of Reviews | Avg. Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kaoru Mori | 4 | 6 | 91.9 |
| Osamu Tezuka | 7 | 12 | 91.0 |
| Hiroki Endo | 5 | 6 | 91.0 |
| Shinji Saijyo | 5 | 6 | 90.0 |
| Yoko Kamio | 6 | 6 | 88.3 |
| Keiko Takemiya | 9 | 4 | 87.9 |
| Kiyoko Arai | 4 | 7 | 86.6 |
| Park Joong-Ki | 4 | 6 | 84.5 |
| Chika Shiomi | 15 | 9 | 84.3 |
| Kazuo Umezu | 6 | 13 | 83.5 |
I didn’t do a Lowest Scoring Creators because nobody really got an especially low score — the scores down so gradually from here that the low score list would just be an extension of the high scores.
| Series | # of Reviews | Avg. Score | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Wok Jan | 5 | 6 | 90.00 |
| Moon Child (TP) | 4 | 5 | 87.50 |
| ES - Eternal Sabbath | 4 | 5 | 86.88 |
| Beauty Pop | 4 | 7 | 86.63 |
| Kitchen Princess | 4 | 14 | 85.38 |
| Drifting Classroom | 5 | 11 | 85.20 |
| VS Versus (TP) | 4 | 5 | 84.88 |
| La Corda d’Oro | 4 | 5 | 83.75 |
| Yakitate Japan | 6 | 16 | 83.07 |
| Tail Of The Moon | 6 | 10 | 82.50 |
Again, no Lowest Scoring Series list because the scores are all so close together. For the record the lowest book meeting this criteria was Inubaka (4 books, 11 reviews, avg. 75.55). Note that without the “at least 6 reviews” part of this criteria, the highest scoring series would have been Tezuka’s Buddha (4 books, 4 reviews, avg.score of 97.50); not to say it’s not an excellent title, but somehow just 1 review each for 4 books doesn’t seem like the strongest case for #1 Highest Scoring Series.
Thanks for taking the time to check out yet another Best/Worst of 2007 list. Keep your eye out for much more from ComicRankings very soon!
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