After reading a mile-high stack of manga this year, I had a hard time choosing just five titles to single out for praise. So here is my list of honorable mentions for Best New and Continuing Series, as well as a list of Great Guilty Pleasures and Titles in Need of an Overlooked Manga Festival. (Click here for the official PCS Best Manga of 2007 list.)

HONORABLE MENTION: BEST NEW SERIES

• Alive: The Final Evolution (Del Rey): A spooky sci-fi thriller that manages to scare the hell of readers through the power of suggestion.

• Bride of the Water God (Dark Horse): Gorgeous illustrations and a shamelessly Romantic premise make this smartly packaged Korean import an engrossing read.
• Hollow Fields (Seven Seas): International Manga Award winner Madeleine Rosca’s series looks like a million bucks, with snazzy character designs, expressive interiors, and cool-looking gizmos. Hollow Fields also scores bonus points for the best tagline of the year: “Forgetting your homework was never this dangerous!” If only my students felt the same way…
• Suppli (Tokyopop): If you’re deep in denial about the ending of Tramps Like Us, you can help quell the DTs by getting hooked on Tokyopop’s newest josei offering, Mari Okazaka’s very entertaining Suppli.
• 10, 20, and 30 (NETCOMICS): This funny, slice-of-life drama documents the romantic misadventures of a thirty-six-year-old widow, her teenage daughter, and their twenty-something cousin. The artwork is an acquired taste, as it more closely resembles an American comic strip than a soong-jeong manwha, but it adds to the series’ considerable charm.
• With the Light (Yen Press): Keiko Tobe brings a Lifetime movie sensibility to the difficulties of raising an autistic child, creating a story that’s both an engaging soap opera and a textbook for helping an autistic youngster cope with his stressful surroundings.

HONORABLE MENTION: BEST CONTINUING SERIES

• Emma (CMX): Kaoru Mori’s lovely period romance about a maid and a gentlemen is generally quite restrained, though Mori can’t resist a few Dickensian touches: gypsies, kidnappers, exploitative relatives who threaten poor Emma with the workhouse. Perfect for Merchant Ivory buffs.

• Genju no Seiza (Tokyopop): Like her better-known series Pet Shop of Horrors, Matsuri Hino’s Genju no Seiza is a genre-bending supernatural drama. This time, she draws heavily on Tibetan mythology to tell the story of a Japanese teenager who may the reincarnation of a small central Asian country’s king. Sometimes dark, sometimes broadly humorous, Genju no Seiza is always engrossing.
• Kekkaishi (Viz): Yellow Tanabe isn’t afraid to explore dark themes or sacrifice lead characters, making Kekkaishi a surprisingly adult-friendly read. Other strengths of this under-appreciated shonen series are its distinctive artwork, great characters, and hilarious omake.
• Phoenix: Sun (Viz): The longest story in the Phoenix cycle is also the best, interweaving scenes from the Nara Period with scenes from a future dystopia to tell the story of Buddhism’s arrival in Japan. Scandalous as this may be to say, I actually like Sun better than Tezuka’s critically acclaimed Buddha.
• Robot (DMP/UDON Entertainment): Robot is Flight’s edgier, chain-smoking cousin, offering readers a smorgasbord of stories in a dazzling array of styles and mediums. Some of the ongoing series venture too far into hentai-land for my tastes, but with so many other works to choose from (including a few with a Miyazaki-esque vibe), I don’t feel like a dirty old lady for adding this one to my library.
• Tramps Like Us (Tokyopop): The penultimate volume of my favorite josei title reminded me why Baryshnikov was the toast of New York in the 1970s: dancers are sexy! Thank goodness Sumire finally seems to have had that epiphany herself… let’s just hope she doesn’t blow it in the final act!
• xxxHolic (Del Rey): Ten volumes into the saga, I’m convinced that xxxHolic is CLAMP’s best work to date, with its stark, Art Noveau artwork, folkloric elements, and memorable cast of characters.
• Yotsuba&! (ADV Manga): Unlike the precocious tots in most American sitcoms and movies, Yotsuba really seems like a five or six-year-old, with her odd fears, amusing malapropisms, and peculiar enthusiasms. Cute without being saccharine.

GREAT GUILTY PLEASURES

• Black Sun, Silver Moon (Go! Comi): After reading volume three—in which the story telling and artwork make a quantum leap in quality and depth—I feel justified in my unholy enthusiasm for this Odd Couple story about a demon priest and his cute young partner in zombie-slaying.

• Kurohime (Viz): In theory, I ought to dislike this fanservice spectacular, boob socks, short skirts and all. But the nifty artwork and goofy villains dispose me kindly to this series, even if my inner attacking fangirl is deeply ashamed of me.
• Satsuma Gishiden (Dark Horse): Yes, Satsuma Gishiden sometimes reads like a history textbook… written by Sam Peckinpah, that is. Where else will you see a man kill someone with one of his own broken ribs?! And this series wasn’t posting good enough numbers for Dark Horse to continue publishing it? Really?!
• Shaman Warrior (Dark Horse) Almost as manly as Satsuma Gishiden, this Korean import is as notable for its dialogue—which is hilarious in a B-movie sort of way (in one scene, a character actually makes reference to toe jam… TOE JAM!)—as it is for its gorgeous artwork and frequent beat-downs.
• Yakitate!! Japan (Viz): Iron Wok Jan’s kinder, gentler shonen cousin is notable for its groan-inducing puns, dumb-as-toast protagonist, and repetitive plot lines, most of which could be summarized as “Kazuma and the gang enter a tournament. When challenged to make X, Kazuma upstages his rival from the X bakery.” That said, it’s hard to resist Yakitate’s anything-for-a-laugh sight gags and super-human feats of bread baking. My mouth is watering just thinking about Ja-Pan #57…

TITLES IN NEED OF AN OVERLOOKED MANGA FESTIVAL

• The Key to the Kingdom (CMX): This fast-paced fantasy tale’s detailed artwork and sparkly-eyed characters remind me of CLAMP’s early work (minus the big shoulder pads). If you’re a fan of RG Veda or Magic Knight Rayearth, The Key to the Kingdom might just be your cup of matcha.

• Kurogane (Del Rey): Kei Toume’s five-volume series finished its run in the spring of 2007 to little fanfare. That’s a pity, because this gorgeously illustrated drama plays like an entertaining mash-up of Blade of the Immortal, Edward Scissorhands, and Samurai Champloo. Yes, the stories sometimes meander, and yes, it can be a little ridiculous. (The hero’s one-eyed sword literally does all the talking for him, and no, I don’t mean THAT one-eyed sword, thank you.) But Toume revitalizes some tired ronin-for-hire scenarios with the sheer weirdness of his Frankensamurai conceit.
• Narration of Love at 17 (NETCOMICS): Kyungok Kang’s four-volume coming-of-age story wins points for depicting teenagers as they really are: moody, insecure, hopeful, and quick to change their minds about everything. Though the story occasionally takes a sudsy turn (is there a Korean or Japanese import that doesn’t include some kind of showbiz subplot?), Narration of Love at 17 generally sticks to more realistic terrain, focusing on its characters’ interior lives.