1. 20th Century Boys
© 2000 Naoki URASAWA/Studio Nuts; With the cooperation of Takashi NAGASAKI. All rights reserved.
Publisher: VIZ Signature / VIZ Media
Release Date: Feb. 17, 2009
Read more about 20th Century Boys
Visit VIZ Media's 20th Century Boys website
Set in an alternate reality, 20th Century Boys weaves a complex and compelling mystery tale about a group of Japanese kids whose past imaginary adventures and dreams have spawned a strange cult that threatens the world at the dawn of the new millenium.
The first of two critically-acclaimed Urasawa series to debut in 2009, 20th Century Boys was adapted as a big-budget, live-action feature film trilogy. VIZ Pictures has already imported manga movies based on Death Note and Nana, so hopefully the 20th Century Boys films will be seen on big screens in the U.S. too.
2. Mangettes - Title TBD
© CLAMP
Publisher: Dark Horse
Read more about Mangettes
Release Date: Summer 2009
Yes, yes, I know... this was on my 2008 Most Anticipated Manga List. But this time, Dark Horse is pretty confident that this first-of-its-kind, international manga publishing project will see the light of day this year.
And really, only a superstar manga-ka group like CLAMP (Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles, Card Captor Sakura, xxxHolic could pull off a feat like this: create a new story in monthly mini-digests called "Mangettes", and release it simultaneously in Japan, U.S. and Korea, cutting the usual lag-time between Asian and American releases. Hopefully more info, like the title, the plot and a firm release date will be released soon.
3. Moyasimon
© Masayuki Ishikawa / KODANSHA
Publisher: Del Rey Manga
Release Date: Fall 2009
Read more about Moyasimon
A college agriculture student can see and talk to various bacteria, germs and micro-organisms, and it being Japan, of course, they are very cute and funny little critters. And this being Japan, Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture is a huge hit that spawns a flotilla of related merchandise like toys, t-shirts and anime. But could this smart and quirky hit make its way to American shores? Why, yes! Yes, it can!
4. Detroit Metal City
© Kiminori Wakasugi 2006 / HAKUSENSHA, Inc.
Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: June 9, 2009
Read a review of Detroit Metal City Vol.1
A geek with a rice-bowl haircut and a guitar comes to Tokyo with a dream: to be a singer of twee pop songs. But alas, fate has other things in mind as he finds success (reluctantly) as Krauser II, the lead singer of Detroit Metal City, a death metal band (complete with demonic makeup, over-the-top costumes and angry, "kill everyone" lyrics peppered with profanity).
DMC is already a huge hit in Japan, where this madcap rock and roll comedy has already spawned an anime series, a record label, and a live-action film featuring a cameo appearance by Gene Simmons, the lead singer of Kiss.
5. Maximum Ride
© James Patterson / NaRae Lee
Artist: NaRae Lee
Publisher: Yen Press
Release Date: Jan 27, 2009
Visit Yen Press' Maximum Ride webpage
Read a review of Maximum Ride Vol. 1
Max Ride seems like an ordinary teen -- except that she and her 'family' of fellow orphans are the result of strange scientific experiments: they are 98% human and 2% bird, and their 2% avian heritage have given them wings.
Best-selling author James Patterson teams up with Korean manga-ka newcomer NaRae Lee to give his sci-fi adventure series, Maximum Ride the manga treatment. Maximum Ride has been a part of the line-up in Yen Plus magazine since the manga/manhwa monthly debuted in July 2008, but January marks the release of the first graphic novel volume.
6. Ooku
© Fumi Yoshinaga 2005 / HAKUSENSHA, Inc.
Publisher: VIZ Signature / VIZ Media
Release Date: August 18, 2009
Read more about Ooku
From the creator of smart, sensual and wry stories like Antique Bakery and Flower of Life, comes a historical manga set in the era of samurai with a twist: What if most of the men were wiped out by a plague, and what if the shogun was a woman? The result is Ooku: The Inner Chamber, a historical fantasy series about a once-male dominated society turned inside-out, and a female Tokugawa-era shogun who keeps a harem of handsome male consorts for her pleasure.
Ooku was awarded the Excellence Award for manga at Japan Media Arts Festival in 2006, and is sure to generate lots of critical buzz in the U.S. too.
7. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka
© 2004 Naoki URASAWA/Studio Nuts, Takashi NAGASAKI, Tezuka Productions All rights reserved.
Publisher: VIZ Signature / VIZ Media
Release Date: February 17, 2009
Visit VIZ Media's Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka website
Read a review of Pluto Vol. 1
In Japan, most manga stories and characters are the creations of a single creative team or artist, never to be tweaked or reinterpreted by others. But leave it to master manga storyteller Naoki Urasawa (Monster, Yawara!) to break new ground as he takes an Astro Boy story by Osamu Tezuka and tells the same tale from a different character's point of view.
With this radical remake, Urasawa takes a kid-friendly story and transforms it into a grown-up sci-fi mystery featuring a robot detective trying to stop a series of human/robot murders.
8. AX
© Seirengosha
Editors: Sean Michael Wilson & Mitsuhiro Asakawa
Publisher: Top Shelf
Release Date: December 2009
Read more about AX
Much like American and European comics, Japanese comics has its mainstream side and its "indie" side. Now that the ninjas and magical girls of mainstream manga have invaded America, it's perhaps time for experimental manga to build its own following, and leading the charge is AX.
Borne from Garo, the seminal avant-garde manga magazine that had its hey-day in the late '60s and '70s, AX is one of Japan's premier alternative comics anthologies. Now Top Shelf is presenting a mega-sized 'best of' collection in English, giving manga fans a rare look at comics created outside of the mainstream.
9. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: The Power of Negative Thinking
© Koji Kumeta / KODANSHA
Publisher: Del Rey Manga
Release Date: February 24, 2009
Visit Del Rey Manga's Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei webpage
Read a review of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Vol. 1
Put together a teacher who constantly tries (and fails) to commit suicide with a hopelessly optimistic high school girl, and a cast of neurotic classmates and you have the absurdly hilarious world of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
Subtitled "The Power of Negative Thinking," Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei features some stylized, distinctive artwork and more pop culture references (both modern and traditional) and sly social commentary than you can shake a chopstick at.
10. Tsubasa: Those With Wings
© Natsuki Takaya
Publisher: TokyoPop
Release Date: March 10, 2009
Visit TokyoPop's Tsubasa: Those With Wings webpage
Read more about Tsubasa: Those With Wings
A very different kind of story from the creator of Fruits Basket, Tsubasa: Those With Wings is set in the 22nd Century, and centers on an odd couple: a young girl who is a master thief and a man who is a former military leader. There's also a mysterious object called a "Tsubasa" that is rumored to grant wishes, so this pair must elude sinister forces who want them to find the relic.
Originally published as a 6-volume series in Hana to Yume magazine between 1995 and 1998, Tsubasa will be released as three double-sized volumes, starting from March 2009.
11. A Drifting Life
© 2008 Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Release Date: April 14, 2009
Visit Drawn & Quarterly's A Drifting Life webpage
After releasing several critically-acclaimed volumes of short stories by Tatsumi-sensei, Drawn and Quarterly is releasing one of his masterworks, the semi-autobiographical A Drifting Life. A Drifting Life tells the story of a manga artist born in the shadows of World War II, as he struggles to overcome his family problems, find success and his own artistic point of view in the competitive world of manga in the mid-Twentieth Century.
A Drifting Life offers fans a rare first-person account of manga's evolution from being just 'kids' stuff' to being a vital part of Japan's cultural landscape.
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12. Oishinbo
OISHINBO A LA CARTE © Tetsu KARIYA, Akira HANASAKI / Shogakukan Inc.
Artist: Akira Hanasaki
Publisher: VIZ Signature / VIZ Media
Release Date: January 20, 2009
Visit VIZ Media's Oishinbo webpage
Read a review of Oishinbo Vol. 1
From the land that brought you Iron Chef comes the ultimate comic for foodies, Oishinbo. This long-running series about a journalist who has a taste for fine food is being served up by VIZ in 13 tasty bites that focuses on different aspects of Japanese cuisine, including sake, ramen and fish.
Oishinbo is a grown-up manga series with rare cross-over appeal for even non-comics readers. It's packed with interesting facts about the finer points of food and cooking techniques and is stirred up with stories that are both entertaining and appetizing.
13. Cirque du Freak
© Darren Shan and Takahiko Arai
Artist: Arai Takahiro
Publisher: Yen Press
Release Date: June 9, 2009
Visit Yen Press' Cirque du Freak webpage
Read more about Cirque du Freak
Once again, Yen Press takes advantage of Kurt Hassler's publishing biz savvy to bring yet another young adult lit/manga hybrid to American readers. Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak. The timing of the June 2009 release seems especially apt since a major movie adaptation of Shan's vampire adventure saga is also due to hit theaters then, courtesy of Universal Pictures.
While other vampire tales veer toward forbidden romance, Cirque du Freak is definitely about the scarier side of bloodsucking, as two young boys encounter a freak show that changes their lives in frightening ways.
14. A Distant Neighborhood
© Jiro Taniguchi
Publisher: Fanfare - Ponent Mon
Release Date: June 30, 2009
Read more about Distant Neighborhood
From the creator of The Walking Man and The Ice Wanderer comes a bittersweet time-traveling tale of a middle-aged man who finds himself transported back to the days when he was in 8th grade. But this time, he sees his family, friends and past events through the prism of his experiences as an adult.
Taniguchi's work is not as flashy as some other manga creators, but his impeccable artistry and thoughtful, mature storytelling has already gained him legions of fans in Europe, where A Distant Neighborhood earned the prestigeious Alph'Art award from the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France.
15. Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit
© Motoro Mase
Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: May 12, 2009
Read a review of Ikigami Vol. 1
When the government decides that its citizens are not truly appreciating life, they set up a program designed to make people reconsider their apathetic ways. Every day, a person is chosen to receive an ikigami or a death notice that gives them 24 hours to live. Ikigami focuses on the person who delivers these notices, and the unfortunate souls who receive these death sentences and how they spend their last day on Earth.
Ikigami was made into a feature film in 2008, and it's only a matter of time until an American remake is in the works.
16. X-Men: Misfits
© Marvel Comics
Artist: Anzu
Publisher: Del Rey Manga
Release Date: July 28, 2009
Visit Del Rey Manga's X-Men: Misfits webpage
Read more about X-Men: Misfits
Keen to hop on the manga bandwagon, American superhero comics publishers have tried (and let's face it, largely failed) to create cross-cultural comics synergy. But this time, Marvel Comics, Del Rey Manga, American comics creators Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman, and Indonesian manga-ka Anzu (The Reformed) are doing things a little differently: They're taking the merry mutants of the X-Men and setting them up in a shojo manga boarding school romance.
Are these two great tastes that will finally taste great together, or... not? We'll find out in May!
17. Orange
© Benjamin, Xiao Pan
Publisher: TokyoPop
Release Date: February 10, 2009
Visit TokyoPop's Orange webpage
Read a review of Orange
With layoffs and cutbacks in 2008, TokyoPop has had a rough go of it, but that hasn't stopped them from seeking out new ways to keep manga fans comin' back to the bookstore. Like when Dorothy got swept away by a tornado and landed in Oz, TokyoPop is venturing out of black and white pages into a brave new world of full-color graphic novels.
Orange is the first of TokyoPop's global graphic novels by Chinese talent Benjamin. With lush, impressionistic brushstrokes, Benjamin tells a story of a young girl who thinks she has nothing to live for, until she meets a boy on a roof who changes her life.
18. Hero Tales
© Huang Jin Zhou, Hiromu Arakawa
Artist: Hiromu Arakawa
Publisher: Yen Press
Release Date: October 27, 2009
Visit Yen Press' Hero Tales webpage
Read more about Hero Tales
Best known for creating Full-Metal Alchemist, Hiromu Arakawa has since taken on a new challenge: a historical Chinese epic entitled Jushin Enbu, or as it will be released in English, Hero Tales.
In this tale based on Chinese mythology, a boy is charged with finding a sacred sword that holds the key to his destiny as one of seven chosen celestial warriors.
To kick things off, Hero Tales will be added to the Yen Plus line-up beginning in the February 2009 issue, joining other Square Enix titles already featured in this monthly manga mag.
19. Swallowing The Earth
© Digital Manga Publishing
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Release Date: June 24, 2009
Visit DMP's Swallowing the Earth webpage
Read a preview of about Swallowing the Earth
Digital Manga announced this title in April 2008 at New York Comic-Con, surprising a lot of manga fans, as DMP joined Vertical, VIZ and Dark Horse as a publisher of manga by Osamu Tezuka.
Swallowing the Earth was created in 1968, around the same time as Dororo, and is described as one of Tezuka's first ventures into grown-up stories for adult readers. This dark tale features an icy female seductress who is out to punish men for crimes against women.
20. Children of the Sea
KAIJU NO KODOMO © Daisuke IGARASHI / Shogakukan Inc.
Publisher: VIZ Signature / VIZ Media
Release Date: June 16, 2009
Read an online preview of Children of the Sea
Unless you've checked out Japan by 17 Creators, you probably haven't heard of Daisuke Igarashi. But even reading his story, The Festival of the Bell-Horses offers only a glimpse of his knack for weaving elements of the natural and supernatural world into a rich tapestry of magical realism.
Ruka visits her father at the aquarium where he works, then meets and befriends two unusual boys. Umi and Sora are Ruka's age, but they're special in ways that the aquarium staff are only starting to understand: they were raised by sea creatures, and they swim and breathe in the ocean like fish.
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