My Top Ten Manga!
**SPOILER WARNING IF YOU ARE READING OR ARE PLANNING TO READ SOME OF THESE MANGAS THE SUMMARIES MAY BE TOO DETAILED FOR SOME**
#10.
CAPTIVE HEARTS
The Kuroishi and Kogami families have a strange bond: for 100 generations, the Kuroishi clan is compelled to serve the Kogami clan, with mind, body and soul. Fourteen years ago, the entire Kogami family disappeared. The head butler, Yoshimi, and his son Megumi reside in the Kogami house, living a life of luxury. Megumi, in particular, is happily enjoying his easy life, until one member of the family is discovered alive in China. Megumi is determined to refuse to serve his new mistress Suzuka when he returns, but he quickly learns that the compulsion to serve is not one he can ignore, it is a full curse. When they first meet, he finds himself kneeling before her and kissing her hand to welcome her home, then proceeding to carry her into the house. Though he tries to fight it, he soon realizes he isn't able to.
As the series progresses, friendship and romance grown between Suzuka and Megumi as they learn more about the curse. Suzuka is no happier with Megumi having to suffer the curse and together they try to find a way to break it.
#9.
MAMOTTE LOLLIPOP
Nina Yamada is a junior high 7th grader who dreams about a boy who is strong, handsome, and kind enough to protect her. One day, Nina "accidentally" swallowed a Crystal Pearl that she assumed was candy. But the Crystal Pearl was the goal of a sorcery examination. Nina becomes the new target by many probationer sorcerers and goes on for half a year. During this whole mix up, she meets two wizard boys named Zero and Ichii and comes to a conclusion that they can protect her until a potion is made to remove the Crystal Pearl from her. However, this potion will take about 6 months to complete. Despite how long it took they decided to protect her no matter what. Even at school and at home, Zero and Ichii protect Nina where ever she goes.
#8.
KITCHEN PRINCESS
Najika Kazami, an orphan from Hokkaidō with a talent for cooking, transfers to Seika Academy over director's recommendation to chase her dream of being a great chef, and to find her "Flan Prince", a boy that saved her from falling into a river and gave her a cup of flan with a silver spoon with the school's emblem on it. At the time, she promised him she would make the most delicious dessert in the world when they met again. After she is placed into Class A, the special class for students with special talents and fame, Najika becomes the target of bullying by teen model Akane Kishida and her friends. Najika does manage to befriend Sora and Daichi Kitazawa, both of whom seem to be candidates for the Flan Prince and are the sons of Mr. Kitazawa, the school director. It appears that Sora is the Flan Prince. As the story progresses, both brothers fall in love with her,and is revealed to Najika that Akane is in love with Daichi who thinks that Najika is in love with him. Najika revealed to Akane that she is acually in love with Sora, after the explaining Akane and Najika become best friends. Soon before this it is revealed that Daichi is in love with Najika (which makes Akane really sad later in the series)and then over jealousy of Sora Daichi kissed Najika unexpectantly. Najika enters in a cooking contest at one point and because Sora wanted to help her, bought her special ingredients and while delivering them to her, gets run over by a truck and dies. He confesses to not being her Flan Prince before his death. Najika then lost her sense of taste (which she later regains in the story). She becomes shunned and left out because they say she killed Sora. A new transfer student named Seiya that looks exactly like Sora enters the school, and also manages to fall in love with Najika (while she started to fall on love with Daichi) albeit them being rivals. He makes her a flan that tastes exactly like the one she ate when she was six, leading her to believe he is the Flan Prince. Later revealed he isn't. In the end, it turns out that Daichi is the Flan Prince.
#7.
DEATH NOTE
Soon, the number of inexplicable deaths of reported criminals catches the attention of International Police Organization and a mysterious detective known only as "L". L quickly learns that the serial killer, dubbed by the public as "Kira" (キラ?, derived from the typical Japanese pronunciation of the English word "killer"), is located in Japan. He also concludes that Kira can harm or kill people without laying a finger on them and that he is in Japan after using a convicted criminal named Lind L. Tailor, whose capture was kept secret and who was condemned to die at that hour, and pretending Tailor is L so that Kira would kill him. He then reveals this was only being broadcast in the Kanto region of Japan, they were planning on going through different Japanese areas, and that the first Kira killing was of a criminal only broadcast in Japan. Light realizes that L will be his greatest nemesis, and a nuanced game of psychological cat and mouse between the two begins.
L realizes Kira is getting information from inside the task force and sends 12 FBI agents to follow people connected to the Japanese police. Light tricks Raye Penber, his tail, into showing his ID by controlling a drug addict to attempt to rob the Bus before he is hit by a car, after which he kills all the FBI agents. Naomi Misora, Raye's fiancée, suspects Kira was one of the people he tailed, but Light finds out and makes her commit suicide using the Death Note after telling her he is part of L's organisation so he needs to see her ID so he can join, as he earlier realised she was using a false name whne the Note did not work.
Noticing Penber's odd behaviour, and the fact that Raye's fiancée is missing, L begins to suspect those Penber was investigating, and places cameras in their homes. Light realises their presence, but continues the killings with help from a miniature TV. L finally decides to remove the cameras, and enrolls at the same university as Light. His suspicions grow of Light, but he asks him to join the task-force.
Misa Amane, another Death Note owner, finds Light, after sending a video in which she claims to be Kira. She possesses Shinigami eyes which allow her to see a person's name and lifespan, but at the cost of half her remaining lifespan to obtain this information. Ryuk offered Light Shinigami eyes when Penber was following him but Light declined. Obsessed with Kira after the death of her parents' murderer who was being acquitted for lack of evidence, she devotes herself to helping Light and even gives him her Death Note for safe-keeping. However, she is captured by L. Light makes a plan involving renouncing ownership of both Death Notes and all of his memories of them, and turns himself in to L for surveillance, as Rem threatens to kill him if Misa is not freed. Together, Light and L investigate eight people from the company "Yotsuba" who are using a Death Note for their own profit after Rem gave it to one of them. While arresting the third Kira Higuchi, Light recovers all his memories when he touches the Death Note. Using a cut-out piece of the notebook in his watch, he kills Higuichi, thus becoming the owner of the Death Note. Light then resumes his plan of compelling the former owner of Misa's Death Note, the shinigami Rem, into killing L and his assistant Watari, which causes Rem to lose her life, as a Shinigami is not allowed to purposely extend a human's life. Light then gets her Death Note. Meanwhile, Misa acquires her memories and the Shinigami eyes from Ryuk and hides the Death Note on Light's orders, though not before removing some pages from it.
After L's death, Light is given the position of the "new L" by the Japanese Task Force. Four years later, Near and Mello - two children who were raised to be successors to L in an orphanage founded by Watari - appear, with the goal of finding Kira. In the meantime, Kira has gained much public support, and has contacts. Mello, who has joined the Mafia, kidnaps the Director of the NPA. When Kira kills him, he kidnaps Sayu Yagami, Light's sister, as a bargaining chip to get the Death Note. The Japanese Task Force plans to go to Los Angeles to rescue Sayu but ends up losing the Notebook. The Task Force later attempts to retrieve it and succeeds in doing so. They also get Mello's real name due to Soichiro making the deal for Shinigami eyes with Ryuk. However, as a result of an explosion that Mello uses to cover his escape and one of his henchmen, Light's father dies.
Near begins to suspect the second L of being Kira, thus causing some members of the Japanese task force to also openly suspect him. Realizing the risk of being caught, Light has Misa give up ownership of her Death Note. He then finds his next successor, Teru Mikami, a strong, almost crazed Kira supporter, who trades for the shinigami eyes and kills Kira's last spokesman - for his greed - who helped Near escape from a crowd of Kira supporters. Mikami later recruits a new spokesman for Kira, Kiyomi Takada, a newscaster and one of Light's former college girlfriends. Teru and Kiyomi continue killing criminals while Light is unable to do so himself, but has revealed he is Kira to Kiyomi. Kiyomi is later kidnapped by Mello and is forced to kill him with a hidden piece of the Death Note. Light kills Kiyomi by making her commit suicide to avoid her implicating him after she uses the note to kill Mello. Mikami, unaware of this action, writes her name in his notebook which is hidden in a bank vault, exposing it to the members of the SPK. Near has its pages replaced with a fake version and, in a final confrontation with Light, is able to use it to prove that Light is Kira. Realizing that Light had lost, Ryuk writes down Light's name in his own notebook, and he finally dies of a heart attack.
#6.
MARMALADE BOY
Miki Koishikawa's ordinary life as a high school sophomore is turned upside down when her parents suddenly announce that they are getting divorced in order to swap partners with a couple they met in Hawaii. They seek her approval of the shocking change, and at a dinner where Miki meets the other couple as well as their son Yuu, who is about her age, she reluctantly agrees to the arrangement. Yuu, while at first a jerk who takes every opportunity to make fun of Miki, turns out to be fun and attractive, and Miki finds herself falling for him. Little by little, she accepts her new family arrangement, and opens up to Yuu as they become friends.
Miki and Yuu's relationship starts to become complicated because of the previous relationships that they had and developed with other characters. These include Miki's long time classmate and former crush, Ginta Suou, and Yuu's former girlfriend, Arimi Suzuki. A secondary subplot develops when Miki's best friend, Meiko Akizuki, herself starts to have her own problems because of the relationship she has gotten into with one of the teachers, Namura Shin'ichi.
Throughout the series, Miki and Yuu's relationship is further developed and tried, influenced by other characters around them and the relationships that they develop with these characters.
#5.
FRUITS BASKET
When high school student Tohru Honda's mother died in a car accident, Tohru begins living in a tent and supporting herself. That is, until she finds a home in the least likely of places, inhabited by her classmate Yuki Sohma and his cousins Shigure and Kyo. The Sohmas however, live with a curse. Thirteen members of the family are possessed by spirits of the Chinese zodiac and turn into their zodiac animal when hugged by the opposite gender, are weak, or when under stress. When Tohru discovers the Sohmas' secret, she promises not to tell and is allowed to keep living with them. The Sohma's curse, however, is deeper and darker than Tohru realized, but her presence soon becomes a large, positive influence on those possessed by the zodiac. She sets out to break the curse, and on the way, meets and discovers each of the Sohma's vengeful zodiac spirits. Each has a different personality, just like the animals in the Chinese Zodiac. Tohru's existence changes the Sohma clan's lives forever...
#4.
ULTRA MANIAC
Ayu Tateishi is a well-adjusted 7th grader, until the fateful day when she finds a dejected looking Nina Sakura outside of the school. Nina explains that she lost something very dear to her earlier that day. Ayu offers to help Nina look for her lost item, but Nina seems reluctant to say what the item is that she lost, and runs off. On her way home Ayu finds what seems to be a mini-computer underneath the bench she knew Nina to be at earlier that day. After returning the item to Nina, Nina struggles to decide whether to let Ayu in on the 'big secret' she keeps.
In order to see if Ayu is trustworthy, she starts to follow Ayu around and eventually decides she can trust Ayu. Nina reveals that she is actually from the Magic Kingdom and is a magic girl. Ayu, however, doesn't believe Nina and thinks she is a bit crazy at first. Ayu herself had always shunned the ideas of magic and fairy tales, even admitting she had never read Harry Potter, so having someone tell her they are a witch truly isn't something she can easily accept. After several mishaps with her magic, Nina proves she is a magic girl, and a failure who is coming to Earth as her last chance to prove that she can get things right. These first mishaps and the fact that Nina has shared her secret with Ayu, Nina attaches herself to Ayu as a friend and does everything she can to help Ayu with getting the attention of the boy she loves. As their adventures continue many friends from the magical kingdom come and visit Nina to the chagrin of Ayu.
The anime adaptation has a very different plot starting after Ayu and Nina have first met.
Instead of coming as a witch failure who is trying to prove herself to be more than she is said to be, Nina has come to earth to find the five "Holy Stones". She tells Ayu that whoever collects all five will qualify to marry the prince of the Magic Kingdom. Nina's childhood friend Maya is also on earth from the start, competing with Nina to find the stones.Though Nina does collect them all first she learns that the prince and Maya are truly in love with one another, so Nina gives up the stones and her dream allowing Maya and the prince to be with one another.
#3.
OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB
Haruhi Fujioka is a scholar student at the prestigious Ouran Academy, a fictional high school located in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Looking for a quiet place to study, Haruhi stumbles upon the Third Music Room, a place where the Ouran Academy Host Club, a group of six male students, gathers to entertain female "clients". During their first meeting, Haruhi accidentally knocks over and breaks an antique vase valued at ¥8,000,000 (US$80,000 in English manga)[1] and is told to repay the cost in service to the club. Haruhi's short hair, slouching attire and gender-ambiguous look cause her to be mistaken by the hosts for a male student. The hosts all agree that Haruhi would be a good host, thus making her join the host club. Ultimately she agrees to join the Club as a host herself (dressed as a male) in order to pay off her debt.[2] She agrees to join since she does not mind hosting as long as she can pay the debt off faster. The hosts do later find out that she is, in fact, a girl. They keep this a secret, so no one will be able to tell. The Ouran Private Academy encompasses kindergarten to twelfth grade (along with a university as well). Most students come from wealthy families, but in special cases, merit scholarships are granted to exceptional students from a lower income bracket. The school's unofficial motto is "Lineage counts first, wealth a close second," meaning students with stellar family backgrounds but low socioeconomic status may be given top priority over those from rich families with lesser pedigrees.
#2.
DENGEKI DAISY
When Teru's older brother died, she was left with little more than a cell phone containing the text-address of an elusive character named DAISY, who Teru's brother had told her would "support her when he was no longer able to." DAISY became Teru's pillar of strength, over the next few years as he sent her encouraging words through his phone, whether inspiring or mere chatter, as she faces her life alone.
One afternoon, after bullies from the student council are mysteriously driven away, Teru accidentally breaks a school window, which results in her working for the grouchy, cruel school janitor named Tasuku Kurosaki. As Teru begins working for the unlikable school janitor, her feelings begin to surpass that of master and servant and she begins to question DAISY's true identity. Could Kurosaki be her beloved DAISY? Meanwhile, Kurosaki is finding himself steadily drawn to Teru. Will he "reach out" to her?
#1.
BLACK BIRD
Misao sees things that other people don't. Normally, the annoying monsters would do harmless things. But on her sixteenth birthday, these creatures she sees take it up farther, trying to kill her. They would be the only bother, until demons have gone serious into killing her or taking her for his own. She's saved by a childhood friend from her past, Kyo Usui, who just so happens to be a demon as well. Avoiding moments of death with Kyo protecting her, her own future turns out that she is the rare, "Bride of Prophecy." The demons are set onto her, and it just happens, that Kyo wants Misao as well.
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