So, Publisher’s Weekly did a list of their top ten manga titles for 2008. Dur­ing my perusal of this _list_,I didn’t see VAMPIRE KNIGHT by Hino (which is loaded full of angst and has a love tri­an­gle in it) or BLOOD ALONE (bit­ter­sweet love story) by Takano. No, of course not. What tepid tastes I have. Any­way, the author of the arti­cle sug­gests that manga isn’t just for teens any­more. What is pop­u­lar among mature adults?

Awhile ago, I read VAGABOND (vol.1) by Take­hiko Inoue that tells the fic­tion­al­ized story of Musashi’s life and I have really enjoyed the series (or as much of it as I can find at the moment). This author also has a series that is being reprinted and is out right now that cen­ters around a guy (he’s described as a thug) who tries _really_ hard at a sport he hates (bas­ket­ball) to attract the atten­tion of a cer­tain female. OMG. Doesn’t this sound really, really good?

Any­way, SLAM DUNK by Take­hiko Inoue sits at the top spot for most pop­u­lar Japan­ese manga of last year (2008). As for the rest of the list — ah, never even heard of most of these titles. Must go see what my library has in stock. I wish SLAM DUNK was avail­able dig­i­tally because then all I would need to do is pay for it and then go read in a cor­ner some­where. Looks like vol­ume two is due out Feb 2009.