Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl, wherein each week bloggers list out their Top Ten.
The prompt for this week was ‘Childhood favorites’ but I thought, well – we all know Harry Potter, The Princess Diaries and Twilight is going to be on that list! So instead, I thought to go more specific with my love for manga. I was BIG into shoujo manga as a teen (I did read shonen and josei too) and most of the ones I read were because of their anime adaptations (Animax definitely was a big source of new content for me). These are my top 10
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles [24 volumes]
Do you even know Angst if one of the people in the couple doesn’t remember the other? The heart-wrenching journey to reclaim the missing parts of your girlfriend’s soul, knowing it will never bring back her memories of you? Categorized as shonen but has shoujo tropes.
Death Note [12 volumes]
This manga was sort of formative for my younger self, what with its gray morality and ideas of heroism.
Paradise Kiss [5 volumes]
I was probably younger than the intended audience for this when I first came across its anime and read its manga, but it spoke to my own views on romance, and quite different from what ‘romance’ books were telling me.
Ouran High School Host Club [18 volumes]
This manga was so cute, but also I now realize this must have been the first instance of me reading a genderqueer character in fiction.
Fullmetal Alchemist [27 volumes]
I mean, come on, this just had to be there. Who can forget one of the biggest shonen series of their childhoods? Complex storytelling, heartbreaking plots and an amazing magic system.
Kaichou-wa Maid Sama [19 volumes]
Yeah, this didn’t age well for me (I now realize that Usui, while being well-meaning, was still harassing Aizawa soooo) but at the time, it was fun to see a no-nonsense girl fall in love with the boy she initially hates.
Fruits Basket [23 volumes]
I don’t support the endgame ship (I never did) but this story also had complex plotlines, and imparted wisdom for teen me.
La Corda D’Oro [17 volumes]
Truth time: when I first watched the anime, I was so influenced, that I begged to be allowed to learn to play the violin (and that tells you all about who I was shipping her with) even though arts in my family was practically a nope-never thing. Btw, I eventually won my right to learn music, and I did it for years, but had to abandon because grad life.
xxxHOLiC [19 volumes]
I came across it because it crosses over with Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles but holy shit it is amazing enough on its own. Drawing from Japanese and European folklore, the horror manga has some truly brilliant stories.
Ultra Maniac [5 volumes]
I had a witch phase (which teen girl didn’t?) and this was one of my favorite cute witchy series at the time.
Which books from your childhood are your favorites?
YA on my Mind 
These look super fun. I’ve actually never read a Manga, but I’m thinking of giving a couple a try this year.
I’d never heard of any of these books. It’s always interesting when that happens in a TTT post. What first got you into Manga?
My TTT.
I got into manga through anime primarily, but I have always loved comics and graphic novels, so it was natural that I would love manga too!
I’ve never read Manga, but they do seem interesting. A year or two ago I started watching anime with my boyfriend and there have been quite a few I have enjoyed.
My TTT: https://thebookdutchesses.com/2019/07/02/ttt-86-childhood-favorites/
I usually try to find and read the manga for anime I like, because like most adaptations, anime, too, often leave out parts from the source material. Also, not all anime have complete storylines – sometimes they are abandoned after a season or two. To get the whole story, manga are the best option.
Ooh, great spin on this idea! I’ve actually been trying to check out more manga, so I might use this list for some recs. I really liked what I’ve read of Fullmetal Alchemist, and I remember watching Death Note back in the day (haven’t read the manga, though) and enjoyed it a lot!
I also have other recent manga you can look through in the manga tag https://ruthsic.wordpress.com/tag/manga/ if you are looking for more recs
I like that you went the Manga route! I haven’t read any of these unfortunately but if I did Manga, I would have put Pokemon and Sailor Moon on my list (typical, I know). I never read the Manga for Ouran High School Host Club, but I love the anime!
I haven’t read much manga, but I like your spin on this topic.
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