Finally, my recap of all the manga I read and finished during 2024, not as many as the year before, but still good.
Kind of a weird way to begin this recap, but I was realizing that last year the theme I followed was āFavorite XYZ of 2023.ā I donāt know why I just didnāt keep that going, but since I already wrote my Gaming Recap and my Reading Recap, I guess Iāll stick to this format instead.
Manga remains as one of my favorite sources of entertainment and story-telling, I can read it almost anywhere, at any time, in short bursts or for a whole day. Chapters range from 20 to 50 pages, can be read in a few minutes, they are easy to pause and resume without losing the plot, the visuals of course contribute and provide information beyond words about whatever is going on in the story, itās such a simple thing. And while comics in general are, I have found the simplicity of the black and white and the diversity of the stories in manga to be very enjoyable to me.
Although I kept up with most of the manga series I follow, I didnāt complete as many as last year, since most of the current manga I read is still ongoing. Regardless, hereās an overview of everything manga related!
I can count the manga I completed with only one hand, thatās quite sad, but I guess it makes sense. This year I finished a lot of manga above 100 chapters, and the previous year many series I finished were below 50 or 20 chapters in some cases, so itās all a matter of perspective! Some of the manga I completed this year was really good! while others were kinda bad and all over the place. So, letās start from the bottom.
I took my time on this one, simply because it shifted what it was about way too much, I could have finished it in 2023 but I lost a lot of momentum during the last couple of volumes, until I decided to be done with it.
It starts out really interesting, with a bunch of monsters coming down from the depths and attacking Japan, thereās lots of chaos and people are trying to survive, thereās creatures of gigantic size, and swarms of smaller ones as well, danger everywhere, people dying everywhere, fighting for survival against impossible odds.
Somehow, it evolves into a power fantasy where the protagonist awakens some power ranger stuff and fights the monsters, then he has a daughter, then they make a cloning machine to make copies of him, then they clone some other guy who goes crazy, then some cosmic horror stuff is going on with creatures that are the size of Japan itself and then, and then, and then. I donāt know whatās happening but at least its over and it was quite the trip.
From here on, I can recommend all the manga I completed! Rejoice! Now on to the next one.
I started it in August 25th, 2023 and completed it in August 7th, 2024.
I read this because I wanted to check out more works by Junji Ito, and this one seemed to tick a lot of boxes for me; it is kind of science fiction, and it has some cosmic horror elements on it! It takes place in future Japan, and itās about the discovery of a planet or starācanāt quite rememberāthat ends up coming closer and closer to Earth at a disruptive pace. This is kept a secret for a while, but eventually the truth is revealed, and panic kicks in.
The whole world goes crazy. An expedition is sent to intercept and explore the planet as well, and they face horrors beyond description. Remina, named after the daughter of the scientist who discovered it, became a celebrity while the planet was still far, but now people start to think they should sacrifice her to get the planet to stop. It is all a mess, mass hysteria kicks in, and a lot of other things happen, it was only 6 or so chapters long so I think itās worth a read if you can stomach the bizarre moments that are a staple of Itoās style.
I finished this one in two days, from March 15 to March 16, 2024.
This one is a one-shot, about how things get taken out of proportion when people donāt enjoy things for what they are and stuff. The story itself is about a guy singing a song for a girl he likes on video, the girl refuses and instead publishes the video online. From there, theories about why the video exists pop up, conspiracies about ghosts appearing on it, what happens if they play it backwards and stuff like that. It was an interesting insight on how people can go too far on such simple things, when they could just listen to the song. I completed it on May 3rd.
I technically didnāt finish this one in 2024, but itās close enough so I would rather mention it here. I think this is a pretty good action manga where Jujutsu sorcery is a thing and sorcerers fight evil spirits and the like, the story is much more than that of course. The concepts is cool, and the character design is epic, the overall plot is quite neat. However, I had a really hard time following some of the action, and there was a lot of lore and exposition that ruined some of the pacing for me.
I think the anime is better than the source material in this case. Regardless, I read all of it, and I thought it was pretty entertaining. I also read the original one-shot that would become Jujutsu Kaisen 0.
I started it on September 11th, 2024, and completed it in January 2nd, 2025
If you grew up during the 2000s, you definitely heard of Death Note thanks to the animeās popularity. Every edgy teenager in school had a notebook with the death note design, and all this time I just didnāt care much about it, however I decided to read the manga right before Christmas for some reason, and I loved it!
The story is about LIght Yagami, an ace student who gets a strange notebook, and any person whose name you write in it, will die. He decides to become a paragon of justice and rid the world of criminals and evil. As the mysterious murders continue, L, the best detective in the world, decides to find the cuprit behind it all. This story develops in fantastic ways, secrets are uncovered, plans are developed and the rules behind the Death Note are uncovered. It was so gripping, I finished it in a matter of days. Just read it, it holds up well! It does have some annoying fan-service moments, but other than that, itās awesome!
I also read the short stories and one-shot related to it!
I begun this one on December 24th, and completed it by the 29th.
If Death Note seems too edgy, or even too over the top, thatās fair. Before it, I read another thrilling story full of twists and turns and with a very different tone to it.
Monster is one of the best works Iāve read in the medium. I think it is probably one of the best introductions to manga a person can have. It is the story of a surgeon who tries to do the best and help people, be a good person, until he chooses to save the life of a little kid, and that decision developes into a whole conspiracy against him, where he is framed for murder and persecuted by the police. He decides to take action to prove his innocence, and the plot develops further.
There is a lot to love here. The characters are great, the plot is absolutely thrilling, the revelations, the twists, the art, everything is masterfully crafted into a story that reaches beyond what people think of ācomics but japaneseā.
If you are only going to read one manga in your life, Monster is among the best choices, In fact, itās probably too good compared to lots of others, so if you intend to read more, maybe save it for later, because it will set the bar too high for the rest.
This one I started it on December 14, 2023, and finished it on June 24, 2024.
I actually didnāt really start many new series. I started JJK and Death Note in 2024 but most of the time I kept up with manga I was already reading. Still, thereās a couple new things!
I had a lot of fun watching the anime of this, and I decided to give the manga a go as well! I was laughing all the time, especially because the protagonist is a Sega fanboy and thereās lots of references that just made me chuckle. The story itself is about a grown up guy who lived in a Fantasy world while on a coma in the real world, and once he woke up he lives with his nephew and shares stories of how things went, however, he is socially inept, canāt take any hint, misjudges situations and ends up in trouble all the time, since he can use magic now, he has a spell to visualize his memories, and his nephew always cringes at how horrific his choices were, even if things kind of worked out in the end.
Itās a total parody of the Isekai genre and I quite like it, but I havenāt continued reading it much until now in 2025, it does have some fan service moments, but it kind of gets away with itā¦? Not really, but itās funny.
I donāt know why, I felt like reading something kinda dark and more mature and I found this one, itās about a girl that has mysterious powers, and has been locked down in some military lab. When the story starts, she manages to escape, killing everyone in her way in gruesome ways using her telekinetic powers, because of this, sheās completely unstoppable, and anyone who approaches her simply dies.
She ends up in the shore of some beach in Japan and some guy finds her and decides to protect her, she apprently lost her memories of her escape. It has some mystery and things to uncover but I stopped reading it for quite a while, the art wasnāt my cup of tea.
This is another manga that is kind of similarly dark, I found it in a random YouTube Short (I am trying to not watch them anymore, but alas) and the premise seemed interesting. What if kids had PokĆ©mon and used them for evil? Itās not quite the same, but itās still about kids who have creatures called shadow dragonsāmost of them donāt look like dragons at allāand well, they want to take control of the world and get rid of society as we know it.
Thereās quite a lot of unsettling events that happen in this story. The protagonist is one of those super optimistic ones, except that she has no idea of the real danger sheās in. Some of the situations here are really bleak and terrifying. I kinda want to keep reading it as well, but the pacing suffers a bit, and I donāt really like the art.
Last, the reads Iāve been following for years now, that I started before and I still read whenever a new chapter shows up. All of these are pretty good and you should check them out!
Overall, not too bad! It took me a while to finally publish this recap, I think I still have to do one for anime and then Iāll be done, ready for the overall overview of the year. I hope it goes well
This is day 7 of #100DaysToOffload
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