It seems as if, as time marches on and I continue to do these year after year, the number of series I read grows and grows. At this time last year, I was reading 55 series at the same time. This year, I’m reading 66 different manga series, and what’s scary is that some of the ones I read over the past year have ended! Needless to say, there is no shortage of material for me to do these fun personal lists every year. And yes, I already have quite a few new series I’m eyeballing for 2026!
Of course, it goes without saying, my list and yours could, and most likely will be, vastly different because different people have different tastes, and what I like may not be what you like, and vice versa. Still, I like sharing these because maybe something I like is something you missed, and it encourages someone to check it out!
But, as customary, before we jump into this year’s Top 5, let’s take a look at my personal past winners:
2024: Tokyo These Days
2023: Boy’s Abyss
2022: The Music of Marie
With that being said, here are all of the new series I read this year!
RuriDragon
Mujina into the Deep
Boruto: Two Blue Vortex
Snow Angel
The Anemone Feels the Heat
The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori
Convenient Semi-Friend
I Made Friends with the 2nd Prettiest Girl in My Class
A Star Brighter than the Sun
Little Mega Man
Mr. Mega Man
Li’l Miss Vampire Can’t Suck Right
My Death Flags Show No Signs of Ending
Kill Blue
I Want Your Mother to Be with Me
The Revenge of My Youth, ReLife with an Angelic Girl
Futari Switch
Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku?
Love Bullet
The Girl Past the Filters
Wonder Boy
What Do You Call This Trash?
Astro Royale
The list is nearly double that of last year’s list. I will admit, though, there are a couple that I ended up dropping because the first volume or two didn’t do it for me. Series like Li’l Miss Vampire Can’t Suck Right, Kill Blue, and Convenient Semi-Friend just didn’t offer up something that held my interest, but that’s fine because plenty of others did. So, without further hesitation, let’s break down my Top 5 Manga of the year!
5. RuriDragon
This series had a VERY strong first volume that offered up a great comedic twist to high school life. Ruri wakes up one day and discovers she has dragon horns. Apparently, her mother mated with a dragon, and she was the result, and now, her dragon side is awakening! Talk about turning your high school life upside down!
What sells the series the most is Ruri’s mother, who acts like her transformation is no big deal, that her daughter is going through an existential crisis. The comedy is absolutely top-notch, kept me smiling from cover to cover, and the second volume was just as incredible as the first. I had a feeling from the start that this was going to be an excellent series. My only complaint is that it takes a bit for the volumes to come out here stateside. But, if it can maintain its quality into the future, this will be one of my new favorite comedies, for sure!
4. What Do You Call This Trash?
This is a single-volume manga that tells a story of obsession. Akira… a girl who couldn’t let go of her boyfriend after their breakup, latches on to his younger brother Yuuto. She uses him and manipulates Yuuro’s genuine feelings for her to try to get back into her ex’s life. The story, for being a single volume, feels so complete and is filled with thrilling drama that paints an ugly picture of how people can become when they just can’t seem to accept reality.
Of course, there were some moments in Akira’s past that molded her that way, and it was truly sad to see. It was a very well-told story that I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a drama series to read, and with it being just one volume, it’s not a huge time investment, but one that you will find is very well-spent!
3. Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku?
I found this one really cute. It’s about an otaku named Takuya who sits behind two popular girls in class… Ijichi and Amane. Amane is secretly an otaku, but she doesn’t want anyone to know about it. Still, when she’s around Takuya, she can’t help but talk about otaku things, but to try and make herself seem innocent, she just says that everything she knows about the Pokémon parody show she enjoys is through her little sister.
I enjoyed it because the comedy wasn’t over-the-top, but it was hilarious enough for me to smile throughout the entirety of the first (and only, so far) volume. It’s quite a wholesome love story, and it doesn’t do the whole “third wheel halfway through gets a shot that goes nowhere” gimmick, which is a breath of fresh air. In fact, it’s not the only geek culture romance series to do this… but the fact that the other one that’s going to get name-dropped soon did it better makes this one fall into my #3 slot.
2. Mujina into the Deep
Anyone who knows me knows that Inio Asano is my favorite mangaka. I loved Oyasumi Punpun, Downfall, Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, and many of his other works. Mujina into the Deep is no exception, but despite my bias towards his storytelling and characters, and despite this series being good… it just didn’t feel good enough to put it in my number one slot. Ubume is a mujina… aka a human who has given up their basic human rights. In the world she exists in, everyone carries around a rights card. If you don’t have one, you’re considered an expandable outcast and a detriment to society… aka… a mujina.
Because they have no rights, they also have no laws. Mujina can kill, become slaves, and cause any havoc that they want, and that’s what this series is about… the seedy underground of mujina trying to survive. Of course, Ubume is the center of attention as she is known as the invincible assassin, but over time, she has started to let human emotions get in her way, and now, she is a shell of her former self. That setback cost her a mission and has put her in series with some seriously shady people. She must now work to pay off that debt, or simply put, get disposed of.
As I said… It’s a great series that I am highly enjoying, but there is just a little something missing here that all of Asano’s other series had, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. It looks, reads, and feels like an Asano story, but it’s still missing that little something extra. Still, even without that, it managed to make it to my #2 spot!
Well… I hinted at it with my #3 pick, so let’s just jump right in! My personal 2025 Manga of the Year is…
1. I Made Friends with the 2nd Prettiest Girl in My Class
It took four years for me to pick something in my favorite genre: romance. In the past three years, I picked rather profound manga as the winners. Whether it was a drama, a humbling life lesson, or a wild magic ride with deep meaning, the past winners were all something special, but they weren’t from the romance category. Finally, the stars aligned, and I was able to pick one from the category I love the most.
So, what makes this series my #1 pick? Well, first of all… it hits almost every note that I’m looking for in a romance series. It has some otaku vibes to it (although not as heavy as Gals Can’t be Kind to Otaku?). It has a main character that is extremely relatable and lovable, and it sets up a love triangle the proper way! One of the biggest things I HATE in romance series is when they make it painfully obvious that the two main characters are going to end up together… and then they introduce the third wheel a few volumes into the series, stir up a bunch of fake and unnecessary drama, then make the third wheel lose and just ship the main characters anyway. It’s highly insulting to the readers’ intelligence, it artificially extends the series, and it makes it feel as if it’s just a giant waste of time.
That doesn’t happen here. Umi and Yuu are introduced to Maki around the same time. Umi and Yuu are friends, but Umi enjoys her time with Maki and doesn’t want anyone to know that they’re hanging out. Despite them trying to keep this a secret, Yuu finds Maki interesting and becomes his friend as well. Over time, both of them begin to develop romantic feelings for him (or more like admiration at this point, since the US releases are only two volumes into the series), but what this does is it creates a situation where neither Yuu nor Umi will be the clear winner of Maki’s heart. In other words… It’s a love triangle on equal footing!
It’s not just the fact that I finally found a series that’s handling the love triangle properly; it’s also the quality of the writing and the character development. Nothing is contrived or over-the-top. Everything feels natural with real concerns and reasons for their actions. Plus, all of the moments spent together are super cute. Not in a girly way, but more like a natural way, like one would expect them to unfold in real life. Even though this series only has two volumes, it captivated me in such a way that I’m practically begging for the next volume, and it’s pretty painful to wait for the long gaps between them. I mean… Vol. 2 came out in November 2025, and Vol. 3 won’t be out until June 2026!
BokuYaba is currently my all-time favorite romance, and while I don’t think this series will take that crown… just based on the first two volumes, it has a chance to come close to it!
So, that’s it! Those are my Top 5 Manga of 2025.
Until next year,
Ja ne!
