Shonen Beam

An addendum on my part explaining my picks for the half-year awards:

Best Comedy – Beelzebub

This pick was easy. No other manga I read has the consistent ability to make me laugh the way this one does, and I can’t overlook the giant baby gag.

Best Drama – Zettai Karen Children

With one minor hiccup (the Lost Guys arc), this manga has been continuing to steadily advance its characters and plot. It’s easy to point out Kaoru’s growing sense of self-consciousness and responsibility, but even minor character Kugutsu showed signs of maturing as a person.

Best Action – One Piece

The war arc itself didn’t contain excellent individual fights, but did an excellent job of depicting how whole armies of superpowered fighters would end up doing battle, and still managed to keep sufficient focus on the main character.

Most Improved – Naruto

True, the year started out with Sasuke and all the horrible writing that that entails, but then we got to the island. While there, we got some decent gags (Naruto and Killerbee rapping off, Headless Naruto) and some decent action (Naruto fighting and finally defeating the Fox) at a pace that was reasonable.

Biggest Disappointment – Hajime no Ippo

Woli. In a series that rightfully prides itself on character development, this extremely broken new character got 5 chapters of introduction before taking 30 chapters to be beaten by a protagonist who really should not have done that poorly against a completely minor character.

Least Promising – Bleach

The pacing is horrible, the villains are laughably overpowered, and the main character’s new powerup is going to be a new version of the one move he has. Bleach has been crap for a long time, and shows no signs of changing.

Most Promising – One Piece

With the Sabo flashback over, it’s finally time to see the crew again, all of whom have surely powered up in interesting ways. As good as One Piece has been since they all scattered, it’s still been missing a lot of its best characters up till now.

Dark Horse – Hajime no Ippo

While not exactly a new series, it has lost fans over the years with the succession of Ippo vs. Gedo, Miyata vs. Randy Boy, and Ippo vs. Woli. The upcoming class A tournaments see the return of a (hopefully serious this time) Aoki and Kimura duo as well as a power-hungry Itagaki, each promising their own set of interesting storylines as the tournament begins in chapter 900.

Series of the Half-Year:

5. Toriko

Toriko’s fight with Tommyrod to cap Ice Hell was great action, and the Century Soup was completed with one of the funniest secret ingredients out there.

4. Arago

For a new series in a magazine that already boasts GS Mikami and Ushio to Tora as standout ghost-fighting series, Arago wasted no time. Opening with a colossal first chapter, its plot is advancing at a quick but followable pace. The first 20-so chapters of a shonen manga never hooked me this much.

3. One Piece

The war arc, as stated above, plus a decent flashback put One Piece at a solid #3 on my list.

2. Zettai Karen Children

Not a ‘holy crap’ amount of character advancement, but that was never the way Shiina worked. An ever-present steady growth of the main and even side characters gives a feeling of time passing by that I don’t get out of a whole lot of other manga.

1. Kekkaishi

No series underwent a more dramatic change over this period than Kekkaishi, which saw the collapse of its established order in a number of ways, from the uprooting of Karasumori castle to the fall of the Urakai. All was depicted in the series’ trademark understated fashion, with truly amazing results.