It’s time to start on the Top 5 lists for the year. Every year I look back at the year that was, and then I’ll look forward to what’s coming up. And a new category can be started this year. My wife and I really started to read a lot of manga this year. So I always do a top 5 list, but it is going to be hard this year. There is going to be a section of honorable mentions. But what manga did I read this year that I loved?

Top 5 Manga of 2023

Let’s start out with a disclaimer. And I do this with most everything that I make my Top 5 list of for the year. Mainly it is new to me in 2023, so some of these definitely started before then. But I think with all of them, new manga did come out this year, which I’ve bought and read. There is a chance with one, I think, that I am at a point where I haven’t caught up to it. But I do still think it’s ongoing so eventually I will.

Honorable Mention:

Tomb Raider King is a fun manga about a world where tombs keep on popping up. The one person who knows what they are got transported back to when it started. Now he’s probably the only person who can improve what the world was like, but will he?

Dandadan is a funny and weird take on the paranormal and supernatural. One of the main characters believes in monsters and the other in aliens. Well they both find out that the other is right, and now they’re pulled together by a bond fighting while in high school in a raunchy, weird, and action filled manga.

The World After the Fall takes you to a world that is in shambles and the one hope of maybe saving it is gone. But for the main character, is that only the beginning of what he can do. Is this still a world where he is able to get revenge?

Love is Blind is a cute manga where the main character is not a good guy. But when he falls in love with a character who is blind, his outlook on life changes. It’s a very cute story with a lot of fun character development.

Cutie and the Beast is a professional wrestling and romance manga, not the type of thing you would expect to go together. The cutie loves a heel wrestler, the beast. But they are from two different worlds and a bit different in age, is their relationship something that can actually work?

Kaiju No. 8 takes you to the world of monsters. And well, you need a clean-up crew. That is where our main character finds himself, on that clean-up crew until he fuses with a kaiju. Now with his kaiju powers is he able to join the kaiju fighting force?

Horimiyra is another romance on the list. The two main characters are one way at school, but in real life, they are very different. But that is some of what makes them so good together. It is a cute romance where they really grow together as characters. And it leans into slice of life for a lot of it’s fun.

Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs is a very long name. And it is one that made my anime list last year, I believe. It’s a great anime, while I wait for season two, I read the manga that is coming out. And it is great as well, a fun poking at isekai in an absurd way.

5. Call to Adventure! Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board

Now to get into the actual list. Yes, that took a bit to get here. But we start out with Call to Adventure! though why it’s named that and not just it’s subtitle I’m not sure. The story is a pretty common one where there are dungeons popping up around the world. Well, the main character is lucky enough to end up with the ability to see peoples skills and assign skill points.

That might not seem like much, but it’s a useful ability because now he can level himself and his other party member up in the best way possible. He hordes up skill points until he really needs them in the next boss battle And they get assigned to the right spot.

The story is pretty simple and fun. I like the main character as he is an optimist in what he is doing. And the supporting cast, while definitely on the harem trope side of things is fun as well. The few who show up often are their own characters, not just part of the harem.

4. Solo Leveling

Next up is Solo Leveling, and it is one that maybe should be higher. The story is that of a main character who dies in a dungeon or he would. But because of his self sacrifice to have his party members survive he is brought back. But instead of being a lowly E Rank hunter, he finds that he’s had a reawakening and now is one of the most powerful.

This isn’t to say that it doesn’t have some drawbacks. He now needs to spend a ton of time training. There are special dungeons he has to go through, and while, it makes his life a whole lot harder. But as long as he can survive what the dungeons and the new found leveling throws at him, he is gong to be one of the strongest.

Solo Leveling is getting an anime in 2024 and I am so excited for it. The story is fun and well done. It is leaning into one side of things I don’t like, completely, the edgelord nature of the main character. But they do a good job of not making him too much of one. He still cares but he’s supposed to be edgy and brooding and jaded as well.

3. Mashle

Now for a very goofy story, Mashle is a blast to read and also a blast to watch it’s anime adaptation. I put it on the list because I read it first, and I think it’s worth the read. Though, the adaptation is very true to the manga, so you might not need to.

Mashle is born without any magical ability in a world where magic is king. In fact, if you can’t do magic, you are apt to get hunted down and shunned from society. So he is hidden away as a child. But now that he is of age and ready to go to magic school, there isn’t much hiding him. So how is Mashle able to navigate the world of magic school and how powered magic users without any magic himself.

The best way to describe Mashle is that it’s a satire and parody of a lot of manga and anime with similar storylines. Is Mashle the chosen one, well, he’s over powered but not in the way they normally are. And Mashle is not the brightest character, so it makes for a fun time and fun story.

2. My Dress-up Darling

Now we’re onto the romance one for the list. And you can see that I read a lot of romance manga that I really enjoyed this year. My honorable mentions has a lot of them, and honestly, some of them could make it in to my list as well, it just depends on the day. But My Dress-up Darling is very deserving of a spot on the list.

This is a manga (and anime) about cosplay. And it handles the world of cosplay in an amazing way. The main characters are a trashy anime, manga, and video game playing girl who loves all the most risqué characters but is also among the most popular in school, Marin. And then there is Gojo who wants nothing more than to make hina dolls like his grandfather is an is shy and reserved. That combination comes together in a risqué and wholesome manga.

The story is great, the character development is done really well. And the two of them dancing around the will they won’t they romance is done well. I love this one as a really fun story that shows reality of some niche nerdy things that aren’t really talked about as much. One that I recommend even for it’s fan service.

1. Shangri-La Frontier

Finally, Shangri-La Frontier is my top one, at least as I’m thinking about it now. This is just a very fun manga about someone who is a huge fan of video games. But video games that are really bad, not really good. It’s only after he’s beaten a really bad game that he is convinced to start a good game instead. And that game is SLF (Shangri-La Frontier).

I don’t know that this is too different from a lot of other ones, but it is just fun. And the main character is a lot of fun to watch and see what adventures he gets on. There is depth to what the characters are doing and what they are doing. All the while it is keeping a lot of fun, and showing off the depth of video game world creation that’s in SLF.

If you want something that is just a good fun read, I really do recommend Shangri-La Frontier. And that is what makes it at the top of the list for me with the manga that I’ve read this year. It is also a fun anime that is still coming out right now.

Final Thoughts

Well, clearly I read a whole lot. This even skips some that I started reading earlier than this as well. Let me know which ones I should checkout? I tried Blue Lock, as that one is very popular right now, and it wasn’t for me. And there are a number of romance other ones that I’ve read which I just didn’t have time to list. You might wonder how, I listed so many, but there is some room constraints.

I will just wrap up by saying that this is probably going to be the year where I read the most new manga. I suspect, and the reason I say it, is that I’ll have my five to ten manga that I keep on reading and keeping on buy the new books for it. At the same time, I likely won’t keep on finding more, or when I do it’ll be because some other one has wrapped up. And some of my top ones I expect to continue for a while.

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here