What books are you reading now? And which ones would you recommend to friends? Those were the questions I put to my favorite manga critics, folks whose good judgment and good writing strongly influences my own reading habits. Their answers ran the gamut from costume dramas to fan-service comedies, with one brave soul venturing “off the reservation” (his words) to recommend titles by Neil Gaiman, Bill Willingham, and Tom Beland. Whether you’re in the market for a new series or wondering, Should I continue with title x?, you’ll find plenty of excellent selections below.

A big, warm thank-you to John Jakala, Eva Volin, David Welsh, Alex Woolfson, and my former PopCultureShock colleagues Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith for taking the time to compose such thoughtful responses to my questions!

MELINDA BEASI: We Were There, Vol. 3 (VIZ)
One series that’s charmed me lately is Yuki Obata’s We Were There–an unusually nuanced tale of high school romance that replaces common shojo stereotypes with real teenagers whose greatest obstacles to love are simply themselves. In volume three, both of the story’s main characters struggle with the unavoidable schism between kindness and honesty as their relationship becomes more intense. As with most teenagers (maybe most people?) the question of physical intimacy becomes a means of avoiding their relationship’s real issues, and it’s hard to watch this volume’s drama unfold without resurrecting memories of one’s own teenage heartache and all the fevered excitement and uneasiness that go along with that. Both teens are uncommonly genuine characters and their story is fragile and bittersweet. I’m completely taken with this quiet, wistful series and I can’t wait to pick up the next volume!

Melinda Beasi is the Assistant Manga Editor at PopCultureShock. She also writes Tokidoki Daylight, a column for Comic Book Resources, and maintains a personal blog at There It Is, Plain As Daylight.

JOHN JAKALA: Kekkaishi, Vol. 16 (VIZ)
Hey, another opportunity to plug one of my favorite underrated series, Kekkaishi! The latest volume (16) is a transitional one, as creator Yellow Tanabe wraps up the threats from the previous volume and introduces new plot elements that will undoubtedly prove important in the future. There’s also a three-chapter stand-alone story that’s unusual for the Kekkaishi-verse in that the threat isn’t supernatural: A female classmate has set her sights on Yoshimori and will do whatever it takes to make him her boyfriend! Trouble is, Yoshimori doesn’t want anything to do with her and everything he does to avoid her only seems to irritate the person he does like, his fellow kekkaishi, Tokine!

Volume 16 is very satisfying for long-time Kekkaishi fans: Tokine’s powers are developing; Yoshimori and Tokine are both starting to acknowledge their feelings for each other; and there’s a brief appearance by the sensational new character find, Ropey! But the development I’m most excited about is the introduction of a new member of the Sumimura clan (possible spoilers…), Yoshimori’s mother, Sumiko! Her depiction here is mysterious and mischievous — quite a contrast from Yoshimori’s mild-mannered father, Shuji. Her sudden appearance raises all kids of questions: Where has Sumiko been all this time? What was her role in the kekkaishi hierarchy? What was her relationship with Yoshimori and his siblings? How did her absence affect Yoshimori?

If you haven’t tried Kekkaishi yet, volume 16 might be a tough jumping-on point. On the other hand, the stand-alone story in the middle can probably be appreciated without too much backstory being required. In any event, I’d recommend the book to fans old and new alike for Tanabe’s crisp artwork and her non-standard take on the familiar formulae of shonen manga. If you’re looking for a different twist on stale action tropes, give Kekkaishi a try!

Long-time comic writer John Jakala currently spreads the gospel of Bleach, Kekkaishi, and Club 9 at his website Sporadic Sequential.

MICHELLE SMITH: High School Debut, Vol. 9 (VIZ)
High School Debut is one of those series that you know is going to make you happy whenever you read it. I suppose the plots aren’t the most original—Haruna freaks out when another guy kisses her! It’s Haruna’s birthday, what is Yoh going to do?—but they’re executed well and there’s always some unexpected scene or line of dialogue that makes me giggle followed by a heartwarming one that makes me teary. I’m already sad that there are only four volumes left.

Michelle Smith is the Senior Manga Editor at PopCultureShock. She also writes Blue Moon Reviews, a column for Comic Book Resources, and maintains a personal blog at Soliloquy in Blue.

EVA VOLIN: Kaze Hikaru, Vol. 13 (VIZ)
When Kate asked me to submit a quick review of a series I was currently reading, I was torn. Should I review a book that will make me sound smart, or fool people into thinking I’m a member of the manga-reading elite? Something like Black Jack, written by Osamu Tezuka, the god of manga? But Black Jack, for all its critical success and highfalutin pedigree, is really just cracktastic good fun with handfuls of medical mayhem and doctors doing dastardly deeds. Which is probably why, more than thirty years after it was first published, it’s still so much fun to read and why so many smart people keep reviewing it. So Black Jack doesn’t need any help from me, and reviewing it here won’t make me sound smart. It’ll just make me sound redundant. And if I’m going to sound redundant, I might as well stick with the book I’ve been recommending — no, begging! — people to read since it was first released by VIZ.

Kaze Hikaru is the story of Tominaga Sei, a girl who disguises herself as a boy and joins the Miburoshi (which later becomes the Shinsengumi) after her father and brother are killed by members of the Choshu family. Once accepted into the infamous special police force, Sei is trained to be a swordsman by Okita Soji. What makes this Last-Days-of-the-Samurai story different from all the other LDotS stories out there is that a) the mangaka, Taeko Watanabe, has gone out of her way to make the bones of the story as historically accurate as possible, and b) it’s shojo. That’s right. This is a sword-swinging, blood-spurting, revenge-taking, geisha-visiting, stand-up-peeing, mother-fu-udging girls comic. And it rocks. Yes, you may have to do a bit of research to be able to figure out who all the characters are, since VIZ’s endnotes aren’t really good for this. But Wikipedia will give you enough information to get you started. And once you start, you’ll come to understand why this series won the Shogakukan Manga Award. It’s slow (except for the fight scenes), and romantic (it is shojo, after all), and as the story progresses more and more details of how life was lived during that period in Japan’s history are woven into the narrative. And, before you know it, you are fully immersed in the world of the Shinsengumi. And knowing the story is based on the lives of real people, and knowing how the true story ends, I can’t help but want to cry. But I also want to see how Watanabe gets us to that end, because Sei’s fictional story is as compelling as the true story it inhabits.

Eva Volin is the supervising children’s librarian for the Alameda Free Library in Alameda, CA. She writes for MangaCast and Graphic Novel Reporter, and was a judge for the 2008 Eisner Awards.

DAVID WELSH: Maid War Chronicle, Vol. 1 (Del Rey); Age Called Blue (NETCOMICS)
Have you ever finished reading something really lovely and then wondered what you could possibly read next that wouldn’t be a comedown? I had that experience after reading Lewis Trondheim’s really delightful Little Nothings: The Prisoner Syndrome (NBM), so I sifted through the “to read” pile to find something I fully expected to dislike, just to spare something promising an impossible comparison. It’s possible that RAN’s Maid War Chronicle (Del Rey) benefited from lowered expectations, and I ended up enjoying it much more than I thought possible with a dim-witted harem comedy-adventure.

When a coup forces a postponement in the coronation schedule, a bratty prince takes off with his loyal maids to raise resistance and reclaim his kingdom. Along the way, the demure domestics acquire legendary magical weapons. While there isn’t nearly enough maid-kicking-ass content, I did end up liking lead maid Cacao Sardonyx a lot. When not wielding her magical claymore, she’s rolling her eyes at the idiocy of her prince and the absurdity of their situation. I always like it when at least one character knows she’s up to her neck in nonsense. And while there’s fan service, it’s pretty restrained. Chalk this one up as a solid guilty pleasure.

I always enjoy checking out new arrivals at the NETCOMICS site, it’s an extra pleasure when you find a title from gifted yaoi creator est em. Age Called Blue treads familiar territory – passionate artists being passionate about each other. In this case, it’s a pair of British rock star wannabees. Age doesn’t seem to have been translated with the grace Aurora bestowed on its em properties, but it’s still est em. The design and body language of her characters are so distinctively real that the illustrations alone would make her work worth reading, and her way of developing characters and building their relationships is equally strong.

David Welsh’s Flipped! column appears on Mondays at The Comics Reporter. He maintains a personal blog at Precocious Curmudgeon.

ALEX WOOLFSON: Sandman: Dream Hunters (DC/Vertigo); Fables, Vol. 11: War and Pieces; True Story, Swear To God, Vol. 1 (Image Comics)
On my blog, I exclusively review yaoi and gay comics (along with giving tips about writing and making/publishing comics). But I love reading all kinds of sequential art and if the question is “What books do I think folks should be reading that they probably aren’t?” then maybe it’s time to leave the reservation. Here are some non-yaoi (and even non-manga!) comics I think readers of yaoi and manga should read:

Sandman: The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell (Vertigo). There’s not a lot of art in Western comics that impresses me — to be honest, mainstream Western comic art often feels rather rushed and perfunctory instead of being the transcendent enhancement of the text it should be — but I found the pages in this four-issue mini-series truly delightful. Based on Neil Gaiman’s 1999 illustrated book of the same name and retold in comic book form by P. Craig Russell, it’s an apocryphal Japanese myth involving a young, pure monk, an evil Taoist wizard and a fox whose love for the monk leads her to make great sacrifices. The story is subtle, beautiful and compelling, invoking the magical realism of a movie like Spirited Away but with the intimacy of a common folk-fable. It is by far my favorite Sandman tale, with the Endless standing in quite seamlessly as Shinto gods and with character motivations that feel both epic yet very human. And the art, inspired by Japanese woodcut prints and colored by Lovern Kindzierski, is luscious, tasteful and clear — a true complement to the magical tale it illustrates. Gorgeous and satisfying, you can get the four floppies right now at your local comic book store or buy the collected hardcover in October.

Fables by Bill Willingham (Vertigo): Certainly no secret to those who follow Western comics, the Fables series is the first comic I recommend to adults who’ve never read comic books and to manga fans who poo-poo Western works. Book after book, it is quite simply the most satisfying continuing tale in comics that I’ve read. The high-concept has an immediate hook — it follows Snow White, Prince Charming, the Big Bad Wolf and other fable characters as they make their way in 21st century Manhattan — but this is no Enchanted. The characters are three-dimensional, the plotting neatly avoids and transcends cliché and the conflict, involving a nearly omnipotent and malevolent Adversary who has managed to conquer the Fable Homelands, is truly epic. With the possible exception of the very last book (vol. 11!), every book has continued to satisfy and entertain with a consistency rarely found in works of any medium and particularly hard to find in genre work. If you’re a grown-up and you want to lose yourself in a fun story, you have to read the Fables books.

True Story, Swear To God by Tom Beland (Image Comics): This is drawn in a cartoony style, is totally heterosexual and yet is my absolute favorite romance comic ever (and yes, that includes all yaoi and gay works). Napa Valley cartoonist Tom Beland meets Puerto Rican journalist Lily Garcia at Disneyworld, develops an instant crush on her, acts on it and thus begins one of the most sweet, charming and human accounts of a storybook romance ever written – and its all true! Beland’s expressive art complements his self-effacing and funny writing style and I don’t care what orientation you are, we’ve all had crushes on that perfect someone we’ve just met and then fantasized about the perfect romance that might ensue. Of course, almost always, fantasy is as far as it ever goes. But Beland actually got to live that dream and while nothing is ever 100% perfect, this is as close as two real human beings could get. When I first heard about this book, I thought I would hate it. Some straight guy self-publishes a comic account of his relationship? Pah, I said. But Beland’s story is sweet without being cloying, honest without giving Too Much Information and very, very funny. If you believe in the possibility of love at all — hell, even if you have your doubts — you owe it to yourself to get this book. You’ll fall in love right along with him — and isn’t that the real promise of any great romance story?

Comic writer Alex Woolfson created Yaoi 911™ as a resource for yaoi fans, posting both in-depth reviews of new yaoi comics and do-it-yourself advice for aspiring comic artists. He is currently at work on Tough, a two-volume graphic novel scheduled for release later this year.