Manga: Planet Ladder by Yuri Narushima

I am going to be completely honest... I have never heard of this series before. I have read nearly every single title put out by TokyoPOP, my local library growing up having purchased a lot of them for their readers, but never had this one. I borrowed this from another library, very nice library it is but a very small manga section so far. Anyways, they have mostly newer manga, considering it is a newer library, they don't have many from the 2000s era of TokyoPOP manga, before they went bankrupt. So this series stood out to me, took me by surprise.

Manga: Crimson Hero by Mitsuba Takahashi

As the first review of the new year, I thought a throwback was in order! This is one of Shoujo Beat's older series, Crimson Hero by Takahashi Mitsuba. It's one of Shoujo Beat's only manga series to have been left discontinued, with only localizing fourteen volumes out of the full twenty. This is in desperate need of a pick-me-up. 

Manga: Miracle Girls by Nami Akimoto

Miracle Girls by Akimoto Nami is an old shoujo manga from the '90s when computers were a new thing in the world. Originally, this was published by TokyoPOP and has now been long out of print and in need of a rescue. I think it would be appropriate for Kodansha to pick this up due to the fact that their Japan office is the one who distributed it in the first place, and they can fix it up like they did to Sailor Moon. 

The story revolves around identical twins with psychic powers and their journey in high school trying to juggle their powers and love lives.

Manga: Magical x Miracle by Yuzu Mizutani

Here I am trying to delve into manga again... unfortunately, this is a manga long out of print in the US when TokyoPOP went out of business way back when. Magical x Miracle by Mizutani Yuzu is definitely worth a read! I was one of my first manga series to read when I was young. A bunch of TokyoPOP manga that are out of print are! This was before the rest of the manga companies gained steam, when TokyoPOP was one of the only manga publishers in America!

Manga: +Anima by Natsumi Mukai

This is an oldie but a goodie! This is an amazing manga and I wish there was more to it. +Anima by Mukai Natsumi revolves around a group of four kids, ages varying from 10 to 17, traveling around the country trying to survive and find others like them. They are called +Anima, humans that can take on the qualities of one specific animal but only one part of them can take on the quality. The placement of the change doesn't move, the placement stays but the +Anima can change the one part of themselves from animal to human and back again. 

Manhwa: Snow Drop by Choi Kyung-ah

This manhwa, a Korean manga, is an epic love story, where love conquers all, literally! Choi Kyung-ah did a fantastic job with this title and I personally would love to read more by them. Snow Drop is about a young teen named Yoo So-na who lost her mother some years ago. So-Na’s mother had a nursery for flowers and now So-na has taken the responsibility of taking care of it because it’s where she feels closest with her mother. Along with a book her mother wrote about flowers called “Snow Drop,” too. Due to her mother’s death she didn’t feel well enough to go to school anymore until now. Her best friend, Jang Ha-da, ends up at school with her, where she meets Oh Hae-gi. Once they met, nothing would go back to the way they were...

Manga: Pearl Pink by Meca Tanaka

Pearl Pink by Tanaka Meca is a cute, short, four volume shoujo manga series that focuses on a young girl Momono Tamako who, after about ten years, meets with her childhood friend who had promised to marry her if she became stronger. Of course, there must be a bit of a twist, so her friend, Inui Kanji, ends up forgetting about her and his promise...