Best Fantasy Manga of 1996

Kagome Higurashi's ordinary life comes to an abrupt halt when a demon drags her deep into a well, transporting her five hundred years into the past. In this era, Kagome quickly learns two things: demons walk amongst humans and she has unknowingly brought a dangerous object from her world—a marble-sized sphere known as the Shikon Jewel. This unusual orb brings tremendous power to any demon who has it in their possession, and Kagome is an easy target for anyone determined enough to steal it. While in a fight with a demon, a hasty attempt to fend it off causes Kagome to accidentally shatter the jewel, sending countless pieces of it all over feudal Japan. She soon learns the grave consequences of her actions when she must work with the half-demon Inuyasha to collect all the pieces of the jewel before they fall into the wrong hands.

"Herein lie the Clow Cards—if their seal is broken, disaster shall befall this world..." Sakura Kinomoto is an energetic and sweet 10-year-old girl attending Tomoeda Elementary School. One day not long after entering the fourth grade, Sakura finds a mysterious book titled The Clow hidden within her father's bookshelves. Upon opening it, a small, winged creature with an Osakan accent comes out of the book and introduces itself as Keroberos, the Creature of the Seal who guards magical cards known as the Clow Cards and keeps them from escaping the book. Unfortunately for the plushy guardian, it seems that the Clow Cards have already escaped—and now Sakura is tasked with capturing them before the cards unleash their powers and cause havoc all over Tomoeda! With the support of the tiny guardian who she nicknames "Kero" and her best friend, Tomoyo Daidouji, Sakura must wield a magical bird-shaped key and use her new powers as the Cardcaptor to maintain peace and ensure that everything is alright.

High school student Yuugi Mutou spends his days being bullied between classes and his nights playing board games and solving puzzles in his bedroom. Yuugi's penchant for gameplay comes from his grandfather, whose game shop also serves as a house for the two. One night, Yuugi manages to solve the Millennium Puzzle, a seemingly impossible challenge that awakens his inner darkness and converts it into an alternate persona: Yami Yuugi. Transforming into the more bold and dangerous persona against his will in moments of great distress, Yuugi begins to moonlight as a vengeful vigilante, challenging bullies and evil-doers to risky games where failure results in fates worse than death. Yuugi and his alter ego befriend some of the very students who once bullied him, forming unbreakable companionships with them. But the group must contend with villains far deadlier than the high school punks they originally rallied against, enemies who use games for nefarious purposes and threaten Yuugi and his friends' very lives.

At a time when the balance of nature still held the civilizations of mankind in thrall, young prince Chagum has been accused of being possessed by an evil spirit: the water demon, which once perished at the hands of the emperor 100 years ago. This could possibly mean great misfortune. Not only for the Imperial family, but for the entire world as well. Court advisors only see one solution. Chagum must be put to death by his own father's hand. His salvation is in the form of Balsa, a spear woman and mercenary from Kanbal, the kingdom across the mountains. Her skills are legendary, and although reluctant, she is held by a mysterious vow to save eight souls before she dies. Can she fend off an entire empire and make Chagum her eighth soul?

One year after the events of the First Cycle (Andromeda Arc), Tetsurou has returned to Earth only to end up chained in his home in Megalopolis. It is then that Maetel appears before him once again, offering him the opportunity to join her on a new journey—one she claims will lead him to his destiny.

Ralph can see angels and demons. When he was five years old he came across the winged demon Valafar and was completely charmed by him. He made a pact with the demon in order to make his wish, to live with Valafar, come true. Seven years must pass, and there are two conditions that must be met for the pact to be fulfilled. Can the older Ralph discard his ties to humanity and fulfill the pact...? *Note \- *Note: includes seven chapters uncollected in the print release* \- Includes an extra chapter \- Includes the one shot "Kurokami no Eckbert (黒髪のエックベルト)", published in Patsy Special Issue (Winter 1989)*

Tatsumi Hōjyō is a 17 year old dreamcatcher (yumegari) from the Houjyo clan who has to investigate the dreams of others and sometimes participate in them. A yumegari is bound by fate to a yumemori, one who watches the dreams of a Yumegari and prevents them from falling into an eternal sleep. When Tatsumi's mother and father, the preceding yumegari and yumemori, die in the execution of their duties, Tatsumi inherits the job. At the risk of being caught in the dreams, as happened with her parents, the yumegari Tatsumi is helped by a dreamseer (yumemori), called Kyosuke Kaga, a 28 year old novelist with whom she'll have to share a new life in Tokyo to try to understand more about her extraordinary powers and control them. However, their relation becomes more personal, despite the warnings of the Houjyo clan about the yumemori.

An epic fantasy and vivid re-imagination of ancient Korean history, made possible by painstaking historical research combined with breathtaking mythological visualization! Kingdom of the Winds tells the legendary story of King Yuri (Goguryeo's second emperor), King Damusin (Muhyul, Goguryeo's third emperor), and Muhyul's son Hodong. This tale fills in the personal details of their lives, their ideals and human emotions as they struggle with an unavoidable fate that intertwines and tangles their lives with that of their nation. You will meet the heroes of the Kingdom of the Winds; heroes afflicted and lost, opposed to each other, and bound together on their epic journeys to achieving their diverse ideals that actual history had only hinted at.