Best Slice of Life Manga of 2006

Hikaru Kusakabe is an ordinary teenager; he has a band, smokes, goes to parties, and enjoys his youth to the fullest. His classmate Rihito Sajou, on the other hand, is his complete antithesis; Rihito is an honor student who is always at the top of the class, and he received a perfect score in his high school entrance exam. During rehearsal for a chorus festival, Kusakabe notices that Sajou is not singing and offers to help him practice. They start meeting every day after class to train. Because of this, even with completely different personalities, the two boys begin growing closer and developing feelings for each other. With the pressure of the last year of high school, students are faced with the looming decision of their future. Along the way, these two boys will need to learn about their own feelings, all while supporting each other and growing together.

Twenty-three-year-old Masamune Kazama spends his days working a mundane office job and dwelling on the past. Although it has been five years, the young bachelor continues to hold onto his relationship with his past girlfriend, Youko Tsukamoto. Out of the blue, he receives a call from Youko's mother, who informs him that she has passed away in an accident. Furthermore, he learns that Youko has left him with a young daughter, who was raised in secrecy overseas. Stricken with grief, Masamune decides to take in the young girl and raise her on his own. My Girl is a tale of family, loss, and acceptance as Masamune navigates the complexities of daily life as a single father.

Saint☆Oniisan is slice-of-life or divine-life, tale of Jesus and Buddha as they try to experience the modern world, in this case, Japan. The manga places a funny twist on religion, attitudes, culture and customs in Japan through the eyes of Jesus and Buddha. You see Jesus and Buddha experiencing Asakusa, public baths, theme parks, and the internet. Throughout the manga, we get a little history of their divine greatness only to see their apparent insignificance in modern Japanese society. Suffice to say, before people can recognize that they're actually Jesus and Buddha, people think of them as someone who looks like Johnny Depp or a guy with a button on his forehead. For real.

In the land of Amberground, an artificial sun serves as the only source of light for the capital city of Akatsuki while an eternal night persists. The further away one is from the capital, the darker and more dangerous it is. In the surrounding areas of Yuusari and Yodaka exist enormous armored bug creatures called Gaichuu that prey on people's hearts. Despite this, it is the duty of Letter Bees, a special group of mail carriers, to deliver letters throughout Amberground while risking their lives battling the Gaichuu. Twelve-year-old Lag Seeing aspires to become a Letter Bee like Gauche Suede after their fateful meeting five years ago, where Gauche "delivered" Lag himself as a letter sent by his missing mother. Determined to see Gauche again and uncover the truth behind his mother's disappearance, Lag begins his journey to become a Letter Bee.

Although the rounin Souichirou Senou quickly discovers that most of his new neighbors in the Katagi Apartments do not trust him, his childlike wonder at the world around him allows him to strike up a friendship with the carpenter's son, Kankichi. With Kankichi's help, Souichirou begins to establish a life in Edo's tenements and exchanges his longtime sword Kunifusa for a bamboo blade, due to his newfound desire to refrain from violence. Unfortunately for Souichirou, avoiding conflict in Edo is not always possible. Before long, Souichirou finds himself stalked by the brutal assassin Shinnosuke Kikuchi, who delights in butchering anyone caught between him and his target. Each time Souichirou must step forward to defend himself or the people of the tenements, he reawakens the intense bloodlust of his younger days and resurrects memories he would much rather forget.

Kanau Yukimura is nine years old, and she's meeting her father for the first time. However, he turns out to be an otaku! The two of them start living together in the same apartment, next to a lot of interesting neighbors. Unsurprisingly, things don't always go smoothly for these two...

Miyanaga Saki is a high school freshman who doesn't like mahjong. Ever since she was a child, she would lose her New Year's gift money during her family mahjong game. If she won, her parents would be upset, and if she lost, well, she lost. As a result, she's learned to play in such a way that her score always remains plus/minus zero: not good enough to win, but not bad enough to lose. When we meet her, she's being dragged to her school's mahjong club by an old friend. How will a girl who hates mahjong, yet has become adept at the game as a result of her upbringing, survive in this environment?

Wouldn't you just love to poke in a relationship between two young high-schoolers who have a subtle distance between each other? Of course you would. Tsumiki and Io have this subtle distance that anyone would want to jump in between just to bug them. That's what the other characters are there for. Tsumiki, being a tsundere and all, won't be honest about her feelings toward Io. Io on the other hand is unaware of Tsumiki's feelings, hence the subtle distance between the two. Now, let's watch these two and see what events await them...

Okashi Nako is a young woman living in poverty. When she applies to work at a Gem store, she learns that store owner, Otsuka Ren, is a lesbian. Ren promises that Nako's not her type, but she may be lying.... Nako takes the job and so begins a comedic tale of rich and poor, sickness and health, for better and for worse!

The somewhat precocious and sadistic girl Mitsuba (oldest), the somewhat lecherous muscle girl Futaba, and the somewhat mysterious girl Hitoha (youngest). Better known as the mischievous "Marui Sisters," these triplets go about their days in class 6-3 with their cute yet wild antics.

The Kouda sisters watched their father leave them to start a life with his mistress 15 years ago. Soon after their mother abandoned them, forcing their maternal grandmother in Kamakura to raise them. Now a working adult, Yoshino Kouda receives a phone call with news from her older sister Sachi: their father has passed away from cancer. Although Yoshino is not distraught by the news, she—along with her younger sister Chika—feels obliged to go to the funeral, as Sachi is unable to due to her work schedule. At the ceremony, the pair meet Suzu Asano—their 13-year-old half-sister. After Suzu's own mother's death, their father remarried. Suzu became the one to shoulder every responsibility, including taking care of her father's deteriorating health. Despite Suzu being a living reminder of their father's infidelity, Yoshino and Chika cannot help but feel sorry for her. Surprisingly, Sachi arrives at the burial as well, witnessing the struggles Suzu has gone through. A newfound sympathy makes Sachi decide to bring Suzu into their immediate family. The four women must now learn how to navigate through life and come together as sisters.

A manga that revolves around an old-fashioned all-night food stall, the various dishes that the stall owner prepares to suit the tastes of different customers, and the joys, griefs, trials and tribulations of his faithful patrons.

Falling in love leads to death. On the day of university entrance ceremony, Makoto met Shizuru, who was then a child-like girl with very big eyes. While secretly in love with his classmate Miyuki, Makoto develops a close relationship with Shizuru.

Hyakko is a slapstick comedy which follows the lives of four high school girls as they get into various hijinx.

*"If they have no water, then let them drink milk."* Before becoming a manga author, Hiromu Arakawa was a farmer for seven years in Hokkaido. She raised cows, grew vegetables, feared bears and got jerked around by squirrels! She worked all year long from morning to night without any breaks--and it was tough! If you read this manga, you'll understand. Farmers are cool!! The author of Fullmetal Alchemist presents her life of blood, sweat and laughter in comic form!!

With her mother missing and an empty stomach, the Oni girl Senri reluctantly came down the mountain towards human habitation, where she collapsed in the street. Coming across her by chance, the human girl Shin offered her house as place for Senri to live.

Kuruneko was started in 2006 by author Kuruneko Yamato in an attempt to adopt stray cats. She updates her cartoons on her blog. Realistic and daily lives of the Kuruneko family is depicted by the author's view.