Best Supernatural Manga of 1998

In the town of Kurouzu-cho, Kirie Goshima lives a fairly normal life with her family. As she walks to the train station one day to meet her boyfriend, Shuuichi Saito, she sees his father staring at a snail shell in an alley. Thinking nothing of it, she mentions the incident to Shuuichi, who says that his father has been acting weird lately. Shuuichi reveals his rising desire to leave the town with Kirie, saying that the town is infected with spirals. But his father's obsession with the shape soon proves deadly, beginning a chain of horrific and unexplainable events that causes the residents of Kurouzu-cho to spiral into madness.

Tooru Honda is an orphan with nowhere to go but a tent in the woods, until the Souma family takes her in. However, the Souma family is no ordinary family, and they hide a grave secret: when they are hugged by someone of the opposite gender, they turn into animals from the Chinese zodiac! Now, Tooru must help Kyou and Yuki Souma hide their curse from their classmates, as well as her friends Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima. As she is drawn further into the mysterious world of the Soumas, she meets more of the family, forging friendships along the way. But this curse has caused much suffering; it has broken many Soumas. Despite this, Tooru may just be able to heal their hearts and soothe their souls.

Shamans are extraordinary individuals with the ability to communicate with ghosts, spirits, and gods, which are invisible to ordinary people. The Shaman Fight—a prestigious tournament pitting shamans from all over the world against each other—is held every five hundred years, where the winner is crowned Shaman King. This title allows the current incumbent to call upon the Great Spirit and shape the world as they see fit. Finding himself late for class one night, Manta Oyamada, an ordinary middle school student, decides to take a shortcut through the local cemetery. Noticing him, a lone boy sitting on a gravestone invites Manta to stargaze with "them." Realizing that "them" refers to the boy and his ghostly friends, Manta flees in terror. Later, the boy introduces himself as You Asakura, a Shaman-in-training, and demonstrates his powers by teaming up with the ghost of six-hundred-year-old samurai Amidamaru to save Manta from a group of thugs. You befriends Manta due to his ability to see spirits, and with the help of Amidamaru, they set out to accomplish You's goal of becoming the next Shaman King.Note: This entry is for the original printing of Shaman King. Please see Shaman King (Kanzenban Edition) for the chapters not included in this edition.

When Hikaru Shindou discovers an old go board in his grandfather's attic, he is greeted by the spirit of an ancient go master, Fujiwara no Sai. Sai spent his life teaching the techniques of the board game to an emperor during the Heian era, and now in his ghostly state, he is eager to share his passion with the unsuspecting Hikaru. The only problem is that Hikaru is not all that interested in board games. But Sai is not easily dissuaded. Pressured by Sai's unrelenting desire to pursue something he refers to as the "Divine Move," Hikaru begrudgingly consents to playing the game, executing moves as dictated by Sai. But slowly, intrigued by the dedication of his peers, he begins to learn the basics of the game. As Hikaru enters into the world of go, guided by his intangible tutor and inspired by his rival, Akira Touya, he cannot help but be drawn into the complex game as he grows determined to prove his own abilities.

America in the Roaring 20s. On the surface, it's a positive, peaceful time after the violence of the Great War. But lurking in the shadows is a dark element ready to snatch that peace away. Sister Rosette Christopher, an exorcist working as a part of the Magdala Order, has a duty to fight the demons which appear and cause destruction. But along with her companion Chrno, she usually ends up causing more destruction than the demons themselves! On one particular mission, they meet a young girl with a beautiful voice named Azmaria, who is being targeted by her own stepfather. As Rosette and Chrno work to save her, more is revealed about the relationship between them. There is more to these two than meets the eye.

High school student Mizuki Mochizuki is in love with British rock artist Adam Lang, but it seems that he cannot see her for who she is, as he is still grieving the death of his ex-girlfriend, Sayaka Kamijou. Despite this, when Adam asks Mizuki over the phone to leave Tokyo with him, she agrees to meet him immediately. But as Mizuki crosses the road toward Adam, a car strikes her, and she fails to reach him. One month later, a Mizuki lookalike is living in the abandoned mansion where Mizuki and Adam had spent two weeks together. While fifth-grader Hotaru Shiraishi is searching for her missing cat, she runs into this other girl and learns that her memories are gone—she cannot even recall her own name. Since the girl only remembers that she wants to be reunited with "Adam," Hotaru calls her "Eve." Hotaru enlists the help of her friend Sae Kayama and classmates Tetsu Sugisaki and Masaki Miura to solve the mysteries surrounding Eve—but they claim to be unable to see her!

In this grim and realistic take on classic fairy tales, Prince Ludwig, a female corpse collector, is ordered by his father to find himself a wife more suitable than the women he often brings into the castle. Along with his servant Wilhelm, they travel across the land in search of fair maidens from classic stories in hopes of finding Ludwig a wife.

Land of the Blindfolded is the story of high school student Outsuka Kanade who can sometimes see a person's future with a touch, and transfer student Naitou Arou, whose ESP is limited to past events. When Kanade glimpses an unfortunate incident coming, can she change it? She soon befriends Arou, who's no novice—he can turn his ability on or off at will, even using it to see an object's "memories." Are these teenaged seers of the past and future made for each other? And who's right: Arou with his "hands off" policy about meddling in people's lives, or Kanade whose more proactive stance has already had unhappy consequences?Included one-shots: Volume 1: Machigaeru Otoko (The Boy Who Makes Mistakes), Matsuri no Ato (After the Sports Festival) Volume 2: Hyakka Jimusho no Akuma (The Devil in the Flowered Office) Volume 3: Ame no Naka (Inside Rain)