Best Drama Manga of 2001

Alchemists are knowledgeable and naturally talented individuals who can manipulate and modify matter due to their art. Yet despite the wide range of possibilities, alchemy is not as all-powerful as most would believe. Human transmutation is strictly forbidden, and whoever attempts it risks severe consequences. Even so, siblings Edward and Alphonse Elric decide to ignore this great taboo and bring their mother back to life. Unfortunately, not only do they fail in resurrecting her, they also pay an extremely high price for their arrogance: Edward loses his left leg and Alphonse his entire body. Furthermore, Edward also gives up his right arm in order to seal his brother's soul into a suit of armor. Years later, the young alchemists travel across the country looking for the Philosopher's Stone, in the hopes of recovering their old bodies with its power. However, their quest for the fated stone also leads them to unravel far darker secrets than they could ever imagine.

When the taller than average 172 cm Risa Koizumi learns that her occasional nemesis, the shorter than average 156 cm Atsushi Ootani, is romantically interested in her friend, she decides to team up with him. After all, she also has feelings for his friend. Unluckily, however, their respective crushes fall for each other instead. Determined to find new love after their recent misfortunes, the pair decide to cheer each other on while maintaining their usual dynamic of constant bickering. Although they continually deny it, Risa and Ootani are more similar than they like to admit: they both have unusual heights, failing grades, identical tastes in food, and a tendency to act extremely childish. Together, they inspire laughter among their peers as a so-called comedic duo. Could the love that these two are looking for be closer than they think?Included one-shots: Volume 12: Hoshi ni Nattemo Aishiteru Volume 16: Bokura no Ibasho

At the tender age of 12, Mitsuki Kouyama has a sarcoma in her throat. Though this rare cancer can be cured by removing her vocal cords, Mitsuki refuses because of her desire to become a pop singer and keep her childhood promise to Eichi Sakurai, her first love who left for America. Unable to both heal and keep her voice, she allows her health to deteriorate, as she accepts her tragic fate. One day, while escaping the home of her music-hating grandmother to attend an audition, Mitsuki meets two shinigami, Takuto Kira and Meroko Yui. Realizing that Mitsuki can see them, Takuto and Meroko reveal to her that she will die in a year. Moved by her plight, Takuto allows Mitsuki the chance to pursue her dream by giving her the ability to transform into a healthy sixteen-year-old girl. After being chosen for a contract with Seed Records, Mitsuki makes her debut under the stage name Full Moon and chooses to pursue her dream music career before her life's end.Included one-shot: Volume 2: Ginyuu Meika

In Jushin, there once lived secret government agents called the amen osa (or angyō onshi in the Japanese version), who traveled the countryside in disguise. They were charged by the king with finding and punishing corrupt government officials, and bringing justice to the country's citizens.

Freesia is set in an alternative Japanese society that is at war, and has passed a law legalizing retaliatory killings. If somebody kills your loved one, you are legally sanctioned to kill, or hire someone to kill, the victimizer. The manga is set around a character who works for a firm that specializes in these retaliatory killings.

Natsu Iwashimizu's last memory of her family is eating her favorite meals with them. Unfortunately, she wakes up from her dream only to find herself in a sinking ship, being rescued by three strangers: Arashi Aota, whose kind-hearted personality does not match his quick temper; Semimaru Asai, who enjoys ridiculing Natsu's meek nature; and Botan Saotome, a skillful woman seemingly aware of their situation. Following the four's successful escape, they sail to a deserted island. Unbeknownst to them, the mysterious island is Japan. After a meteorite landed on Earth, humanity was wiped out and the environment changed drastically. To repopulate the country, the government initiated the "7 Seeds" project, consisting of five groups—Spring, Summer A, Summer B, Autumn, and Winter—each with seven young healthy individuals and a guide. Natsu and the others were put into team Summer B, whose members are considered failures by society. To get more supplies, the group must find one of the seven shelters built by the government. In a hostile, unfamiliar world with no loved ones to depend on, the quartet must learn to cooperate with each other to ensure their survival.

After being killed in an explosion set by Desty Nova, Gally is brought back to life in the city of Tiphares by the resourceful yet devious scientist. She learns that the floating city is caught in a chaotic civil war over the public revelation of brain biochips, the Tipharean substitution to the organic human brain. To have any chance at stopping the bloodshed, Gally joins Nova’s newly-formed entourage, which includes his assistants Elf and Zwölf, the battle android Sechs, and the repair robot Deckman 100. Tiphares and its conflict is just one small piece to an unknown star system that Gally has yet to discover. In hopes of finding more answers to her forgotten past, she and the other group members venture into the vastness of space, beginning an adventure that is set to alter the course of humanity.

In a world where all feeling is artificial and where everyone is a potential drug addict, nothing has really changed: the excess is near at hand and very few substances are considered dangerous and put under a strict control by a hygiene office, which has full power on the drug addicts, who are in extreme conditions. The main character is Kabu, a little peddler and heavy addicted. Used to any kind of hallucinogenic trip, he is able to feel the happiness through the ecstasy of the drug, while on the same time hypocritically hating those who gave birth to that society which has forced him to the excess. After an overdose caused by mixing two incompatible drugs, he spends his days looking for stimulants until he encounters an enigmatic man who offers him a new kind of illegal substance: Ultra Heaven. From that moment his incredible journey begins, where dream and reality are fused in an undivided world, causing him hysterical or joyful reactions and unrestrained pains. But what really is Ultra Heaven and who's really behind it? And who is the guru who is promoting the meditation as a powerful way to influence the whole universe surrounding us? With the help of a special amplifier helmet, Kabu starts a trip into the deep and hidden layers of his conscience, diving into a nightmare he would never discover...

Zeon ace pilot, Commander Char Aznable, thought he could foil the Federation's plan to build a mobile suit by attacking their research base on colony Side 7. He was wrong. With a prototype already active, the besieged Federation forces strike back using their new weapon, the mobile suit Gundam, with devastating consequences. Amidst the fighting, young electronics wizard Amuro Ray is determined not to let his friends and family die in the crossfire. But what can one boy do to repel a squad of mobile suit-clad invaders?

The story takes place in an era similar to that of ancient Rome in a country called Chronos. It follows a group known as the Temple Mercenaries. In particular, the manhwa is about Ares, Michael and Baroona, three young warriors with mysterious pasts and surpassing skills...

Ryousuke Akiba calls himself ES, a code name taken from a mysterious scientific experiment. Ryousuke will live to be at least two centuries old and possesses strange mental powers: He can enter people's minds, discover their darkest secrets, even rearrange their memories so that complete strangers will treat him like family. Ryousuke acts not out of malice but for survival—wandering Tokyo for reasons known only to him. No one recognizes him for what he is...until Dr. Mine Kujyou, a determined researcher, meets someone who challenges everything she knows about science—ES, possessor of the Eternal Sabbath gene. But is he the only one?

Left to himself at an early age in the slummiest parts of today’s Japan, Kiichi learns how to survive on his own. As a teenager, how can he adapt to a society whose rules he rejects? Unless he creates his own rules… Kiichi, a raw icon of strength and integrity, stands alone against the world’s injustice and becomes an unforgettable character.

Satoyama Katsuki and his best friend Kawakami Kyouta, both age 15, enrolls in Mizutani Boxing Gym to get close to their tomboyish crush, Mizutani Katsuki, whose father owns it. However, Satoyama soon finds out that she is distant from her father. Worse, it turns out that she hates boxing. In a sparring match, everyone including Mizutani soon discovers Satoyama's hidden yet unpolished skill in boxing. Satoyama soon learns that Mizutani is really in love with boxing, but disdains it because its a man's sport of which she cannot join. Mizutani then takes it upon herself to be Satoyama's trainer/manager to reach the championship belt. Satoyama complies to be closer to his crush. As the story progresses, we soon find out that Satoyama has a hidden past and lineage, one that would give him the necessary skill and talent to be a legendary oriental pro-boxing champion.

Our heroine is a girl who lives as a geisha in Japan. She has a male childhood friend who's always been kind to her and is her favorite. He's a painter, only he paints on human body parts, and she loves it when he paints beautiful butterflies on her arms. She goes to visit him one day and finds a naked woman lying in his room. Immediately after, she gets a customer who's rich and very interested in her. The thought of being away from her friend pains her, but is everything really too late?

Makoto Kubota wandered through life, not taking things too seriously or looking too deep within himself. His job as the head of the Izumo Group's youth gang kept him pleasantly occupied with yakuza wars, mahjong and assassinations... Until the day he stumbled upon a strange drug called Wild Adapter that produces bizarre side-effects—including death. Forever changed, Kubota becomes entangled with a drifter named Minoru Tokito, and the two form an unlikely companionship that draws them deeper into the mystery of Wild Adapter...

The Itou Junji Kyoufu Manga Collection features themed one-shots from Junji Itou in Hontou ni Atta Kowai Hanashi mangazine. Volume 14. 1. Long Dream 2. The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel 3. The Bronze Statue 4. Drifting Spores 5. Blood Sickness of the White Sands Village

Asumi Kamogawa is a small, 14-year-old girl with a burning passion for the cosmos, especially the stars. Since her early childhood, she has been learning about space from a man she calls "Lion-san," a wise and friendly ghost wearing a giant lion head. Despite a rough family dynamic, Asumi decides to enroll in the Tokyo Space School. Asumi soon makes a group of friends at school: Shinnosuke Fuchuuya, Asumi's childhood friend with glasses and somewhat brutal honesty; Kei Oumi, a very friendly girl who was inspired by Neil Armstrong's pictures of the first lunar landing; Marika Ukita, an unsociable yet beautiful girl with some secrets of her own; and Shuu Suzuki, a bold yet intelligent boy with a very laidback outlook. Set in an alternate future where Japan's first man-made rocket crashed in 2010, Futatsu no Spica is a coming-of-age story revolving around these young high schoolers and their path toward the stars.

The background is in the distant future, a post-apocalyptic world after the destruction brought about by Armageddon. The war between humans (Terran) and vampires (Methuselah) continues, as a struggle between two factions: the Vatican and the New Human Empire. Yet, amidst the bloodshed and violence, many desire a peaceful co-existence between the two species. However, standing between them and this goal is the Rosenkreuz Orden, a group of vampire extremists who manipulate the two sides and pit them against each other. To combat them, the Vatican special operations group "AX," led by Cardinal Caterina, must use everything they have—even a vampire who preys on the blood of other vampires.

Detective School Q is the story of a group of young students from Class Q of Dan Detective School (DDS), a prestigious and renowned detective academy founded by Morihiko Dan, the most famous detective in Japan, and the adventures and mysteries they unfold and solve together. They eventually work against Pluto, a mysterious organization which creates almost fool-proof plans that only a handful of detectives can solve.

For those who suffer nightmares, help awaits at the Ginseikan Tea House, where patrons can order much more than just Darjeeling. Hiruko is a special kind of a private investigator. He's a dream eater. And he'll rid you of your darkest visions... for a price.

Hisako is saved by a beautiful wolf that turns into an even more beautiful man...but can a relationship like this work!? The continuation of the story of Hisako and Yato seen in Kindan no Koi wo Shiyou and Zoku Kindan no Koi wo Shiyou!

A collection of three stories. 1. Calling You 2. Kizu: Kiz/Kids 3. Hanauta (Singing Flower)