Best Drama Manga of 2015

Yuu Koito has always enjoyed romance manga and love songs. She clings to them with the hope that she will one day experience a love story of her own—one that will sweep her off her feet and make her heart flutter. However, reality is often disappointing. When a classmate from junior high confesses his feelings to her, Yuu finds that she feels nothing. Unable to give him an answer, she becomes convinced that she is unable to fall in love. One day, on her way to the student council room, Yuu encounters the council's president, Touko Nanami, turning down a confession from a boy. Inspired by Touko's confidence, Yuu turns to her for help. But when Touko becomes the next person to confess to Yuu, she is confused, yet her heart is set aflutter. Yagate Kimi ni Naru is a manga about grappling with love and growing up. Will Yuu's long-awaited romance finally begin?

Receiving funding from the government to nurture the next generation's hopefuls, Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School brings together the brightest youth of Japan onto a single campus. At this seemingly perfect institution, the reserved Kiyotaka Ayanokouji arrives as an incoming member of class 1-D, where he befriends one of his classmates, the antisocial Suzune Horikita. At first, his peers revel in the academy's leisurely lifestyle, taking advantage of all of its state-of-the-art facilities. Soon enough, however, the facade of Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School gives way to its true nature—only the top scoring classes can fully utilize the school's offerings, and Class D is the furthest from such a status. Standing at the bottom of the hierarchy, Class D houses all of the school's "worst" students. Following this rude awakening, Ayanokouji, Horikita, and the rest of Class D must overcome their differences and clash against other classes in order to climb to the coveted position of Class A by any means necessary.

At the peak of a steep hill in the picturesque town of Onomichi stands a building with a lounge open to all. An unusual group of friendly people gathers there, each with their own stories to tell. Tasuku Kaname is a troubled high school student who is prepared to commit suicide because his classmates found out that he might be gay. As he questions his existence, the sight of a mysterious woman jumping off a nearby building leaves him utterly startled. He rushes to the scene only to discover her unharmed, soon learning that she is the owner of the aforementioned building, known to everyone as Anonymous. Anonymous notices Tasuku's nervous temperament and offers him an ear if he is willing to share his problems. While speaking to her, he realizes that the most painful thing is his inability to accept his sexuality. Emotional and heartfelt, Shimanami Tasogare is a realistic take on the struggles of Tasuku among other lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in coming to terms with their selves.

Due to her father's six million yen debt, sixteen-year-old high school student Fumi Oono and her father are evicted from their apartment. In need of a place to stay and a job to earn money, she starts to work as a live-in housekeeper for the young writer Akatsuki Kibikino. When they meet for the first time, the two start off on the wrong foot, with Akatsuki calling Fumi useless and treating her like a child. Determined to pay off her father's debt, Fumi works hard to prove him otherwise. However, despite Akatsuki's foul-mouthed and mysterious behavior, she begins to realize that he is not as despicable as she initially thought, gradually unravelling the passionate and caring person underneath.Included one-shots: Volume 7: Hirunaka no Ryuusei Bangai-hen: Blue Volume 8: Hirunaka no Ryuusei Bangai-hen: Red

The eve of the French Revolution, 1772— The eldest brother of the Sanson family, Charles-Henri, has grown as an executioner, while his sister, Marie-Joseph, has been living freely in Versailles. But one day, Marie-Joseph's first love, a man named Alain, is killed by aristocrats...! This history of innocents plunges into the arc of the crimson revolution, Rouge—!!

The story centers around Yuna and Akari who have two very different views of love: Yuna is someone who sees love as a dream and Akari is someone who is very realistic about her romance choices. Meanwhile, there are two boys, Kazuomi and Rio, who also have different views of love: Kazuomi's an airhead and doesn't understand the concept of love, while Rio grabs the opportunity when confessed to as long as the girl looks cute.

Although satisfied with his average lifestyle, Tobio Masubuchi wishes for a long and fun existence, hoping that nothing will get in his way. Alongside his good friends Sho Isami, Yuki "Maru" Maruyama, and Hidero "Paisen" Kosaka, the group passes each day worry free, doing as they please. But when delinquents from a neighboring school overhear Maru saying that they should die, their troubles begin. After being kidnapped and brutally assaulted, Maru is found by his friends, who are shocked to see what has been done to him. Angry, Tobio proposes that they take immediate revenge, and after deciding how they should do so, the four put their plan into action. But when what should have been just a prank turns deadly, Tobio's aspirations for an undisturbed life are shattered forever.

"Auto-Memories Dolls" were created with the purpose of recording one's speech and emotions. First invented by Dr. Orland to bring happiness to his wife, such dolls are now being loaned by companies after knowledge of his work became public. Moved by the work of the Auto-Memories Dolls, a woman named Violet Evergarden decides to take up their duties. Beautiful, with golden hair and crystal-blue eyes, she quickly becomes the most popular doll, leaving all her clients delighted by her company. Violet Evergarden is a compilation of heartwarming short stories revolving around the life of the graceful Auto-Memories Doll as she serves her different clients.

The Royal Capital, the city of Lugunica, has been in disarray ever since losing its king. Now without a figurehead, the royal family collapses, and the government must immediately hold an election to decide on his successor. Subaru Natsuki, who unknowingly saved the insignia that made Emilia a Royal Election candidate, accompanies her to an important meeting. While in the capital, Emilia insists that Subaru stay behind and repose following the demon beast attack, despite the fact he would do anything besides that. However, when Subaru sees Emilia being ill-treated by both the citizens and her fellow candidates, will he be able to keep his promise to the one he loves most?

Thirty-year-old Satoko Tawada lives a rather monotonous life: she is single, her office job is dull, her boss is her ex-boyfriend who constantly bothers her, and she has nothing to look forward to in her off-hours. Fed up with another lousy day at work, Satoko stops by a park at night to have a drink and unwind when a stray soccer ball lands by her feet. Chasing after the ball is a 12-year-old boy named Mashuu Hayami, whom Satoko scolds for being out so late. But soon enough, she learns that evenings are the only time Mashuu is allowed to practice and refine his soccer skills. Due to her past tenure on her university's futsal team and a general concern for his safety at night, Satoko begins to teach Mashuu the basics of soccer. However, the more time Satoko spends with Mashuu, the more she finds herself becoming a maternal figure for the neglected boy. Mashuu himself begins to find solace in their outings, but not everyone may be able to support or understand their odd relationship.

While on the surface Yuu Otosaka appears to be just another charming and intelligent teenager, he has a secret—he has the ability to slip into people's minds and fully control their body for five seconds at a time. Yuu has been using this skill for years to gain the highest grades, which allowed him to enter a prestigious high school. When the enigmatic Nao Tomori catches Yuu using his power, she coerces him and his sister Ayumi into transferring to Hoshinoumi Academy, a school for students with supernatural abilities. The student council of the school, led by Nao, is tasked with secretly tracking down adolescents who abuse their powers. Yuu is forced to join the student council and together, they face formidable challenges that bring him closer to the shocking truth that his own, seemingly incomplete ability, might be more powerful than he could have ever imagined. An original story from Jun Maeda, creator of Angel Beats and Clannad, Charlotte explores the supernatural lives of these teenagers and the price they must pay for being special.

Kasumi is a girl that hates playing games and is struggling with her low English grades. However, her fate is about to take a playful turn thanks to her colleagues: the airheaded Hanako and the "overseas" transfer student Olivia! Will these three girls play a lot of different games together? Absolutely yes! Will Kasumi's English grades improve at all? Absolutely n... well, that remains to be seen.

A high school boy finds the diary of his classmate—only to discover that she's dying. Sakura Yamauchi has been silently suffering from a pancreatic disease, and now exactly one person outside her family knows. He swears to her that he won't tell anyone what he learned, and the shared secret brings them closer together in this deeply moving, first-person story that traces their developing relationship in Sakura's final months of life.

The story of a girl who slips back in time to a different era. While playing in her family's garden, Asahi gets sucked in by the small pond and when she wakes up she finds herself in a place that seems like Japan from ancient times. A powerful clan takes her in, but the reason for their kindness is that they intend to sacrifice her to the water god, the dragon, to be his bride... Now that she is at the mercy of a god who appears to know no compassion, what will Asahi's fate be?

Eight-year-old Catarina Claes is the only daughter of a duke, living her life peacefully and without incident until she hits her head on a rock... and then remembers that she is not actually the duke's daughter. She used to be an otaku who died on her way to school after spending the entire previous night playing Fortune Lover, her favorite otome game. After noticing that her current surroundings seem oddly familiar, she is shocked to discover that she has been reincarnated into the world of Fortune Lover as the villainess. The villainess in the game usually winds up dead or exiled, so Catarina decides to use her knowledge of the game and its routes to avoid any bad situations. But is it even possible for the villainess to reach a good ending?

As a first-year student of the renowned Hyakkaou Private Academy, Mary Saotome knows her future is set for a one-way cruise to the top... That is, until an encounter with an old-classmate-turned-housepet throws the newbie princess into the world of gambling! Can a normal girl like Mary make friends and survive debtless through only wit and luck? Find out in this prequel to the mega-popular Kakegurui!

Emma Ji and Ryan Nam have been neighbors and, more importantly, friends for as long as they can remember. Emma is an airhead who would be lost without her friend and his eccentric family, who have agreed to take care of her in her parents' absence. From waking her up every morning to cleaning her room, Ryan is always at her beck and call, much like an overbearing mother. The Nam family also has a supernatural secret that they can't let anyone learn, but they find that it is increasingly difficult to hide it with Emma constantly around. When she comes home from school one day, Emma discovers a giant dog sleeping on her balcony! Will Emma ever discover who the dog belongs to and why Ryan is never around when the dog is?

In these times, if you're too good or bad at something or simply too beautiful, you're called a witch. Up against twists of fate and time, an outcast young boy and a mysterious witch will need more than just magic spells and incantations; they'll need each other.

Meet Rio: a callous orphaned boy living in the slums. At only 7-years-old, he realizes he's actually the reincarnation of Haruto Amakawa, a Japanese university student with a tragic past. While still reeling from this shocking epiphany, Rio also comes to learn that he possesses extremely potent magical abilities and uses his new powers to solve the kidnapping case of a little girl. His good deed is acknowledged, and he's rewarded by being enrolled into... a prestigious academy for noble children...?

Iori Igarashi is a talented radiology technician who has patiently waited for his chance to work with An Amakasu, his childhood friend. After being hired at her family's hospital, he is determined to fulfill a promise that he made with An when they were younger. Unfortunately, having been out of touch for years, she doesn't recognize him and it doesn't help that she also isn't a fan of the way he performs his duties. As all sorts of cases come into the department, she must acknowledge his skills and learn to work together so that patients can receive the best treatment possible. While the two of them adapt to each other, will An recognize her childhood friend, who has been working with her all this time?

Oddities have existed throughout history, with some tales of them dating back to 600 years ago. Stories about vampires, a monkey's paw, shikigami, wanderers in the mountain mist, murderous felines, mermaids, wolves, golems, and, most terrifying of all, humans, have been collected by so-called "oddity specialists." The purpose of these specialists is to combat, regulate, and, most importantly, solve the many mysteries behind the circumstances these oddities create. Monogatari Series: Off Season follows eight protagonists—some specialists, some oddities themselves—as they interact with the world of aberrations, often landing themselves in dangerous situations due to their own mischievous doings.

Invisible to humans, wraiths are beings that feed on human emotions and cause chaos wherever they go. Magical girls must use the power they have gained in exchange for having one wish granted to protect humans from these wraiths. A group of magical girls in Mitakihara have been giving their all to keep the town safe, but two of their members, Sayaka Miki and Kyouko Sakura, cannot seem to get along. Their leader, Mami Tomoe, hopes that they can work together in time, but worries that their quarrels will begin to affect their magical girl duties. Joining this group of magical girls is Homura Akemi, who has recently transferred to Mitakihara Middle School. But Homura knows more about magical girls than she lets on, as well as the truth behind the current state of their world.

A story of Yumi and her brain cells.

While watching his older sister's ballet performance, Junpei Murao discovers his interest in dancing art, staring in awe when a male performer starts to dance in the spotlight. Soon after, he devotes himself to learning as much as possible from his sister and later in ballet class. His love for ballet even trumps the constant teasing from his friends and his father's insistence that he should pick a more manly sport. However, when his father passes from a heart attack, he throws ballet to the side and pursues Jeet Kune Do, a martial art influenced by Bruce Lee. Leaping forward into middle school, Junpei is fully living up to the wishes of his beloved father. One day, while showing off Jeet Kune Do to his friends, he combines ballet and the martial art, pulling off an impressive kick that catches the eye of classmate Miyako Godai. She confronts Junpei, wanting him to compete for her mother's ballet studio, and she drags him there. As he is pulled further back into the world of ballet, his life becomes a game of balance between his outward appearance and what his heart really wants.

Story told from the point of view of Kinushima Michiru. In a future not too far away, androids that look exactly like humans begin to spread across the world. The android production company SA Corp. produced Giftia, a new kind of android that has the most amount of emotion and human-like qualities out of any other model ever seen. However, due to problems in technology, the androids have a service life, and once they pass that, it gets pretty bad. For this reason, SA Corp. creates a terminal service in order to retrieve Giftia that have gone past their service life. A new employee at the terminal service named Tsukasa Mizugaki forms a team with the Giftia Isla to retrieve the other androids.

"Escorts" are warriors paid to take out the targets wanted by the government. Dao Ma is one traveling warrior trying to repay the debt he owes to a man named Mo, who took care of Dao Ma and his child, Xiao Qi. But on the way back to Mo's town, they encounter a victim of the "rakshasa"—man-eating demons. Between the rise of rakshasa victims, bloodshed, slavery, and ruthless warriors, Dao Ma becomes caught up in the terror sweeping through the country during the last years of the Sui dynasty.

The secret hidden in Mikaela's name. The deadly fight with the "human" Crowley, and the encounter with Ferid. The story will uncover their travels. A shocking new series that will move closer to the truth and origin of vampires!

Kotarou, a mysterious 4 year old, begins living in an apartment on his own. For some reason, he's perfectly capable of taking care of himself, despite the concerns of his neighbors.

Ever since she was a little girl, Sarasa has wanted to play the role of Oscar as part of the Kouka Acting Troupe, an all-female acting troupe similar to the Takarazuka Revue. But before she can do that, she has to attend two years at the Kouka School of Musical and Theatrical Arts. As Sarasa practices singing, dancing, and acting, she grows closer to the other girls in her year, including her roommate, the stoic former J-idol, Ai. Though Sarasa is great at making friends, her outspoken nature and grand ambitions earn her lots of enemies as well. Can Sarasa keep her upbeat attitude and achieve her dream of stardom?

In a world of swords and magic, where the Goddess is revered, Lyell Walt was fortunate enough to be born the first son and heir to an earldom. That is, until his parents disown him for losing pitifully in a fight with his younger sister, Ceres. Lyell had once been hailed as a prodigy—a wonder child—but the birth of his sister changed everything. After Ceres wounds him in their duel, an enigmatic old man swoops in to rescue Lyell and bestows upon him a necklace containing a jewel that has been blessed by the goddesses and passed down through the last seven generations of Walt leaders. As Lyell sets out, necklace in hand, will he be able to prove himself despite his humiliating loss to his sister? And moreover, will he be able to solve the mystery behind Ceres's monstrous strength and the strange sway she seems to hold over his entire family?

You can't win through only with "friendship" and "youth." We stake our lives to get to the Koshien!! Kanou Shoutarou entered an official baseball club at one of the best powerhouse baseball schools in the country - DL Gakuen. However the discipline in the club, he admired so much, was beyond all imagination! From Nakibokuro—the former member of PL Gakuen's baseball club who played at the Koshien as the regular!

After story chapter to the anime Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru.

300 years after the Calamity War's end. The powers which ruled the Earth Sphere have been overthrown, giving way to new rulers of a new world, exhausted of battle. Meanwhile, far away on Mars, the sparks which threaten to ignite a new war have been struck... Our protagonist Mikazuki Augus, a member of the private security firm Chryse Guard Security (CGS), takes on a mission as bodyguard of Kudelia Aina Bernstein, a young girl who agitates for Chryse's independence from Earth. However, when the elite Gjallarhorn unit, charged with suppressing revolutionaries, raids CGS, its higher-ups deliberately use Mikazuki and the other boys as a decoy to cover their own retreat. Orga Itsuka, leader of the boys' squad, takes this abandonment by the adults as motivation to launch a full-fledged coup d'état. With orders from Orga to hold back Gjallarhorn, Mikazuki sorties in Calamity War-era scrap that CGS had been using as a generator—the Gundam Barbatos...

Richard Ranasinghe de Vulpian is a brilliant and enigmatic British jewelry appraiser. Seigi Nakata is a young college student. Their worlds are as different as can be, but when a chance encounter leads Seigi to hire Richard to appraise a family heirloom, it sparks a partnership that goes well beyond that one job. Together, the duo investigate jewelry-related cases and solve mysteries, finding the secret messages hidden in the hearts of precious stones–and the hearts of those who possess them.