The others are mangas I'm interested in and more I'm interested in but figured to give you a glimpse of what I like.
Vampire Knights
Cross Academy has a Night Class full of vampires and a Day Class that must be protected from them without knowing their secret. The headmaster's on a mission to end the war between the two sides, heedless of the danger it brings as the two groups pass every day at twilight. (The setup allows for plenty of drama, though, as every day is another chance to lose someone.) Yuki Cross knows about the monsters because she was saved from them by one of them as a small child. She's become one of the school's guardians, keeping the two groups apart no matter how attractive the Night Class is to the Days. Her co-guardian wants to kill the beasts, but Yuki's fascinated by one of the vampires, the one who rescued her years ago. Dark, crowded panels match the subject, with dramatic goth art by Hino (MeruPuri) ramping up the intensity, although sometimes it's hard to tell the characters apart with everyone's glum, spiky faces. Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will find much comfortable—the young woman tasked with an unusual and solitary mission, the school setting, the question whether to love or kill the vampire, the drama in worrying over whether a fellow fighter has been transformed by the dark.
Orphen
Originally a series of fantasy novels by Akita, this tale of a young, irreverent and talented sorcerer has been adapted into an anime, a video game and a popular manga, now translated into English for the first time. Orphen was the star student of the Tower of Fangs, a school for mages, until he turned his back on his teacher, Childman. Orphen now lives from hand-to-mouth, using his magic on jobs to pay the bills. He is accompanied by his apprentice, Majic, and the groupie brothers Volcan and Dortin, who spend more time beating up on each other than helping with the job. On one job gone wrong, Orphen's entourage takes on another member, the cute and clumsy Cleao, who's intent on meddling with Orphen's love life. Surrounded by this comic group, Orphen struggles with ghosts from his past, and one in particular: his former fellow student, the beautiful Azalie. The characters and plot are unfailingly generic, but that doesn't change the fact that Orphen is just plain cool. The take-no-prisoners swagger in his step comes through clearly in Sawada's hip illustrations. This solidly entertaining manga will undoubtedly appeal to fans of the genre.
Hellsing
Another in a long line of manga featuring an off-kilter hero, this lively tale about vampire hunters features the eponymous top-secret organization based in England that's called on for only the toughest jobs. Hellsing's top vampire hunter is Alucard, a lanky figure in an oversized hat and a duster that swirls dashingly as he blows bad guys to smithereens with his arsenal of enormous firearms. Alucard, it turns out, is actually a vampire himself, and just why he's tearing up his own kind is open to question, but then, Hellsing doesn't lend itself to much deep contemplation. It's mostly a fun, violent romp. In the first story readers meet a young policewoman who joins the undead after becoming an innocent victim in a battle. Police Girl, as she's known, comes to the organization via Integra, Hellsing's leader, and her adaptation to her new life affords some amusing moments. In a flashback, readers learn how Integra took over Hellsing and how she first met Alucard when he rescued her from her own murderous relatives. Later, the heroes nearly meet their match in Father Alexander Anderson, a superhuman priest who works for Section XIII, the Vatican's own vampire division. The bloody battle is accompanied by some rather awkward religious sparring between the Catholic Church and Hellsing, which is sworn to protect, believe it or not, the Protestant Church. It's goofy details like this that give the book some charm and energy. Hirano's storytelling is easy to follow, as stylish close-ups of the "we're-groovy-and-we-know-it" characters explode into violent full-page illustrations of all-out mayhem.
Guru Guru Pon-chan
The theme of this goofy shape-changing story recalls Othello by the same author: a caring boy can rescue a mentally challenged transforming girl. Pon-chan is a playful Labrador retriever puppy, and her inadvertently destructive behavior disrupts her family. Then Grandpa invents a bone that's supposed to allow pets to talk, but when Pon-chan swallows it, she turns into a little girl. At first, the humor revolves around the expected contrast between dog and human behavior: it's a bit shocking to see a naked child pooping on the lawn or jumping unashamedly on a stranger. The silly stuff is just a setup for a more meaningful story line, though, as Pon-chan falls in love with the neighbor boy. Several months later, she's an adult dog, which makes her a teenager who must be sneaked into school when she transforms. She learns to speak, but she's still a dog mentally, sticking her head out the school bus window or fetching a Frisbee in her teeth. The cartoony art is full of caricatures, with frequently exaggerated expressions to sell the emotion. Although much of the book is broad comedy, the emotional underpinnings give the story a sweetly appealing side as well.
Fruits Basket
Tohru Honda was an orphan when one day fate kicked her out of the house and on to land belonging to the mysterious Sohma family. After stumbling upon the teenage squatter, the Sohmas invite Tohru to stay in their house in exchange for cooking and cleaning. Everything goes well until she discovers the Sohma family's secret, when hugged by members of the opposite sex, they turn into their Chinese Zodiac animal!
