I was talking to Mike, and we were trying to think of a list of our favorite mangas. So here are some of mine, after some consideration, in no particular order:

the categories the publishers place them in
josei: for women, adult themes
seinen: for men, adult themes
shoujo: young girlies with idealist romantic notions. Often comedic.
shounen: young boys try to show each other up

1. Kimi wa Pet (Yayoi Ogawa)- Josei || US | TokyoPop
2. Shana Oh Yoshitsune (Sawada Hirofumi)- shounen || HK | Tong Li
3. Blade of the Immortal (Hiroaki Samura)- seinen | US | Dark Horse
4. Paradise Kiss (Ai Yazawa)- shoujo | US | TokyoPop
5. Hikaru no GO (Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata)- shounen | US | Viz
6. 20th Century Boys (Urasawa Naoki)!!- seinen | No US Distro yet
[edit]7. How could I forget “Helter Skelter” and “River’s Edge”, by kyoko okazaki? -> she has an almost ugly art style, and focuses all about the dark side of life in a unique and refreshing manner. Her stories are not happy stories.

Of course, I’ve only finished reading 2 of these series (ParaKiss and Hikaru no go). The wonders of neverending manga. I’m almost done with Kimi wa Pet. But I’m excited that Urasawa’s 20th century boys is going to be released in the US as soon as they finish publishing Monster. He’s able to create a creepy suspense like no other mangaka I’ve read. He really is an amazing storyteller.