The Days of Diamond Unexpectedly Tops Kono Manga ga Sugoi Ranking

Days of the Diamond
Credit: Hirai Ohashi / Shueisha

Days of the Diamond
Credit: Hirai Ohashi / Shueisha

The Kono Manga ga Sugoi rankings have finally been shared, and the baseball manga The Days of Diamond took the top spot in the male readers list.

Kono Manga ga Sugoi is a prestigious annual ranking of the top recommended manga titles, as voted by industry professionals and students.

For manga readers outside of Japan, the results are interesting, especially as many of the titles in the rankings aren’t well-known internationally.

Kono Manga ga Sugoi Ranking Sees The Days of Diamond at the Top Spot

Taking the top spot in the male readers ranking is The Days of Diamond, a manga by Hirai Ohashi that began serialization in February 2023.

This series isn’t exactly a popular series outside of Japan. After all, despite being serialized in Young Jump alongside hits like Oshi no Ko and Kingdom, this series isn’t officially available internationally.

It’s a bit of a shame that this is the case given the series’ intriguing story. This manga follows Jiro Ayasegawa, a baseball player on a youth baseball team.

This is far from the first baseball manga out there, but it has gotten a lot of attention in Japan thanks to its compelling youth drama.

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Male and Female Readers Rankings Feature Surprise Winners

Coming in second place is Daemons of the Shadow Realm, a manga that’s available internationally on Manga UP! This is thanks to its author Hiromu Arakawa, the creator of the iconic shonen series Fullmetal Alchemist.

Here are the top 10 male readers ranking in Kono Manga ga Sugoi:

1. Diamond no Kozai by Hirai Ohashi

2. Daemons of the Shadow Realm by Hiromu Arakawa

3. Kanda Gokura-cho Shokunin-Banashi by Akihito Sakaue

4. Thunder 3 by Yuki Ikeda

5. Heiwa no Kuni no Shimazaki e by Gouten Hamada and Takeshi Sesimo

6. Usuzumi no Hate by Haruo Iwamune

7. Haibaiyoshi Mizuiro by Mari Okazaki

8. Skip and Loafer by Misaki Takamatsu

9. Suna no Miyako by Yo Machida (tied at 9th place)

9. RuriDragon by Masaoki Shindo (tied at 9th place)

Other notable entries include Skip and Loafer, which is arguably the most well-known in the ranking internationally.

There’s also RuriDragon, the Shonen Jump manga that has been on hiatus for over a year now.

The female readers ranking is also similar as most titles here are lesser-known works:

  1. Umibe no Stove: Oshiro Kogani Tanpenshu by Kogani Ōshiro
  2. Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta by Sumiko Arai
  3. Iyahaya Atami-kun by Asa Tanuma
  4. Kujaku no Dance, Dare ga Mita? by Rito Asami
  5. Ikoku Nikki by Tomoko Yamashita
  6. Kirio Fanclub by Ponchan Chikyū no Osakana
  7. Ie ga Suki na Hito by Chiaki Ida
  8. Okami no Musume by Yuki Kodama
  9. Firefly Wedding by Oreko Tachibana
  10. Sheltering Eaves by Rie Aruga

With these rankings finally out, we might just see North American publishers pick some of them up for an English release. We’ll have to wait and see in the coming months if that is the case.

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Source: Kono Manga Website