Top 5 Favorite Current Manga (August 2025)

Things are insanely busy (which is pretty much the norm), so I wanted to show what are my current favorite manga titles I’m currently reading. Well, at least as of the end of July 2025. But since this is publishing in August, well…😅 This means the manga may or may not be modern manga titles.

5. UQ Holder!

I’m currently working a “Back to the Vaults” piece on UQ Holder. Thus it makes it to the fifth slot in my top 5 list. The manga is a sequel to the highly popular Negima! manga series. The story deals with Negi’s grandson KONOE Touta, who becomes immortal. Along with Eva, who’s now known as Yukihime, Touta joins a group of immortals known as UQ Holder. Their mission is to help others. However, the foe Touta’s grandfather faced rises again, forcing UQ Holder to deal with it.

As you might expect from a title from Akamatsu-sensei, the artwork is great. There are interesting characters. The bulk majority of the stories are interesting. But the series struggles to find an identity at times. Further it is clear that Akamatsu-sensei and his editors started chucking things at the wall to see what would stick. That meant going gory horror to attempting a tournament to going full ecchi.

Still, despite the flaws, when I reread the manga, I enjoyed it a lot. At twenty-eight volumes, there’s a LOT of manga to read. But it is ten volumes less than Negima.

The series is licensed by Kodansha Comics.

4. Henjo – Strange High School Girl AMAGURI Senko

The biggest negative to the Henjo manga series is that it is sporadic in its releases. Even though Young Anime publishes bi-weekly, it can be weeks between chapters. That’s in part because series creator KONOGI Yoshiru-sensei is currently doing two manga titles at once. At one point, Sensei had several manga titles going. However, it was recently announced that the Henjo spinoff series Attack on Eroko-san is coming to an end with three more chapters remaining.

The story centers around a high school girl named AMAGURI Senko. She is completely unfazed about anything, and has no shame in her bluntness. The male lead is TAKAMURA Ryou, who takes a job at the Amaguri Handyman business, where Senko also works for her father. As such, Senko is seen as strange. The crazy, suggestive humor can be funny at times. However, it is the relationship between Senko and Ryou that takes the manga to the next level for me. Thankfully, Konogi-sensei doesn’t opt for keeping a status quo. She lets the characters breath and grow. As a reader, I appreciate that.

I’ve long been stunned by the fact that no one has licensed this series. Now that twenty volumes are in the can, I don’t think anyone ever will. It is a shame ’cause I think the manga would find an audience. Heck, I think it would make for a fun anime series.

3. Soara and the House of Monsters

I only recently reviewed the third volume of this fun, fantasy manga series. This is the volume where select pages from a couple of chapters posted by creator Yamaji-sensei caught my eye.

It centers around a young, orphaned, human, female warrior named Soara. She’s trained all her short life to fight monsters. However, when the war between monsters and humans stopped, Soara suddenly finds herself adrift. She stumbles upon some dwarves and observes them building a new home for a tribe of goblins. Since both are monster races, she decides to observe.

Eventually, Soara is drafted into the three dwarves’ party, where she travels around the monster side of the world, assisting in building non-human species homes, something she’s never had. In doing so, she comes to understand more about the monster world.

The artwork for the manga series is enjoyable to look at. Soara is a girl boss, but because she’s in a fantasy world, I tend to let this slide. Plus, she’s on a journey of self discovery and is a likable character.

Seven Seas has the license for Soara and the House of Monsters.

2. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

After a multi-month hiatus (and already, a one-week skip), my favorite fantasy manga series Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End returns. For those who don’t know, the series centers around Frieren, an immortal elf and powerful mage who traveled with the Hero’s party for ten years to defeat the Demon King. For her, ten years may as well be ten days. Fifty years after their victory, Frieren reunites with her former team, shocked at what the ravages of age did to the Hero. After his death, she decides she wants to get to know humans.

Eventually, Frieren gets conned into taking a human female apprentice. After training Fern up, they travel, retracing the route that the Hero’s party took so many decades earlier. Eventually, they take on a young warrior named Stark to act as vanguard for them.

What makes this manga so great is the world building and the character development. How many stories start after the defeat of the big baddie? Here, Frieren is attempting to learn more about her former companions, specifically the Hero, Himmel. Combine this with some action and it is a really great manga.

More recently, stories have shifted to include more characters, but they are so interesting, I’ve no problem with it. The reason this isn’t number 1 is that the manga just restarted, and the first chapter just did some clever recap combined with table setting.

Viz has the official license.

1. Spy x Family

Finally, at number 1 is Spy x Family. This is another series I’m blogging. I’m not doing a series synopsis.

What makes this manga so great is how wholesome and interesting it is. I love the fictional setting, reminiscent of a 1960s East/West Germany. Anya is a typical child. As such, it is easy to relate to her way of thinking. On the other hand, her telepathic powers allow her to do things she wouldn’t ordinarily be able to do. Anya is quite the lovable, hilarious, and scene stealing character.

Loid and Yor are amazing individuals. Both characters get “mission” stories for their real job. At the same time, both are learning to become parents to Anya. And whoa be to anyone who threatens Anya ’cause Yor will go mama bear on them. 😂 Add to the mix the slowly budding romance between Yor and Loid. Well, more on Yor’s side as Loid hasn’t figured this out yet.

This is my favorite manga, bar none. Still, I can see Frieren giving it a run from time to time.

Viz has the license here.

Wrap Up

And there you have it, my top five current favorite manga titles that I’ve recently read. What are yours? Let me know in the comments below.