And the winner of the Hikaru no Go manga giveaway is…Alessandra!

As the winner, Alessandra will be receiving a new copy of Hikaru no Go, Volume 1 written by Yumi Hotta, illustrated by Takeshi Obata, and published by Viz Media. For this giveaway, I asked entrants to tell me about manga that sparked an interest in something new for them. I received some great responses, which I will be excerpting here, but I hope you’ll take the time to check out the full comments as well. Thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway. I really enjoyed reading all of your stories. I hope you’ll come back for next month’s contest, too!

Matt identified Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto as a source of intellectual stimulation:

After reading Pluto by Naoki Urasawa, I thought a lot about artificial intelligence and the questions that come with that subject. Is there an essential difference between human intelligence and artificial intelligence? Can a machine have a mind and consciousness?

Pluto is actually one of my favorite manga series and it helped to trigger my current obsession with manga. I particularly enjoy manga about androids and AI because they can be so thought provoking.

Callie was brave enough to share with all of us the influence Miyuki Kobayashi and Natsumi Ando’s Kitchen Princess had:

I always feel a little embarrassed admitting it, but ‘Kitchen Princess’ got me into baking; I started trying some of the recipes in the volumes, and found that I really enjoyed it. It’s quite funny, I’ve never been one for cooking in a form, and now I’m the family baker!

I think this is marvelous and you shouldn’t be embarrassed at all! Kitchen Princess is an award-winning series after all, and who could complain about mastering such a delicious hobby as baking?

Bakuman, which is written by Tsugumi Ohba and happens to be illustrated by Takeshi Obata (who also illustrated Hikaru no Go) was actually mentioned by two people—Arlen and Voldie Moldie—as playing a part in their desire to start creating manga of their own. Kim was also inspired to draw because of manga. Similarly, Alessandra was encouraged to become a better writer because of favorite characters who are also writers, such as Shigure Sohma in Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket. (Shigure is my favorite character in the series, too!)

And finally, Courtney takes after my own heart, appreciating manga influenced by legends and mythology:

I discovered that manga with strong mythological, folklore, or religious aspects actually made me want to read and study up on what it was based on or drew influence from. […] To be honest any manga that has derived something from folklore, mythology, or religion fascinates me. It’s a shame a lot get passed up on, especially the ones with strong mythological roots. […] While a tend to not dig too deeply into studying such things I do enjoy reading even just the surface of it all. It adds an extra layer of sprinkles on top of my reading experience.

I hope everyone continues to be inspired and encouraged by the manga that they read!