YAWARA!

Mangaka: Naoki Urasawa
Genre: shoujo, sports, comedy

"Lovely and cute Miss Yawara Inokuma is a fashionable judo girl!"

Synopsis: Inokuma Yawara is the only granddaughter of judo master Inokuma Jigoro. While Jigoro is hellbent on training his grandchild to be an Olympic judo champion, Yawara has other plans of her own. She just wants to be a normal high school girl, interested in clothes, make-up, and boys.

Comments: Yawara's about a contest of wills as much as it's about a contest of strength. Jigoro's a crazy judo freak. His world revolves around judo and refuses to see anything else. Yawara is undoubtedly talented and strong but although she isn't the least bit interested in judo, she does it for her grandfather. Although the story is a bit old (it's from the 80's and she's training for the '92 Barcelona Olympics), Yawara and grandfather still crack me up.

If you like Yawara, you might also like Jigoro which is a one-shot about the grandfather when he was a young judo champion himself.

Yawara has an anime version, too.

Scanlator: Tama-Chan Scans

Godhand Teru

「ゴッドハンド輝」
Mangaka: Kazuki Yamamoto
Genre: shounen

Synopsis: It's difficult to believe that Dr. Mahigashi Teru is the newest surgeon at the Yasuda Memorial Hospital, being really clumsy and all. Inspite of this, his utmost dedication to his patients and respect for life makes him determined not to let any of his patients die. When faced with an insurmountable challenge, he changes personality in the OR. Unbeknown to many, Dr. Teru has inherited his father's so-called "godhands" which enables him to perform the most difficult of surgeries successfully and gives him amazing insight into his patients' condition more accurately than any medical equipment can.

Comments: How come Dr. Teru looks like an elementary school kid? And how come this manga doesn't seem to have any female doctors? But other than that, it's heart-warming and funny as hell. Lots of medical jargon, too, but the scanlators try to explain everything in laymen's terms and even if you don't understand the terms, you'll still get the story so don't worry about that. Inspite of the medical theme, this manga is leaning towards comedy and mythology more than heavy drama, so if you're looking for something ER-like, you won't find that here.

Scanlators: Manga-Daisuki and Tama-Chan Scans