Anne no Aijou

Anne of the Island is a top-tier Anne book and this adaptation was wonderful for me. It doesn't linger as much as it probably should have, since it was confined to a single volume. In one chapter, Anne meets Roy Gardner, and within two chapters two years seem to pass suddenly. Nonetheless, the story relayed as a series of vignettes works very well. This means that I think you should probably read the books first, but they're marvelous, and of course I would recommend those anyway. But the art in this is truly gorgeous for a random manga adaptation. The paneling conveys every mood perfectly andthe characters' expressions have such remarkable depth. This would make a good case study of how to depict women in comics in general, I'm sure. Anne translates very well to manga tropes, and the emotional gut punches delivered by this story really do hit different in this style.