1. Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida - Stays. In the midst of yet another reread right this moment, in fact. Still as enthused about it as I ever was, and probably even more so now that garbage rip-offs like Chainsaw Man exist.
2. The New Mutants by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz - Stays, but amended to encompass the full Claremont run and likely Simonson's too until the Liefeldening. I like the characters and their long-term development and dynamics too much to just isolate it to one landmark chunk.
3. Wandering Son by Takako Shimura - Dropped like a brick. I hadn't finished reading the series at the time because the Fantagraphics publishing of it went bust halfway through, and I really just dislike how it legitimizes the trans girl's narrative but the trans boy's identity is walked back with a shrug. Can't do that shit when he's the only trans guy in the narrative and the message that sends in a coming-of-age yarn. Read better Shimura stuff instead, like Sweet Blue Flowers or especially Even Though We're Adults.
4. The Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont - Stays. Too vast and formative to ignore.
5. Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel - I only read the material once, a long time ago now, so I'd like to revisit it. Fun Home and Are You My Mother? are the Bechdel works I actually own and could easily place on a list like this.
6. A Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori - Stays. It's still ongoing and I'm not caught up, but it's an undeniable work.
7. Emma by Kaoru Mori - Stays. I return to this frequently and it's always a blast.
8. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki - Stays. Not that fond of Miyazaki as a creator, but this is his magnum opus, in a medium he's not known for.
9. Angela by Marguerite Bennett and Kieron Gillen - Dropped, probably. Feels like a recency pick; I don't think about this much anymore, despite being into it at the time. It was just novel to see anything close to a positive trans character in a Marvel book, in lesbian love with an edgelord lady protag.
10. Excalibur by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis - Dropped, even though I like it. Even I'm a little taken aback how samey the picks I made at the time are, topic-wise. I try to diversify whenever composing any kind of personal preference lists these days, and Claremont is hogging these spots more than he needs to.
11. A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio - Stays. Works as a representative of Hagio's catalogue as well as anything, and stuff like Iguana Girl are obviously masterworks. The included 20-something page interview Rachel Thorn conducted with Hagio on her career is worth the price of admission on its own.
12. All My Darling Daughters by Fumi Yoshinaga - Stays, probably. There's some pretty weird stuff in places, but the overall throughline is very strong. Yoshinaga deserves it, anyway.
13. With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child by Keiko Tobe - Stays. I still haven't talked to or even observed anyone else who's read this comic. It carries a different context for me now that I'm on the other side of my own adulthood diagnosis, but it's only more resonant for it. I call this "my Berserk" in being a work that I cared about that was cut short by the author's passing, leaving it unfinished.
14. Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! by Kate Leth and Brittney Williams - Dropped. Another recency thing. I had a resurgent Marvel period in the mid-2010s or so, picking up at the time contemporary books that interested me, and while this one is another solid one... I haven't returned to it and it doesn't stand out as particularly meaningful in retrospect.
15. Cross Game by Mitsuru Adachi - Stays. I waver on whether I "need to" read more Adachi, because the dude has been making the same comic for 40 years. This iteration of the eternal recurrence is the one that happened to cross my path first and which clicked with me despite my reservations about some of his particular tics as a creator.
16. Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona - Dropped, probably. Another book I just don't return to much, or could argue passionately in favour of despite being cognizant of the strong points about it.
17. Limit by Keiko Suenobu - Stays, I think. I pick it up occasionally and it's a lean, mean read every time.
18. X-Men: Season One by Dennis Hopeless and Jamie McKelvie - Dropped. Yeah, all this X-stuff needs to calm down. This is a good, great book even--I just don't have a particularly personal angle to justify it with.
19. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - Stays, even though I haven't returned to it... but the work being what it is, it's difficult to forget or discount.
20. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North and Erica Henderson - Dropped. It's fine, but I'm not sure I particularly need North's tone and punchlines in a narrative serial format.
21. Buddha by Osamu Tezuka - Stays. I don't think one read of this is sufficient to unravel everything it's doing... so having a few more under my belt at this point, I like it all the more.
22. Captain Marvel by Kelly Sue DeConnick - Dropped. I think this placed because of fondness for the character more than the run itself, which I'd be hard-pressed to recall anything about.
23. The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie - Dropped, both because I haven't finished reading it (as it hadn't concluded yet when this list was made), and because in retrospect I think I was more enamored with McKelvie's art than anything else, and that I was superficially happy to see mythic figures utilized in media like this without consideration for much beyond the bare representation.
24. She-Hulk by Charles Soule and Javier Pulido - Dropped. Yet another goes-down-smooth contemporary pick with not enough staying power to evangelize about thereafter.
25. Hanayome wa Motodanshi/The Bride Was a Boy by Chii - Dropped. Very personally important and fond work, yes, but as a comic? It's just fine.
Well, what might show up to replace all the cuts, then? Here are some ideas, numbered only for formatting reasons:
1. Maison Ikkoku by Rumiko Takahashi - Masterful romcom, and one of the top narratives in portraying grief. Works as a period piece too, and is the one slice in Takahashi's extensive catalogue that hits enough of the character dynamic beats with some level of interiority that I prefer that I can stand fully in favour of it holistically.
2. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood by Hirohiko Araki - When this list was originally drafted, I'd "retired" (lol) from JoJo fandom for the most part, so it took me a while to reassess things and realize I could just like parts of it, and what it opens up with is by far my favourite narrative Araki ever did longform.
3. Appleseed by Masamune Shirow - As a work by a complete and utter freak, this isn't the most "Shirow unleashed" comic there is... but you have to understand what you're asking for if courting a premise like that. As it is, it might be his most coherent, digestible work, with some really tremendous character dynamics in the protagonist pair, and so I love it for all that.
4. Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko - It did get me into Gundam, for whatever that's worth. Being exposed to more of the subsequent/earlier works makes the strengths of the original narrative easier to discern.
5. Nicola Traveling Around the Demons' World by Asaya Miyanaga - A terrific, episodic travelogue, as stated. A very funny kid protagonist, beautiful sketched-out art and lots of friendly monsters.
6. Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura - As epics go, yeah it's a good one, and remains on an upward trajectory in its thematic construction. I'm annoyed by the anime being a worse version of the story with more reach and visibility.
7. The Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda - My absolute everything, and it's a rare work where I want to embrace both the manga and the anime. Usually there's a clear preference for me either or, but in this case neither is disposable in the least.
8. Yuri Is My Job! by Miman - This is "extremely my shit" as the parlance goes. Is it even good? Not sure, but it's a Marimite riff operating on stock lesbian archetypes thrown into a live performance context, constructed of mugging-at-the-audience, performative-gayness-as-pro-wrestling-promos. It would be the best pro wrestling comic of all time were it not for...
9. Kinnikuman by Yudetamago - I cannot ignore Kinnikuman anymore. It's an absolutely wretched comic for maybe a good ten volumes from inception--horrific, racist and misogynistic journeyman gag comics page-filler--but once it locks into the ultra-dramatic combat sports formula, it does it better--and now actually funnier--than anything else. If you have a love in you for any interminable or excellent tournament arc in boys' comics that came after this point, be aware that they all stole from Kinnikuman--Toriyama's feverish notes are practically imprinted in the margins--and never duplicated the emotional intensity and no-holds-barred absurdity of pro wrestling as performed by supernatural musclemaniacs.
10. Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui - Basically as good as a comic can be.
11. Ikoku Nikki by Tomoko Yamashita - A stellar, introspective adult drama about an author and her recently-orphaned niece cohabitating. Nothing else like it.
12. Skip and Loafer by Misaki Takamatsu - It's the best high school slice of life comic that's ever been written, with an amazing cast of characters.
13. Sorry but I'm Not Into Yuri by Mochi Au Lait - Anyone who's spent time reading Mochi's works knows that she's a one of a kind shooting star in the lesbian comics scene: an irrepressible super-pervert who thrives on taboo and bad taste. Almost all her characters are caught in infinite incest vortexes of their own obsessive making, violating consent, committing crimes and whatever else illicit whim strikes them, but there's always that glimmer of infectious positivity and sheer reciprocal delight in meeting someone just as unhinged as you are and relating to them on that level. As her most long-form work, this is Mochi at her dumbest, at her most prurient, and at her sweetest.
I have more but that's about the number that would theoretically be replaced if filling out the list for what was culled, so I'll end it there.