@Thousand:
I love this list so much. (It has Negima as High tier among everything:wub:)
Might want to reconsider given my low ranks for the Urasawa stuff, I'm well aware I'm alone in the bleachers with such an opinion. I'm confident that in maybe a few more years more might join my camp, but I'm still holding out for critics of Ratatouille and Borat to make a stand, so it could be a long wait.
@Thousand:
Surprised you rank Ten above Akagi though (Kaiji is understandable). Ten was pretty dry and uninteresting compared to when Fukumoto finally mastered his psychology shtick in Akagi.
Ten had what Akagi didn't really - ongoing character development. Most of the development that happened in Akagi pre-Washizu happened in the time-skips and only to Akagi himself. It allowed for intense and interesting speculation on his mysterious changes, but gives the impression that the life-changing events in Akagi's life weren't meant to be seen by the readers. If they were as exciting as his godly games, they would have been shown, so the opposite - they're not interesting and were probably gradual changes - means the development wasn't relevant to the manga.
Most of that changed when Washizu came along because Washizu was the first villain to be given a strong backstory, a root for his psychology and philosophy and a real challenge. Washizu was Fukumoto's decision to change the focus of the manga, likely because of how Akagi's role expanded in Ten. It's an interesting parallel - imagine if Ten and Akagi were told simultaneously, with Ten in the present and flashbacks to events in Akagi alongside Akagi's modern-day battle with Harada. That's how the manga were written, and the match with Harada was where everything (including Washizu) began.
If Akagi himself undergoes development following the Washizu match (i.e., the bout was so powerful it changes Akagi himself) I'll elevate it up, because to do that Washizu will have to pull Akagi further down than any other player Akagi's ever played, and doing so will revisit the desires both 13 and 19 year old Akagi gave up. It'll exhume the lost development and completely explain why 54 year old Akagi approaches life like he's on a downhill slope following his peak. Like what happened to Bobby Fischer.
@Retsudo:
Manga is just…Japanese comic books.
There's nothing wrong with using manga, but arguing that manga is somehow different from ''comics'' to the point that it's a whole different medium is silly.
I personally wouldn't make the claim, but I am saying there is room to segway toward an argument for it.