oh this is hard. I have read a lot of manga in my life

ok in no particular order, not necessarily to say these are definitely my top 5, but 5 that came to mind that I really like

-MADK
eroguro body horror demon hell politics bl. this is the peak of romance for me. comfort series. every single chapter it manages to punch me in the face with something I wasn't prepared for

-Bokura no Hentai
coming of age story about two crossdressers and a trans girl. very heavy to start but it climbs out of it. the author actually noted that she hated her own characters at the start but grew to love them, and you can really like, viscerally feel that progression. it's really fascinating and moving to experience both the characters and the story itself growing and evolving. deeply evocative and affecting manga for me

-Houseki no Kuni
you have all probably heard about this series already or at least seen au fanart of people as rocks. this is also a heavy miserable read. forces the reader to unpack everything they want to happen. I actually read and enjoy a lot of light-hearted mundane series too but you really wouldn't know it from reading this list

-Chainsaw Man
I almost didn't put this on the list because I haven't started reading part 2 because I want to read part 2 all in one shot after it's done so I don't actually engage with csm fandom currently because I want to avoid spoilers. but I can't not put it on this list. it fucked me up so bad I had to stop in the middle and take a break and go cry in the park over my own dad's death for like half an hour. Fujimoto-sensei handles grief manifesting as regret in a way that gets to me like no one else can.

-Blue Lock
I fucking love sports manga