Good Manga?

I recommend "Berserk", but also advise you to have a fairly strong stomach.

Snowball2695 said:

Fine!
All my friends have been recommending it, but I've never really bothered.
Guess I probably should.

Click to expand...

You need a REALLY strong stomach. I'm going to recommend two of the big three, One Piece and Naruto. Not Bleach, that goes downhill so you'll probably be disappointed after a while. One Piece takes quite a while to get good but when it does get good it becomes clear why it's the number one manga in Japan. I watched the crappy anime when I was younger and it took my friend two years to talk me into giving it a try. Now I'm a huge fan. Seriously, keep reading til the Arlong Arc. It just keeps going uphill from there (there are sooo many Crowning Moments of Awesome) Naruto isn't mindblowing or anything, but it's consistently interesting.

Basara, Mars, Blue Exorcist, Bakuman, Rurouni Kenshin, Yakitate Japan, Immortal Rain, Moribito, Battle Royale, Negima, Honey and Clover, Fullmetal Alchemist, Full Metal Panic, Basilisk, Pluto, Monster, 20th Century Boys, Yotsuba...it really depends if you prefer shounen or shoujo, though. Or seinen or even josei.

Most of my completed/dropped manga are romance, or have romance subplots.

I used to spend big hours reading manga, but right now I'm just following three:
1. Beelzebub
2. Baby Steps
3. Ocha ni Gosu

Plus one webtoon:
1. Girl the Wild's

They are light-hearted. I get a comfortable feel reading these titles.

soopykun said:

Basara, Mars, Blue Exorcist, Bakuman, Rurouni Kenshin, Yakitate Japan, Immortal Rain, Moribito, Battle Royale, Negima, Honey and Clover, Fullmetal Alchemist, Full Metal Panic, Basilisk, Pluto, Monster, 20th Century Boys, Yotsuba...it really depends if you prefer shounen or shoujo, though. Or seinen or even josei.

Click to expand...

You have just reminded me how out of date my manga knowledge is! I know such a small handful of those titles.

Chiron said:

You have just reminded me how out of date my manga knowledge is! I know such a small handful of those titles.

Click to expand...

Actually, I haven't read any new manga for about a year now. Any of the older ones are my recs; anything remotely current is what my husband and and my kids are enjoying at the moment

If you like light-hearted love stories, you could try Kaichou wa Maid-sama. +_+

Is Vampire Hunter D considered manga?

soopykun said:

Basara, Mars, Blue Exorcist, Bakuman, Rurouni Kenshin, Yakitate Japan, Immortal Rain, Moribito, Battle Royale, Negima, Honey and Clover, Fullmetal Alchemist, Full Metal Panic, Basilisk, Pluto, Monster, 20th Century Boys, Yotsuba...it really depends if you prefer shounen or shoujo, though. Or seinen or even josei.

Click to expand...

Clicked on the thread to recommend Pluto, Monster, and especially 20th Century Boys! Beaten to the punch.

The beginning of Gantz is all right, but I felt it grew tiresome after some time.

DeathNote is interesting.

FLCL is hilarious (and short, both in Manga form and Anime)

If you’re looking for action and comedy with a bit of romance I suggest you try Shakugan no Shana and Full Metal Alchemist.

Death Note is great until a certain character's death. You'll know when you get there... I suppose it's kind of a thriller?

I ADORE Fullmetal Alchemist. Action, angst, comedy, all around interesting plot.

Brandon Locke said:

Is Vampire Hunter D considered manga?

Click to expand...

Vampire Hunter D is out as a light novel and as a manga.

I'd also suggest Basilisk, although it ends on a bit of a downer. Also, ditto on the stronger constitution to read it.

Echo the Fullmetal Alchemist rec as well.

Ghost In The Shell, Crying Freeman (highly recommended), Doraemon... I also tell people to pick up Akira way too much, and everyone has probably read that these days anyway. Oh, Fist Of The North Star as well.

Berserk is awesome.

Is it gory and graphic? Yes. Does it deal with some horrific and dark issues? Of course. Is it still worth a read?

You bet your ass.

Gutts is pretty much the Byronic hero personified. His personal history is so dark and tormented you almost want to give him a hug, except you know that would be a horrible, horrible thing to do.

It's a fantasy manga, but the fantasy elements are used more as setting rather than plot elements, like in say Lord of the Rings or your generic fantasy story.

It has a very complicated plot, all of it driven by character motivations at cross-purposes trying to feed their own ambitions and desires.

It is honestly in my top 3 favorite stories of all time.

GingerGunlock said:

Clicked on the thread to recommend Pluto, Monster, and especially 20th Century Boys! Beaten to the punch.

Click to expand...

They're all fantastic, but at the same time, they are all sooooo sloooooow. Not to say that they aren't worth the overall story-arc, if you can handle the slow moments.

Seriously, the ending to Monster? I have never felt more sympathetic and practically heartbroken about any character like I have Dr. Tenma. Seriously, brought a tear to my eye.

20th Century Boys is a book that goes on forever and then just when you think it's about done, you realize you still have another three storylines to read. They're all tied together so wonderfully though and the character that "Takes a Level in Badass" is fantastic.

Pluto was my least favorite of the three, but I should probably reread it. Can hardly remember it now.

The beginning of Gantz is all right, but I felt it grew tiresome after some time.

Click to expand...

I was so disappointed by Gantz. The original story idea was great, they just ran with it waaaay too long and kept throwing in really creepy weird sex shit. It is hilarious the random ways the artist will do his best to get some tits into every issue.

DeathNote is interesting.

Click to expand...

The complicated traps and plots the protagonist/antagonist set up for each other are simply brilliant. A great example of two chessmasters dueling for superiority.

Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata, hands down. A double thumbs up from my 12-year-old manga obsessed daughter.

I *beilieve* Descendants of Darkness recently restarted in Japan. No idea though if that'll ever get brought over here (and honestly, I find it hard to get into the new chapters from what I've seen. It's just been too long )

ETA: If you want to be kept busy for a loooooong time, I second One Piece. I personally found it preferable to its two closest brethren, Bleach and Naruto, as far as overall narrative consistency and character development. (Though I too would put Naruto above Bleach - It has its problems, some of them pretty big, but it also maintains a consistency so if you like the first handful of volumes you'll probably continue to like it)

Petshop of Horrors (Matsuri Akino), Hana Kimi (Hisaya Nakajo), and Rosario+Vampire (Akihisa Ikeda) are some of my favorites.

My top three:

Lone Wolf and Cub - dark, literary, violent, disturbing, historical
Fruits Basket - feel-good teeny-bopper romance and angst
Kare Kano - cute, occasionally dark but mostly sweet romance

JoNightshade said:

Lone Wolf and Cub - dark, literary, violent, disturbing, historical

Click to expand...

If possible, I advise people to steer clear of the digest collections and look for the oversized editions - such beautiful artwork deserves to sprawl across the page rather than be squinted at.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Nastume Youjin Chou. *Natsume and the Book of Friends. It's is very good.

I'm also going to recommend an old one, Les Bijoux.

Host Club was delightful, I echo FMA is awesome. There's also a Manwha called 1/2 Prince that is hilarious and weird with romance, the only other recommendation I can make is Ghost Hunt. A warning about that one though, the only way to get the last volume (at the moment) is online.

Oh, and about Death Note, I am going to be REALLY lame here (and go against almost every DN fan...) and say that the character some people are speaking of was definitely in my list of least favorite characters. IMO the series was still really good after that point. It was realistic that that character died. Fit the story you know what I mean?

That was off topic. Anyway I would recommend it.


-Seth

I never understood all the love for Soul Reaper. I watched part of it with my roommate and while there were some funny moments, it seemed pretty lackluster to me.