Your favorite mangas and manga genres. :3

Hellsing will always have a special place in my heart, since it took forever to came out but it was clear that everyone involved in it loved the project and took the time to make the best thing possible. The mix of mythology and real-world history is great.

I'm a huge fan of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki. He wanted to make a manga about humanity, wanted it to be a mult-generational epic, and it is! I learned a lot about the artistic process in general from him. There's videos of him drawing and he uses issues of Vogue and art books of Michelangelo's works, he goes on trips to the places in his manga and takes tons of notes/photos. You can take panels and find the exact places in real life. His How To Draw Manga book is very good, but it's mostly about storytelling, not literally how to draw, and he discusses power creep and why tournament arcs in shonen is just...bad. Your character constantly has to get more powerful, which means the enemies need to get more powerful, but it's more interesting to have your heroes use their powers in creative ways then to just punch harder than the other guy.

The Promised Neverland and Demon Slayer have both finished this year and are very good; lots of great worldbuilding and it's so refreshing having MCs being empathetic to the bad guys. Dr Stone is the only currently-being-published thing I'm reading and I love it. Again, the MC is very empathetic and kind and problems aren't solved by punching harder than the other guy. It also has a ton of real-world science across multiple disciplines, so I'm learning a lot. Characters have value even if they're not "book smart" or classically strong, it takes all sorts of people to run a modern society. We know what the "end game"/final challenge will be, and I have no idea how they'll engineer their way to do that, but I know they can and it'll be an amazing trip to get there.

For genres, I really like shonen, but I don't like a lot of it because it suffers the "I have an incredibly vague goal and no clear path to get to it" problem. Ash wants to be the pokemon master, but what does that mean? Beating the elite 4? Finishing his pokedex? Why does he start over with new pokemon every time? Shouldn't his pikachu destroy anything since its so over-leveled? We know that this is because the series keeps going since they keep making new pokemon, they want Ash to have pokemon for that region but, diegeticly, there's no reason for him to have been working on his goal for a decade and not be any closer to it. I want to see characters grow and I want stories to end​. Dragging them out for forever isn't satisfying.

I'm not really tied to any one genre in particular. I like bits and pieces of everything, as long as its entertaining. Our current "purchase on new release" books are Gokushufudo/Way of the Househusband, A Man and his Cat, and Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon. I also tend to grab any Junji Ito I can find. I'm not usually a fan of horror, but that man is magic (though Cat Diaries is my favorite of his because of the strange mesh of his horror style with the general everyday life with cats.)

Hello!

I usually read manga for visuals more than for stories, so I'm not sure if I have a favorite genre. My fav artists are Oshimi Shuzō (The Flowers of Evil, for example) and Asao Inio, but I also like more bizarre stuff, like Maruo Suehiro (The Camellia Girl, for example – but definitely not 100% of what I've seen of his work!) and similar ero-guro style artists.

On the other hand, I like historical manga, and those I read for stories rather than art. I was obsessed with the Ōi! Ryōma series by Takeda Tetsuya/Koyama Yū (even though I generally dislike the Bakumatsu period), and I love Sugiura Hinako's books about Edo period, especially Sarusuberi (translated to English as Miss Hokusai, I think); Sugiura's art is pretty amazing, too, though.

Tocotin said:

I usually read manga for visuals more than for stories... I like historical manga,

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Have you read A Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori? It didn't really grab me personally story-wise, but the art and detail and interpersonal relationships in it are beyond compare.

Maggie Maxwell said:

Have you read A Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori? It didn't really grab me personally story-wise, but the art and detail and interpersonal relationships in it are beyond compare.

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Oh, I haven't read that! It looks absolutely beautiful. Thank you!

Immortal Rain by Kaori Ozaki.
Black Jack by Osamu Tezuka.
Blue Morning by Shoko Hidaka.

So interesting reading other people's thoughts and recommendations here! Thanks for starting the thread, Sinuka!

I'm out-of-date in my manga reading, but I really like Matsuri Akino's approach in both Petshop of Horrors series, Genju no Seiza, etc. Basically, each tankoubon volume is made self-contained short stories, but all the short stories work together in contributing to/furthering an overall story arc. So you get 10 surefire payoffs, or however many chapters there are, rather than the story just continuing to slog... slog... slog... through the storyline... that never ends... and you think it's getting to where it needs to go... ooops, no you're not... the end's in sight... haha, tricked you, there's still 10 more volumes to buy... did I say 10? I meant 20... Ah, serial fiction...

There are others that I like for their premise (but could have been improved by some good hard editing) and other I like for their art (oh my goodness, can you not get to the point?) and others that I like for their worldbuilding or their humor or their creativity or usage of cultural elements. But I think Petshop and Genju no Seiza incorporate all-the-things, and have snappy storytelling.

550, wow! That's impressive! I need to go and count mine; it's a fair few, definitely nowhere near that much.

Thank you so much for reminding me of Library Wars. They had it at the local library when I was younger, but not the entire series, so I haven't read the whole thing. Everything I read warmed my heart. As a side-note, it was nice to have a male love interest be shorter than the female main character. That's pretty rare. The only other example I can think of with that is Lovely Complex, which is pretty awesome too.

I'm a fan of CLAMP, mostly. I also enjoy Kuroshitsuji, Nozaki-kun (for laughs), Takane to Hana... And I've had an idea for a manga for forever--even tried to learn to draw--but I'm useless at it... My brain just isn't wired that way or something.

Sinuka said:

Hello everyone. I am a new member who dreams of becoming a manga artist and author.
I am so happy there is a section for manga enthusiasts and so I am really curious about everyones preferences regarding manga. >w< ~♥

So: What are you favorite mangas and genres?

My favorite genres are mostly psychological horror, thriller and yaoi. But I actually read everything that promises a good story.
The best manga in the world is Hellsing by Kouta Hirano. That man is my absolute role model as an artist and his style is the most beautiful and brutal I have ever seen.
From all the characters in the manga I love Pip Bernadotte, the captain of the Wild Geese, the most.

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Monster, One Punch Man, and Drifters.

I really enjoy horror and some classics. Here are my favorites:

Anything and everything by Junji Ito. The one I find the most disturbing is Uzumaki.
Akira
Lone Wolf and Cub
Battle Royale
Fullmetal Alchemist
Gantz
Battle Angel Alita

I love manga although I read it off and on rather than consistently. It's a nice break from novels and nonfiction, although I read it for a combo of the writing/plot but also the art, as I also love to draw and get inspiration from seeing the different styles.

Some of the manga I've loved are:
The Bride's Story -- not so much for the story (although it is okay) but the line drawings are INCREDIBLE and so detailed. I'm envious of how skilled the illustrator is but also don't want to know how long each page took them to complete, because it's so intricate.

Monster by Naoki Urasawa. Oh my goodness. This is my absolute favorite series but it is bleak and somewhat depressing. The artwork is good but the plot is what sold me on it!

The Promised Neverland -- the plot, the artwork, the eerie vibe... it's such a good manga!

I've also dabbled here and there with some lighter manga but I can't recall the names now. Oops.

I'm so glad to see others mentioning Naoki Urasawa's Monster, genuinely a masterpiece of art and pacing and atmosphere and characters, one of the few series I own physical copies of. I haven't completed the manga itself yet, but the anime for Kaiji is amazing, great story in the vein of Squid Game with gambling games where the poor risk death for the amusement of a rich few in rigged circumstances. Kaiji himself is a very fun protagonist to follow, and the art style is really distinctive and angular.

I've started following a bunch online the last year or so.
- Easily my favorite is Tis Time for Torture, Princess. Don't let the title fool you, it's incredibly lighthearted and silly and will make you hungry and value friendship.
- Magilumiere Co. Ltd. is a cool take on magical girls where they're basically all extermination companies competing for rights to jobs. The title company is a small startup trying to do things a little differently.
- Mashle: Magic and Muscles is a hilarious take on a magical school in a magical world story of a kid born without magic in a world where EVERYONE has magic, but he's trained so hard that he can fake magic with his absurd strength.
- Sakamoto Days is kinda like Way of the Househusband, but instead of being a slice of life with hilarious side effects, it's a "I got out but they're dragging me back in" type. Sakamoto was the best assassin before he fell in love and had a kid. Now he and his wife run a convenience store, but the assassins won't let him go so easily.
- Spy x Family is the New Hotness with the anime and I'm so hype for the next season in two weeks! I was trying to be Published Books Only to pace myself but gave in and had to get up to date with the manga.
- Show-Ha Shoten! (don't have a place where you can read the backlog online, unfortunately only the first three and most recent three) is a slice of life about two high schoolers trying to become a famous comedy duo in manzai comedy. I don't really get manzai humor, but the characters are so good you can't help but root for them.

I know this is very broad, but I like shonen. I like action, but not when a story is 99% action. I like interpersonal drama and romance, but I don't like stories that only involve those things. Shonen typically has a good blend of action and interpersonal drama, which is why I'm quite fond of it.

In no particular order:

• Berserk
• Black Lagoon
• Tezuka's seinen work (Phoenix, Black Jack, Ode to Kirihito, Message to Adolf, MW, etc.)
• Vagabond
• Rose of Versailles
• Blade of the Immortal
• Otomo's AKIRA and DOMU
• Spy × Family
• Rurouni Kenshin, although the author's controversies have killed my enthusiasm for it
• Urasawa's Monster, 20th Century Boys
• Ironically, I prefer the TV and animated film adaptations of Ghost In The Shell to the originals
• NANA
• Paradise Kiss

Sinuka said:

I don't know all of them but there are great choices I know.
Rest in peace, Miura-Sensei. (╥﹏╥)

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I'm ecstatic to hear that they will at least try to complete the series by way of his notes.

All good picks mentioned above: Berserk, FMA, Hellsing.

I really enjoy the works of Yoshihiro Togashi, particularly Hunter X Hunter.

I don't know if I have a favorite, but Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaaki is worth mentioning.

Sinuka said:

Lovely examples. =w= Haven't gotten to Parasyte yet, I gotta admit that...

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Well worth it, with a great concept and tight storytelling. The anime adaptation was very good as well.

Highly violent, however, with some tragedy laced in. It's not torture porn or anything (not even the goriest of the works mentioned on this thread), but I'd still prefer to give people a heads up.