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Just thought we could maybe have a thread to see if anyone is reading any good manga at the moment and see what people recommend.

Anyway I just finished Mermaids Saga and it was pretty good. Didn't really develop but was a good read you could just pick up without worrying about what has happened before. Slightly different then Takahashi's normal work, nice and dark without much comedy.

Read the first few volumes of Rurouni Kenshin which was good. Thought it would be a bit overrated but im enjoying it.

Read volume one of Beck which was OK. Slower paced than the anime (only saw the first couple of episodes but it starts later on than the manga I think) but could be a nice read but not a high priority.

Lastly I read Legal Drug volume 1 by Clamp. Strange manga that kind of leaves you wondering what the hell is going on as not much is revealed after one volume. Going to carry on reading it as it's only a few volumes long as it got cancelled in Japan as it didn't go down too well. I love Clamp so will keep with it but it may not be for everyone...

Out of them all I highly recommend Mermaids Saga (it's only four volumes as well) but they are all worth checking out. Anyone else got any recommendations?

I love Legal Drug but the last time I read it (volume 3) was about 2 years ago! It's been on hold (not really cancelled) ever since. There's a small scene on XXXHolic where Yuuko sends Watanuki to their store to buy something.
If you like it you should try XXXHolic. It's not exactly the same but it's also bizarre and it poses more questions than it gives answers. Of course, XXXHolic the manga crosses over with Tsubasa so you might as well read Tsubasa too (it's quite good).

I've been seriously into darker, more serious manga (seinen) lately. On the other hand I've also found some shoujo titles that appeal to me quite much. I'm totally fed up with shonen manga though. I used to have lots of fun with it but nowadays I just find it boring and repetitive (there are a few exceptions of course).

I highly recommend ES- Eternal Sabbath, Del Rey already published volume 1 (I've been read it in French though).
For epic, dramatic manga with lots of ancient History in the middle check out Red River (same style as Basara which you should definitely read if you haven't already).
Genshiken is fun and original (the manga tells a lot more than the anime).
If you can find the scanlations I suggest you try Psychometrer Eiji (I always recommend this one :p), it's very interesting.

Any work by Eiji Otsuka (writer) is worth reading. MPD Psycho, Leviathan, Japan, they're all awesome! Same goes for the works of Kazuo Koike. Lone Wolf and Cub, Samurai Executioner and Lady Snow Blood are very good.

If you like the samurai genre then you should read Vagabond (about the life of Miyamoto Musashi), and the amazing Blade of the Immortal.

Berserk is also a must. The new Zetman by Masakazu Katsura is spectacular. Monster is superb.

If there are scanlations available you should really try Homunculus (Hideo Yamamoto). It's weird, it's dark, it's very interesting.

Quote:Homunculus tells the story of a middle aged man, who spends his days living in a car, smack inbetween a park infested with homeless people and a large, upper-class hotel complex. He has nothing, yet he is always classily dressed and looks well taken care of, despite the fact he sleeps in his car. Once a day, he always takes the car out for a ride, no matter what the weather. One day, an oddly dressed young man approaches him, and asks him if he would like to participate in a little experiment... Involving having a hole drilled in his skull. He promptly refuses; he has no need for money anyway. The next day, however, his car runs out of gas and gets towed. Desperate for money to get his car back, he approaches the young man and accepts to have the hole drilled in his skull. ''A safe procedure.'', he is assured. But then, of course, that's when the side effects kick in...

One of the most amazing manga I've ever read (and am still reading) is Shin Angyo Onshi. It's manga because it was created for Japan and published for the first time in Japan but it's author is Korean. Another great title by a Korean author is Dangoo.

Land of the Blindfolded is shoujo but it's a bit different from your typical "boy meets girl, girl meets boy, boy and girl go through hardships, boy and girl end up happily ever after (or not)" kind of shoujo. It's really nice and for some reason I always feel serene after reading it.

And last, but not least, the title that I'll recommend until I die and that's an absolute must: Nana. I don't suppose I need to say anything else.

Sorry if I don't say a lot about most titles but writing something about each one of them would keep me here all night. :p There's plenty of information on the internet so if you're interested all you have to do is use google.

I've recently finished reading DeathNote. It's about a boy who finds a notebook that can kill anyone as long as he has a face and a name of that person. It's an interesting story that follows the antagonist instead of the protagonist. Overall, the first half of the series is fun to read, the second half got pretty boring and lame.

Another one, if you like Rurouni Kenshin, the only other manga popular from Nobuhiro Watsuki is Busou Renkin. The story is very similar to Bleach. It's about a boy who tries to save a girl named Tokiko from a monster called a Homunculus. But little did the boy, Kazuki Mutou, know, that Tokiko is an experienced Alchemy Warrior. The boy dies and is given a new life with an item called a "Kakugane" to replace his heart. This Kakugane gives Kazuki new powers that can be used to fight off Homunculi (the plural of Homunculus) properly. In my opinion, a lot of events in Busou Renkin are very parallel to events in Bleach, but maybe it's just me.

Psygnius Wrote:I've recently finished reading DeathNote. It's about a boy who finds a notebook that can kill anyone as long as he has a face and a name of that person. It's an interesting story that follows the antagonist instead of the protagonist. Overall, the first half of the series is fun to read, the second half got pretty boring and lame.

I've been reading Death Note and while I find it enjoyable I think it's highly overrated, not to mentioned filled with flaws.

I forgot to suggest Count Cain (particularly the God Child story arc). It's done by Kaori Yuki, the author of the fabulous and complex Angel Sanctuary, and takes place in a sort of Victorian/gothic England.

Quote:In 19th century England, Count Cain C. Hargreaves is a beautiful yet sadistic young man surrounded by mystery. After inheriting his title, Cain's life seems to be surrounded in mystery and death. With only his man servant, Riff, to console him and confide in, and his little sister Merryweather to dote upon, Cain must solve mystery after mystery with the help of his immense collection of poisons and his wit.

Mystery surrounds the young Count Cain C. Hargreaves, a known procurator of poisons famous in his home of Victorian England, it is said he brings a curse on all those around him. Bloody intrigue follows where ever he goes, the whip marks on his back burning with each sinful act by the secret society his supposedly dead father has gathered. Cain strikes back this time, acting against the destiny engraved onto his gold eyes, evidence of his father and mother's incestuous ways.

Yeh I heard Legal Drug crosses over with XXXholic. Haven't read the manga yet but have started watching the anime (the movie was WEIRD and got me curious!). Love Tsubasa though, volumes 7 and up are on my next to read list.

Death Note sounds like it might be interesting and so does Homunculus.

Like the sound of Land of the Blindfolded. Need a new shoujo title after dropping Tokyo Boys & Girls (it was pretty awful).

I'll skip Busou Renkin though for the moment if it's similar to Bleach as I've just started to read that.

Just saw that the Oldboy manga had been released and know I just have to read it! Damn so much to read so little time!

gubi-gubi Wrote:Yeh I heard Legal Drug crosses over with XXXholic. Haven't read the manga yet but have started watching the anime (the movie was WEIRD and got me curious!). Love Tsubasa though, volumes 7 and up are on my next to read list.

The movie is great in my opinion. On the other hand the Tsubasa movie isn't anywhere near as good as the series.
For some reason there's no cross over between XXXHolic and Tsubasa in the XXXHolic anime, at least not yet.

gubi-gubi Wrote:Damn so much to read so little time!

If you read one volume a day (takes me around 20 to 40 minutes depending on how much there is to read - Blame used to take me 5 min ) you'll be able to read about 30 volumes a month. If you have the time to read more than one volume a day even better.

Considering I've just graduated and too lazy to start looking for work yet - these are all good recommendations as I have spare time upto my ears So much time, so many things to do with it ^_^

animeshop Wrote:Considering I've just graduated and too lazy to start looking for work yet - these are all good recommendations as I have spare time upto my ears So much time, so many things to do with it ^_^

Lucky...My butts been working al the time so I can afford to continue schooling.

Anyways, Anne Freaks second vol. was MUCH more interesting than the first chapter. I still can't wrap a descriptive term around it, but that is probably because it is more thought out. The cookie cutter totally went out the window for this one. It was kinda hard to grasp at first, but this isn't an average tale; this is a tight story, and I can tell it is going somewhere I want to be (well, just to watch).

Claymore also got better in vol. 2, but it is kinda standard action title. Hunter X Hunter keeps being enjoyable. Bleach hasn't really been the same since vol. 9 and 10 slowed things down. It's better now, but that stutter just sucked.

It isn't manga, but I read the 4th Vampire Hunter D and it was a good read. The second one is the only one so far that I couldn't really recommend, but it might just be because it came after the first one, which is what the first anime movie is based on and is (so far) the best story that has come from Hideyuki Kikuchi.

Gubi-gubi, I was looking for something at thehawks.org and noticed they have scanlations of Homunculus vol 1-6 there, they also have scanlations of Leviathan and MPDPsycho. If you're interested go here: http://www.thehawks.org/hawks/bt/

i'm still not to sure about anne freaks. just finished the second volume and idk i guess it's just not my style. lately i've been looking for some good manga to read between releases of negima, the gto prequel, and dears. i picked up midori days and really liked the first volume, but after that, idk it didn't seem so good. read volume one of sgt frog and it was ok but just made me want to read negima even more lol.

Andromeda18_ Wrote:Gubi-gubi, I was looking for something at thehawks.org and noticed they have scanlations of Homunculus vol 1-6 there, they also have scanlations of Leviathan and MPDPsycho. If you're interested go here: http://www.thehawks.org/hawks/bt/

Cheers I'll get them on download soon. I'm in trouble with my ISP though, im 165GB over my limit lol... Screw em.

I just finished Rurouni Kenshin, which I thought was pretty amazing despite the Viz treatment of it. (I have the Japanese volumes for the Jinchu Arc, and Viz really butchered the art with its lame overlaid English sound effects. The typography was also lame ... there oughta be a law).

Also reading Berserk. Gets a little too self-indulgent with the sexual graphics now and then for me, but I still love it. Certain volumes, like 6, are so good in every way, the hook never loosens and I can't wait for the next volume. Really nice publications ... for 99%, no stupid English sound effects. Nice typography too. A class act.

My local library isn't big on manga, and I'm on a limited budget, so I can't go crazy buying manga (especially if I want to buy anime). But now that Rurouni Kenshin has ended, I want to begin a new series. So this is a great thread. (I'm thinking of reading Bleach, which looks really good ...)

marka Wrote:Viz really butchered the art with its lame overlaid English sound effects. The typography was also lame ... there oughta be a law).

I know what you mean. They have got a lot better with it lately though. At least they try to change the fonts a bit for different sounds but they just don't have the skill to properly make it fit in. I prefer to have the little '*' with an English explanation underneath though.

marka Wrote:My local library isn't big on manga, and I'm on a limited budget, so I can't go crazy buying manga (especially if I want to buy anime).

It's good that your library has manga. Doubt anything like that happens much in the UK. Would save me a lot of cash! Prefer buying manga to anime though. I'd say im a manga fan first then an anime fan second. Get a better feeling from manga and you can take it anywhere.

Not necessarily manga persay but batman year one, return of the dark knight and the long halloween are all awesome books and I recommend them to everyone even if youve never read a batman comic.

gubi-gubi Wrote:Cheers I'll get them on download soon. I'm in trouble with my ISP though, im 165GB over my limit lol... Screw em.

165GB over the limit?! :eek: I have to pay 1.5? for every extra GB and that's now because a couple of months ago it was 15? (yes, 15?). Well, to be honest I can download whatever I want because a friend of mine who's a bit of computer genius made it happen.

Anyway, found scanlations of another series I recommended you. Dangoo, being scanlated under the name of Dangu. It's been licensed by Dark Horse (Shaman Warrior) so I don't know if the scanlations will continue.
You can find them here: http://www.manganews.net/seriesinfo.php?id=2775

They also have scanlations of Shin Angyo Onshi (highly, highly recommended). http://www.manganews.net/seriesinfo.php?id=826

That website and mangaupdates.com have hundreds of scanlated series.