Manga thread

[Kyber]

So I recently started reading JoJo's bizarre adventures, it's pretty great thus far. The only other Manga I've read was Berserk, and it is the greatest thing I've experienced, it is so god damn good (still waiting for the next installment, which I heard would come this year with a release of a new film).

So what Manga are you guys currently reading and what is your favorite series?

 

[madwarper]

In no particular order;

Ongoing
Silver Spoon
Girls of the Wilds
Ability
Desert Punk
Again!!
Aku no Hana
Shingeki no Kyojin

Completed
Ketchup Ninja
Heads
Overbleed
Pluto
Monster
BioMeat: Nectar/Region

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Berserk, Neon genesis Evangelion (way better than either the series or the films), Magi - Labyrinth of Magic, Gigantomakhia, Sprite, Ranma 1/2 and Hellsing come to mind.

Edit. Oh, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is pretty phenomenal too. If you've seen the movie, it's nothing compared to the epic swoops of the manga.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I really don't read many manga at all.

Akira
Berserk
Gunsmith Cats
Dragon Half
Genshiken

These are the only manga I've read all the way through. And of them Gunsmith Cats is the only dud, the rest are fantastic.

 

[Elfgore]

Reading

Everyday Life With Monster Girls
12 Beast
Blade Play
Crimezone
KissXSis
Rosario Vampire: Season 2
Maga-Tsuki
Heaven's Lost Property (Last Chapter is out this month. So excited!)
Nyotai-Ka
Saiteihen no Otoko (Read this now! Most disturbing manga I have ever read.)
Seikerai

Finished
Oretama
Kare wa Tomodachi (Worst thing I have ever read. It's Twilight without monsters and a love square instead of triangle.)
Rosario Vampire: Season 1

There are some others I'm reading and finished, but the names are to long or just really annoying to type out.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

All I'm really reading manga wise at the moment is Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, a manga retelling of the original Gundam Story put together by the series' character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. I'm loving it so far, it's got more meat to it than the Gundam Movie Trilogy but it still cuts out the enemy of the week stuff and keeps the more hard military sci-fi angle that the movies espoused. Also the North American Volumes of the series are these gorgeous hardcover books and I love having them on the shelf.

All time favourites, well you can probably count those as the only manga I've actually held onto since I stopped really picking up Manga...
- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
- Full Metal Alchemist
- Battle Angel Alita (have some last order... maybe I'll finish it one day but I stopped reading it when it turned into a Shounen Style Tournament Fighter for like 5 or 6 volumes)

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm not much for constant anime/manga consumption. The only series I'm actively reading is the Black Butler series.

Thanks to a certain user here I've gotten a little addicted to it.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Concidentally, I also am reading JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I'm currently on Part 7 Steel Ball Run, and it's brilliant.

My favourite series is probably Fullmetal Alchemist, because there are just so many things good about it and so few things bad about it. The characters, the story, the alchemy, everything...I fucking love it.

 

[TakerFoxx]

Dance in the Vampire Bund, hands' down. When I first checked it out, I was rather wary, given all I knew about it was the rather infamous fanservice, so I wasn't expecting much. But once I actually started to read, my reaction can be summed up by this (paraphrased) Yahtzee quote: "Shit up my nose! What right does this series have to always kick arse?" Seriously, it's great. The writing, the characters, the art, the action, the story, and the setting are all top notch, and I eagerly await each new volume with great impatience. I just can't read them in public.

 

[Artina89]

My favourite manga series is probably Death Note. I can read it over and over again and not get bored of it. At the moment though, I am reading Black butler and I am enjoying that just as much. Others that I have read and enjoyed have been Battle Royale, Trigun and MW. I also enjoy Legal drug, and was really happy to find out that it was being continued under a new name, Drug and drop

 

[Coakle]

Favorite Series: Binbougami Ga!

Spoiler: Reasons

It has a well done ending, so bonus points for that. The protagonist,Sakura Ichiko, has enough flaws that she could be a villian, but the writer makes her more complex than that.

It's got heart. The friendship that develops between and Momji is believable. It happens over time as they hang out with each other. The read is not perfect, some of the humor is hit or miss, but the core is very solid.

What I'm reading now:

Manga (Japanese) :

Kingdom - Fastest updating manga, I've seen. Story of a kid, in the Qin kingdom, who wants to be a 'Great General'.
Bartender - Learn about cocktails and people problems. Very laid-back read.
Beelzebub - Delinquent fights with a baby on his back. It's funny and the baby is adorable.
Prison School - There's a lot of lowbrow humor, thoughtful introspection, tension, and camaraderie. It has some extremely sleazy shots, but they are in service to the parts I listed before. Not for everyone.


Manhwa (Korean):

Tower of God
Geukji High
Dear, Only You Don't Know!
Soul Cartel


Manhua (Chinese)

Feng Shen Ji - Has the best 'Oh shit' moment, I've ever read.
Blood and Steel

 

[iseko]

Attack on titan for the moment. Humans being trapped in cities behind huge walls to keep human eating titans out. It is a tad fucked up in the beginning. The first season has been turned into an anime. Here is the trailer.

Spoiler: attack on titan

 

[Snowbell]

Own in print;
Fruits Basket
Cardcaptors
Bizenghast
Pandora Hearts
Black Butler
Alice in the Country of Hearts

Reading:
Black Butler
Attack on Titan

BB is probably my favourite because GOSH the art is beautiful, I would say Attack on Titan is my favourite because GOSH the suspence, mystery, action, excitement etc but I don't get along with the artwork :I I much prefer AoT's anime

 

[Seracen]

I have a thing for finished mangas, so in no order...

Blade of the Immortal - got a bit convoluted in the middle, but a great samurai story with supernatural elements

Kurozuka - a Korean version of "The Highlander," with superpowered immortals fighting from ancient Japan to the post apocalypse...what more can one ask?

Shin Angyo Onshi (Blade of the Phantom Master) - very similar to Berserk in many ways, heroes versus an empire run by demonic powers.

Ai Yori Aoshi - a fun and dramatic romantic dramedy, if you can get through it all, and it actually resolves the plots definitively!

Gantz - had its highs, its lows, and a passable yet "meh" ending. Still, a fun and grotesque scifi romp.

Elfen Lied - fun start, passable end, telekinetic catgirls fighting to the death...

********************************

Now, on to the unfinished...

Rosario Vampire - admittedly, I dropped this b/c it got crazy, but I intend to pick it up again once finished. A fun supernatural harem comedy

Disciple Kenichi - similar as above, except with martial arts and no harem (2 primaries thus far)

Goldenboy - classic comedy entry, is this still going, is it finished? I don't know, but whenever I read it, I have fun with it

Till Death Do Us Part - a fun modern take on the traditional "Zatoichi" story (blind swordsman)

Attack on Titan - I have reservations as to how the story has progressed of late, but it remains compelling.

********************************

Beautiful failures. The manga I want to like, are worth reading, but I got fed up with...

Air Gear and Tenjou Tenge - action mangas that ended, so there's that. But the back halves of both were weak.

Bleach - the never ending cycle of bullcrap, but it started out as a strong action manga

Berserk - Guts has yet to make headway in accomplishing either of his primary goals (restore Caska or kill Griffith) after nearly 20 years of story. As much as I once enjoyed this, I just don't have the patience to deal with all the waiting, just to see the author pour more salt on the wound. This has become torture porn in my eyes...


I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of any compelling ones offhand.

 

[Kyber]

Berserk - Guts has yet to make headway in accomplishing either of his primary goals (restore Caska or kill Griffith) after nearly 20 years of story. As much as I once enjoyed this, I just don't have the patience to deal with all the waiting, just to see the author pour more salt on the wound. This has become torture porn in my eyes...

In my opinion, sometimes it's about the journey itself, not the destination, but I can see where you're coming from.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I was enjoying Negima!...until that cop out ending showed up and I felt like I had wasted all those years for that. Still bought every volume and finished it, but damn...

Right now, I'm reading:
Mayo Chiki which I am finding highly amusing.

Love in Hell...not sure I'm going to continue that one. A little too twisted and violent for my tastes.

Spice and Wolf. For the love of manga, can we please get volume 9 here in the U.S. already?

Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends. I'm enjoying this so far, but if Yorza doesn't start changing, she is going to kill this series for me. There's bitchy, and then there's just, "You're a *****."

Omamori Himari. Having fun with this one, although this four month break is what caused me to pick up three of the four above titles. I needed something to read.

Monster Musume. Papi is my favorite.

I was reading Naruto in book form up until volume sixty two or so. The plot has just become too...blah for me to spend any more money on the books. Still read it online, including the chapter that just came out that ended with a certain someone getting gutted like a fish.

Heaven's Lost Property. Just found out that the next issue will be the conclusion. Very sad that this series is ending. I hope they don't pull a whole, "Everything's back to normal, but no one remembers anything so they're not friends anymore, but they'll find each other again some day."

I think that's all that I'm reading right now...No, wait! A Certain Scientific Railgun. But again, waiting for the next released book is killing me.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Reading

Everyday Life With Monster Girls

Heaven's Lost Property (Last Chapter is out this month. So excited!)

Papi is best monster so far, yes?

And how can you be excited about it ending? I'm sad. I'm going to miss Nymph...and, uh, I suppose everyone else too, but mostly Nymph. :-(

 

[rutger5000]

In order of not being famous, but still extremely good. All of them are finished, and that is the sign of a truly great manga. Mangas like Bleach or Naruto go on forever, and inevitably lose quality. (I'm afraid that Jojo's bizare adventure does so aswell. The first three arcs are really good, (the second is the best)). After that things just really go down hill.

BioMeat Nectar. Best survival horror manga ever, no doubt about it. It has anything you could ever ask of a manga without being perverted.
Parasyte horror manga with the best character development I've ever seen.
Beck great manga about a Rock band trying to make it professional. It has awesome dynamic relations both romantic and friendly ones and great character development. And the music they reference is awesome. The first volume has been animated and that anime is also really good.
History. Great manga about the Greek times.
Holyland good martial arts manga, but it gets repetitive after a while.
Battle Royal.

Now we're getting to more famous mangas.
Pluto. No doubt about it best sci-fi manga there is.
Monster. A though but great read. Manga's such a monster really proof that manga isn't just comics.
Full metal Alchemist. Rightfully famous, perhaps the best Shonen manga there is.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Currently, I'm reading the manga adaptation of Madoka Magica: Rebellion, and I'm still waiting for translated scans for Suzune Magica.

As for my favorite mangas:

Franken Fran- My favorite manga. I love grotesque horror manga, in fact it's about the only kind of manga I read, and this one has everything I love about them. Disgusting imagery, Sick, twisted sense of humor, strange characters, and satirical undertones. It's my favorite horror comedy.

Uzumaki- I'm a big fan of Junji Itou, and Uzumaki is my first, and favorite, of his I've read. To me, it's the manga equivalent of The Thing. It's weird, creepy, and twisted (heh), and even when it isn't scary it's still fascinatingly weird.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story- As you can tell by the beginning of this post and my avatar, I'm a huge Madoka fan. The Different Story is by far my favorite of the Madoka Magica manga spin-offs, as it's one of the few spin-offs that actually add something to the series. It gives us more insight on two characters that you can say didn't get the attention they deserved in the show, and expands on them, and even changes your views on one of them. That, and it's just a good, tragic, emotional story. I recommend any Madoka fan to pick this up.

 

[rutger5000]

In no particular order;


BioMeat: Nectar/Region

Owh my God somebody else who has read BioMeat? Man I fing love that manga. Would write hundreds of pages of fanfiction for it if I had the time and dedication.