Short Manga Recommendations

[SlaveNumber23]

So I've been looking for a new manga to read, but all of the promising series I've seen so far seem to just go on forever and I'm not really willing to spend crazy amounts of money buying all of the volumes, and I'm not really interested in a series that drags on its story for so long.

It would be great if you could recommend me some shorter series, lets say maybe 12 volumes maximum (though a little over that would still be fine). I'm willing to give most genres a shot but I have a taste for horror and mystery/psychological thriller, I like stories that really make me think. Something a little quirky and off the beaten path would be nice too. Bonus points for if the series has already completed at this point, as waiting for new volumes to come out for a good series is unbearable.

Unfortunately if you have been reading this post thinking that Uzumaki would be the perfect fit for me, I've already read it (and loved it by the way if you know of anything similar).

 

[FPLOON]

Well, considering I only buy manga series that last less than 10 volumes (unless it becomes like an short omnibus series or something like that), this thread would be right up my alley... if only I had the same taste as you right now... (So close?)

Anyway, right now the Gunslinger Girl omnibus series is a good read... 15 manga volumes condensed into 6 omnibus volumes... It's more or less a character-driven story with "sometimes" focusing on the side stories that each of the girls ad the agency end up becoming involved in... The only downside I can think of is it's climax, but to me it's not a deal breaker given the main focus of the overall series...

The Azumanga Daioh Omnibus is nice for a a laugh or two... It's mostly told through 4-panel snips, so if you're interested you can still find it...

Kashimashi is a comedy romance/semi-sci-fi manga series involving a love triangle between a guy turned into a girl (after basically dying from an alien ship), a girl the guy has a crush on, and the guy's childhood friend... The sci-fi part does play a part in the overall story besides the reason behind the boy now becoming a girl, but I don't want to spoil that...

I'm going a bit off your recommend path... so, I'll try to recommend something within your preference...

OH! Blood+ Adagio... It's a prequel to Blood+ and it's only two volumes...

The Afro Samurai manga is also two volumes and does take a different turn than in the anime series and movie...

The Hell Girl manga series is okay if you like isolated psychological stories tied together by a single website and a girl who will allow you to get revenge at a price...

And, I have a lot of short manga series from TokyoPop... But, I can't fully recommend them either because...

A) Most of them have not been re-released to my knowledge...[footnote]unless you can find all three volumes of .Hack//Legend of the Twilight... Probably be more easier to find the FLCL omnibus...[/footnote]
B) Probably not up your alley, anyway...

So yeah, I don't know if this helps you or not... The last three will probably be right up your alley more than Azumanga Daioh or Kashimashi... However, I still recommend Gunslinger Girl just because of how good the characters are...

Edit: Almost for got about the two Ghost in the Shell mangas... I personally love them...

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Snip

Thanks a lot! Gunslinger Girl and Ghost in the Shell sound like good choices.

 

[FPLOON]

Snip

Thanks a lot! Gunslinger Girl and Ghost in the Shell sound like good choices.

Sweet! Also, I just remember reading this one manga series called Pluto... It was a murder/mystery take on one of the original Astro Boy arcs from the same creator of the Monster manga series... I was never able to find the rest of the volumes (I think it was only about 7 or 8 volumes in total), but the whole setup, alone, was worth mentioning if you do come about finding them...

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Sweet! Also, I just remember reading this one manga series called Pluto... It was a murder/mystery take on one of the original Astro Boy arcs from the same creator of the Monster manga series... I was never able to find the rest of the volumes (I think it was only about 7 or 8 volumes in total), but the whole setup, alone, was worth mentioning if you do come about finding them...

Pluto sounds very interesting and I'm a big fan of Monster, it looks like all 8 volumes are readily available on Amazon, so I might check it out.

 

[FPLOON]

Sweet! Also, I just remember reading this one manga series called Pluto... It was a murder/mystery take on one of the original Astro Boy arcs from the same creator of the Monster manga series... I was never able to find the rest of the volumes (I think it was only about 7 or 8 volumes in total), but the whole setup, alone, was worth mentioning if you do come about finding them...

Pluto sounds very interesting and I'm a big fan of Monster, it looks like all 8 volumes are readily available on Amazon, so I might check it out.

Wait... They are? *checks for himself* AWESOME! I now know what I'm getting for Christmas... (Also, I only saw the anime version of Monster and never actually read the manga version...)

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Wait... They are? *checks for himself* AWESOME! I now know what I'm getting for Christmas... (Also, I only saw the anime version of Monster and never actually read the manga version...)

Well glad I could pay you back somewhat for your help

I actually only watched the anime of Monster as well.

 

[Elfgore]

CrimeZone. It's only 24 chapters, only 14 translated, and it is awesome. I usually don't like horror, but this one is just awesome.

There was another, that for the life of me I can't remember. It has a really fucking creepy ass narrator, a legless girl that looks like she wants to devour your soul, and really cool horror and psychological stuff. Even after browsing horror manga for a while I couldn't find it. But the first story involves a girl finding a game that slowly kills her.

But you did help me find a creepy ass looking manga to read.

Spoiler

Edit: That picture I posted, you need to read that manga. It's called Saiteihen no Otoko and it is awesome. The imagery is downright terrifying and the psychological aspect is amazing. They made a manga terrifying by making it about perfection.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Give Franken Fran a try if you haven't already, if you enjoy Uzumaki-style horror with a touch of black comedy and satire. It's only 8 volumes long.

That is unless you're buying them, in which case they're not available in the US as of yet, unfortunately. which pisses me off because it's my favorite manga.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Hey how fortunate, I like the psychological mystery/thriller/horror genre too.

Future Diary (or Mirai Nikki) is nice and concise. I'm not going to say short but it never outstays its welcome and wraps things up nicely. However I think the anime version may just be better in general. Yuno's voice actress can carry the entire anime on her own.

Also Umineko no Kaku Kuro Ni, definitely a favourite. It's a murder mystery closed room type thing where there are 18 people fighting over inheritance money in a mansion (that old schtick) mass murder goes down as you might expect but the trick is figuring out whether there's a 19th person actually committing the crimes from the sidelines. Oh and that 19th person is supposedly a legendary witch with old ties to their family using dark magic. Just so you know.

The draw of the thing being that the main character is completely adamant that witches do not exist, even when it is 99% certain that humans would find it ridiculously difficult to pull these murders off. The end of the first chapter, Legend of the Golden Witch is hands down the best scene I have seen in a manga. The actual design of the characters and drawing quality is great too. Especially the two leading roles.

Don't watch the anime though, it gets the point across but it is very lacking in detail and it falls apart after episode 11. Though I am wondering if the artist actually uses red print once that comes up in the plot, that would be awesome.

 

[Antendo]

Osamu Tezuka's Buddha.

8 volumes long, it tells the tale of Siddhartha Gautama (also known as Buddha) from (a bit) before his birth all the way to his death and some other major stuff that happened during his lifetime. It might take a while to get over the artstyle (that is, if you don't already like it) and the possible mindset that tezuka = kids stuff (my friend dropped the series 'cause he kept thinking that the same dude made Astro Boy) but once you realize that this really isn't for kids, you'll be good to go. I'd go as far to say that the story actually made me want to be a better person. Definitely give it a go if you're at all interested.

Apollo's Song (also by Tezuka) is also very good, only 1 book long story about a young man who has during his life learned to hate love and how he overcomes that. That makes it sound like a hollywood-style romantic film, but it's nothing like that. A good read on its own, I'd say an even better read after Buddha.

Parasyte (not by Tezuka) fits your criteria pretty well, I'd say. A story about an alien parasite race coming to earth that can control the area of its hosts body that it latches on to - take the head and you control the whole body. In our protagonists case the parasite is in his arm, and because the rest of the body is still up for grabs, other parasites try to claim it - but that would mean death for the parasite in his arm so they team up. Loads of gore and horror and some thriller elements to it too, nothing psychological though as far as I can remember. 10 volumes long.

 

[madwarper]

Gekiryuuchi (Overbleed) - After being picked on and depressed, Kei enters into a suicide pact with a friend, except he survives and his friend's body is never found. Seeing a video online, he starts street fighting in an attempt to find his friend that may have also survived.

HeAds - While looking for an apartment for himself and his new girlfriend, Naruse is shot in the head trying to protect a kid during a robbery. Lying in a coma, his girlfriend okays an experimental operation to replace a damaged slice of his brain with that of a donor. After waking up, he tries to return to a normal life, he's got to find truth behind his surgery as his personality begins to drastically change.

 

[Marik2]

Go read Semete, Ano Yuki no You ni.

It is only 30 pages, but it has a ton of story in such a short time and will make you cry a bit for the bitter sweetness.

The English title it At Least, Like That Snow.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Future Diary (or Mirai Nikki) is nice and concise. I'm not going to say short but it never outstays its welcome and wraps things up nicely. However I think the anime version may just be better in general. Yuno's voice actress can carry the entire anime on her own.

Funnily enough I just started watching the Future Diary anime a couple of days ago, loving it so far.

Umineko no Kaku Kuro Ni sounds like something I'd be interested in, but it seems a bit long (39 volumes and ongoing).

 

[SckizoBoy]

snip

If you fancy something 'hard sci-fi-y' go for PlanetES... it's only four volumes long, but it was adapted into one of the most scientifically accurate space anime (or cartoon, for that matter) ever...

The realism is less accentuated in the manga (mainly because the mangakka deliberately did little to no research for it), but it's still a good effort and covers a lot of ground (science, politics, sociology etc.).

 

[PapaGreg096]

Terra Formars- Stupid, Awesome, Creepy, and flat out fun ride to read.
Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N8VNR41H7k

 

[Strain42]

Bandit King Jing is only 7 issues if you wanna look into that (there's a sequel series but you don't have to read it) but it might be hard to find.

One that I really enjoyed and was pretty short, I just read it online was Saint Young Men.

It's about Jesus and Buddha just kinda living in Tokyo and doing Tokyo stuff. It's pretty funny.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Future Diary (or Mirai Nikki) is nice and concise. I'm not going to say short but it never outstays its welcome and wraps things up nicely. However I think the anime version may just be better in general. Yuno's voice actress can carry the entire anime on her own.

Funnily enough I just started watching the Future Diary anime a couple of days ago, loving it so far.

Umineko no Kaku Kuro Ni sounds like something I'd be interested in, but it seems a bit long (39 volumes and ongoing).

The Umineko volumes are really bunched up together there are over 600 pages in one volume so progress goes pretty fast. Every book is a freaking CHUNK of paper, vastly thicker than your average manga volume. It's one arc over two volumes and there are I think all of arc 1 and 2 and part one of arc 3 available to buy online. You could read the scans online but the way Umineko is written and laid out makes it a considerably worse experience. It adores the two page spreads. That last chapter I mentioned especially.

Seriously, the ending to Legend of the Golden Witch is beyond brilliant.

 

[Objectable]

Uzumaki can usually be found in a single, hard cover book.
<spoiler=NSFW>http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XZ53dxNwYZ0/TrYni9CeMDI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/ouVDgj2l0Rc/s1600/Uzumaki01.jpg
Have fun!
Also, +Anima is great too. That's always a nice, fluffy read.

 

[Tanis]

Myanimelist is a nice start.

Also:
Hotel (One Shot)

Angel Densetsu

Bitter Virgin

Chobits

Vision of Escaflowne

Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa

The Hating Girl

Wolf's Rain