NickGuy
i know one piece was already mentioned, but i think it deserves a re-post since the other pic was from the ANIME!!

Thanks!!! I had trouble finding a good manga picture. I was looking for the picture with the whole crew holding their fists with the "X" symbol up, but I couldn't find it!!! (anger).

Detroit Metal City - Best, I repeat, BEST GAG MANGA EVER EXISTED!


If you don't like the manga style, at least watch the anime series!

Parasyte, why should you read it?






UZUMAKI
Why should you read it?

Dragon Drive:

Until they switched story lines in about the middle of the eighth volume, I immediately stopped there. It was just awful.

dragin drive...wasnt that like pokemon? I remember reading the preview in shonen jump years ago

Eunice P
Detroit Metal City - Best, I repeat, BEST GAG MANGA EVER EXISTED!


If you don't like the manga style, at least watch the anime series!

heh..funny, but not my style.

Adding to many of the ones I like already posted here:

Yotsuba (not sure, I heard its in a men's mag but its a cute story)
Akumetsu -seinen
Shadow Lady - seinen
GALS -shoujo
Wild Adapter - I'm thinking seinen for girls.
Chicago - Shoujo action
Antique Bakery - slice of life
Dramacon - shoujo
Family Complex - I think its seinen comedy

I guess I read stuff based on my mood

sadly, I want to pick up Basilik but the first ep I watch was the last ep so now I cant enjoy the series.

And can we limit this to stories that have been good for its whole/current run?
I rather avoid any manga that gives a poor run through and changes half way.

As for Bakuman, I love it but it feels too battle manga like and I feel the story went to fast. The writter could have done more with the 'growing' aspect. Or I can just be bitter, as I didnt just spend 2 years and then get published like that (with a very popular publisher no less).

Yankee and megane makes me lol so hard

The work of Yoshihiro Tatsumi would be a perfect suggestion for your none manga reading friends. Drawn and Quarterly have releases these wonderful hardback collections of his stories.

Well, the two I would have recommended have already been mentioned: Death Note and Uzumaki. I guess just take this as an additional recommendation for those two.

The thing I've always hated about Japanese comics is their obsession with beauty.



I'm sorry, but I can't read a comic when every character is unrealistically gorgeous. It reached the pinnacle this century with the invention of the term "moe" which is stylization or fetish for the (generally female) characters. 90% of manga and anime are fetish wank material.

The manga and anime I end up liking are from artists who were trained in Europe or take inspiration from classic artists. Katsuya Terada, Yoshitaka Amano, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Hayao Miyazaki, Taiyo Matsumoto, Takao Saito, Katsuhiro Otomo, and pretty much everyone who released material before the otaku subculture became an international hit and made up a vast majority of anime sales.

It's such a shame that more adult themed or seinen manga rarely gets translated because everyone is spoojing over transformation comics and furry shit.

angry_black_guy
The thing I've always hated about Japanese comics is their obsession with beauty.

O hey it's copy pasta from SA

And yet it's completely relevant and mostly true.

angry_black_guy
The manga and anime I end up liking are from artists who were trained in Europe or take inspiration from classic artists. Katsuya Terada, Yoshitaka Amano, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Hayao Miyazaki, Taiyo Matsumoto, Takao Saito, Katsuhiro Otomo

^THIS.

Everyone should be reading Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

It's a six part series that spans several generations of the Jostar family and their battles with some of the worst monsters imaginable. I've only read three of the series completly so here's a brief summary of each...

Phantom Blood- Jonathan Jostar is the son of an english nobleman who adopts the son of a bandit who "saved" his life years ago. The other boy is named Dio, and he is determined to make Jonathan's life a living hell. Later on Dio uses an ancient south american mask to transform him into a vampire and kill Jonathan's father. Jonathan meet's a man named Zeppeli who teachs Jonathan the strange indian martial art of Hamon. Together the two try to stop Dio with the aid of a few friends.

Battle Tendencies- Set a short time before WWII Joseph Jostar must do battle with the creators of the vampire making mask, the perfect beings Wham, ACDC, and the Cars. He has a short time to learn the secrets of Hamon and defeat all three of these unstopable gods with the aid of his mentor LisaLisa, Cesear Zepelli, and the Nazi Cyborg Stroheim.

StarDust Crusaders-Jotaro Kujo finds himself with powerful psycic abilities that manifest itself as a "Stand". Turns out so does Dio the villian from the 1st series who has taken over Jonathan Jostar's body by sewing his head on it. With the help from a few friends and his grandfather Joseph Jostar can Jotaro defeat Dio?

I absolutely love the Saikano manga. The anime isn't as good.

Dude, Parasyte rocks. It sort of reminds me of the movie 'The Thing'
Another one that I like is Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, because it takes cute, chibi characters and then horribly tortures and/or murders them, all while having a surprisingly deep story line and well developed characters. But what I like the most about it is that it actually manages to build suspense and a sense of impending doom rather then just relying on the shock factor of gruesome kills. (though those are present too)

Chernobog
Uzumaki: A fantastic 3 part series by horror master Junji Ito, Uzumaki can currently be found on manga bookshelves. Uzumaki is completely surrealist. The evil is oppressive, omnipresent, and completely faceless. Regular people are trapped in a small coastal town, and do their best to escape or hide from it while the evil wildly corrupts EVERYTHING around, isolating them. Literally, Uzumaki is about a town being terrorized by the abstract of a spiral. Its as strange as it sounds and I've never seen anything like it, but it winds up being incredibly effective. Uzumaki, by the conclusion, offers few direct answers and leaves the reader to simply wonder about the madness of the unknown. Lovecraft could take notes ('yeah I said it, wanna fight about it?'). Uzumaki also features a few side comics the author has made in the theme of the series (surrealist horror). Avoid the live action movie, it has nothing to do with anything and was completed while the manga was still being made, supposedly.

HELL YEAH! XD
*Everyone* should read Uzumaki. And while you're at it, read Gyo too. Those are two very awsome comics by Ito. :D

Also I suggest:

-Maison Ikkoku [en.wikipedia.org] - This is Rumiko Takahashi's best work in my opinion. (Yes, I think it's better than InuYasha and Ranma 1/2). It's a romance story, but I think guys would dig this as well (it really isn't all that girly). It's really funny, there are a lot of likable (and hateable) characters in it, which makes it a really interesting read even though it's very long. A very realistic, well put-together, and loveable tale. And I like that Kyoko is not the typical girl the main guy is after because she's a widow and has lots of baggage.

-MARS [en.wikipedia.org] - once again, this is another romance manga, but it's not typical at all, it's very intense. The characters' emotions are very real and you really want to sympithize with and get to know them. The main characters are a good example of "opposites attract", but in a believable way. And the art in this manga is reallllly pretty.

-PLANETES [en.wikipedia.org] - (no, not planets XD). I have an affinity to things concerning space, so if you like space and science fiction then you should certainly read PLANETES. It's captivating and sadly so underrated. D:

-Koko wa Greenwood (Here is Greenwood) [en.wikipedia.org]- this manga is plain silly, which is why I love it so much. It takes place in all-boys boarding school and is a series of little stories/adventures centering around some of the (crazy) boys who go there. If you want to roll around laughing, read this.

-Pet Shop of Horrors [en.wikipedia.org]- Rabbits shaped like little girls, dogs shaped like grown men and many other strange pets can be found in thios manga. It's an interesting take on horror, and has touches of dark humor in it too. And who doesn't love Count D?

I'm kind of bothered that nobody's mentioned Lone Wolf and Cub yet. That manga is just flat-out classic. The visual storytelling in those pages is just amazing.

Barefoot Gen is a very powerful story. It's kind of like Maus though. You can only really read it once or twice on account of how depressing it is.

Osamu Tezuka's masterful work on Buddha has already been mentioned, but I like a lot of his other stuff too. A good number of his Astro Boy stories are great reads, and there's also work like Adolf and Phoenix too.

Here's where I put in how absolutely amazing Hourou Musuko is! (Although I'm admittedly quite far behind on reading the new scanlations)
Slice of life about two transgendered kids and their friends.
You like comics? You like amazing? You'll like this kid!
Scanlations this waaaay ------> http://www.onemanga.com/Hourou_Musuko/ Oh look! How lovely! 75 chapter of greatness! (oh gosh I really am far behind on reading) *has something to do now

angry_black_guy
The thing I've always hated about Japanese comics is their obsession with beauty.



I'm sorry, but I can't read a comic when every character is unrealistically gorgeous. It reached the pinnacle this century with the invention of the term "moe" which is stylization or fetish for the (generally female) characters. 90% of manga and anime are fetish wank material.

The manga and anime I end up liking are from artists who were trained in Europe or take inspiration from classic artists. Katsuya Terada, Yoshitaka Amano, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Hayao Miyazaki, Taiyo Matsumoto, Takao Saito, Katsuhiro Otomo, and pretty much everyone who released material before the otaku subculture became an international hit and made up a vast majority of anime sales.

It's such a shame that more adult themed or seinen manga rarely gets translated because everyone is spoojing over transformation comics and furry shit.

I am saddened to hear you say that. You have to take into account that what we see in America of manga is only the tiniest fraction of what is printed in Japan. What we see (translated, anyway) is what distributors think will sell well enough to not only cover the cost of buying the rights, translating, printing, and distributing, but also turn a profit. So naturally, you're going to see a large proportion of translated manga consisting of attractive people. And then there's the artist's preferences and style to consider.

As for manga that I like, there is:

Oh, My Goddess! At the risk of sounding trite, it's the harem manga that has no true harem. Yes, there are plenty of attractive girls in it, and yes, many of them fall for the male lead in some fashion, but he has eyes only for Beldandy, and she for Keiichi. It's a sweet manga with art I wish I was 1/10 capable of achieving.

Dokkoida An offbeat sentai manga with lots of humor.