"Me & the Devil Blues" by Hiramoto Akira- this is about the legendary blues musician robert johnson. little is known about him so this story is more of an embelishment rather than an autobiography. It's pretty cool that someone from another culture is able to portray a strugling black blues musician who made a deal with the devil on the crossroads

"Ciguatera" by FURUYA Minoru. this is like the complete opposite of his other manga "ping pong club". it's emotional and realistic. very good pacing. it starts out with a boy who gets bullied and wants to get a license to ride a motorcycle. the story morphs into romance, but also of lost friendships. this made me LOL a lot of times.

The works of Naoki Urasawa that I've read, I have loved. These include Yawara!, Master Keaton, Monster, and 20th Century Boys. All great mangas. Also, despite Miyazaki's criticism of his own work, the Nausicaa manga is a work of art. It's just too bad that Viz got greedy on it. The four book box set was perfect, then they reprinted it as seven books (like what they did with Akira when they reprinted that in smaller books). The recent works of Ai Yazawa (Nana and Paradise Kiss) have been vast improvements over her previous works. I would also highly recommend Mitsuru Adachi's Short Program. Kobayashi Makoto's What's Michael has also always been on my list of favorites, but I've always been a cat lover.

I really like Berserk for it's amazing artwork and epic story. A little weird in the beginning, but around volume 3 it gets awesome, and becomes steadily more awesome throughout.

GTO, for being GTO.

'Fullmetal Alchemist' - The manga has a lighter tone than the anime, but it has a more detailed story. The artistic style is distinctively chunky, and as you may know if you caught the anime, it mixes great characters, action, a complex and darkly dramatic plotline with occasional light comedy.

'XxxHolic' - Just look at the covers of these and you KNOW you want them. The artwork doesn't use screentones, it doesn't need them, it's just incredibly classy looking. The story is sort of episodic, a series of moral tales with a dark, supernatural edge.

Azumanga Daioh - Less sentimental and faster paced than the anime, Azumanga is a collection of lots and lots of four panel gag strips which unfold through the lives of a group of schoolgirls and their teacher. The art is simple, but clean and consistant, and it's funny. Very funny.

Shutterbox - A perfect example to haters of 'Amerimanga' that it doesn't always have to be bad (that said, the artist is half-Japanese) Shutterbox tells a dreamlike story about inspiration and death. The artwork is delicate and lacy looking, full of funny little gothic details. I think it's awesome.

I don't know about Azumanga Daioh, the American translation was totally butchered. At least with the anime they provided liner notes and tried to keep the gags intact. The manga doesn't even try. I'm surprised they didn't change all the names while they were at it.

The problem with the Azumanga manga was that it was a gag-a-day strip, which derived much of its humor from the quirks of Japanese culture. The translators are given two choices at that point: alter the joke so it makes sense to American audiences, or leave it as-is and add editor's notes to explain it. Going off the "if you have to explain a joke, it isn't funny" premise, the translators changed some of those gags to keep readers from staring blankly at the page trying to figure out why something is funny. The anime, on the other hand, is more story-based, with the individual gags not as integral to the overall presentation, making it easier to leave as-is.

I perfer Yotsuba&! [en.wikipedia.org] over Azumanga Diaoh personally. The only downside is that ADV has Yotsuba&! at the moment and who the hell knows when the next book is coming out. But I love Yotsuba&! so very very much.

Blade of the Immortal [en.wikipedia.org] is another good manga. I personally think the earlier graphic novels were better though. I started reading it at Dreamsong and it's still my favourite graphic novel of the series.

I really liked the first Blade of the Immortal, but I felt it sorta trailed after that. Samura doesn't give the audience enough reason to keep reading, and the main character isn't developed enough. The art is fantastic though.

I like Hellsing just because of the art too. Story is cool but over the top. I mean, English Protestant Organization which controls a really powerful vampire vs. Catholic Organization trying to take over the world with a crusade-load of army guys, vs. Nazi Vampires. Geez.

I also like Rurouni Kenshin because the story is fairly good for a Shonen Jump manga, and there are sword fights. Death Note is also good.

Going off the "if you have to explain a joke, it isn't funny" premise, the translators changed some of those gags to keep readers from staring blankly at the page trying to figure out why something is funny.

And yet, I still end up doing that a lot with Azumanga Daioh, only now instead of it being because of the differences between American and Japanese humor, it's because the people at ADV just aren't very good writers.

The strange thing about the Azumanga translations is that the first two books are translated pretty poorly, but the second two (done by a different team, I think) are actually rather well translated. It's mainly because the first two books they were trying to make things appeal to American readers who don't know much about Japanese culture. The second two books also included translation notes. As a speaker of Japanese (fourth year uni student of the subject who's lived in Japan for a year) I can vouch for how gut-wrenchingly hard it is to translate Azuma's work, having once translated an entire chapter of "Yotsuba To!" (Yotsuba&! in English) as a Japanese portfolio task. The manga is still better than the anime, in which everybody calls Sakaki-san 'Miss Sakaki', which is utterly stupid. Perhaps if I weren't so versed in Japanese culture, I wouldn't find it as funny, but the same goes for Yotsuba&! Azuma is a very Japanese mangaka.

What I wanna know is, why do they even bother importing a Japanese-humor manga? Is there anything more than a niche market, or do they think it'll sell anyways cuz it's got big-eyed Jpnese schoolgirls?

BotI is prolly still good, but I wouldn't know cuz I stopped buying at vol. Trickster. It's good, but lost its hook on me when the Rin+Anotsu arc went nowhere. That was the potential turning point of the story where it could have grabbed me forever; I was so waiting for the next volume when Rin and Anotsu somehow got together in a strange Johnny Depp "Dead Man" way. But then Samura lost the impetus. Darn.

The manga is still better than the anime, in which everybody calls Sakaki-san 'Miss Sakaki'

If you want a particularly bad one, check out the old Magical Knight Rayearth subtitled version where they feel compelled to "translate" -chan every time the girls use it. It is unbearably bad as you are bombarded with Umi-ster, Hikaru-ster, and Fuu-ster throughout the first season.

Is there anything more than a niche market, or do they think it'll sell anyways cuz it's got big-eyed Jpnese schoolgirls?

The anime was popular and ADV wanted to market it to the fullest extent they could.

mlai
What I wanna know is, why do they even bother importing a Japanese-humor manga? Is there anything more than a niche market, or do they think it'll sell anyways cuz it's got big-eyed Jpnese schoolgirls?

Well...I think they imported Azumanga because its enjoyable XD Even if some of the humor was dropped for translation purposes, I still love it to bits. I think that a lot of companies probably take cues from what's big on the fansub circuits. If it did well in fansubs, it will probably do well once its actually released in the US. For example, I liked the fansubs of Azumanga, so when it came out in the US I bought the DVD boxset. I'm sure there are loads of other people who do the same thing. and it goes to follow that if an anime release did well, that its manga counterpart would also do well. And vice versa.

As for good manga...I'm really into Death Note and D.Grayman at the moment. XD

mlai
BotI is prolly still good, but I wouldn't know cuz I stopped buying at vol. Trickster. It's good, but lost its hook on me when the Rin+Anotsu arc went nowhere. That was the potential turning point of the story where it could have grabbed me forever; I was so waiting for the next volume when Rin and Anotsu somehow got together in a strange Johnny Depp "Dead Man" way. But then Samura lost the impetus. Darn.

Yeah, it seems to have lost a bit of its steam. One of the great things about the earlier books is that they're pretty stand alone. I read Dreamsong first and then went back to Blood of a Thousand and that didn't really bother me too much. They were all pretty straightforward.

I used to go to this fan site by this guy who lives in Japan. He would get copies of BotI every month or so and give a summary of what happened complete with scans of selected panels. So I kind of know what to expect and apparently, the prison/experiment arc goes on FOREVER. In comparison to the earlier books, it just got a bit...convoluted.

I would still recommend it though. Just start at the beginning or as close to the beginning as you can.

I would also second Short Program and if you're into slapstick humour, Ranma 1/2 isn't so bad. Maison Ikkoku is pretty good too.

Ranma was good for abou the first 15 volumes. Then it just got boring. I like volumes 1 through 12 the best myself. It's one of the first manga I ever read.

I agree there, Ranma 1/2 was one of the first series I collected. I still have the viz comics before they collected it into graphic novels. But after a while, ya, it gets boring. Inuyasha follows the exact same formula. :/ Although Mermaid Forest was an interesting look at Rumiko Takahasi's darkside.

I dunno if what I like is 'good' per se, but, I'll put it out there.

In terms of pure humor/strip format, I'd say "What's Micheal?" is pretty damn funny. Its been alikened to Garfield, but its not the same. Its way funnier. And since a lot of the pages don't even have dialogue, the humor is rather universal in many pages.
http://www.ex.org/2.5/31-manga_michael.html [ex.org] if you are interested in more info.

Other series I collect currently:
Bastard!!
D.N Angel
PHD: Phantasy Degree
Cross
Rebirth
Vampire Doll: Guilt-na-Zan
Hellsing
Bio Booster Armor Guyver (old, got what I could)
(and more I've probably forgotten.)

Series my BF collects that I've read:
Battle Angel Alita (original and Last Order)
Ghost in the Shell (first and second)
AppleSeed
Blame
Trigun
Hyper Police

I've picked up and flipped through countless more. The only additional series I'm thinking of picking up right now is Trinity Blood. Some manga I won't collect dead tree versions if there are too many volumes. Just too much money. :P I end up reading a lot of them just as I'm standing around waiting for someone in chapters. I read My Cat Loki, Sokora Refugees, and a few others like that.

i realy like nasicanana of the valey of the wind its the best i ever read im also reading budah right now its really good to even though thers lots of nakkid boys

i think both are by shigu miamoto i think

Cooltendo
i realy like nasicanana of the valey of the wind its the best i ever read im also reading budah right now its really good to even though thers lots of nakkid boys

i think both are by shigu miamoto i think

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is actually by Hayao Miyazaki. He's the man behind My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Laputa as well.

I have a fairly long list of manga that I like but I'll try to shorten it to the top ranking ones:

Rurouni Kenshin: So far the only manga I own every single volume of (I was a little surprised to realize this). It has a fun cast, and a surprisingly level of depth since shonen jump tries to keep its drama to a minimum (as Nubohiro Watsuki himslef once said about writing for shonen jump "make the mountains (action) high and the valleys (drama) narrow.

Naruto: I dunno, at face value is doesn't really seem any different than your standard action series but its just done so well. The art is so kenetic and it has some of the best illustrated action sequences (especially in its later chapters) also I can't help but love the VERY large supporting cast.

Hellsing: So wonderfully twisted and violent. >:)

Dramacon: A good read for anyone who hates Amerimange (or Original English Language Manga, or whatever else its called) it'll change your perspective on them. Its a romance story done right. And if you're an anime geek you'll appreciate it all the more.

xxxHolic: Just read this one, I can't come up with the words but I love this one. Just go to a Barnes and Noble and flip through the first book.

Mermaid Saga: I've always like Rumiko Takahashi's work but this is the only series I've ever actually finished (she just keeps them running way too long).

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles: I'm not as big a fan of this as I am xxxHolic but I still enjoy it. It feels like a CLAMP versoin of Kingdom Hearts.

If Trinity Blood manga is anything like the anime, DON'T BOTHER.

The anime is the biggest piece of pretty crap ever. Art is beautiful. Story is ZZZZZ.

Basically, "Let's copy Trigun but make Vash a vampire! We so smart!" There, now you know the entire story. I just saved you $500.

i realy like nasicanana of the valey of the wind its the best i ever read im also reading budah right now its really good to even though thers lots of nakkid boys

As Black_Kitty mentioned above, Nausicaa is in fact written by Hayao Miyazaki. Buddha, if that is what you're referring to, was written and drawn by Osamu Tezuka.

i stopped reading naruto when they went to that tournament... i hate stories that takes place on tournaments

Shadow Star (Narutaru) by Mohiro Kitoh is easily my favorite comic (manga and otherwise), and I can't think of any other series that is so consistently amazing to read and look at. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to improve their page-design skills.

However, Dark Horse canceled Super Manga Blast where the translations would first appear, and the recent anime version* seems to have re-aimed the property to appeal exclusively to pre-teens, so it looks like the last four volumes will see never see print in English. It's a crime. Seriously.

*Disclaimer: The anime version is one of the biggest pieces of crap I've ever seen.
I wish it into the cornfield.

How is the cornfield a bad thing?

It's a reference to an old short story [en.wikipedia.org]/Twilight Zone episode [en.wikipedia.org] (can never be sure which version someone is thinking of).

I really admire Ai Yazawa's work and also Rumiko Takahashi. Daisuke Moriyama's Chrono Crusade is really good, I've been reading it alot lately and I'm almost to the end of the series.
Out of all of Rumiko Takahashi's manga I'd have to say:
(From favorite to least favorite)
1.Ranma 1/2
2. Masion Ikkoku
Inuyasha is alright but I perfer her other works. And also there are alot of annoying American Inuyasha fans. 0_0 So much that it's scary sometimes...
But I guess every anime has scary fans sometimes.

riyuandpanja
I really admire Ai Yazawa's work

Oh, yeah!
Ai Yazawa's Kagen no Tsuki / "Last Quarter (of the Moon)" rules too. (There's also a great film version starring Hyde and Chiaki Kuriyama).

Black_Kitty
I perfer Yotsuba&! [en.wikipedia.org] over Azumanga Diaoh personally. The only downside is that ADV has Yotsuba&! at the moment and who the hell knows when the next book is coming out. But I love Yotsuba&! so very very much.

Blade of the Immortal [en.wikipedia.org] is another good manga. I personally think the earlier graphic novels were better though. I started reading it at Dreamsong and it's still my favourite graphic novel of the series.

Yotsuba&! is wonderful. I'm waiting for the 4th book as well, but I've been downloading fan-translated chapters for ages so I'm way way ahead of the books anyway. If Azumanga Daioh is very much like Yotsubato, I might have to look into it. All of the humor and timing is really great, and she's a great character. (Would be terribly annoying in a real child though.)

I really liked BoTI for years, but 3 years ago it started to take a real slide downhill. The past year it's picked up again a bit, since Rin is on her own and whats-his-face is being experimented on. They've missed a few months of updates as of lately though. I kind of want to drop it, but I only get 3 comics in the first place....

Usagi Yojimbo I like, but I don't think it counts as a manga.

Actually I've been sad lately that most of my comics are packed away in my sister's garage, I've been wanting to reread a lot of them. Curse this thread for making me think of Nausicaa!