Recommendations for Manga

[asmer]

20th Century Boys, which is also by Monster's author and has live-action version that follows it nearly exactly no really I'm not kidding

20th Century Boys - science fiction mystery. Awesome stuff, if you want something different.

I'm just beginning Volume 22, and I have to agree I really enjoyed this manga! I would recommend it!!

(I guess both of you include the last 2 volumes, known as '21st Century Boys', under the name '20th Century Boys'?)

 

[Dar_Klink]

I'm just beginning Volume 22, and I have to agree I really enjoyed this manga! I would recommend it!!

(I guess both of you include the last 2 volumes, known as '21st Century Boys', under the name '20th Century Boys'?)

Yeah, I include those, which brings me to Master Keaton and Pluto, both of which are also by Urasawa.
Master Keaton is about a Japanse/British man working for Lloyd's of London as an insurance investigator, and is pretty episodic with short self contained stories, but each story is at the least interesting and at the best pretty awesome.
Pluto is a retelling of one of the story arcs of Astro Boy, starring the German robot detective Geischt trying to track down the person plotting to kill the world's strongest robots and their creators. I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but I recommend it as well.

 

[Okin]

Well if it's cheap thrills you want, one manga I really liked reading was "Biomeat". There's a world food crisis, and a GM (Genetically Modified) animal that feeds on garbage is mass produced. It of course breaks out, and can digest anything besides metal. Fun ensues! It's a horror story but it's not as hopeless as say Junji Ito's work, but I'd recommend him as well.

 

[Slan_wings]

I was looking through manga to import and got to looking into a series called sidooh that takes place in edo era and is just as dirty and violent as berserk about 2 kids who leave their village after their mother dies of cholora with their fathers sword only to be sold to a religious cult by a drifter who's bounty they saved from another bounty hunter.

and my recommendations would be Lady Snowblood,Path of the assassin, Azumi & Sigooh.


and I havent started vinland saga or vagabond mainly since I'm sorta iffy on how viz mightve editted things in it

 

[Dar_Klink]

Well, I've been on a manga reading frenzy this last month, so I have a few more recommendations!
I finished Pluto by Urasawa, and I still stand by my recommendation for it. The story gets really emotional at some points, so have some tissue handy for some good ol' fashion .

This brings me to Billy Bat, another manga by Urasawa about a Japanese-American comic book writer in post WWII America noticing that his character, Billy Bat the Detective, may be influenced by another work he saw in Japan. He goes to Japan and find out that the character leads to a centuries old conspiracy involving the origins of many religions... huge mindfucks abound! If you couldn't tell, I'm a total Urasawa-lover! I've never read/watched anything of his that I didn't completely love.

Moving on to Dorohedoro, a manga with a pretty gritty art style by Q. Hayashida. The main character, Kaiman, has had his head transformed into a lizard's head and is trying to find the magic user who did it to him in order to reverse the spell and regain his memory. The story takes place in both The Hole, a city populated by non-magic users and the upper city where the magic user En, leader of a big corporation/mafia, is trying to find a new partner that can use time-related magic. The story is extremely brutal at some points, but what I love the most about it is the character interactions and comedic moments. You can read the first few chapters for free on Viz's website here, and the first volume is coming out March 16, 2010 in English.

Lastly, since I've been reading it the most lately is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure!(as most of you who talk to me outside of the site know ) Running at over 90 volumes now, the story has included Zombie Jack the Ripper, vampires, cyborg nazis, dinosaurs, Jesus, plankton forming a human, the mafia, prison drama, a serial killer, psychic powers, fashion referencing names, and, of course, music referencing names. It's seperated into 7 standalone parts, each centered around a different character named JoJo in a conflict somehow related to the events of the first part. The art style starts off looking pretty Hokuto no Ken, but quickly develops and improves over the different parts. I could seriously go on about this series for days without stopping(probably having to do with reading 47 volumes worth of it in 3 weeks).

TL;DR: Read Pluto, Billy Bat, Dorohedoro, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure!

 

[Eluvei]

I finished Pluto by Urasawa, and I still stand by my recommendation for it. The story gets really emotional at some points, so have some tissue handy for some good ol' fashion judo.

Heavy Pluto spoilers:

Spoiler

Man, I think the ending felt too different from the rest of the series. Since Gesicht's death, it just started to sound like an endless life lesson about love, hate and stuff like that. Am I alone on this one? I know it's based on Astro Boy, but still...

Lastly, since I've been reading it the most lately is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure!(as most of you who talk to me outside of the site know ) Running at over 90 volumes now, the story has included Zombie Jack the Ripper, vampires, cyborg nazis, dinosaurs, Jesus, plankton forming a human, the mafia, prison drama, a serial killer, psychic powers, fashion referencing names, and, of course, music referencing names. It's seperated into 7 standalone parts, each centered around a different character named JoJo in a conflict somehow related to the events of the first part. The art style starts off looking pretty Hokuto no Ken, but quickly develops and improves over the different parts. I could seriously go on about this series for days without stopping(probably having to do with reading 47 volumes worth of it in 3 weeks).

I've always had an interest in JoJo, but never had the courage to start reading it for some reason. Is there a decent translation out there? And my greatest fear: does it start sucking at some point, making you regret ever reading it?

 

[Dar_Klink]

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS TOO MANY WORDS!

Heavy Pluto spoilers:

Spoiler

Man, I think the ending felt too different from the rest of the series. Since Gesicht's death, it just started to sound like an endless life lesson about love, hate and stuff like that. Am I alone on this one? I know it's based on Astro Boy, but still...

Yeah, the ending got a little bit preachy, but I still liked it. It's kinda expected with Urasawa sometimes, but I don't think it changed my enjoyment of the series.

I've always had an interest in JoJo, but never had the courage to start reading it for some reason. Is there a decent translation out there? And my greatest fear: does it start sucking at some point, making you regret ever reading it?

The translations vary in English. Parts 1,2, and 3 have great translations online. Part 4.... has a retranslation team working on it right now and they're up to like the 4th or 5th volume, but the rest of it makes the hawks look like Puella in comparison, I swear it's like they used a machine translator and slightly rewrote it to make a little bit more sense, the newer translations though are perfect. Part 5 has an okay translation, but it was from the Chinese editions so it's no completely accurate, but nothing that nearly ruins it like Part 4 has. Parts 6 and 7 both start with okay translations that get A LOT better a little bit in when JoJoProject picked them up. As for quality, it gets better with each part in my opinion, artwise and storywise. Each one varies enough that if you don't like one part, you might still like other parts too.
Be prepared now for me to drop a steam roller of information on you!

Part 1, Phantom Blood, is about fighting a vampire using a martial arts based on the sun's rays and breathing techniques, so it's has some pretty interesting fights but it hasn't aged completely well. It's still a good intro to the series and has some unforgettable moments and characters in it.

Part 2, Battle Tendency, is about the grandson of the first JoJo using the same martial arts to fight the ancient creators of the mask that granted the first vampire, Dio, powers. It has the best protagonist out of all the parts(in my opinion). It's pretty old as well, but I think it aged a bit better than part 1.

Part 3, Stardust Crusaders, is the most popular part, since it has the game from the 90's that came out here in the U.S. and the manga is officially being released here, as well as the OVA series based on it. It's where the concept of a "stand" is introduced, which is a psychic power that takes the form of a ghostly figure that appears behind you. the protagonist from part 2 (Joseph Joestar) returns as the main character, Jotaro Kujo's, grandfather. It's about them traveling to Egypt from Japan to defeat Dio Brando, and figure out the secret of his "stand." It's also the part where the infamous WRYYYYYYYYYYY internet meme comes from.

Part 4, Diamond is Unbreakable, takes place some years later in a small town, and goes from a travel story to a more slice-of-life style murder mystery. There aren't as many crazy battles and there's no epic traveling adventures like the other parts, but it has my favorite antagonist, Yoshikage Kira(this part came out years before Death Note btw ), and has some pretty wacky hijinks. The translation and change of pace keeps some people from enjoying this part as much, but overall I could almost say it's my favorite part.

Part 5, Golden Wind, goes back to the traveling adventure style with the main character Giorno Giovanni trying to take over a gang in Italy in order to stop the drug trade they are involved in. Nothing much else to say about it besides that it's awesome and has some the same mix of awesome battles, bizarre humor, fabulous(even more so in this part) character/costume design, and near impossible to imitate poses.

Part 6, Stone Ocean, is about Jotaro's daughter, Jolyne Kujo, being put into prison, and trying to stop the plans of one of Dio Brando's friends, Pucci, who is trying to "attain heaven" using his stand, White Snake, which has the ability to steal other people's memories and stands. Most of this part takes place in the Green Dolphin Street Prison located in Florida and has one of the craziest endings I've seen in any series.

and finally...
Part 7, Steel Ball Run, takes place in a sort of alternate universe(I'd have to spoil part 6 to explain it fully) where the main character is Johnny Joestar, a crippled former Jockey, following Gyro Zeppeli in a horse race across the United States in the 1800's. The art in the later volumes of this part is so good, that you could barely tell it's from the same artist of part 1. The story is shaping up to be one of my favorites out of all of them, and the characters are just as bizarre/fabulous/wacky as you'd expect from the earlier arcs. It also brings back the Hamon power from parts 1 and 2 in the form of Gyro's Steel Ball manipulation ability.

Here's a picture showing the evolution of the series' art over time.


SOOOOOO TL;DR version:
Every part is good in my opinion.
I'm going to go collect my check from the advertising department over at Hirohiko Araki's studio now.

 

[Eluvei]

Whoa! Thanks a lot for writing all of this, I'm definitely more interested now, looks like a really fun series. You kicked Wikipedia's ass hard!

Yeah, the ending got a little bit preachy, but I still liked it. It's kinda expected with Urasawa sometimes, but I don't think it changed my enjoyment of the series.

Yes, I agree. I didn't think the ending was bad, it just felt out of place when you look at the big picture. It was my second Urasawa series, so I didn't really know what to expect from the ending. Overall, I must say I enjoyed it more than 20th Century Boys from start to finish though.

 

[HeavyWeather]

Well there's nothing more I can say except that I HIGHLY recommend JoJo's Bizarre Adventure! ;) And even if you think you hate it in parts 1-6, you really seriously have to at least try Steel Ball Run before you condemn the entire thing. Steel Ball Run is definitely a culmination of everything Araki has learned, and that has made it absolutely brilliant!

Part 6 and 7 are still my absolute favourites, followed by Part 2.
So really, just... Give it a series try. :)

On the subject of Pluto, I have to say I really, really enjoyed it the whole way through. The ending as well. Such a message didn't seem out of place, more rather, it seemed kind of retro in an awesome way. But I don't mind positive messages in things, especially a story that got me sentimentally involved so deeply in such a short time.

It's my first Urasawa series though, and I'm looking forward to checking out more, because I thought Pluto was brilliant.

 

[Oblivious]

Here's some more suggestions:

Sanctuary
Historie
REAL
Akumetsu
Lone Wolf and Cub

 

[Oburi]

I could never get into Sanctuary. Sounded interesting, but it was too... girly?

 

[Oblivious]

I could never get into Sanctuary. Sounded interesting, but it was too... girly?

Uhm... are you (I hope) referring to Angel Sanctuary?

Because I'm talking about this: http://myanimelist.net/manga/1461/Sanctuary

 

[Eluvei]

Uhm... are you (I hope) referring to Angel Sanctuary?

Because I'm talking about this: http://myanimelist.net/manga/1461/Sanctuary

By reading the reviews on that website, it seems really interesting. I'll have to take a look someday, thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Dar_Klink]

Yes, Sanctuary is really good! Seriously Oburi, if you're calling the same manga we're talking about girly and think Twilight is okay...
I'd like to recommend Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but it's an anime, not a manga. In any case, it is a masterpiece in my opinion.

 

[Oburi]

Uhm... are you (I hope) referring to Angel Sanctuary?

Because I'm talking about this: http://myanimelist.net/manga/1461/Sanctuary

Yea sorry. I confused that with Angel Sanctuary. My bad bro, that does look damn good, I'll put it on my list.

Yes, Sanctuary is really good! Seriously Oburi, if you're calling the same manga we're talking about girly and think Twilight is okay...

Will I ever live that down? ...

 

[Oblivious]

Yes, Sanctuary is really good! Seriously Oburi, if you're calling the same manga we're talking about girly and think Twilight is okay...
I'd like to recommend Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but it's an anime, not a manga. In any case, it is a masterpiece in my opinion.

Actually, there is a manga on it, they're just rare. I think only the first volume is available.

 

[Rhombaad]

Will I ever live that down? ...

Probably not.

 

[Griffith]

Will I ever live that down? ...

Should you?

 

[D-Scape]

I realize it's not the most seinen-politically correct series to like, but I've come to enjoy Negima! over the years. Like the rest of the works by Ken Akamatsu it contains buckets of juvenile fanservice and an insanely stupid harem subplot. And yet, if you look past that it's a quite good and epic fantasy manga. I was surprised how well Akamatsu suceeded with action and adventure like this after I'd been left disappointed with how dull and boring his last series, Love Hina, became. It manages to be exciting in spite of overusing shonen-stereotypes and ripping off several other series, and Akamatsu's artwork and goofy humor makes it easier to accept the frequent stupidity. I also tend to enjoy mangas with massive character galleries (Battle Royale is another favorite) for some reason. Maybe because it has got to be atleast some interesting characters in a gallery of 50+.

May the Idea of Evil forgive me, but I think it's a good read.

 

[Aazealh]

I realize it's not the most seinen-politically correct series to like

This is rather oddly worded. Do you think seinen titles are generally more politically correct than shônen ones?

 

[D-Scape]

That part wasn’t meant to be taken seriously whatsoever. I didn’t mean to suggest that seinen manga are politically, culturally or morally superior to shônen manga in any way. It’s just that I’ve noticed a slight bias against shônen-titles on certain discussion-forums, especially by hardcore seinen fans. And since I’m usually reading seinen myself there could be that some fanatics would see me as a “traitor” if I admitted reading Negima. Just a personal reference.

 

[Aazealh]

That part wasn’t meant to be taken seriously whatsoever. I didn’t mean to suggest that seinen manga are politically, culturally or morally superior to shônen manga in any way. It’s just that I’ve noticed a slight bias against shônen-titles on certain discussion-forums, especially by hardcore seinen fans.

My point was that political correctness has little to do with the issue, as opposed to, say, intellectual value. Shônen titles are aimed at teenage boys (that's what the word means, as I'm sure you know), and as a consequence they're generally not very thought-provoking and may lack artistic merit. The audience of seinen manga being adults, it's only natural that it features titles commonly thought to be of a higher quality. It's the same in other media.

One thing to keep in mind here is that shônen and seinen aren't really genres and simply denote the intended audience.

 

[D-Scape]

One thing to keep in mind here is that shônen and seinen aren't really genres and simply denote the intended audience.

You're right. I admit these demographic indicators confused me when I first was introduced to manga some years ago and they still do.

Anyway, there's word out that Highschool of the Dead will be starting up again after a hiatus of more than a year and that's great news because, imo it's one of the most entertaining spins on the modern zombie tale I've ever seen, Shaun of the Dead included. It gives the zombie-genre what it's always been missing; gratious fanservice! The manga-ka used to specialize in hentai doujinshi so it was to be expected. Great gory fun. An anime has also been green-lit.

 

[Dar_Klink]

I'm gonna recommend something I just watched, House of Five Leaves. It's about a ronin samurai who ends up working for a Yakuza group. I've watched the first episode so far, and I think it looks pretty good.
You can watch it online(LEGALLY! ) here: On Funimation's website
Since Funimation is doing a simulcast of it about an hour after the Japanese release. You can also read some of it online here: On SigIkki's website

Also, this isn't really a recommendation, but I'm looking forward to another anime being simulcasted called Yojo-han. It's being animated by Mad House, which is one of the best studios out there for animation. I'll post my thoughts on it here later maybe.

 

[aufond]

Anybody into the works of Tsutomu Nihei? He's best known for Blame!, Abara, and Biomega. He also did a Halo story and a short X-men adaptation called and Wolverine: Snikt! which is pretty popular in the US. I've only just begun reading his stuff, I'm only just a few volumes into Blame! but I must say, he already may be my other favorite (alongside Miura and Inoue) His writing is a little bit far-out, but his art is so breathtaking.

His strange worlds and the terrifying creatures that inhabit them, I don't know how he comes up with them. I just can't get enough of his style. I'm looking forward to diving into his other works. If you haven't already, check out some of his stuff.