What Manga are you reading?

[ich1990]

I just finished about two dozen chapters of Psyren. I am all caught up now. So far, it has been pretty good, my only complaint is that there are too many characters.

[Fish and Chips]

Claymore vol. 1
One Piece vol. 16
Samurai Deeper Kyo vol. 29
Trigun Maximum vol. 12

I just finished about two dozen chapters of Psyren. I am all caught up now. So far, it has been pretty good, my only complaint is that there are too many characters.

And you read Bleach?

[uc pseudonym]

I just finished about two dozen chapters of Psyren. I am all caught up now. So far, it has been pretty good, my only complaint is that there are too many characters.

At least you can count on some of them dying periodically. But I think I know the feeling: the cast was fairly small until they started throwing in a bunch of non-players for several chapters apiece. However, with the chapter from last week (25?) I think I see part of the reason. Hopefully the author is carefully setting up characters for some larger events.

Also,
[spoiler]It would be an incredible plot twist if they actually aren't in the future at all, but being transported to an alternate world in order to prepare for the real 2011. I don't really think this is happening, but if so I called it.[/spoiler]

[ich1990]

And you read Bleach?

Yes, and whenever I want to discuss it with anyone I have to hop on wikipedia and try to match names with faces.

[spoiler]It would be an incredible plot twist if they actually aren't in the future at all, but being transported to an alternate world in order to prepare for the real 2011. I don't really think this is happening, but if so I called it.[/spoiler]

[spoiler] That would make a lot of sense. However, how would you explain the correlations of objects between the two supposed timeperiods. For instance, the head female who was in charge of the main group's training hid items in the present and then went to Psyren to retrieve them. They were right were she had left them. If Psyren is an alternate world designed to weed out the weak from the strong, then why do past items bleed over into it? Unless you are talking about parallel universes or something like that.

Other world or not, Psyren definately (<-- SP?) seems like a training ground. Perhaps "Nemesis Q" doesn't agree with the other W.I.S.E. people in the future (or whatever it is), so he is recruiting people in the past to deal with them before they have a chance to wreck Earth.

Also, the old Grandma seems to know a lot more than she should (probably due to her psi power). This is further evidenced in chapter 35.[/spoiler]

[uc pseudonym]

October Shonen Jump

I list it mainly because it has a preview of a new series... which made so little impact on me that I won't bother mentioning the name. All that keeps it from being a purely mundane shonen title is that the traditional human character is actually competent, but unless this series improves immensely I'm not impressed.

Re: Psyren
[spoiler]For objects to carry over, whoever was creating Psyren would have to be carefully monitoring things and setting up the false future in order to match whatever was changed in the present. That seems improbable, but it could easily be accomplished with some kind of dimensional link or other technobabble. Because there seem to be a limited number of people playing at one time, it wouldn't have to be too hard (or they could just have wherever it was hidden be destroyed).

The main reason I mention this is because it would mean that everything the main characters are "discovering" about the future is actually them playing into the enemies' hands. I would be very curious to see what kind of plot would require convincing super-powered people that there was a major threat coming.

But as I said I doubt that, and I think it very likely that Nemesis Q is trying to work against WISE somehow. Do you note that his outfit resembles theirs, but is red instead of white? At least I believe it has been red in a few of the color pages.[/spoiler]

[blkmage]

Picked up Hayate the Combat Butler.

[blkmage]

Posting again, but I just started and finished Bitter Virgin, and oh wow. Definitely one of the sadder stories that I've read. It hits you right in the gut throughout.

[minakichan]

Posting again, but I just started and finished Bitter Virgin, and oh wow. Definitely one of the sadder stories that I've read. It hits you right in the gut throughout.

A thousand times yes! I love depressing stories, and I was shocked that a story with quite a fairly flat characters could still be so emotionally impactful.

Picked up some titles I had put on the backburner for a while-- Mysterious Girlfriend X and Hourou Musuko. While their subject matter (adolescent sexuality and transgenderism respectively) probably mean that I can't explicitly recommend them on this site (not that I necessarily would), they're both pretty interesting quiet slice of life seinen series (despite being about schoolkids!). Glad I picked them up again.

[ich1990]

Re: Psyren
[spoiler]For objects to carry over, whoever was creating Psyren would have to be carefully monitoring things and setting up the false future in order to match whatever was changed in the present. That seems improbable, but it could easily be accomplished with some kind of dimensional link or other technobabble. Because there seem to be a limited number of people playing at one time, it wouldn't have to be too hard (or they could just have wherever it was hidden be destroyed).

The main reason I mention this is because it would mean that everything the main characters are "discovering" about the future is actually them playing into the enemies' hands. I would be very curious to see what kind of plot would require convincing super-powered people that there was a major threat coming.

But as I said I doubt that, and I think it very likely that Nemesis Q is trying to work against WISE somehow. Do you note that his outfit resembles theirs, but is red instead of white? At least I believe it has been red in a few of the color pages.[/spoiler]

[spoiler] Yes that would be a great twist. The bad guys let the good guys do their dirty work for them by feeding them misinformation.

As for NQ's outfit, no I hadn't noticed that it was an inverse of the WISE outfit. Sounds like more than coincidence to me. [/spoiler]

[Fish and Chips]

Berserk vol. 27-31
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure vol. 72

I would love to sit in on Emperor Ganishka's board meetings.

"Make it eviler, with lots of teeth."

[RobinSena]

Part way into DNAngel v. 6.

[yukoxholic]

Finally found NANA volume 12 and picked up Someday's Dreamers: Spellbound Volume 1.

[Aka-chan]

Just finished Monster, which was most excellent. Looking for something else to read in the meanwhile, so I'm dabbling in Vinland Saga (ch. 2, currently.)

[Shao Feng-Li]

The Azumanga Daioh Omnibus

[minakichan]

Lost+Brain... chapter 3.

I'm kind of craving more, despite knowing how bad it is for me-- it's like greasy pizza, disgusting but delicious. The releases are a bit slow, considering that this runs weekly in Sunday. Lost+Brain has proven with this chapter (the "I am L" chapter... I swear, I was expecting Ren and Kujou to just simultaneously "I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND DESTROY YOU IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO. I. AM. JUSTICE!") that it is the perfect lovechild of Death Note and Code Geass-- now with 200% more terrorism and suicide bombing.

It's terrible! I WANT MORE.

Oh, I also read my first-ever shounen-ai manga, Boys Next Door, by "that one lady who did that incest angel series." The angst is so thick that it feels like half-melted butter sitting on my skin. And the boys weren't even that hot... Very disappointing. (But the storytelling was excellent.)

[Song_of_Storms]

I read Boys next door awhile ago. It, in my opinion, was torture. I found the main characters unbelievably annoying.

Now, on a more cheerful note...

I've been reading and enjoying 1/2 Prince and Id.

[blkmage]

Picked up Addicted to Curry and Mirai Nikki. It doesn't look like anyone's talked about either on these boards yet.

Addicted to Curry is about the daughter of a curry chef who gets left behind to take care of the shop while the chef goes on a journey somewhere. A bit later, she stumbles upon this guy who's about to die and it turns out he is also a curry chef, looking for her dad. He decides to stay and help out with the shop. Hijinks ensue which are solved with the power of delicious curry. It's pretty fun and makes me hungry.

Mirai Nikki follows the main character, Yukiteru, who is a bit antisocial and just observes things and writes everything down in his diary. He has an imaginary friend, Deus Ex Machina (ha ha, I know), who's God and it turns out he's real and really is God. So Deus decides that he's bored with being God and grants twelve different people diaries that have the power to see into the future and they basically have to fight it out. The last one standing gets to become Deus' successor.

Yukiteru gets the [No Difference] diary. Basically, his diary can see what he will see in the future, but it won't reveal anything about himself. Yuno, the prettiest and smartest girl in his class, has the diary that's the exact opposite of Yuki's: the [Yukiteru] diary. Essentially, her diary only tells his future. She also turns out to be unhealthily in love with Yuki. And the other diaries operate similarly and are based on the personalities of the holders.

Apparently it's a lot like Death Note, except none of the characters are really super-geniuses? I don't know, I keep on procrastinating on starting Death Note. But yeah, apparently it's different in that there are no crazy mindgames, there's just plain crazy. So far it has been entertaining.

[eternalprincess]

Land of Silver Rain Vol 1

Okay, I must say that I really got hooked onto this series. I love the artwork and Fantasy is a favorite genre of mine.

[Fish and Chips]

Berserk vol. 32
Deadman Wonderland vol. 4
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure vol. 73

Deadman Wonderland narrowly saved itself from being dropped. The Escape Arc was rushed and bland, but chapter 16 has a couple interesting implications for near future volumes.

[uc pseudonym]

Nurarihyon no Mago (catching up)

This was initially one of those series I thought was artsy and hence I felt a bit guilty for thinking it was slightly boring. Then I find out it runs in Shonen Jump. Similar to Double Arts, yet that was dropped and this yet survives. I question certain editors.

Deadman Wonderland narrowly saved itself from being dropped. The Escape Arc was rushed and bland, but chapter 16 has a couple interesting implications for near future volumes.

Same here, though I would have kept reading anyway. I'm fine with the way the escape arc has gone so far, just so long as it's being pushed along in order to get to something more important (like Shiro).

[MasterDias]

Nurarihyon no Mago (catching up)
This was initially one of those series I thought was artsy and hence I felt a bit guilty for thinking it was slightly boring. Then I find out it runs in Shonen Jump. Similar to Double Arts, yet that was dropped and this yet survives. I question certain editors.

I liked Double Arts and am disappointed it didn't last. The characters were fun, and I thought the story had potential. But I haven't been particularly impressed with Nurarihyon no Mago. It's not bad, but nothing about it wows me. To be honest, I've become quite critical of the way the Jump editors run things.

[Lilac#18]

Just finished reading Tokyo Mew Mew vol.4 earlier today.

[minakichan]

Eh, I was really afraid that Deadman Wonderland would just be a Branch of Sin fighting tournament series, so I was relieved with the resistance arc. I think some of the plotting here wasn't very creative though. Regardless, this is staying on my list, despite the gore-- and for one as queasy as me, that is a very big despite.

In other news, I might drop Fairy Tail. I really did like some of it-- a few original characters and strong females were great, and there aren't many generic shounen series I'll follow-- but the genericness: originality ratio has just become unwieldly.

[uc pseudonym]

I liked Double Arts and am disappointed it didn't last. The characters were fun, and I thought the story had potential. But I haven't been particularly impressed with Nurarihyon no Mago. It's not bad, but nothing about it wows me. To be honest, I've become quite critical of the way the Jump editors run things.

Basically every part of that mirrors my thoughts. Though I wasn't a huge fan of Double Arts, I felt as though it had potential and I wanted to see what direction they would take certain things (like one cryptic comment that this was "back when she thought his power was a good thing").

In other news, I might drop Fairy Tail. I really did like some of it-- a few original characters and strong females were great, and there aren't many generic shounen series I'll follow-- but the genericness: originality ratio has just become unwieldly.

You have just been targeted as my Fairy Tail comment person.

This recent arc has drained basically all of the true interest I had in the series and I've even lost a lot of respect for it as basic shonen. So many of the interesting overall elements were raised and resolved in this arc (though technically we still have treachery in the council, I guess). Combine that with Erza getting nerfed to fit into a different kind of role (not to mention the earlier chapters of bondage fanservice) and a healthy dose of "Mashima can't come up with new ideas to save his life" syndrome and I really don't have much hope for Fairy Tail anymore.

But I'll still read it, because that is how I roll. Evidently.

[minakichan]

So many of the interesting overall elements were raised and resolved in this arc (though technically we still have treachery in the council, I guess).

This arc was the wow-I-don't-care arc. I was wholly expecting Mashima to pull something unpredictable, so I failed to predict the unpredictably predictable standard shounen tropes he threw on (case in point: Gerard's identity and the tail end of his plan. What.), and self-sacrifice is getting REALLY old.

(not to mention the earlier chapters of bondage fanservice)

Well, you know me. Bondage fanservice (when done well) is a plus 10 points in my book. =/

[Desert Rose]

Basara. Trying to complete the series; had to go all the way to Finland......and I'm still not sure if they have the volumes I need.

[uc pseudonym]

BioMeat - Nectar

Well, it skipped seven years and it appears more will be done with the overall social aspect. While nothing in the new arc has wowed me, at least it didn't end as a set of slightly related horror stories.

This arc was the wow-I-don't-care arc. I was wholly expecting Mashima to pull something unpredictable, so I failed to predict the unpredictably predictable standard shounen tropes he threw on (case in point: Gerard's identity and the tail end of his plan. What.), and self-sacrifice is getting REALLY old.

Yeah, I was trying to think of all kinds of awesome reasons why there would be duplicate people running around and then... no. Then as for self-sacrifice:
[spoiler]I went through several stages:
1) Oh, Erza is dead. Good character gone.
2) Hopefully she'll come back as a hard-core embodiment of Etherion.
3) Actually, if this arc didn't suck, doing that to a character would be kind of cool.
4) Oh, never mind, she's alive.
5) Stupid Natsu.[/spoiler]

[quote="Desert Rose"]Basara. Trying to complete the series]
There's at least one new volume I know is out but I don't have, but I haven't been motivated enough to acquire it yet.

[Lilac#18]

Tokyo Mew Mew vol. 5

[jim_wijit]

Kashimashi.

[Puguni]

Koukou Debut Ch 45. Usually I look forward to chapters, but I can see it's kind of starting to die down. Main girl was annoying in this chapter. Want manga to end.

Stopped reading Deadman Wonderland. I just couldn't stomach the sheer despair. I don't think I could read another chapter without feeling down.

KHR still good. Hibari is a god.