What Manga are you reading?

[That Dude]

I read a ton of manga, but the ones I've been focusing a lot on recently have been

Kekkaishi: up to chapter 192.
Fairy Tale: chapter 326
Hajime no Ippo - Chapter 25.

There are quite a few more, like I'm currently reading one called Buyuden and AKB49 among others like Maoh Juvenile Mix.

[Atria35]

Finished reading Popcorn Romance- a shoujo from the early 90's (and boy, does it show!). At least it wasn't too bad, except for the really strong enviro theme. It wasn't done as well as Ghibli does it.

And still reading Ghost in the Shell and The Manga Bible.

[MangaRocks!]

Kingyo Sou, a.k.a. Silent Love Song (complete): Well, that was a sweet little two-volume romance. It was unusual, too, in that several of its characters were actually deaf (most notably the main character's love interest!), and as far as I'm aware it's pretty rare for a manga to portray disabilities like that (at least in a somewhat realistic way). The story did feature a couple of cliche's , but overall it was quite good, and worth an 8/10 from me on MAL. It would be nice if someone licensed it in English someday.

Also, Yotsuba&! vol. 6: Heh! This series just keeps getting better, doesn't it? (Seriously-- if this keeps up, I may have to upgrade its rating... again! )

[alma]

Today I started Elfen Lied. Hummmm......
I like Sci-Fi. I think it is going to be a trip. It looks interesting.
I am still reading at least other three mangas, let's see how I keep up. Sometimes I stall for weeks on a manga.
......
Note: I think I can't handle all the killings on Elfen Lied, I had to skip a lot of pages, too much detailed killings and mayhem. I am doing the same with Fullmetal Panic Sigma. But I would like to know how the stories develop and end.

[Maokun]

xxxHOLiC's finished? O.O

It's likely that you finished it and didn't notice, because seriously, you don't want/can't believe things will simply end like they did. I know it happened to me until I looked around and found out that, in fact, that was the ending.

Today I started Elfen Lied. Hummmm......
I like Sci-Fi. I think it is going to be a trip. It looks interesting.
I am still reading at least other three mangas, let's see how I keep up. Sometimes I stall for weeks on a manga.
......
Note: I think I can't handle all the killings on Elfen Lied, I had to skip a lot of pages, too much detailed killings and mayhem. I am doing the same with Fullmetal Panic Sigma. But I would like to know how the stories develop and end.

Elfen Lied's anime is worlds better than the manga, but then again it seems that you are turned off from it because the physical violence which remains in the anime. At the very least it dispenses with most of the tacked-on, gratuitous hentai scenes of the manga. And the amateurish character design.

[alma]

Elfen Lied's anime is worlds better than the manga, but then again it seems that you are turned off from it because the physical violence which remains in the anime. At the very least it dispenses with most of the tacked-on, gratuitous hentai scenes of the manga. And the amateurish character design.

Yes, your are right. Thank you for your words, all true.
Then I will get to know the end maybe by reading a review or watching the anime. I should drop this manga.

[J.D3]

Currently reading Kami no Shizuku... very funny (so much drama over wine!) & learning stuff about wine too!

Gonna start reading Shin Angyo Onshi too, after one member recommended it.

[Atria35]

FInally finished Ghost in the Shell. Not too shabby- and I definitely liked it more than the movie.

Finished the Manga Bible- it was okay. Better than average, but not the greatest.

EDIT: also just finished Hellsing v. 3 and Serenity 6-10- the new format for Serenity works well. We're just missing out on things that lead to, you know, character development >.>" All her growth is rough and abrupt because half the manga is taken up with the movie stories.

[Edward]

Right now I'm reading Yu Yu Hakusho. And I recently bought vol. 17 of FMA, so I guess I'll read that sometime soon.

[MangaRocks!]

Alice In The Country Of Hearts (complete): Well, I had been planning on reading this anyway, but due to how fast I read (I naturally speed-read, be it text or art), I like to marathon as much as possible; so-- since at the time I decided to read it there was just one more volume left to be published here-- I was intending to wait until that was released to read the series. However, with the demise of TokyoPop (and no way of knowing when the license might be picked back up again), there was no more reason to hold off, so I picked up the first 5 volumes from the library and finished the last vol. by scans. (Unfortunately, the translation on the scan that I found was pretty bad ... but hey, I only had to endure said translation for one vol., and anyway I could make out the gist of the conversations. I think. )

Online 'translation' of the final vol. aside , the one drawback to the manga itself is that its ending seems a little rushed, and I did have to look up a fair amount of story explanation afterwards. Now, since a couple of people on the scan site I was at had helpfully posted this pertinent info in a quite prominent place, this wasn't that big a deal for me. Based on a game or not, however, a story should usually be able to stand on its own in whatever format it's using, so not including that probably-just-one-chapter-or-so's worth of explanation was a definite mistake by the writer(s)/editor(s)/publisher(s)/etc. (and, indeed, is the only thing that kept me from rating it a point higher than the 8 I ended up giving it on MAL {...well, that, and also because there should probably have been just a tiny bit more plot/character/etc. development with Blood near the end there }). *THAT SAID*, the world and characters were properly... interesting , the interaction and dialogue were quite often perfectly hilarious , and I really enjoyed the story (both before *and* after reading the explanations {which, as I said, are not at all hard to find})-- so it actually ended up on my favorites list.

I hope it gets relicensed so that last volume is translated into properly-readable English (and so I can own them all, too, of course! ) someday soon. (...And I hope whoever does that also licenses all the Alice In The Country Of Clover vol.'s, too!)

[Maokun]

Dororo Vols 2-3 (finished)

Well, that was it. I was already warned that Dororo was left mostly unfinished, though the Tezuka did throw an ending of sorts to resolve some of the ongoing conflict, so at least it is not simply as though it went into indefinite hiatus.

What's perhaps more disappointing is that you can tell that the author just grew tired with the story. By the end he was simply rehashing plots and even forgetting fundamental parts of the the whole premise (like Hyakkimaru growing a new limb after defeating a demon,) which is really sad because the story had a fascinating premise and interesting characters. I guess that when you have an author as prolific as Osamu Tezuka you cannot really expect him to give the same love to all his narrative children.

I'd like to see someone picking up the story and continuing it. I think, it would be perfect if it restarted 5 years or so in the future after where the story was left; [spoiler]Hyakkimaru only missing a handful body parts by then, Dororo grown up into a brave and beautiful woman, etc... [/spoiler]

[Cadence]

So the past several months I have been making my way through One Piece. I caught up on the volumes released in the US, and so moved on to scans (impatient much). I will have a lot more to say about the series once I am finally caught up, but for now, suffice it to say that I read through chapter 574 tonight...

[SPOILER]And am now going to go cry myself to sleep.[/SPOILER]

[AnimeGirl]

Read volume 1 of The Dreaming. This...is....creepy!!

[MangaRocks!]

Tried to start reading the Kingdom Hearts manga, but after having to force myself to get through the second chapter I gave up and dropped it. In all fairness, the actual Kingdom Hearts games are really quite good; it's just that for some reason the story didn't seem to translate into comic format very well (at least how they did it! ). So, yeah... I guess anyone who's interested in KH should just play the games.

However, on a positive note , I also read Vampire Knight vol. 12 and Bakuman vol. 5-- series which are both still great, and both still favorites.

[mkalv]

Yesterday, I read Naruto 51 and Bleach 35. Both were really good, but I think I preferred Bleach, just for having tons of awesomeness.

[MangaRocks!]

Detective Conan a.k.a. Case Closed, vol. 1: Meh. Normally I like mysteries, even shorter, serial-type ones; but for some reason this just hasn't worked for me so far. I think the problem is that the mysteries here are *too* short, so you aren't allowed to get into them before they're over and on to the next. Also, the majority of the characters have no real personality (and the ones that do are just annoying! ). So, yeah... I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and plow through another volume or two, but if nothing changes by then I'm going to drop it.

Fullmetal Alchemist vol. 25: Nothing much to say about this, really, except that I seriously cannot wait for the next volume!

And, finally, Yotsuba&! vol.'s 7-9: Adorable as always. (And I'm glad that Yanda's been featured in the story more and more now, too, because the interaction between him and the others is always totally hilarious! )

[Kaori]

Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a Distant Star): The anime is better. Like a good lyric poem, everything in the anime is focused on creating a single, unified impression; there is nothing superfluous. The manga adaption expands on the story and allows us to see some other characters besides the two leads, but by doing so, the clarity of focus and the overwhelming sense of isolation and loneliness is lost. The artwork is nice, but it’s not worth losing those things which made the anime good in the first place in order to gain a bit of additional information. Also, the ending of the manga gives a more definite sense of hope, but in contrary fashion, I prefer the ambiguity of the anime ending.

Grandeek Reel v. 1. The premise is that the main character, Tia, is able to see and talk to spirits that inhabit swords and armor, and she is on a journey seeking the world’s most powerful items. The artwork is pretty good, but the story and characters are lacking, and it’s a bit cheesy. This series is not licensed in America and I’m not aware of anyone scanslating it, but no one is really missing out on much.

Fullmetal Alchemist v. 17-27 (complete). Since so much has been said about this series already, I will just comment that although it isn’t perfect, its reputation is certainly well-deserved.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou v. 1-3 and Steel Ball Run v. 1-2. Thoughts on these in the other thread.

[Atria35]

Just finished Mistress Fortune (so glad I'm not the owner), and Amazing Agent Luna omnibus 1 (v. 1-3)- not too shabby. A few issues here and there, but overall a solid, funny story.

[AnimeGirl]

Just finished Mistress Fortune (so glad I'm not the owner), and Amazing Agent Luna omnibus 1 (v. 1-3)- not too shabby. A few issues here and there, but overall a solid, funny story.

XD!!! "I'm glad I'm not the owner" *is owner*

Finished The Dreaming. While I liked it, the ending was unsatisfying.

[Atria35]

XD!!! "I'm glad I'm not the owner" *is owner*

Finished The Dreaming. While I liked it, the ending was unsatisfying.

xDD

And yeah, that's exactly how I felt about it. I know what happened, it's just.... Yeah.

[AnimeGirl]

Read volume 1 of Natsume's Book of Friends. I actually really like this. Some of the stories actually made me cry. It was like all of a sudden, tears started to fall from my eyes. Very well written. Like the one about the youkai who pretended to be human just so she could talk to Natsume. I think I like this series better than xxxHOLiC almost. (And I can't wait to watch the anime on CrunchyRoll!!)

[Kaori]

Filament. Urushibara Yuuki, most known for Mushishi, also once published an omnibus of short stories, Bio Luminescence, under the pen name Soyogo Shima. That omnibus has gone out of print, but it was later republished in its entirety with the addition of two new stories. The result is Filament, a collection of stories as short as four pages or as long as fifty, and written at various dates from 1992 to 2004.

Possibly because these stories are mostly early-career stuff, there’s a great deal of variation in the art style from story to story—perhaps Urushibara hadn’t yet settled into one distinctive style. I understood what was going on most of the time (reading in Japanese), but most of the stories didn’t seem to have much of a point. The collection does contain two Mushishi stories, so I suppose it’s of some interest to diehard fans, but it is a bit rough and probably not the best introduction to Urushibara Yuuki’s oeuvre.

[AnimeGirl]

Finished volume 4 of FMA and am almost done reading volume 5. I LOVED how jammed packed with bonuses the fourth volume of FMA was! There was alot more 4-koma than usual. That's one of the best things I love about the FMA manga is the bonus in the back. As I read more and more, the more I just love the manga! Both anime and manga are all amazing, I just love it <333

[Atria35]

Manga Messiah - Hmmm. I didn't know there were 5 books in this series- I shall have to see them out! I don't care for it all being in color, it makes it seem more cartoon-y and like a comic book. And what is with people and the story of Herod and the babies?! ><" I get it, it makes a good story, BUT. Yeah. The pacing also is a bit off in some places. Understandable, and it's better off than the Manga Bible, but it's there.

[Gojira]

Gamera vs. Balgon. It arrived in the mail yesterday. I love giant monsters.

[AnimeGirl]

Finished volume 5 of FMA and also read volume 6. I just love this series the more and more I read it! Kyaaah <333

[uc pseudonym]

Kekkaishi

So this is over. Huh. To be honest this felt like a second to last arc to me, dealing with some loose ends to ramp up to the finale. Then the final chapter isn't any larger than normal and doesn't feel very conclusive other than hitting solid notes for most of the characters.

Does anyone know if the series was canceled or struggling ratings-wise? I guess this just doesn't seem like the ending an author would dream of after so many chapters. While it was a reasonably enjoyable shonen for its different feel, in the end it didn't go many of the places I was hoping to see.

[MangaRocks!]

Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan: Wow.

I gave this a 9 on MAL, with the caveat that it does have some pretty adult themes at certain points (though nothing's *really* shown; it's just quite clear what, er, happened... ). That said, it was emotionally intense [spoiler](yes, I totally cried at the end!),[/spoiler] had some fairly powerful messages about [spoiler]revenge; forgiveness; living on; & etc.,[/spoiler] and, in short, was well worth the read.

[Atria35]

Higurashi v. 3-8- re-reading, and enjoying! I forget how good this can be (though I think it's a tad racier than the anime). Still, I think certain scenes have more emotional impact, and you get more info from it.

[Agloval]

I'm not much of a manga reader but I'm crawling my way through Basara. So far I'm somewhere in the twelfth volume. I'm enjoying how each location the hero/ine visits has its own sub-whirlwind of intrigues and secrets, all making up a facet of this big, country-wide struggle. It's good fun.