What Manga are you reading?

[wildpurplechild]

Pig Bride vol 1. Another Manhwa I've started reading. This is a bit of an odd story, but reminds me of beauty and the beast in a way. It's about a boy who accidently marries a girl in a pig mask when he is young, because he wanted to eat the wedding feast. He doesn't see her for years, but now when he is in high school, she has come to protect her husband. it's a goofy story for sure, but the art is cool, and I like the mythology in it.

[blkmage]

Managed to finish DRRR!!x4 while I was travelling downtown today. I don't know if it's because it's been a while since I've watched or read Durarara or if it's more clear in text, but Narita Ryohgo is a friggin' master of launching a thousand unrelated plot threads and tying them together again.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Managed to finish DRRR!!x4 while I was travelling downtown today. I don't know if it's because it's been a while since I've watched or read Durarara or if it's more clear in text, but Narita Ryohgo is a friggin' master of launching a thousand unrelated plot threads and tying them together again.

It's kind of interesting that you say that, because I'm realizing now that while Children of the Bottle keeps a lot of the same flow and prose, it really isn't like a typical Narita story because it's focused on a relatively small cast of like, eight people total, and while it's really good and I'd love to see it animated, it doesn't feel like The Rolling Bootlegs or The Grand Punk Railroad in terms of plot.

[Atria35]

Four Shoujo Stories- the first shoujo manga printed in the US, and it's pretty darn good. The 'They Were 11' story reminded me that I have the movie version ready for viewing! Ah, which reminds me- They Were 11 was the best story in here. Why are there not more shoujo like it? omg, everyone needs to read it or watch it.

[mkalv]

I just rented volume one of the two volumes vampire manga Bloody Kiss. So far, it is ultra boring, and if I finish it, it will only be because it is so short.

[the_wolfs_howl]

I just finished reading a short manga (only two volumes) called A Distant Neighborhood (Harukana Machi-E) by Jiro Taniguchi. It's a quiet, simple story about a man who's going through a midlife crisis, yet unexpectedly gets to go back in time to his fourteen-year-old self and relive his youth. It's very realistically drawn, and you get a good feel for what typical Japanese family life would have been like at the time. It also has some good, thoughtful messages.

The only thing I didn't like about it was that it was left-to-right Ugh, it was so hard to read.

[AnimeGirl]

Finished reading;
Black Cat, volume 6, 13 (the part with Saya ALWAYS makes me cry!)
Fullmetal Alchemist, volume 14 (well most of it. Kyaah!! I hope they can help Ling return to normal!!)
Magic Knight Reyearth, vol.1 (I'm lovin' this series! Man, Mokona was SO PLUMP back then >.>)

[Atria35]

Akira v. 1- Of all the things my library does have... THis is a great start to a story! Opposing political factions, mysterious drugs, people with amazing powers, friends turned enemies/psychotics... This has quite a few things going for it. I'm excited to check out the rest!

[azuapples11]

Wandering Son



It's fantastic!

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Bakuman.

It's like Death Note, only good.

[Kaori]

Worlds by Fujizaki Ryuu. This is another short story collection and Fujizawa’s debut work.

The first story in the collection (written when Fujizaki was 18 years old) had a really fascinating concept but was a bit rough in its execution; the title story (for which Fujizaki won the 40th Tezuka Award) was extremely creepy; the other three stories were also pretty decent, making this one of the better short story collections I’ve read. Something about this early 90s art style really appeals to me, but from what I’ve seen, Fujizaki’s later works have a much more standard style, which is too bad.

[Atria35]

Akira 2-4- and they attempted to put this in a movie? Dear goodness, why?! It's far too complex to ever be able to be coherent and good in that form. I guess I'll have to watch the movie for comparison, but... MAN! It's awesome, though.

[azuapples11]

Kimi Ni Todoke
Bakuman
Wandering Son

wandering son is really good

[Sapphire225]

Akira 2-4- and they attempted to put this in a movie? Dear goodness, why?! It's far too complex to ever be able to be coherent and good in that form. I guess I'll have to watch the movie for comparison, but... MAN! It's awesome, though.

Trust me, the movie is excellent! (And if I remember correctly, I think it was one of those animes that the movie was first and then came the manga, but I probably need to look it back up to confirm it)

[FllMtl Novelist]

I found Pluto at the library, and I'm on the fourth volume now. It's pretty good.

[Atria35]

Akira 5-6 (complete)- Man. That was something! Where do I even begin? It's a simple story, but so very, very well done. The art was great. The characters nice. And... yes. I wouldn't rate it a 10, but it's definitely up there.

[AngelicTotoro]

I've finally finished the S.A Special A manga... (I know my MAL says differently but... meh. I didn't actually ready everything This time, I did.)
I really liked it, much better then the anime (as much as I loved it).
I also really liked Finn. Too bad that character wasn't put into the anime. D:

[spoiler]You have no idea how happy I was that Finn was a girl, it was making me really sad that my precious Ryuu might have been going gay. (SO? I really like Ryuu~ xD) After Finn is revealed to be a female, I really starting liking her. (As a boy I kind of hated her. ) Also, Kei and Hikari had a way better relationship in the manga, and she isn't such a jerk to Kei... I hated how badly she hurt his feelings in the anime... I really prefered them getting together on that 'haunted' island they were stuck on. Why is it, that even when they actually get together some where in the middle, most shojou anime adaptions always make the main couple get together in the last episode?[/spoiler]

[Kaori]

Meteor Methuselah (Immortal Rain) v. 11. This series is about an immortal who wants to become human again and live a normal life, a guy who wants to escape from the endless cycle of reincarnation that he is trapped in, and a bounty hunter. While not the best manga I have ever read, it is good, and more people ought to read it.

So, I’ve been following this series for at least five years, and it has just now ended. Naturally, the final, climactic volume has to have a final, climactic battle with a monster that is more enormous than anything the characters have fought previously. Early in the volume, Rain throws a semi truck at it, and things only escalate from there. Also, in typical manga/anime fashion, readers are taken for a mildly surreal jaunt through a couple of the characters’ minds, despite the fact that delving into the characters’ psyches is by no means the norm for this particular manga.

The ending was too facile for my taste, and the whole volume was also much too melodramatic (I hope that in the next several manga I read no one says 死なないで or 好きだ). However, it had a very conclusive ending in which

[spoiler]everyone gets what they wanted.[/spoiler]
So I can’t complain too much.

[wildpurplechild]

Pig Bride Vol 2 I'm enjoying this series, it's really funny!
Undertown Vol 1 It's a fantasy for children and teens were a boy named Sama finds a mysterious world were furmen (similar to furries) are at war with big insects. All the while Sama is trying to find a magic stone to take back to his own world to save his father. I liked it, and own it. I can't seem to find the second volume at the library, but I do want to keep reading.

[Atria35]

Undertown Vol 1 It's a fantasy for children and teens were a boy named Sama finds a mysterious world were furmen (similar to furries) are at war with big insects. All the while Sama is trying to find a magic stone to take back to his own world to save his father. I liked it, and own it. I can't seem to find the second volume at the library, but I do want to keep reading.

It was published by Tokyopop, so it will probably be really hard to find.

[mysngoeshere56]

Re-reading the first volume of xxxHOLiC, now that I have a library card again! Yay!

[KeybladeWarrior]

Reading Toradora! volume 2 and Kannagi volume 1.

[the_wolfs_howl]

After my brief stint into A Distant Neighborhood, I'm back to reading Tsubasa Chronicle. I'm up to chapter 50 now. I've seen the first season of the anime, so I've only just now gotten past the stuff I'm already familiar with. The bunny things in this world are giving me major Majora's Mask vibes

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

So I guess I should stop putting off talking about Monster.

Anyone who has talked to me about Monster has probably heard me complain about it. Before, I'd mentioned some smaller criticisms that make for an especially weak first five or so volumes, so I won't go into those again. However, I will say that Monster is a very disappointing manga. I dislike it when people rate stuff down for being overhyped, so I'll go into the reason I didn't really dig the manga.

Monster, to me, felt really soulless. There was this vast network of people who all have complicated backstories and relations, but it all felt almost forced to me. Almost* all of the interactions between the characters felt kind of boring and dead, especially from what I've read of Urasawa's later manga Pluto and 20th Century Boys. In fact, when compared to Pluto and 20th Century Boys, Monster is very, very lacking in pretty much every other regard. I mean, a lot of people complain about Pluto's fast pacing, but it is nothing compared to how slow Monster is.

I probably wouldn't be so down on this manga if people weren't everywhere proclaiming how good it is. I have mentioned before that I am tired of people elevating Monster over other things because of its genre and style rather than how good it is. I can think of a lot of anime and manga that I think are better written and executed than Monster but people would dismiss as more lighthearted fare. How many people are really going to bat for Kamichu! or Yotsuba&! over Monster, even though both series are plagued by much fewer problems, but hey, they involve cute girls rather than serious and complex stories so Monster is the better product. It's an attitude that's been starting to get on my nerves.

It isn't a bad manga, by any means, and you'll probably like it more than I did.

[SIZE="1"]*That said, if Urasawa made it about Grimmer instead of Tenma it would probably be my Favorite Thing Ever.[/SIZE]

[uc pseudonym]

Hiiro no Isu (The Scarlet Chair)

I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to think of this. Generally I don't like shojo focused on action (it doesn't suit the panel layouts or character designs) but I do enjoy shojo with a political aspect. This one worked for me. It was sad to read that the author wants to do stories like this but felt obligated to do a bunch of school life series first.

However, I don't think I was exactly the target audience for this. While I was interested by the basic premise (her discovery about the king's identity) I didn't have any emotional investment in this, which drove the majority of the plot. The first two volumes helped build up to the last, but they were fairly meandering. Once things got moving, though, they only seemed to improve.

So I guess I should stop putting off talking about Monster.

It's been a long time since I've read Monster, and I've sometimes wondered if my opinion would change if I re-read it. Having not done that, my opinion remains as it was, in that I prefer it to the other major Urasawa works. I would take issue with your characterization of Monster fans...

*That said, if Urasawa made it about Grimmer instead of Tenma it would probably be my Favorite Thing Ever.

You're alright, man. You're alright.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Oh, I'm not saying that every fan of Monster is like that; I've just found that a lot of people seem to elevate it to a status it doesn't deserve. While I haven't finished 20th Century Boys yet due to money, I'm curious why you like Monster more than Urasawa's other stuff.

Also, I've read some more Mushishi and One Piece. The former proves to be spectacular, and the latter is good, though I can see why some dislike the fights. I was pretty impressed with Luffy's fight with Arlong, though I wish it had been Nami fighting instead.

[ich1990]

I probably wouldn't be so down on this manga if people weren't everywhere proclaiming how good it is. I have mentioned before that I am tired of people elevating Monster over other things because of its genre and style rather than how good it is. I can think of a lot of anime and manga that I think are better written and executed than Monster but people would dismiss as more lighthearted fare. How many people are really going to bat for Kamichu! or Yotsuba&! over Monster, even though both series are plagued by much fewer problems, but hey, they involve cute girls rather than serious and complex stories so Monster is the better product. It's an attitude that's been starting to get on my nerves.

[SIZE="1"]*That said, if Urasawa made it about Grimmer instead of Tenma it would probably be my Favorite Thing Ever.[/SIZE]

I have gone to bat for Monster before and I am tempted to do so again, but you make me wonder what I would think about the series if I revisited it. I read Monster during a time when I didn't know about any other real "intelligent" manga or series where intellect was really valued. As a consequence I enjoyed it greatly. The same thing happened with Death Note. Neither are a perfect series, but compared to the usual fare, they were so different than the others that I couldn't help but overrate them. Now that I have read things like FMA and JoJo's and Urasawa's other works, I am starting to realize that there are things that are good and intelligent all throughout the manga world. The things I once loved are starting to pale compared to this new, broader world of great and daring writing. Monster is a great series, but maybe not as great as I once thought.

A Caveat:
That all being said, I don't agree with you entirely. You mention, for instance, that a story should be judged on quality, not genre or story type. I don't agree. There are some story types and genres that are so much more difficult to work in or are so much more promising that even a story of marginal quality within such a category is better than a perfectly executed one in a lesser setting. Think about it: which trick do you think is better, a well executed ollie, or a 720 with a wobbly landing? Which demonstrates more skill? Which is more exciting to see? Likewise, which would you say is the better show, a well executed high school girl comedy or a mystery involving the 1930's mafia, a runaway train, and alchemy? What if I said that the latter had character development problems? Wouldn't you still rather see something that hasn't been tried before over something that has its routine down because it is ripping off a million predecessors that have done the same thing already?

Therefore:
Maybe genre doesn't matter so much, but ambition sure does and Monster has ambition in spades.

For the Record:
I don't know anyone who dislikes Yotsuba&!. You can't dislike it and claim to still have a soul. Further I would like to say that Grimmer is the best character ever, because he is.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

A Caveat:
That all being said, I don't agree with you entirely. You mention, for instance, that a story should be judged on quality, not genre or story type. I don't agree. There are some story types and genres that are so much more difficult to work in or are so much more promising that even a story of marginal quality within such a category is better than a perfectly executed one in a lesser setting. Think about it: which trick do you think is better, a well executed ollie, or a 720 with a wobbly landing? Which demonstrates more skill? Which is more exciting to see? Likewise, which would you say is the better show, a well executed high school girl comedy or a mystery involving the 1930's mafia, a runaway train, and alchemy? What if I said that the latter had character development problems? Wouldn't you still rather see something that hasn't been tried before over something that has its routine down because it is ripping off a million predecessors that have done the same thing already?

Therefore:
Maybe genre doesn't matter so much, but ambition sure does and Monster has ambition in spades.

I would never say that ambition is by any means bad, I mean, I just made a thread about The Tatami Galaxy trying to get people to go watch it because I would like to reward ambition, and I think Masaaki Yuasa is shows both ambition and talent in The Tatami Galaxy. I do, however, dislike the idea that both ambition and certain genres are mutually exclusive.

For instance, you seem to imply that if a work is a part of a popular genre it is less ambitious and therefore has less potential than a work that is not part of a popular genre. Do you then dismiss Macross and Patlabor for coming out during a time when robot shows were popular? Both shows are unique and innovative both now and when they came out, and I would still call both of them classics. I'm not saying that a school-based comedy is better than the complex thriller by any means]For the Record:
I don't know anyone who dislikes Yotsuba&!. You can't dislike it and claim to still have a soul. Further I would like to say that Grimmer is the best character ever, because he is.[/QUOTE]While I never said anyone was disliking Yotsuba&!, I rarely see people calling it one of The Greatest Manga Of All Time, something I often see for Monster.
[SIZE="1"]
(pssst, as a side note, I want to make sure that while I enjoy discussing this, I'm not thinking less of you or anything)[/SIZE]

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood

After a failed foray into Jojo's Part 3 (the only licensed JBA comic), I decided to start at the beginning. Though Part 3 gave a summary of what came before, it certainly does not do any kind of justice to the events of Phatom Blood (and I'm assuming Battle Tendency).

So, I enjoyed this book a whole lot. People have likened it to Fist of the North Star, which is certainly a good thing in my mind . However, while I can see the comparison to Hokuto no Ken in terms of character designs and violence-level, Araki's sense of style and flair along with a different sort of craziness than Buronson's seminal shounen work help JBA stand out from titles of a similar ilk.

The final confrontation between the main hero and villain (an excellent, imminently hate-able badguy, btw) is a great example of the spirit of JBA. On the one hand, the events unfolding before the reader are undeniably tragic. The scene is very compelling and evoked an emotional reaction from me. But, on the other hand, if one pulls back a bit they will realize that what is going on is crackers...complete insanity. JBA: PB smoothly integrates both emotional gravitas and hyperbolic ridiculousness and makes it not only digestible but rather enjoyable.

I love the characters, I love the insanity, and I LOVE the names joke (won't ever get old). JBA also kept me guessing concerning the characters' ultimate outcomes until the final pages. Really good stuff.

[mkalv]

Well, a few days ago, I started two manga from the library: Arisa by Natsume Ando and S.A. Arisa is a mystery series involving twins, and S.A. is a Shojo school manga. So far, I am enjoying Arisa more.

I also read another volume of One Piece, volume 49.