Let's talk manga! ^_^

I got volumes 13 and 14 of Bakuman today and just started reading. I'm so excited!

Cayne wrote:

www.mangahere.com is my go to site used to be mangafox.com but they got hammered recently and lost a bunch of manga's to the ethernet. Oh and www.Batoto.net is a third popular one.

Hammered how?

I think mostly cease and desists from publishers, because all of a sudden a lot of the big manga's on fox started saying " This manga is licensed and no longer available on our site" However on mangahere.com (i think a sister site run by the same guy, could be wrong though) still all there.

Volumes 13 and 14 of Bakuman were very enjoyable. I hate waiting for more.

On Bryan Lee O'Malley's Twitter recommendation, I've started reading this:

IMAGE(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b6/Dorohedoro_01.jpg/230px-Dorohedoro_01.jpg)

Dorohedoro is about....hmm. It's about an underworld that is plagued by sorcerors, and how people survive in that world. It focuses on two characters--a woman who runs a restaurant and is a mean martial artist, and a man who has been messed with by sorcerors (he's lost his head) but has no memory of what happened.

It can sound a little daunting, but within a few pages of reading you're all 'Oh, I get this'. I recommend it. Just picked up Volume 3 today.

Volumes 15 and 16 of Bakuman were superb as always. Anyone else keeping up with it?

Also, has anyone read Drops of God? They were talking about it on the Anime World Order podcast, and it sounds fascinating. It's basically a manga created to educate and sell wine. Apparently, it's actually pretty fun.

Another vote for noblesse, it's the only manga I really read anymore. Some interesting ones I read in the past.

Stormbringer transfer student, really really funny and all color. Make sure to read the original.

Midori Days, first manga I read and I really liked it, caused me to read a ton more. Pretty damn funny as well.

Highschool of the dead is great as well, but it updates at a glacial rate.

I've read a lot more really but most didn't stick with me, I prefer one shots over series mostly. Feels strange though, I used to read and watch a ton of manga and anime. Now nearly none and it's by choice. Huh guess you do grow out of things *Goes back to wanting for next SAO episode...*

I just started one where a squid creature destroyed most of the moon and has a plan to destroy the planet but put it on hold to teach a class in a high school on how to assassinate him. The government will give the class 10 billion yen if they succeed before the year is up and he destroys the world. Can't think of the name, though. Also, three new chapters in Until Death Do Us Part. YAY!

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Volumes 15 and 16 of Bakuman were superb as always. Anyone else keeping up with it?

I'm halfway through 12 right now. I still very much enjoy it, although I'm getting a little tired of

Spoiler:

the plot revolving around Muto Ashirogi coming up with a new idea, putting it in the manga and then waiting for Hattori to phone them with reader results.

.

Something else that is starting to gnaw is the portrayal of Kaya. I understand the focus of Bakuman is manga creation, but surely more could be done with her? She's Takagi's wife! All she seems to do is sweep the floor, make them food and occassionally get groped by Takagi. I guess I shouldn't be surprised--women are either distant, aloof dolls or venomous schemers in this series, it seems.

Grenn the manga you're thinking of is Ansatsu Kyoush*tsu. It is super weird and pretty funny.

It's interesting but i'm also trending more towards manhwa's now, currently reading Nobelese, Ability, Girl of the Wild's, Tower of God, Kubera, all of which are Korean. Dunno why that is though, maybe the full color and different art style.

Hunter x Hunter is finally back from it's latest hiatus... kind of. They are doing a back-story on Kurapika. Seems pretty cool anyways.

I hope it's not too late to revive this thread! I've really enjoyed reading about everyone's recommendations!

After reading chapters for over a year, I finally caught up to the latest chapter of my wife's only remaining manga obsession: One Piece! Although I often read it in fits and starts, she was stunned at how voraciously I consumed it when in the middle of a particulary engaging story arc. One thing I love about the series, other than the developing story and the characters, is Eiichiro Oda's level of detail in many elements of his drawings -- especially when contrasted with a perceived lack of detail in other elements. The amount of time it must have taken him to create the individual scenes of the architecture in the Thriller Bark arc just boggles my mind!

A couple other manga/manhwa titles that I enjoy that I don't remember seeeing anyone mention in this thread are:

Defense Devil - A deposed demon becomes a defender (in the legal sense) of souls who have been wrongfully condemned to hell, in an effort to collect enough dark matter to regain his former powers. It's a fun mix of humor, sleuthing, and (especially in later chapters) action. It finished up a year or two ago, with a proper ending (while still leaving some room for another series if they ever decided to restart it).

Claymore - I used to think of it as "Berserk lite", but while they share some themes and styles, they really are different works. Most of the main characters (the "Claymores", primarily) are women who must balance their demonically-derived powers, lest they permanently lose control of them. I haven't kept up with it over the past year or so (there was too much One Piece to read! :wink:), but the story was still continuing to unfold, even though its pacing seemed to slow down a bit compared to earlier volumes. The detail in Norihiro Yagi's art improved greatly after the first volume or two. As a side note, the anime kept reasonably close the manga up until an episode or two from the end, where it diverged significantly to wrap up the anime.

Break Blade - Although this is a bit of an unfair summary, consider if you will the following: War (from a tactical, political, fontline, and civilian perspective) + giant mecha + former/current childhood friends + convincing characters + actual plot progression = an excellent series! OK, I butchered that completely, but I really do recommend it! Its updates are infrequent, but each chapter is rather long, and there are plenty of other great manga to read in the interim .

It sounds like I should definitely check out Bakuman! I never read Genshiken, but loved the anime. Girl of the Wilds also sounds like a series I'd enjoy.

Genshiken's anime is a fairly faithful adaptation of the manga. In some ways, it's superior. The one reason you want to read the manga is Oguie's character arc, which is only fully explored in the manga. I think her transition from shame and self-hate to some modicum of self-acceptance will resonate with Western gamers who have gamer shame.

Yeah, Bakuman is great. I need to get the latest book or two. I think I'm behind a couple at this point.

LarryC wrote:

Genshiken's anime is a fairly faithful adaptation of the manga. In some ways, it's superior. The one reason you want to read the manga is Oguie's character arc, which is only fully explored in the manga. I think her transition from shame and self-hate to some modicum of self-acceptance will resonate with Western gamers who have gamer shame.

Also IIRC the anime ended right when she and Sasahara get together, and the manga explored a little of what their relationship was like after. I think that it might well be the only example I can think of in all of popular fiction in which the bit after they get together was MORE interesting than the "will-the-or-won't-they" phase beforehand. They have a weird, complicated, awkward, sweetly realistic dynamic as they figure out what it's like to be with someone.

Thank you for the Bakuman recommendation! I'm only a few chapters in and am already hooked!

shoptroll wrote:

Are there any good iOS apps for manga? I was looking at the Comics app by Comixology for the first time last night and I was really impressed with it. However, I couldn't find any real equivalent for manga based on poking around the app store for a few minutes...

I use manga storm, but I have only used it for the horror series by Ituo Junji, aka the Museum of Terror series. It uses hosted images from sites, but you can download 10 chapters at a time so your not just loading from online. If you pay $4 it's unlimited.

It's brings me back to why I popped up here, I'm into horror manga a lot, or at least dark manga. Death Noted and the previously mentioned Museum of Terror series are my recent reads, but I have only come back to reading manga on my ipad at the gym so I was looking for some recommendations. I shall check out Bakuman.

Well it's certainly a great manga, however it is also certainly not a horror manga

Oh yeah been meaning to ask:

What the hell just happened in Fairy Tail this last week?

Spoiler:

I'm guessing Ultear is going to be able to reverse that to redeem herself in her eyes?

Though going back to a darker Juvia might be interesting.

Spoiler:

Hmm oh you mean Juvia's boyfriend... yeah i dunno I'm all for character shakeups though, Lead character immortality is annoying!

On a side note just breezed through another manga, Yumekume Merry. It's a fun romp and it's got a complete 60 chapter arc, with lead in for a new arc if they continue to publish.

Mantid wrote:

Oh yeah been meaning to ask:

What the hell just happened in Fairy Tail this last week?

Spoiler:

I'm guessing Ultear is going to be able to reverse that to redeem herself in her eyes?

Though going back to a darker Juvia might be interesting.

Spoiler:

Seems like the logical conclusion that she sacrifices her life to save his, especially after all the "woe is me, I was about to kill someone" stuff they've been doing with her the past couple chapters.

ukickmydog wrote:
Mantid wrote:

Oh yeah been meaning to ask:

What the hell just happened in Fairy Tail this last week?

Spoiler:

I'm guessing Ultear is going to be able to reverse that to redeem herself in her eyes?

Though going back to a darker Juvia might be interesting.

Spoiler:

Seems like the logical conclusion that she sacrifices her life to save his, especially after all the "woe is me, I was about to kill someone" stuff they've been doing with her the past couple chapters.

Spoiler:

And there you go...typical yet interesting

Okay if i haven't said it before i'll say it now. If you like martial arts manga at all go read these two

The Breaker 72 chapters and finished

and then the follow up

The Breaker: New Waves 120 chapters and updating more or less weekly as they get translated.

I just reread em both for the third time, and it's still damn awesome!

And technically it's not a manga, in this case it's a Manhwa (because it's Korean)

I read volumes 19 & 20 of Bakuman tonight. I love the series so much, and I'm happy to say that Volume 20 finally wraps up a few things while leaving the story ready to go anywhere.

I reread Ippo from 1 to 1065. That took weeks. Darn it I want to know know what happens to Alf that punk.

One year thread necro!

One year later and Ansatsu, The Breaker: New Waves, and One Piece continue to be my favorites. As for Ippo, I stalled out around 500. I will get back to it eventually, but I don't know who Alf is.

Grenn wrote:

One year thread necro!

One year later and Ansatsu, The Breaker: New Waves, and One Piece continue to be my favorites. As for Ippo, I stalled out around 500. I will get back to it eventually, but I don't know who Alf is.

He is the copy cat of Ricardo that Ippo is fighting. It is still a great series though Ippo never getting with Kumi is such a tease especially for over a thousand chapter.

I just read Otomen, finally. It's cute, but Trans trigger stuff is in there. I have no idea how bad it is. Primary protagonist is Asuka. He is definitely heterosexual, but he has preferences that Japanese society assigns as traditional female roles.

Haha, Naruto is coming back April 27th...

god why, let is rest in peace.