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Willsun
Dec 9, 2006

I willed too hard again...

a kitten posted:

I was looking for a gif from Lovely Complex

Someone say...gif?



I want to gif that entire show.

I plan to read the manga for Kimi ni Todoke after this new season is over because I can't imagine they'll give it more seasons if other series that are just as good haven't been given any beyond two. I'll just have to avert my eyes from the discussion until then.

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a kitten
Aug 5, 2006

I could watch this all day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhrjzrLVdaU
That show has what might be my favorite mix of great comedy and sweetness.

LadySage
Dec 26, 2005

AA: i am very much alive
AA: and i intend to stay that way :)

Serious Frolicking posted:

I hate Fushigi Yuugi. The entire thing just infuriates me for some reason.

I have a pretty major love/hate relationship with Fushigi Yuugi. I got into it in middle school and thought it was the poo poo; it was one of the first anime series I ever watched, and I think the first shoujo. Loved the melodrama, loved the characters, loved the comic relief. To 13-year-old me, it was perfection.

Then I rewatched it 10 years later, and I realized it had a lot of elements from female-oriented media that I really hate, especially the rape-happiness and the falling instantly and eternally in love at the ripe old age of 15, and preferring death over life apart. But it still had enough redeeming features that the nostalgia wasn't totally destroyed and I still enjoyed it.

If I watched FY for the first time today, I'd probably hate it.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry

LadySage posted:

I have a pretty major love/hate relationship with Fushigi Yuugi. I got into it in middle school and thought it was the poo poo; it was one of the first anime series I ever watched, and I think the first shoujo. Loved the melodrama, loved the characters, loved the comic relief. To 13-year-old me, it was perfection.

Then I rewatched it 10 years later, and I realized it had a lot of elements from female-oriented media that I really hate, especially the rape-happiness and the falling instantly and eternally in love at the ripe old age of 15, and preferring death over life apart. But it still had enough redeeming features that the nostalgia wasn't totally destroyed and I still enjoyed it.

If I watched FY for the first time today, I'd probably hate it.
This is me in a nutshell too. I ate up everything FY related, even that awful Eikoden OVA. I'm not sure I can even say I've gotten over it so many years later, because I'm buying the Genbu Kaiden volumes as they come out. I mean, poo poo, it's new FY! I can't not at least read it!

LadySage
Dec 26, 2005

AA: i am very much alive
AA: and i intend to stay that way :)

Nate RFB posted:

This is me in a nutshell too. I ate up everything FY related, even that awful Eikoden OVA. I'm not sure I can even say I've gotten over it so many years later, because I'm buying the Genbu Kaiden volumes as they come out. I mean, poo poo, it's new FY! I can't not at least read it!

I watched Eikoden recently and good god, Mayo is the most obnoxious character in the whole series. The OVAs in general are just a giant mess of deus ex machina and nonsense.

Tesla Insanely Coil
Jul 23, 2006

Ask me why I'm not squatting.
Well I'm bored so I'm going to comment on some shoujo. I go to mangaupdates.com for suggestions to read. I search for romance shoujo and these are some of the higher rated manga that I've read for better or worse and that haven't been mentioned yet:

Savage Garden is a manhwa. The manhwaga is slowly working through all the different cliches with her stories. She's done twins obsessed/in love with each, teacher and student seduction, and this is the girl-disguised-as-boy in a boy's dorm. For some reason it's really popular. It takes place in 19th century Britain. I like her artwork. The story is almost done.

Cat Street is an older one that is pretty enjoyable about a bunch of social outcasts.

Love So Life is very adorable and very shoujo. Not much has been translated and it's a bit light on having an actual story. It has two cute toddlers and is about their high school babysitter.

Kanata Kara starts like Fushigi Yuugi - a modern girl falls into a different world and has to deal with the people. But it's better in my opinion. I wasn't able to get half way through FY but I finished this.

Kamisama Hajimemashita is about a high school girl who becomes the god of a small shrine. Her love interest is the shrine's familiar. It's been getting a little boring but overall it's cute.

Strobe Edge - ugh I have no idea why this is so highly rated. The girl looks like she's in preschool. The plot just dithers around and the male lead is pretty boring. But it's a good example of very typical high school shoujo romance with triangles and unrequited love and bad execution. I re-read it recently thinking I was remembering wrong but no, it is boring except for a couple cute moments.

Beast Master is by the same mangaka who is doing Dengeki Daisy which I mentioned in an earlier post. It's only two volumes. It's about a guy who comes to high school after living in the wild all his life and the girl who "tames" him. It's actually pretty light on the romance.

Has Tokyo Crazy Paradise been mentioned? Out of this list of manga that is highly rated on mangaupdates, this probably deserves it the most. It's set in future Japan and is about a girl fighting crime in all sorts of ways. She's pretty bad rear end:

It's by the same mangaka who is doing Skip Beat, in case anyone didn't know.

So this is a taste of what the typical shoujo reader likes. While there isn't anything excellent except TCP, it does give a variety of art styles. I just realized that most of them are high school centric but they are still pretty different from each other. Yes, I've wasted countless hours on mediocre reading but manga is something I can read at work and still look like I'm busy working. :shobon:

pandabear
Apr 27, 2006
^^^Great list, Tesla. I, too, read a shitload of mediocre shoujo manga :hfive:

Penguin Revolution
First 26 chapters here: http://somemangas.com/manga/Penguin_Revolution/ (I think? The links weren't working when I checked.)
Second half here: http://www.mangafox.com/manga/penguin_revolution/
This is a cute and charming story about how a girl who can spot talent in future idols, and how she becomes and acts as a manager for a potential star. The art is lovely, and what I love about it is how the main protagonist is a pretty capable heroine, who doesn't constantly swoon over all the hot guys around her. That is not to say that there isn't romance and blushing and flowers; it is shoujo after all. But it's pretty tempered with humor, and it's only 7 volumes long. Warning: a fair bit of cross-dressing, and the ending is not as awesome as you'd hope.

Gakuen Alice
http://somemangas.com/manga/Gakuen_Alice/
This is a pretty popular series, so it might be redundant to add it, but whatevs. A pretty comedic story about an elementary school girl who goes to a school for kids with special powers. However, there is a dark conspiracy in the school in how their powers are used. I kinda think of it as a Japanese girly Harry Potter, in that the author has loads of fun creating different and unique powers for each kid, along with "magical" inventions that they can buy and use. However, the series does get darker as it goes on, and pretty melodramatic in its latest chapters. But it starts out really fun, so check it out.

Shiawase Kissa Sanchoume
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/shiawase_kissa_sanchoume/
An energetic, happy, and excitable girl works in cafe with two cute guys. Hijinks ensue. It's a light-hearted and pretty fun series, and the main character is very likable, and not as annoying as you'd think.

Momo
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/momo/
A girl has to convince an alien planet-destroyer, who comes in a guise of an adorable little girl, not to destroy Earth. The art is pretty, and the story is pretty entertaining.

I also second the recommendations for Skip Beat (I don't think it actually has been rec'd yet, but pfft, we all know it's amazing despite how crazy pointy chined, giant male bodied the art can get), Love So Life, Cat Street, Kamisama Hajimemashita, Beast Master, Dengenki Daisy, Glass Mask, Akuma to Love Song.

Infinitum
Jul 30, 2004


I got your feel good hit of the summer right here.

Mr Fredwards Duck




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g&t=158s

gimme the GOD DAMN candy
Jul 1, 2007

pandabear posted:

Gakuen Alice
http://somemangas.com/manga/Gakuen_Alice/
This is a pretty popular series, so it might be redundant to add it, but whatevs. A pretty comedic story about an elementary school girl who goes to a school for kids with special powers. However, there is a dark conspiracy in the school in how their powers are used. I kinda think of it as a Japanese girly Harry Potter, in that the author has loads of fun creating different and unique powers for each kid, along with "magical" inventions that they can buy and use. However, the series does get darker as it goes on, and pretty melodramatic in its latest chapters. But it starts out really fun, so check it out.

I liked Gakuen Alice at first. However, it later became all about romance between 12 year olds. That is the absolute dullest subject known to man, and I cannot stand it.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
The bigger problem with Gakuen Alice is how deathly serious and melodramatic it has become. Like this final arc or whatever it is has dragged on far longer than it ever needed to. Also, maybe it's just me, but at times I can barely decipher what is going on in the artwork. The panel-to-panel construction of a given page has really fallen apart, with what I would call Yasuhiro Nightow syndrome.

gimme the GOD DAMN candy
Jul 1, 2007
I wouldn't know, because I dropped it a while back. Life is too short to continue reading something you loathe for the sake of finishing it.

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!
Tokyo Crazy Paradise is great, I picked it up after someone dumped the whole thing on OneManga, one of my favorite shojo series. Tsukasa is both an awesome shojo lead and an awesome shonen lead.

One of my favorite romance manga of all time is probably Maison Ikkoku. Comedy misunderstandings ensue, but the character develops over time and that ending :swoon: is one of the most satisfying things I've read. It's about the only one of Rumiko Takahashi's series with a solid ending.

SpazmasterX
Jul 13, 2006

Wrong about everything XIV related
~fartz~
Kimi no Iru RAGE 118

God loving dammit.

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!
Well, someone uploaded a new chapter of Glass Mask, but it looks like it's several chapters further than the one previously released.

a kitten
Aug 5, 2006

Over in the Winter 2010 thread someone posted that there was an anime coming up for something called Usagi Drop. I hadn't heard of it before so I decided to give it a look. Turns out it's pretty good! I'm only on chapter 10 or so, but I'm already hooked. It's a josei series that started in '05 and is still ongoing.

I'm lousy at writing descriptions so I'll just give you this one:

TVtropes posted:

Don't you think this world is better than you expected?

One bright autumn day, I learned of Grandpa's demise. Hence I took a leave of absence, packed my bag, and rushed home. Only to find a little girl I had never seen before.

When Daikichi Kawachi questions his mother, he learns that the six-year-old girl is Rin, his grandfather's illegitimate daughter. When everybody else in the family makes excuses to avoid taking care of her, Daikichi gets pissed off and impulsively takes her in himself.

It's similar to Yotsuba& in some ways although overall more serious in tone. Not that there's not humor, it's just a little more realistic look at raising a child as a single guy who stumbled into fatherhood rather unexpectedly.

One thing I've noticed that although Yotsuba and Rin are very, very different personality-wise they both feel like accurate portrayals of 5-6 years olds, which is kind of neat.

a kitten fucked around with this message at 09:31 on Jan 9, 2011

Kusaru
Dec 20, 2006


I'm a Bro-ny!

a kitten posted:

Over in the Winter 2010 thread someone posted that there was an anime coming up for something called Usagi Drop. I hadn't heard of it before so I decided to give it a look. Turns out it's pretty good! I'm only on chapter 10 or so, but I'm already hooked. It's a josei series that started in '05 and is still ongoing.

I'm lousy at writing descriptions so I'll just give you this one:


It's similar to Yotsuba& in some ways although overall more serious in tone. Not that there's not humor, it's just a little more realistic look at raising a child as a single guy who stumbled into fatherhood rather unexpectedly.

One thing I've noticed that although Yotsuba and Rin are very, very different personality-wise they both feel like accurate portrayals of 5-6 years olds, which is kind of neat.

Usagi/Bunny drop is pretty well liked in ADTRW, it used to have its own thread before it was licensed by Yen Press and the scans stopped coming. I think an anime has potential, that's kinda awesome. Sukimasuki, a really short manga that I recommended earlier in this thread, is by the same author.

a kitten
Aug 5, 2006

Oh hey, I had Sukimasuki bookmarked from earlier but only have had the time to look at the first chapter. I should pay more attention to authors and artists maybe! I've only fairly recently started reading any manga so I'm sure a lot of stuff I'm falling in love with is in fact pretty well known or popular. :blush:

I'm glad it's licenced too, I have this weird thing where I like giving money to the creators of things that I like, without ,for example, importing books from overseas that I cant' read. Amazon must be loving me lately.

a kitten fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Jan 9, 2011

Tesla Insanely Coil
Jul 23, 2006

Ask me why I'm not squatting.

a kitten posted:


I'm glad it's licenced too, I have this weird thing where I like giving money to the creators of things that I like, without ,for example, importing books from overseas that I cant' read. Amazon must be loving me lately.

http://www.bookcloseouts.com/ has a limited selection but they are cheap. I recently bought a handful of Goong books for $4 each. I search by publishing company, like Yen Press or Tokyopop.

Realism
Sep 16, 2008
Since we have Misc. Shonen and Misc. Shojo thread.

Can someone add a Misc.Seinen thread?

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
Personally I think the distinction between Seinen and Shounen (and Shoujo and Josei for that matter) are too vague oftentimes and the differentiation between the two would lead to bickering as to what category each entry should belong in. For example how many people do you think would classify Hoshi no Samidare correctly as Seinen? Even I sometimes forget and label it as Shounen. I think it's much simpler for everyone's sake if we treated each thread as Shounen/Seinen and Shoujo/Josei.

gimme the GOD DAMN candy
Jul 1, 2007
Before this thread was around the shounen thread was used for shoujo and josei too. It doesn't really matter if there is some overlap. Anyone who wants a seinen thread can just make one.

Tesla Insanely Coil
Jul 23, 2006

Ask me why I'm not squatting.
New chapter of 7 Seeds - first chapter of volume 12.
The Summer A team and the sailboat! I think this will be a good volume.

SpazmasterX
Jul 13, 2006

Wrong about everything XIV related
~fartz~
:siren:NEW USAGI DROP:siren:

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
So many great expressions in that chapter, I wouldn't even know where to begin.

Chalupa Picada
Jan 13, 2009

holy poo poo finally another chapter. Great chapter too, nice to see some direction again.

.Z.
Jan 12, 2008

Tesla Insanely Coil posted:


Has Tokyo Crazy Paradise been mentioned? Out of this list of manga that is highly rated on mangaupdates, this probably deserves it the most. It's set in future Japan and is about a girl fighting crime in all sorts of ways. She's pretty bad rear end:


Anyone do a new translation for this yet? I recall there being a clump of lovely scans in the middle of the series. Plus it had a translator group that insisted on using the japanese word for like every loving noun.

DrSunshine
Mar 23, 2009

Did I just say that out loud~~?!!!

SpazmasterX posted:

:siren:NEW USAGI DROP:siren:

Awww. That was a great chapter. :unsmith:

You go, Kouki!

chelsea clinton
Sep 16, 2007

by Y Kant Ozma Post
Chapter 31 is messed up, though. There are several pages that are replaced with multiples of one page. My stooriees :qq:

gimme the GOD DAMN candy
Jul 1, 2007

chelsea clinton posted:

Chapter 31 is messed up, though. There are several pages that are replaced with multiples of one page. My stooriees :qq:

That's a common problem with somemanga. Just read it on a different site.

a kitten
Aug 5, 2006

Usagi Drop is so drat good, so glad I learned about it.
Even if 16 year olds should stop acting exactly like 16 year old kids. :argh: Actually I'm kidding of course, it's a sign of good writing that I can see exactly why they might act that way as a young person, while at the same time wishing they had the experience of more years to draw on like I do as a reader.

PRADA SLUT
Mar 14, 2006

Inexperienced,
heartless,
but even so
Anything out yet along the lines of Nana or Paradise Kiss?

Tesla Insanely Coil
Jul 23, 2006

Ask me why I'm not squatting.

PRADA SLUT posted:

Anything out yet along the lines of Nana or Paradise Kiss?

If you liked the naive girl, mysterious guy, and fashion angle in Paradise Kiss, The One is about a girl making it in the fashion world. The story isn't as good. But that's been out for a while so you might have heard of it.

PRADA SLUT
Mar 14, 2006

Inexperienced,
heartless,
but even so

Tesla Insanely Coil posted:

If you liked the naive girl, mysterious guy, and fashion angle in Paradise Kiss, The One is about a girl making it in the fashion world. The story isn't as good. But that's been out for a while so you might have heard of it.

I'll check it out. Is it from Ai Yazawa? Is there any anime?

Feriowind
Mar 22, 2009

But how does it taste?
I just finished reading Baby and Me today, and I definitely recommend this series to others who enjoy slice-of-life manga with minimal to no romance in them. It's about a young boy whose mom dies, and he becomes the main caretaker of his baby brother since his dad has to work a lot. The art style is very cute, and the stories range from cute and funny to downright depressing and serious stuff.

It's been licensed by Viz, but the first 5 volumes are posted online somewhere.

Tesla Insanely Coil
Jul 23, 2006

Ask me why I'm not squatting.

PRADA SLUT posted:

I'll check it out. Is it from Ai Yazawa? Is there any anime?

I completely forgot but Ai Yazawa has a prequel to Paradise Kiss! You would probably like it. http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=358
http://somemangas.com/manga/Gokinjo_Monogatari/
It's about the older sister of one of the characters in Paradise Kiss.

The One is from Taiwan and I don't believe there's an anime.

Baron Snow
Feb 8, 2007


Good Ending 65

buzmeg
Jul 8, 2004
The Megg of Buzz

Serious Frolicking posted:

I wouldn't know, because I dropped it a while back. Life is too short to continue reading something you loathe for the sake of finishing it.

Tell that to the Rumiko Takahashi fans ...

Soylentbits
Apr 2, 2007

im worried that theyre setting her up to be jotaros future wife or something.

buzmeg posted:

Tell that to the Rumiko Takahashi fans ...

I blame her editors. Inu-Yasha would have been perfectly fine if it had ended many, many, many, many volumes ago. Also I maintain that her earlier works were all mostly good.

gimme the GOD DAMN candy
Jul 1, 2007

buzmeg posted:

Tell that to the Rumiko Takahashi fans ...

It seems like very good advice for Rumiko Takahashi fans.

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Tesla Insanely Coil
Jul 23, 2006

Ask me why I'm not squatting.
New chapters of Bride of the Water God and 7 Seeds are out. In 7 Seeds, the girl in the coma woke up.

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