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Chinaman7000
Nov 28, 2003

Kgummy posted:

Qualia the purple chapter 13 is out now. Just a heads up.

Yes! And here it is.

It was as great as I was hoping. Insane. I like the willingness to have extended internal monologues just running through the crazy things she is doing by this point, and how dark and brutal it can be. Once again it shows just how ready and able it is to go crazier than you could have expected. Yet, despite how much seems to happen, it does feel like we haven't moved much. Still very good and still giving the unique unsettling vibe that I love about the series.

I've been called out on forgetting to add my remarks on my other favorites too, so here they are!

I Am A Hero is crazy fantastic. I wish it would stick with the main story more, but I think it is an impressive combination of art and writing and ideas. I had absolutely zero expectations about where the story was going since I dived in blind as recommended, and it was very worthwhile. Do it this way if you have any interest at all. I think this is one of the best ways to break anyone's preconceived ideas about the quality of stories that are told in mangas or even comic books in general.

Yotsubato is on the other end of the intensity spectrum. It's adorable, but not really sickeningly or weirdly or unrealistically. It's based in the real world, not anime land, which makes it great. I agree with Captain Invictus and also place it in the top of my personal list. It's nice to just read low impact, low intensity, day to day adventures of a normalish dad and his weird rear end daughter. And they are very well written and are genuinely heartwarming without being... lame? I also like Bounnouji for this, but that's more about a late 20's love story.

Qualia The Purple is a story that is enjoyable for the way it is constantly surprising you. That's all I can really say. You can have all the expectations you want going it, it will blow past them into the far far realm of insanity, while still feeling planned and consistent with itself. I highly recommend you give it a shot. It has dashes of normal anime stylings but those are not indicative of where the story goes at all.

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Captain combat bear
Aug 15, 2009

by T. Finninho
So I just read the first volume of I Am A Hero and man, not sure how to feel about this probably going to keep reading but still.

I'll also recommend Ressentiment to anyone it's great.

FourLeaf
Dec 2, 2011
Questions about I am a Hero:

Did the editor guy... try to get a blowjob from zombified Mi-chan and that's how his dick got cut off? That must be why he was bleeding all over the chair. I'm having a hard time piecing together the chain of events there. And how did Tekko get infected?

And the fat guy killed the third coworker just because he was jealous, what a loving psychopath.


It sucks that this hasn't been licensed in English! My dad would love this, but he's not the type to read comics online.

Edit: Thanks! VVVVVV

FourLeaf fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Sep 22, 2013

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty
IAAH Volume 1: Most likely, yeah. Tekko got infected by a schoolgirl jumping out and biting her arm, she mentions it once or twice though she gets interrupted the first time.

The Big Whoop
Oct 12, 2012

Learning Disabilities: Cat Edition
I haven't seen MW reccomended yet. It is from the same mangaka as Astroboy but good god is the art and the storyline is completely different. It follows the story of a priest who is irresistibly drawn to a psychopath who was exposed to a chemical with him years ago. Saying anything else would be a massive spoiler, and it is only 3 volumes long... and totally worth every minute.

Agreed
Dec 30, 2003

The price of meat has just gone up, and your old lady has just gone down

Holy poo poo, thanks for this thread. I'm up to chapter 90-something in I Am A Hero and daaamn.

Someone early in the thread said that folks who read comics might appreciate the significant departures in manga, very on-point. Alan Moore honestly kind of killed comics for me, I read all his stuff from the '80s and then TLoEG and everything else just feels incredibly soap-opera. DC, Marvel, I mean I like a lot of the characters but it took Marvel more than a hundred comics (on purpose) to tell a very watered-down, half-rear end version of what Moore was getting at in Watchmen in 12 issues. And the artistry just feels really lacking. I know Moore is basically a crazy person in terms of exactitude and proficiency but still, it's hard to go from really well-written self-contained stories to the ongoing adventures of Tony Stark, now with Drinking Problem! (I read an interview with Moore where he basically called the industry out on that, too, that their idea of new ideas was to just make everyone flawed and at least ostensibly deep - on the American side of things, I thought All Star Superman was a fantastic upswing compared to the general state of things, for a lot of reasons).

So anyway, I visited ADTRW because somebody pointed out Shingeki no Kyojin to me and I thought it was great and am definitely on the edge of my seat waiting for the next chapter, got linked here, and this thread gives a great smattering of stuff... Thanks!

I Am A Hero almost can't be talked about without spoilers so I'm not going to go into specifics but shiiiit it's good.

Agreed fucked around with this message at 07:58 on Sep 22, 2013

Ygmir
Jan 27, 2012

First off, I want to say thank you, Captain Invictus, for making me read that, and now that I've had some time to properly digest what I read, IAAH was really good, it's been a good while since I read a manga that I enjoyed that I enjoyed as much as I enjoyed that.

I definitely recommend this to everyone to read.

IncendiaC
Sep 25, 2011
Captain Invictus got me to read I Am A Hero and Qualia the Purple and I loved both of them! The truly agonizing part is waiting for the next chapter to come out :negative:

IIAH: I was confused as hell for the first couple chapters but as soon as the reports of people biting people came in I was pretty sure it was going to be a zombie thing. Still, for most of the first volume I assumed it was just Hideo's hallucinations.
Then I read Volume 2 and holy poo poo it's loving real. The fact that it's a 'Zombies are actually threatening' type and not a 'Yee-haw let's go shoot some zombfags' story makes IIAH much better than the average zombie apocalypse fiction. Hideo's story is fantastic and I really want to see what happens to Hiromi. The Takeshi story was alright and it had some interesting info on the zombies but I felt it kept dragging on. However, the Kurusu reveal was pretty neat and it looks like we're going back to Hideo and Hiromi the Jaw-ripper in the next chapter!


Qualia the Purple: The first 3 chapters were pretty normal and I thought it was going to be a "watch the girl with funny eyes get into ~wacky adventures~" type of manga. Then I read Chapter 4 and thought to myself "well that got dark rather fast". Turns out I was barely in the prologue and I hadn't even 'started' yet. I blazed through the rest of the chapters and poo poo just keeps getting more ridiculous-in the awesome way. Turns out talking to an infinite number of yourself makes for one hell of an echo-chamber and I wouldn't be surprised if Gaku keeps getting more and more insane/obsessed. Especially with the ending of the last chapter :stare:

IncendiaC fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Sep 29, 2013

Ledenko
Aug 10, 2012
Invictus got me to read IAAH as well and what in the holy gently caress. I'm pretty dense when it comes to foreshadowing so I didn't see the zombies coming, I was sure it was something to do with Hideo's crazy imagination and frustrations of leading an ordinary nerdy life with the insecurities etc. Well, I'm pretty stumped.

shinmai
Oct 9, 2007

CHK Instruction
Read the first few chapters of IAAH in one sitting. Been meaning to post my feelings for quite a while but never got around to it until now. Anyway:
What I like most, is that Hideo is so far removed from the traditional hero character from zombie stories. He carries the shotgun around, but it actually takes a lot for him to actually get it out and use it, which feels really authentic to me. Even in a horrific situation like that, I feel an akward introvert like Hideo wouldn't go out guns blazing unless it really was the last option.

IAAH does a great job at communicating the chaos and the lack of concrete information people have while the chaos unfolds. Also the process of people turning is one of the creepiest things ever, very effectively told. Hideos mental episodes are also illustrated very well.
The art very fluidly mixes very realistic scenery and human features with completely over the top, almost cartoonish, features of the zombies and Hideo's hallucinations, without either style seeming pasted on or out of place.

It's no easy read, but really sucks you in. Even though it's (for me at least) somewhat unnerving to read in longer sittings, it's also very hard to put down; you get invested in the story and wanting to know how things finally turn out.

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty
Let's have a second round of recommendations! Here's some more good stuff.


Suicide Island(Drama, mature, psychological, seinen) - The Japanese government passes a law that anyone who is on the suicide recidivist list will be banished to "Suicide Island", an island where their citizenships are revoked and they cannot leave. Here they must make the decision of whether they will try to live, or finish once and for all what they started. It's kinda like Survivor, if Survivor was incredibly good. Also pretty educational! It's a pretty intense series but definitely up there in my list of favorites. I found myself really getting attached to a lot of the characters way more than I thought I would.

-----


Attack on Titan(Shingeki no Kyojin)(action, drama, horror, fantasy, mystery, shounen, supernatural, tragedy) - Attack on Titan is one of the biggest anime series in decades. It's become an unstoppable financial juggernaut, a Colossal Titan of the industry you might say, with how incredibly good it is in only fifty chapters.

It is the dusk of mankind. Humanity has been besieged and devoured by massive, mindless, human-shaped monsters called Titans. Behind the 50-meter-tall Three Walls, the last bastion of humanity survives. Eren Jaeger and his friends are spending a normal, quiet day together when suddenly a Titan so colossal that it can stand and look over The Walls kicks a hole in the wall and Titans begin streaming in. It is the last days of humankind, and what happens now will decide if we go extinct or survive.

This is one of my favorite series. It is the author's first series, and it shows, because man, his artwork sucks. He can't draw people for poo poo in the beginning. This is both a blessing and a curse, as his inability to draw proper human anatomy leads to INCREDIBLY HORRIFYING TITANS. This is a very bleak series that balances hope and despair perfectly. The author is extremely good at suspense and making absolutely every detail count. It's a series that gets better on subsequent read-throughs. The anime version was extremely popular with non-anime fans, it was basically this generation's Cowboy Bebop.

-----


Kids on the Slope(Sakamichi no Apollon)(drama, romance, slice of life, musical, historical, school life) - It's 1966 in Japan. Nishimi Kaoru is constantly moving from town to town due to his father's job. He settles down in his new school, but winds up actually befriending some interesting people instead of being an outcast. He discovers to his surprise that he loves to play jazz, a largely foreign sound in Japan. It's a wonderful, laid-back series about music, love, and ~DRAMA~. I haven't seen the anime yet but it's on Crunchyroll, I would imagine as a music-centric series that hearing the music in action would be better than reading it.

-----

ONEPUNCH-MAN(action, comedy, seinen, supernatural) - Onepunch-Man is easily one of, if not the most gorgeous and detailed series you'll ever see. There are entire chapters that can, and have been, animated. Check this poo poo, yo:




Onepunch-Man is about Saitama, your average jobless loser, who one day decides to become a superhero. Except now he's become so powerful, that no matter what, every fight ends with only one punch. He is beyond Superman. This series is pretty god drat hilarious, both with Saitama's incredibly bland reaction to everything from cyborg gorillamen, to a cross between Namor, Cthulhu, and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the humanized form of Mother Nature's Wrath Itself, A Giant loving Meteor, etc and with his unwanted pupil's incredible brooding seriousness in every situation. Every fight is a foregone conclusion, but it's still an amusing, gorgeous, and hilarious ride perhaps all the funnier BECAUSE you know how it ends.

-----


I'm In Mari(drama, seinen, gender bender) - One day, Isao, a shut-in, finds himself in the body of the high school girl he's been following home from the convenience store every night. He's bewildered by this turn of events and does not...handle it well. The author of Goodnight Punpun, a series that is apparently as cringeworthy and brutal as it is good, takes on the cliche of the "gender bender" genre. This series is very slow, VERY brutal, and goes in directions I was not expecting at all. I really wish I hadn't found it when I did, because it's really hard waiting for new chapters for it since so little happens per-chapter. It's unsettling and is a pretty interesting and realistic take on "what would you do if you were in the body of another person? How would people react to this person acting completely out of character?"

-----


Assassination Classroom(comedy, shounen, action, school life) - This classroom has been commandeered by a strange octopus creature. He calls himself "sensei" and he is a cosmically powerful being who destroyed over half the moon in a single blow, and plans to destroy the earth in March the following year. He has completely stymied the world powers, can move at mach 25, regenerate, is far more intelligent and quick-thinking than any human and is basically unstoppable. He has given earth one chance: allow him to teach this specific class of students in both schoolwork and assassination skills. If they manage to kill him before next March, earth will be spared! If not, earth will be destroyed! This series is a pretty interesting one. It's also pretty god drat hilarious, Sensei is an amazing character and he makes incredible faces. His quirks and the way certain things react to his body composition lead to actually entertaining shenanigans. The storyline's moved at a fairly brisk pace, and I can't wait to see where it goes! It's one of the top-rated manga series in Japan right now, even managing to dethrone One Piece on one of the weekly sales charts, which is almost unheard of these days(One Piece can and often does outsell positions 2-5 combined). I just hope it doesn't fall into the serialization trap and drags on forever. The Attack on Titan guy at least made a concrete end for his series at 20 volumes, hopefully Assassination Classroom's author will set a finish line too.

-----


Akumetsu(action, seinen, mature) - What would you do if you had supernatural powers? Would you use them for good, or evil? This is the story of Shou Hazama, who takes justice into his own hands as the masked vigilante Akumetsu to clean up the corruption that has completely destroyed Japan's economy. This series can get a little long-winded, but Akumetsu's antics and the developing story behind him and his powers is actually pretty interesting for a "superhero" type story. It can get pretty loving graphic(exploding heads are a routine occurrence), so be warned that it's very graphic. It's not a perfect series and a lot of the side characters don't show up for sometimes 40 chapters at a time, but overall I think it was pretty great!

-----


Fortress of the Apocalypse(Apocalypse no Toride)(drama, action, horror, tragedy, psychological, seinen) - Imagine if Left 4 Dead's small party of survivors mixed with Resident Evil's balls-crazy mutated zombie monsters. You'd have Apocalypse no Toride. Yoshiaki Maeda is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and is sent to a high security juvenile prison. Soon after, the Zombie Apocalypse happens. Everything outside the prison walls is soon aflame, in ruins, or crawling with infected. That's when Maeda's cellmates decide to break out, of course. This series gets pretty loving insane as it goes. It's not a really serious series, it's definitely more grindhouse than psychological thriller, but it's got its moments of brain-thinkin'. Extreme violence and hosed UP ZOMBIE MONSTERS are the name of the game with this series. Good poo poo. When the grinning human-dogs showed up it got a legit "WHAT THE gently caress!" out of my mouth.

-----

I'll do more at another time, but for now, enjoy!

Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 09:42 on Oct 21, 2013

Chinaman7000
Nov 28, 2003

One-Punch man has the best art, best humor, and best concept. It is specifically targeted at people tired of cliche giant comic conflicts and powering up and drama. It is a cathartic superhero story for anyone who has ever wanted Superman to just punch the bad dude in the face. Also, Superman is a petty, immature, and bored loser. Like if Hancock was a average Japanese guy instead of an American hobo, and also actually interesting.

Also, the story has somehow managed to neither A) Become boring with its predictable endings nor B) Betray the original gimmick in order to add tension or drama. I feel like the story begins straddling the finest edge between being a joke concept book but also cool badass hero comic, and it hasn't wavered one inch towards either side since then.

It's probably the best comic to show a comic book fan who has an anti-manga bias IMO. It just is so comedic yet absurdly cool at the same time. And the art.... is loving astounding.

Speaking of the art, I'd recommend Eyeshield 21 by the same artist. Not the same writer, though. It's a series about Japanese high schoolers playing American Football. It is a little "anime" sometimes, but the characters are almost universally fantastic. It has some of the best art out of anything in my opinion. The way the artist, Murata, conveys motion and impacts and tactics puts a lot of other comics to shame. Combining that with your connections to the characters and teams leads to some very, very satisfying wins and loses. It is a fantastic sports manga.

Chinaman7000 fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Oct 21, 2013

Suben
Jul 1, 2007

In 1985 Dr. Strange makes a rap album.
Actually for I'm In Mari it's done Shuzo Oshimi who's the author of Aku no Hana (aka Flowers of Evil), not Inio Asano. Aku no Hana and Asano's works should all be read regardless though.

Anyway here's a suggestion since it finally looks to be coming back next month.



Teppu is the story Natsuo Ishidou, a tall and athletic high school girl who is naturally talented at everything she does such that it's made her bored and aloof, her only friend being a girl named Kei who's her teammate on the volleyball team. One day she meets Yuzuko Mawatari who's recruiting people for the MMA club. Natsuo, an ex-karate practitioner, decides to spar with her and gets her rear end kicked. Excited that she's found something she's not instantly good at, Natsuo quits the volleyball team, begins practicing MMA, and eventually joins a gym under the tutelage of champion fighter Karin Kontani in the hopes of honing her skill in MMA for one reason: to break Yuzuko's confidence and wipe the smile off her face.

Teppu is a shonen sports manga about women's MMA with the twist of role reversal. The protagonist, Natsuo, would be the rear end in a top hat rival in just about any other series while the rival, Yuzuko, is more in line with the typical shonen protagonist. Natsuo's not an irredeemable scumbag but she's not a particularly nice person either: she antagonizes and picks fights with the karate club (including her old friend Sanae Sawamura) simply because she can. Her motivation for getting better is that she finds the idea of Yuzuko being good at something and being happy doing it to be annoying. The art, while starting out a bit rough at times, is generally good and it does a good job of showing off all the moves while the author will take asides to explain definitions and techniques for those who (like me) know nothing about MMA. Also for a series about women's MMA with a majority female cast created by a guy (I believe) there's really no sexualization at all. It was gone for a year and a half due to an unexplained illness the author had but it's coming back in November so now the only wait is from the glacially slow scanlation effort.

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty
Argh god drat it I keep mixing up the punpun and flowers of evil guy, dunno why. I'll fix it when I get back home, thanks for the correction!

Epoxy Bulletin
Sep 7, 2009

delikpate that thing!
Comedy anime and manga can be pretty hard to get into. A lot of them rely on undercutting societal norms that we just aren't familiar with, horrifically dense language puns, incestuous references and genre parody, or just a few too many non-sequiturs for the distinguished goon's refined palate.

Thankfully, I don't believe you need a battery of cultural inoculations to appreciate Hinamatsuri:


Nitta is a Yakuza gangster working as midlevel muscle at his crime family's shady loan agency. The boss seems to like him despite his lackluster performance, so he's done rather well for himself and enjoys carousing at night and admiring his collection of expensive pottery. Not such a bad guy, for a gangster.


The eponymous Hina is a psychic-powered preteen flung to our time from a dystopian future. She is ignorant of the conventions of our time... But she wasn't very bright to begin with, honestly. A chow hound without a taste for the finer things. Especially fond of salmon roe on rice.



As it so happens, she lands in Nitta's living room and makes herself right at home, despite his protests. The pottery does not fare well.

The author, Masao Ohtake, has an excellent command of comedic timing and works a lot of his magic playing off characters interacting with Hina's naivete, lack of common sense, and childish personality. As the cast of characters grows and becomes more developed(between Hina's classmates and Nitta's friends and coworkers), some really excellent character-based humor helps freshen things up between gags.

Despite what you might fear, the potential angst of ~child soldier from a war-torn future~ takes a backseat to comedic and heartwarming misadventures as Hina adapts to life in her new home, and spends time at school with her new classmates or at home with Nitta (who grows into his role as an adoptive father as well), learning how to be a person again.




If you're on the fence, I suggest you try a one-off that Ohtake also drew a few years into Hinamatsuri's serialization: The Last Supper. It does a great job of showing off Ohtake's comedic talents, but lacks the buildup of his characters from Hinamatsuri, so if you get a chuckle out of it I highly suggest you give Hina a try as well. The art and the humor both improve over time, as the avid readers in the ADTRW thread (the OP is worth a look) will happily attest.

Ryuga Death
May 14, 2008

There's gotta be one more bell to crack
Fun Shoe
I Am A Hero is well done, but strange.

NowonSA
Jul 19, 2013

I am the sexiest poster in the world!
Yup, just marathoned all of I am a Hero. Loved the art style and its take on a fairly common theme. Looking forward to whatever may come next!

NAME REDACTED
Dec 22, 2010
Okay, wow. I'd already read Yotsuba+, and was watching Shingeki no Kyojin, so I was expecting good things from these recommendations, and I was not disappointed. Over the last few days I've read through The Town Where Only I Am Missing, Bonnouji, Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, One Punch Man, Assassination Classroom, Akumetsu and Apocalypse No Toride, and these are amazing. I'm currently making my way through Qualia Purple, too.

Voted 5, waiting for the third set.

EDIT: Just reached chapter 5 of Qualia Purple and HOLY gently caress WHAT

EDIT 2: Finished Qualia Purple, and I am much more impressed than I expected to be with the first few chapters. It's one hell of a read. Was it originally a novel?
Started Suicide Island, on volume 3 now. It's definitely interesting, but some developments seem to be happening that I don't think I'm going to be that keen on...

NAME REDACTED fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Nov 5, 2013

Rexides
Jul 25, 2011

I just finished reading I Am A Hero, and I have to say that it made me feel really... dirty. Don't know how else to describe it. It makes all other zombie comics/movies seem really clinical by comparison. The zombies are not just rotting corpses, they are literal mockeries of humanity. They bend in unnatural ways, and try to cling into the most trite and boring aspects of their past lives. And the worst thing is when there are scenes of large crowds about to get infected. People keep doing their thing while someone next to them is getting bitten, and it takes a while before most people even realize what it going on.

Also, I don't get why we keep spoilering the zombie thing. It should be part of the selling point of the premise, not some kind of twist we have to keep secret for new readers.

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty
Because you'd be flabbergasted at how few people actually see it coming, out of the hundred or so people I had read it.

And the (series spoilers) zombies aren't really zombies, per say. They're something else, at the very least "infected" rather than shambling corpses, as shown with Tekko and in the Kurusu storyline with the captured woman zombie, they still contain aspects of cognitive and bodily functions. I think that's what sets it apart and makes it more interesting than most "zombie" series. It's not quite I Am Legend level, but definitely more than say Left 4 Dead.

The Impaler
Dec 28, 2011

10 Brogies
20 GOTO 10
Count me in as one of the people that was blindsided by Volume 1 of I Am A Hero.

Thanks for the thread Captain Invictus, some great suggestions here.

Suben
Jul 1, 2007

In 1985 Dr. Strange makes a rap album.
I'll throw out another suggestion.

Koe no Katachi



Shouko Nishimiya is a girl who's just recently transferred to a new school, a bright, happy kid who happens to be deaf. Shouya Ishida is a boy in her class who happens to hate her and attempts to justify it but eventually his life becomes entwined with her's in a way he never really expected.

That sounds like the set-up for a feel good series but... The description says that it started as an award-winning but controversial one shot that had a tough time getting published (it's since started being serialized) and once you start reading it's not hard to see why. To keep it simple, it's a rather gut-wrenching story about bullying and given how much of a hot topic that is it's the type of story that needs to be told.

RickVoid
Oct 21, 2010
Just finished chapter 2 of Hero and the Demon King. Go read it.

Go read it right now.

I've never been into manga, but I am loving this poo poo.

It's essentially what would happen if at the end of a Dragon Quest game the Hero and the Villain agreed that the war needed to be ended, but that the current economic state of both sides was dependent on the war continuing and that society on both sides would be untenable if it was to immediately cease. And then they ally together to make the kind of cultural and socioeconomic changes necessary for both sides to continue functioning after the war economy is gone. And then they seal the deal with what is essentially a political marriage.

poo poo's fascinating.

Yes the Demon Queen is pretty fan-servicey, but she drops the Evil Queen duds as early as chapter 2 for something less ridiculous looking.

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty
Nah, I won't even excuse Maou Maou Yuusha for the T&A. It's crammed full of fanservice of almost every female character, especially Demon Queen. It's great if you can get past that though.

RickVoid
Oct 21, 2010

Captain Invictus posted:

Nah, I won't even excuse Maou Maou Yuusha for the T&A. It's crammed full of fanservice of almost every female character, especially Demon Queen. It's great if you can get past that though.

Ah. Still only partway through Ch. 3, didn't realize it was going to pick that back up. Ah well.

Chinaman7000
Nov 28, 2003

I gave it a shot cause the setup is pretty interesting, but it isn't grabbing me. I actually do like the style of drawing, and I think the faces are pretty good, but the actual designs and content range from generic to.... Uh.... French maids? It just isn't doing it for me. The setup and some of the questions and concepts are fun to see applied to a generic fantasy plot but it is ultimately pretty shallow and weak and focused on characters who aren't interesting.

I gave up pretty quickly so if anyone says it picks up I might try to work through, but the path I see the plot taking is lamer than I expected. And I was expecting a manga about fantasy economics, so that's impressive.

Mr Wind Up Bird
Jan 23, 2004

i'm a goddamn coward
but then again so are you
A good manga I think that a lot of people should read is Peepo Choo by Felipe Smith.




It's the story about a kid obsessed with a weird anime getting a chance to visit Japan. But once he's over there he discovers that Japan doesn't live up to that ideal that he's been building up in his head.

The comic spans three volumes (that you'll have to buy. No free translations here!) and really tells a story that almost anyone can connect with on some level. It's just just abusing anime fans (there's a lot of that, though, to be sure) but really it's about the importance of examining things that are important to you and the dangers of building up a place or a thing in your head. The story follows Milton but at the same time it explores the obsessions people develop over American culture, sex, fame, and unhealthy friendships.

It's also incredibly mean and has some of the most graphic sex and violence I've ever seen in a comic.

And as a side note: Felipe Smith is actually an American. One of the few to be published as a manga artists/writer in Japan. He's also going to be writing Ghost Rider next year.

ThingOne
Jul 30, 2011



Would you like some tofu?


I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet but

Otoyomegatari


It's a historical romance set in Central Asia during the late 19th century. It mainly focuses on Amira, a young woman sent by her family to marry into another village. It just so happens that the husband they chose is only 12.

For the most part, its a slow-paced story about life in a world very different from our own. The art is beautiful and even the smallest panel is loaded with fine details. The story tries to be as accurate as possible in it's depiction of the region and the cultures present. This can lead to situations where the beliefs and values of the characters clash with our own.

Seriously the art is incredible

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty

Chinaman7000 posted:

I gave it a shot cause the setup is pretty interesting, but it isn't grabbing me. I actually do like the style of drawing, and I think the faces are pretty good, but the actual designs and content range from generic to.... Uh.... French maids? It just isn't doing it for me. The setup and some of the questions and concepts are fun to see applied to a generic fantasy plot but it is ultimately pretty shallow and weak and focused on characters who aren't interesting.

I gave up pretty quickly so if anyone says it picks up I might try to work through, but the path I see the plot taking is lamer than I expected. And I was expecting a manga about fantasy economics, so that's impressive.
What chapter did you make it to? The stuff with Young Merchant and co is where it starts to get really hardcore into the "introducing modern business principles to a fantasy world". The current storyline is ridiculously heavy political bargaining between various demonic factions, backstabbing, tactical maneuvers, economic strangleholds to gain the approval of certain groups, etc.

BornAPoorBlkChild
Sep 24, 2012

Captain Invictus posted:

Masturbation Master Kurosawa (psychological, drama, seinen, mental issues, school, slice of life) No, this is not a joke recommendation. MMK is about broken people, hard choices, narcissism, psychological abuse, selfishness, redemption, and growing up. Probably in the top 10 manga I've read, pretty hosed up but surprisingly well made, story moves at a solid pace and the characters show genuine change(good or bad) throughout instead of it being yet another status quo hell.

I remember reading this along with ADTRW back in my guest lurking days. The complete 180 in personalty the main lead goes through just came off as fake to me

Suben
Jul 1, 2007

In 1985 Dr. Strange makes a rap album.

Race Realists posted:

I remember reading this along with ADTRW back in my guest lurking days. The complete 180 in personalty the main lead goes through just came off as fake to me


Well the point is that he came to realize how awful being an anti-social loser is. By the end of the series he's not completely better but he's getting there. He's still kind of a loser but he's working his way up.

It's also why he ends up with Sugawa at the end. Takigawa represents the person he needs to be: outgoing, gregarious, an all around good person. Kitahara represented who he was: a miserable shut-in that hated everyone. Sugawa represents who he is now: somebody who started out awful but, by the end, had started turning themselves around. They're not there yet but they're better people than they were at the start.

There's nothing really "fake" about it, IMO. He started coming out of his shell, got his heart broken, then realized just how much the girl he liked valued their friendship, how much the guy he kept making GBS threads on cared and was there for him at his lowest point, etc. He learned the value of not being a shithead.


Honestly about the only problem I have with it isn't the story itself but the kind of inconsistent/stilted translation.

Actually this gives me an excuse to throw out one of my favorite series from last year (well, that was translated last year anyway), from the same artist as OMK... Molester Man.



Despite the title it's not actually about a guy who molests people. Instead it's about a goony dork walking home one evening when he notices the woman in front of him seems nervous. He wonders if maybe she's worried about a someone who could do bad things to her so he tries to catch up to her only to get branded as a molester. Things get cleared up and eventually the guy starts to hang out with the woman and her group of friends all the while looking for love.

If you've ever heard of Densha Otoko/Train Man it's the same set up: originally this was a story posted on the VIP board of 2ch where the young man in question would update folks on what was going on while asking for advice, the threads were eventually condensed and made into a comic. As such the characters' names are all pseudonyms: the main character and woman are referred to as Molester and Miss Understanding (because of the initial incident) for example. Think of it as someone making a comic out of an E/N thread and you'll have the general idea. It's a pretty funny and entertaining romantic-comedy based on a real (well, as real as you can believe anything posted on an anonymous Japanese message board) story.

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty
There's four new chapters of Boys on the Run, finally. They're dramalicious!

Man, he picked the wrong vindictive girl to fall in love with in the first place. What a gross person. He might not have been much of a great guy before, but drat, she's hosed up.

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty
I've got a fair number of series lined up for Sampler #3, a newcomer that was originally just a one-shot, a globally well-known series that is pretty stupid in a good way, a Manwha(Korean manga), a series about girls that is about as unfanservicey as possible, a series made by a Japanese person who lived in the US for a while, a slice-of-life that rivals Yotsuba for my favorite SOL, and a series I have mentioned previously.

Also, the final chapter of Bonnouji has just been released. It's time to say goodbye, it's been a wonderful, cute, funny run, but it's over now. Thanks for the ride, Aki Eda! :unsmith:

cafel
Mar 29, 2010

This post is hurting the economy!

Captain Invictus posted:

Also, the final chapter of Bonnouji has just been released. It's time to say goodbye, it's been a wonderful, cute, funny run, but it's over now. Thanks for the ride, Aki Eda! :unsmith:

Bonnouji had a nice and natural feeling run. Beside the funny lightheartedness of it, I would have appreciated just because it was about people in their late 20's/early 30's and not moody teens.

trucutru
Jul 9, 2003

by Fluffdaddy


Shamo (lit. Gamecock) is the story of Ryo Narushima, a promising, talented teenager that is imprisoned after brutally murdering his own parents. In prison he learns Karate as a form of self-defense and becomes a highly skilled MMA fighter. As such, his violent, merciless nature -the thing that put him behind the bars and made him a social pariah- is tolerated, almost celebrated.



http://www.batoto.net/comic/_/comics/shamo-r973


Unlike other stories with Byronic characters looking for redemption, Ryo is an unrepentant, unsympathetic monster. There are moments of goodness, and flashes of redemption in him but, in the end, his life is one of depravity and violence and he has embraced it.

If you want to read a gorgeously drawn fighting manga with an unique protagonist who will surprise you at every turn with how low can he sink, Shamo is for you.

BTW, there is a section of the manga where he travels to China and learns wacky king-fu bullshit stuff but even the authors pretty much tell you to ignore it. Ignore it.

trucutru fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Dec 1, 2013

Grapplejack
Nov 27, 2007

Okay, so Invictus talked me into reading some of these and wants me to post in the thread.
Qualia the Purple Is an exceptionally good manga. The main character is very likable, even when poo poo begins going off the rails.
I Am In Mari was my favorite of the ones that I ended up reading. It's a bizarre journey into the psychology and life of a girl as experienced by an outsider. It's a nice flip of the usual slice-of-life style manga.
I Am A Hero is great. Let's get that out of the way. I personally wasn't a fan. It felt slow and plodding and the art never really grabbed me, but it is still exceptionally good.

Doctor_Fruitbat
Jun 2, 2013


Onepunch Man looks absolutely superb, so I think I'll make a start on that soon.

I'm surprised no-one has suggested Death Note, but I guess that's why we have a suggestions thread!



In Death Note, there is a shinigami named Ryuk - a creature who takes the lives of others by way of a notebook named the Death Note in order to prolong his own life. Bored of his never-ending existence, Ryuk drops his Death Note into the human world to see what happens; it is picked up by genius student Yagami Light, who over the course of the first chapter descends into total megalomania thanks to his newfound power over life and death.

As the series goes on, Light (with Ryuk in tow) attempts to create a new world order in which criminals are murdered seemingly by magic by his alter-ego, Kira, in an attempt to rid the world of crime. Light, meanwhile, has to keep his affairs hidden from detective prodigy L as he is drawn further and further into the investigation into himself.

Most of the focus is on the cat and mouse game between Light and L; I know the manga and anime have slightly different endings, but otherwise they're largely the same, as far as I'm aware.

Doctor_Fruitbat fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Dec 27, 2013

Chinaman7000
Nov 28, 2003

I've tried finishing Death Note a couple of times in my life but never could. I always lose interest around the same time. That said, the same time is pretty drat deep into the story, so if you've never given it a chance then it's worthwhile. It can get a little contrived but in a fun way where you get to see intricate plans from different geniuses unravel around each other.

Nipponophile
Apr 8, 2009
Avoiding spoilers, the point you're most likely talking about is really the actual end of the series. The manga was popular enough that there was massive editorial pressure on the creators to keep it going for a while so they could capitalize on the merchandising and anime adaptation.

After Death Note, the authors went on to make a series called Bakuman about a pair of aspiring manga creators. The climax of that series involves the protagonists deciding to bring their popular comic to a close because they felt it fit the story despite the publishers expecting more. It wasn't exactly subtle.

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Chinaman7000
Nov 28, 2003

Bakuman is great! Well, the non-"romance" parts at least. I never connected the dots, though, and that definitely makes a whole lot of sense. It's a shame. It really loses a spark after that.

I super liked and recommend Bakuman. I dropped it a while ago but really liked the characters, especially the first editor guy they have. It has a few lame characters and moments but overall is very fun.

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