Manga recommendation

[thorgrim29]

Hey, I'm bored, so I've decided to start reading a new maga, but I cant decide wich. Can you guys help me? My favourites are hellsing, berserk, and the first 100 or so chapters of naruto and bleach. I also read kenshin, liked it but the end was a bit too flippy for a realistic manga to my taste.

[Mc. Lovin']

Hey, I'm bored, so I've decided to start reading a new maga, but I cant decide wich. Can you guys help me? My favourites are hellsing, berserk, and the first 100 or so chapters of naruto and bleach. I also read kenshin, liked it but the end was a bit too flippy for a realistic manga to my taste.

what about the other 206 bleach chapters? :smalltongue:

Also I enjoyed Death Note (my first Anime)

[Raistlin1040]

I second Death Note.

[Poison_Fish]

Ah, liked the seinen type manga (Well, at least Berserk). In that case, let me suggest Blade of the Immortal (http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=46-978). It's quite a good comic.

If you want more of the typical shounen side of things, let me suggest Flame of Recca.

[WarriorTribble]

On the shounen side, I always liked Hunter x Hunter, but that series might never finish due to the mangaka's illness.

[mause]

One piece It's pretty popular and you have 485 chapters to read :smallwink:

[TheLogman]

I've been hearing good things about Claymore, and I myself recommend Deathnote.

[Kojiro Kakita]

Well, seeing that you seem to be a fan of seinen work, I advise you as a fellow seinen lover to ignore the posts of the above posters. They have posted standard shounen work, so if you have become tired or bleach or naruto, its best to avoid most of the shounen work posted above.

However, exceptions must be made. Claymore is actually a very good peiece of shounen work, and Death Note, is somewhat intersting up to a certain point.

Now as to the seinen work mentioned above, Blade of the Immortal, I have not read it but have heard very good reviews about it.

At the moment, I recommend the following seinen manga
High School of the Dead (Zombies, guns, nuff said)
Ubel Blatt (pretty good. Similar to Berserk)
Vinland Saga (about viking raiders during their war against England during the 900s)
Tsukihime

[Icewalker]

Honestly, I haven't really read any Manga, but I watched Death Note and heard the manga is also excellent, so I will promote that as well.

The exact same circumstances apply for Full Metal Alchemist. Watched the anime, it was excellent, heard from a friend that the manga is better and awesome (although actually still in progress).

[Lemur]

It looks like you enjoy fighty stuff without a lot of wackiness to it. There are other things I could recommend, but based on what you seem to like, you might enjoy some of these:

-Battle Angel Alita. Futuristic cyborg martial arts. In a dystopian cyberpunk world, only a cyborg girl with the- ah, screw it. It's got fights, craziness, and crazy fights, okay? What more do you want? A floating city or something? Okay, it has a floating city too. Whatever.

-High School of the Dead is basically like Kojiro said. I feel it's necessary to add "Zombies, guns, and copious amounts of fanservice" to his comment, though.

-JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I've only read the first 28 volumes so far, but I can say that it deserves the attention it's had.

-Gantz. I actually trailed off on this, but I've heard that it actually starts getting more interesting after the point I left off. It's violent, and a bit strange, but mostly violent. I'd say it's worth checking out, at least.

-Parasyte. I'm a bit hesitant to recommend this, mainly because I've barely read any of it. I have seen a bit and it looked interesting, but I haven't had the time to really check it out. Actually, I wouldn't object to someone giving their opinion on this.

[Kojiro Kakita]

It looks like you enjoy fighty stuff without a lot of wackiness to it. There are other things I could recommend, but based on what you seem to like, you might enjoy some of these:

-Battle Angel Alita. Futuristic cyborg martial arts. In a dystopian cyberpunk world, only a cyborg girl with the- ah, screw it. It's got fights, craziness, and crazy fights, okay? What more do you want? A floating city or something? Okay, it has a floating city too. Whatever.

-High School of the Dead is basically like Kojiro said. I feel it's necessary to add "Zombies, guns, and copious amounts of fanservice" to his comment, though.

-JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I've only read the first 28 volumes so far, but I can say that it deserves the attention it's had.

-Gantz. I actually trailed off on this, but I've heard that it actually starts getting more interesting after the point I left off. It's violent, and a bit strange, but mostly violent. I'd say it's worth checking out, at least.

-Parasyte. I'm a bit hesitant to recommend this, mainly because I've barely read any of it. I have seen a bit and it looked interesting, but I haven't had the time to really check it out. Actually, I wouldn't object to someone giving their opinion on this.

Thanks. I completely forgot about Gantz. Grant manga.

And in defense to me forgetting to mention large amounts of fanservice in High School of the Dead.
Its a seinen work. Fan service is a given.

[Serpentine]

Vinland Saga (about viking raiders during their war against England during the 900s)Someone's made a manga of that? :smallconfused: Is that exactly what it's about? Cuz the vast majority of the Vinland Sagas was just about the settlement of Vinland, with very little, if anything, involving England... (also most of the time there wasn't really a war between England and the vikings, just a whole series of raids. Unless you include Canute &c., but I'm pretty certain that was after the 900s. Not that that has anything to do with manga whatsoever >.> <.<)

Mangas... mangas...
I like Fruits Basket :smallsmile:
<.<
>.>
v.v
>skulks out of thread<

[Closet_Skeleton]

-High School of the Dead is basically like Kojiro said. I feel it's necessary to add "Zombies, guns, and copious amounts of fanservice" to his comment, though.

Read the begining, didn't look worth it.


-Gantz. I actually trailed off on this, but I've heard that it actually starts getting more interesting after the point I left off. It's violent, and a bit strange, but mostly violent. I'd say it's worth checking out, at least.

I also trailed off this, though its still on the arc that I went off it. This was just because I got too confused though and it does indeed get better after the point where the anime ended.


Someone's made a manga of that? :smallconfused: Is that exactly what it's about? Cuz the vast majority of the Vinland Sagas was just about the settlement of Vinland, with very little, if anything, involving England...

I'm pretty sure it's a misnamed Manga with a name that just sounds Vikingy. Like the name of every Manga ever, it makes no sense. If you don't complain about a Manga being called Strawberry Insanity Twirl+ (disclaimer: not a real Manga but a made up on the spot example) then don't complain about Vinland Saga.


Mangas... mangas...
I like Fruits Basket :smallsmile:
<.<
>.>
v.v
>skulks out of thread<

Burn the witch!

[Lord Iames Osari]

Well, since most of the other posters have recommended seinen/shounen works, I'll encourage you to broaden your horizons a little*.

I will also come out in favor of Blade of the Immortal. Very good manga, although I have not yet been able to track down the ending, if indeed it has ended yet. The story is about a teenage girl named Rin and her unkillable bodyguard Manji, seeking bloody revenge on the men who murdered her father and raped her mother.
Rebirth - technically, a Korean manhwa rather than a Japanese manga, but it's quite good, and probably close to your tastes. 20ish volumes and ongoing. The story revolves around a 17th-century vampire named Deshwitat and his quest for revenge against the ascended God who imprisoned him for 400 years, helped along the way by an eclectic band of companions, including a very well-endowed excommunicated Catholic exorcist-nun, a perverted swordsman cursed with immortality by the same God that imprisoned Desh, a humanoid construct created by an order of Buddhist? monks to wield both Light and Dark magics, a random teenage girl, and recently added to the team, a perverted ninja.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Ecole du Ciel is a bit of a softer focus manga (I did mention broadening your horizons, didn't I?). I'd call it shoujo, but I'm sure there's somebody out there who knows better. It's got a lot of character development and intriguing, mixed with some excellent giant robot vs. giant robot action. 7 volumes and ongoing. The story revolves around below-average military student Asuna Elmarit, daughter of a famous war criminal, who would really rather just be an artist, and her growth into an effective soldier and psychic.
One of my all-time favorites next, and another one outside your usual fare, Oh My Goddess! is a romantic comedy manga. It's 25+ volumes and ongoing; the premise is that loser college student Keiichi dials a wrong number and gets the Goddess Help Line. Within minutes, the goddess Belldandy shows up to grant him a single wish, and he wishes for her to be his girlfriend. Hilarity ensues (no, really it does), first as Bell has to adjust to life on Earth, and then as her sisters move in and start interfering with the relationship... not to mention the occasional fight with demonic forces. An enchanting mix of romance, comedy, and the occasional action sequence, I give it a 10/10. :smallbiggrin:
[hr]*I am a very poor judge of what manga is seinen, shounen, shoujo, etc. Mostly, I just know what I like.

[rubakhin]

You like realistic stuff, eh? :smallamused: That's why I can't stand 99% of anime/manga. The characters tend to be completely over-the-top and false, I have trouble conjuring up enough suspension of disbelief. However!

The female artist Ebine Yamaji did some very lovely, very realistic manga in the - well, I'd hesitate to call it the "yuri genre", as it's more like serious LGBT fiction, but yes, the yuri genre. I think you'll have to find that scanslated, though. Love My Life - which I think just received a live-action adaptation in Japan - seems to be the favorite out of all her works, but I preferred Free Soul. There's also Kiriko Nananan's Blue, which is in a similar vein, and I'm sure that's been translated into English. And Nana by Ai Yazawa, which is a bit more stylish and fun (in a fairly girly way, but still) and a lot easier to find.

I really, really love Hiroki Endo. Hunt down Tanpenshu if you can, if not, I think Mangascreener translated a few of his one-shots. One thing that gets on my nerves about manga is that there's a VAST UNTRAMMELED MARKET for Serious Literary LGBT Work in the forms of the yaoi and yuri genres, and yet ... there's practically none of it in there. Look at Boys Don't Cry; Hiroki Endo (who isn't even gay, I think?) can say more in three pages about the genuine LGBT experience than the entire body of work produced by the yaoi and yuri genres combined. Anyway, pretty much none of his other stories deal with gay stuff, but are equally brilliant meditations on identity.

On the off-chance that that stuff is too realistic for you, Saikano is about as realistic as a manga about a schoolgirl being turned into a weapon of destruction can be, which, as it turns out, is quite a bit. You'd probably like Akira, too. Beautiful, beautiful inkwork in Akira. Oh! And Osamu Tezuka! Phoenix is unbelievably profound.

Also, read Western graphic novels, goddamn it.

[Melange_Pie]

Elfen Lied? That's quite bloody and gory but a must-read for a seinen fan. Gantz is good if you like gore and boobs, and Saikano if you want to touch on your feminine side. There's a serving of boob in there too. Stupid pervy manga artists. :smallyuk:

[Kojiro Kakita]

About Elfen Lied
Let us not forget the LARGE amount of fanservice. Puts Berserk to shame in my opinion.

[erewhon]

Let me put in another recommendation for Battle Angel:Alita. The first series is really top notch, and the Motorball story arc is, no lie, some of the best sequential art storytelling the genre has seen to date.

No, I'm neither kidding nor exaggerating.

Since then the quality has settled a bit, but it's still really darn good.

[The Extinguisher]

Shaman King. Sure it's shonen, but it's awesome.

Read it. Now. What are you doing. Your not reading it yet. Read it faster!

[Tengu]

I must second both Full Metal Alchemist and Blade of the Immortal. The FMA manga follows a very different story than the anime and hasn't finished yet, but is on average as good as the show - on average because it has more weak and strong plot points. I've only read one tome of BotM, but I liked what I've seen very much - though at times it is extremely violent.

[mikeloop86]

The one and only Manga I actually read and recommend (and it turns out its Korean! :smalltongue: ) is the Priest Manhwa series, by Min-Woo Hyung. Very fun stylized art and violence, complete with giant angels canibalizing each other and axeweilding zombies.

I'd sum it up as a spaghetti western meets The Prophecy meets Dawn of the Dead.

more info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priest_(manhwa)

[Lemur]

Someone's made a manga of that? :smallconfused: Is that exactly what it's about? Cuz the vast majority of the Vinland Sagas was just about the settlement of Vinland, with very little, if anything, involving England... (also most of the time there wasn't really a war between England and the vikings, just a whole series of raids. Unless you include Canute &c., but I'm pretty certain that was after the 900s. Not that that has anything to do with manga whatsoever >.> <.<)

Mangas... mangas...
I like Fruits Basket :smallsmile:
<.<
>.>
v.v
>skulks out of thread<

Is Fruits Basket about fruit baskets? :smalltongue: Anyway, I'm sure you know by now that a manga's title is usually utter nonsense, much like band names. Closet Skeleton's example is also well chosen- there are a lot of series that have "strawberry" or "ichigo" in the title for some reason.

To you I'll suggest Ouran High School Host Club. Which... actually has a title which isn't utter nonsense (based on what the manga is about) now that I think about it. Oh well.



Also, read Western graphic novels, goddamn it.

Seriously quoted for truth. Japan isn't the only country that makes comics, you know.

I keep trying to trick people into reading Persepolis, but I'm not sure if I've had any success.

People sharing the OP's persuasion towards content would probably enjoy Sin City. Blacksad is an interesting detectivish, anthropomorphicish comic, if you can find it.

And it's always hard for anyone to go wrong with stuff like Bone and Tintin.

[Tengu]

there are a lot of series that have "strawberry" or "ichigo" in the title for some reason.


I think that Bleach should be renamed to Bleachigo.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Is Fruits Basket about fruit baskets? :smalltongue:

Actually, part of it is - it is one of the ways the heroine describes her life.


Seriously quoted for truth. Japan isn't the only country that makes comics, you know.
...
And it's always hard for anyone to go wrong with stuff like Bone and Tintin.

True - I am a great fan of Asterix, and used to enjoy Tintin.

On the other hand, Manga has a much bigger range (it's not all kiddies stories...). I also enjoy several things that would be described as girls romances. Except that they are damn well written.

My recomendations would be:

Oh My Goddess: Hilarious story based around the principle of "be careful what you wish for".

Fruits Basket: Quite a serious story hidden behind one of the biggest families of eccentrics I have ever seen.

Negima: 10-year-old wizard teaching English in a Japanese school. With a full cast of ninja, paparatzi, robot, vampire, time-traveller and a thousand elephants. Actually, no elephants, but there is an enchanted pervert ermine. Silly in places, but fun.

[Serpentine]

On the other hand, Manga has a much bigger range (it's not all kiddies stories...).Neither is western stuff. I doubt anyone could ever consider SinCity a "kiddy story".
Um... yeah. Fruits Basket* is the only manga I've ever read much of, and that only cuz a friend of mine was collecting them all. I'll be leaving now...


*Cuz you asked, it's about a girl who gets mixed up with a family suffering under a curse which causes its members to turn into an animal of the zodiac when hugged by persons of the opposite sex. The Dragon is particularly... interesting.

[Manga Shoggoth]

On the other hand, Manga has a much bigger range (it's not all kiddies stories...).
Neither is western stuff. I doubt anyone could ever consider SinCity a "kiddy story".

That wasn't my point. The point was that in Japan manga is created across a whole range of subjects (politics, cookery... If it moves there is probably a Manga about it).

I probably should have left the comment in brackets out - it belongs in a different arguement.

One of the items in my collection is a story (I forget the title, but no fruits are harmed in its making) about a buyer for a multinational. It actually reads like many of the old Eagle/Look and Learn educational one-off strips, except that it has characters and a plot. I brought it because lt looked like a police procedural...

[Mingchan]

I recomend you to try Faeries Landing. Yes, I know it's a manhwa, but it's seriously funny! The main story is about this guy called Ryang Jegal, and how he accidently got a hot fairy to live with him! However, there are pros and cons. The Pros, the girl is very cute. The cons, her archnemesis comes to earth, and drops magical eyedrops in his eyes. What these eyedrops do, I won't blab, though let's just say it'll give him plenty of girl troubles!

There are a lot of colourful characters, and the jokes are easy to read, understand and enjoy. So far, there are 19 volumes, so I don't know how many chapters that is...and it STILL isn't finished yet!

If you're a fan of the fantasy fighting genre, you should really pick this up!!

[Melange_Pie]

About Elfen Lied
Let us not forget the LARGE amount of fanservice. Puts Berserk to shame in my opinion.

I forgot to add that :smallredface:
Quite strange how there are virtually NO male silpelit or dicloni. And how all silpelit and dicloni lack access to clothing, or somehow manage to lose or tear it off in such a small amount of time and with such effortlessness.

[Blayze]

I've recently started reading Adachi manga. I read all of Rough recently, and liked it. Now I'm giving Touch a go, and I'll check out H2 when I'm done with that. Adachi's more than a bit self-referential, but he sure kicks Takahashi's arse into touch when it comes to, say, making and developing a story, making interesting characters, and (Of course) ending the damn thing with a conclusion, not a train wreck.

[Yami]

Well, it appears the OP has some similar taste in manga as I do. Huzzah!

Perhaps my suggestion of Jiraishin will be of use.
http://www.thehawks.org/hawks/bt/index.php?dir=.%2FJiraishin

I cannot beleive no one has suggested Sazan Eyes. Granted it's not a completed series, and I prefer to offer people completed series, but it is good. Also, just to gauge your tastes, I would offer Tokyo Crazy Paradise as another decent read. It, however, is completed.

Oh, and I happen to be a fan of Blame! but I know of friends who don't seem to care for it.

[feghoot]

Uzumaki is pretty crazy, and was later turned into a film

[Kojiro Kakita]

I forgot to add that :smallredface:
Quite strange how there are virtually NO male silpelit or dicloni. And how all silpelit and dicloni lack access to clothing, or somehow manage to lose or tear it off in such a small amount of time and with such effortlessness.

Well technically there are male dicloni, such as lucy's relative. But I think the males are better at keeping their clothes on.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I've recently started reading Adachi manga.

The only thing I know about him is that he only writes Sports Manga and that he uses the EXACT SAME CHARACTER DESIGNS IN EVERYTHING HE DOES. He's like the Michael Moorcock of Sports Mangaka, except instead of the Eternal Champion he has the Eternal over-weight friend that gives advice while being slightly goofy.

[rubakhin]

On the other hand, Manga has a much bigger range (it's not all kiddies stories...).

And, what, you think Western graphic novels are? *flails*

*muse* I don't know, I think the difference in range between Western and Far Eastern stuff is that although manga has a greater range, that range is pretty cartoony, and Western stuff delves more into serious, Literary-with-a-Capital-L type subjects.

Don't even try to argue that point, either, or else I'll pick Art Spiegelman up by the ankles and use him to beat you to death. :smalltongue:

[Manga Shoggoth]

And, what, you think Western graphic novels are? *flails*

*muse* I don't know, I think the difference in range between Western and Far Eastern stuff is that although manga has a greater range, that range is pretty cartoony, and Western stuff delves more into serious, Literary-with-a-Capital-L type subjects.

Remember, what you see in the big comic stores is only what the publishers think will sell. The manga I mentioned in my second post came straight from Kodansha. I've never seen it in the comic stores.

And, by definition, any story told in pictures will be "cartoony".


Don't even try to argue that point, either, or else I'll pick Art Spiegelman up by the ankles and use him to beat you to death. :smalltongue:

Tempting...

[Serpentine]

I once found a porn cartoon of my dad's in a shelf...
Western stuff even gets into the hentai area! :smalltongue:

[rubakhin]

Remember, what you see in the big comic stores is only what the publishers think will sell. The manga I mentioned in my second post came straight from Kodansha. I've never seen it in the comic stores.

And, by definition, any story told in pictures will be "cartoony".



Tempting...

*shrug* Whatever. I mean "less realistic", I guess. (English has almost no words for discussing the art concepts, does it? You keep having to import from the French and the German. :smallannoyed:) In manga, you still don't see a lot of mangaka tackling real world issues whereas Western comics frequently deal with, say, the Holocaust, civil rights, Islam. Stuff like Battle Angel Alita is all well and good but in the end I'd rather read Maus.

[Serpentine]

Oh! At my high school there was a really depressing comic about an elderly couple after a nuclear explosion. Really depressing. Seriously. Or, if you prefer, poignant and artful. I think it might've been German or somesuch.
But that doesn't really have anything to do with manga... I should really just stay out of here, what with having nothing useful to contribute...

Rubakhin, I know what you meant. There are more and less cartoony manga (and anime) that I've seen, but it does seem like the Western equivalent spans a greater extreme of these... But that doesn't mean either's better or worse *shrug*
Unless you're saying that... I don't know, a rennaisance portrait or the Bayeux (sp?) tapestry or a cave painting is cartoony (and I suppose the latter two you could argue that direction), it is not true that "any story told in pictures will be "cartoony"".

[Closet_Skeleton]

(English has almost no words for discussing the art concepts, does it? You keep having to import from the French and the German. :smallannoyed:)

The french and german words are usually ones that exist in English anyway, it's just that the only English people who care enough to name things are snobish enough to use Latin and the French over-analyse everything compared to other countries. Most of the French words in Film Studies (the subsection of art criticism that I've actually learnt about) were made up to describe concepts that the French recognised in American cinema.


In manga, you still don't see a lot of mangaka tackling real world issues whereas Western comics frequently deal with, say, the Holocaust, civil rights, Islam.

Those two of those three examples have no real relevence to Japan. Japan's civil rights movement hardly has the famous bankable names that can be used to sell stories like America does. There are however plenty of Manga that deal with social issues. Some science fiction or fantasy manga have political allegories in the same way that western science fiction has them. Some translaters censor manga whenever they stray into discussing social issues because they don't think their audience will be interesting to the target audience or understand them because they're too Japan specific. For some reason they think something as confusing as a Japanese joke can be translated but just give up with a foreign social issue that's only confusing because sociologists like to spend time calling things special instead of finding explanatory parrelels.

Manga dealing with political or social themes are rarely translated because publishers don't feel that the kind of American that would be interested in them would read comic books. Translated Manga is only just coming out of the "interesting foreign thing" stage and therefore only the most typically foreign works get translated.


Oh! At my high school there was a really depressing comic about an elderly couple after a nuclear explosion. Really depressing. Seriously. Or, if you prefer, poignant and artful. I think it might've been German or somesuch.

The work you're thinking of may be German, but there are manga that deal with nuclear explosions. These have the advantage of being autobiographical rather than emotion exploiting science fiction.

[SilentNight]

Why is nobody mentioning Trigun? If you like Helsing, Trigun is way better. Alucard is basically Vash but more badass less awesome.

[Serpentine]

The work you're thinking of may be German, but there are manga that deal with nuclear explosions. These have the advantage of being autobiographical rather than emotion exploiting science fiction.I wasn't saying that there wouldn't be anything like that in manga - I'd be surprised if there wasn't, though I'm not sure how easy it'd be to take it really seriously in the styles I've seen (but I haven't seen very much) - but that Western graphic art can be plenty adult, serious and heartbreaking.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I wasn't saying that there wouldn't be anything like that in manga

I wasn't claiming you had.


I'm not sure how easy it'd be to take it really seriously in the styles I've seen

There are some really dark and gory manga but they tend to be 20 years old. Berzerk is a more recent example.

[Lord Iames Osari]

And, what, you think Western graphic novels are? *flails*

*muse* I don't know, I think the difference in range between Western and Far Eastern stuff is that although manga has a greater range, that range is pretty cartoony, and Western stuff delves more into serious, Literary-with-a-Capital-L type subjects.

Don't even try to argue that point, either, or else I'll pick Art Spiegelman up by the ankles and use him to beat you to death. :smalltongue:

*clears throat* I have one word for you:

Gundam.

Even though it was originally an anime, I feel that manga and anime are closely related enough for it to be relevant.

Let me give you a brief and incomplete list of the subjects that many Gundam shows (and the manga based on them) deal with, in a serious manner:
Pacifism
Death
War
Love
Sacrifice
Fascism
Genocide

Original Gundam begins in the middle a massive war between the bloated and bureacratic Earth Federation and the aristo-fascist Sovereignty of Zeon, in which half the human population has been wiped out before the opening narration is over, a hefty portion of it by Zeon's use of NBCs. Both of the protagonist's love interests are killed; the first sacrifices herself to save the protagonist and his allies, and the second is killed by the protagonist himself as she sacrifices herself to save the rival. There are at least two other secondary characters who die. The protagonist constantly struggles with the fact that he's become a killing machine.

The 08th MS Team, set in the same time period, is the story of a Federation soldier and a Zeon soldier who fall in love and continue to fight for their respective nations regardless.

0080 War in the Pocket, again in the same time period, is the story of a young boy named Al, living in a neutral space colony, who finds his romantic vision of the war shattered when Zeon forces raid his home in an attempt to seize the Federation's new prototype, with a nuclear strike ready to blow the whole thing to hell if the Zeon commandos can't capture the Gundam.

In Char's Counterattack, the eponymous character is trying to bring about a nuclear winter on Earth by dropping nuke-filled asteroids down the gravity well. The protagonist dies trying to stop the asteroid from falling, after his girlfriend was killed in a dogfight.

Or, if you'd prefer an original manga, how about Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind? The protagonist is an enviro-pacifist, forced to fight in a war by an imperial power against another imperial power that uses genetic engineering to create weapons of war, which naturally then go horribly wrong. Then there's the nuclear plot device, the discussion of nihilism... I could go on, but I don't think I need to.

In other words, don't come here and say "Western comics are a form of Art delve more deeply into Serious Literary Issues, while manga are simply entertainment." Have you taken a look at Western comics lately? Sure there's some good, serious stuff, but the vast majority of it is purely entertainment, and I'm willing to bet that the percentages of pure entertainment vs. Serious Art in both Manga and Western comics are pretty damn close.

[ralphmerridew]

The only thing I know about him is that he only writes Sports Manga and that he uses the EXACT SAME CHARACTER DESIGNS IN EVERYTHING HE DOES. He's like the Michael Moorcock of Sports Mangaka, except instead of the Eternal Champion he has the Eternal over-weight friend that gives advice while being slightly goofy.

Short Program wasn't sports manga.

[mikeloop86]

*clears throat* I have one word for you:

Gundam.

Even though it was originally an anime, I feel that manga and anime are closely related enough for it to be relevant.

Let me give you a brief and incomplete list of the subjects that many Gundam shows (and the manga based on them) deal with, in a serious manner:
Pacifism
Death
War
Love
Sacrifice
Fascism
Genocide

Original Gundam begins in the middle a massive war between the bloated and bureacratic Earth Federation and the aristo-fascist Sovereignty of Zeon, in which half the human population has been wiped out before the opening narration is over, a hefty portion of it by Zeon's use of NBCs. Both of the protagonist's love interests are killed; the first sacrifices herself to save the protagonist and his allies, and the second is killed by the protagonist himself as she sacrifices herself to save the rival. There are at least two other secondary characters who die. The protagonist constantly struggles with the fact that he's become a killing machine.

The 08th MS Team, set in the same time period, is the story of a Federation soldier and a Zeon soldier who fall in love and continue to fight for their respective nations regardless.

0080 War in the Pocket, again in the same time period, is the story of a young boy named Al, living in a neutral space colony, who finds his romantic vision of the war shattered when Zeon forces raid his home in an attempt to seize the Federation's new prototype, with a nuclear strike ready to blow the whole thing to hell if the Zeon commandos can't capture the Gundam.

In Char's Counterattack, the eponymous character is trying to bring about a nuclear winter on Earth by dropping nuke-filled asteroids down the gravity well. The protagonist dies trying to stop the asteroid from falling, after his girlfriend was killed in a dogfight.

Or, if you'd prefer an original manga, how about Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind? The protagonist is an enviro-pacifist, forced to fight in a war by an imperial power against another imperial power that uses genetic engineering to create weapons of war, which naturally then go horribly wrong. Then there's the nuclear plot device, the discussion of nihilism... I could go on, but I don't think I need to.

In other words, don't come here and say "Western comics are a form of Art delve more deeply into Serious Literary Issues, while manga are simply entertainment." Have you taken a look at Western comics lately? Sure there's some good, serious stuff, but the vast majority of it is purely entertainment, and I'm willing to bet that the percentages of pure entertainment vs. Serious Art in both Manga and Western comics are pretty damn close.

Now, I really do agree with you there, at the underlined portion. I nearly went beserk :smallfurious: though at the bolded type, because honestly it is ALL entertainment.

But yeah, I agree, and gladly chalk you up as one of my fellow sane individuals who realize neither Western or Eastern graphic novellas are superior to each other. :smallbiggrin: