Good adult manga?

[Forrestfire]

I consider L&BH to be a shonen manga for a seinen audience, if that makes any sense. And yeah, it's wonderful. Probably the best manga I've ever read, in fact.

It's at the top of my list, as well. Have you seen the author's current manga, Sengoku Youko? It's also pretty great.

[Terraoblivion]

One of his current manga, there's Spirit Circle as well. Also, Sengoku Youko was a lot better before the time skip. Post-time skip Sengoku Youko is too much shounen fighting and has less interesting characters.

Anyway, I'm kinda amused by how there is nothing even approaching a consensus on what an adult manga is. Some go for maximum violence, some go for deep themes, some go for some vague kind of adultness in its understanding of the world, some go for having adult leads and some seem to base it on whether or not it was published in a seinen or josei magazine. I get the impression that it just might be kind of a vague term.

[VariSami]

I will have to admit that I used brutality as a criterion mostly because Terra Formars was listed as an example by the original poster. Personally, I would not consider it adult, albeit it might be rated 'for mature audiences' because it remains so shallow. Thus, I went with a middle-path and recommended a few brutal but insightful series and a few emotionally loaded and slightly gimmicky ones.

Oh, and I most definitely second Monster.

[Math_Mage]

Stepping out to the edges of the topic, I'm gonna recommend the Kubera manhwa, 'cause even though it's not specifically adult in the way something like Monster is, it's mature enough that I think adults would enjoy it, and it's just really well done in general. Tower of God is more typically shounen-like, but equally as good.

[Forrestfire]

If we're recommending manhwa, I'll also toss in Trace. It's sorta like a Korean x-men type thing, has some great characters and takes itself decently seriously at times.

[Terraoblivion]

Another good one that I'd forgotten about when I wrote m first post.

Saint Young Men. It's a comedy about Jesus and Buddha taking a vacation for a few years and living as Japanese neets. The sheer amount of jokes about the finer points of Buddhist and Christian theology and mythology is staggering and a surprisingly large amount of them work. And it's in addition to the character driven humor based on what the two of them are like.

[Metahuman1]

I'll second Saint Young Men.



Also, Vagabond is possibly worth a look. Historical Fiction account of the life and exploits of Miyamoto Musashi. Yes, there is lots of nudity and Sex, a fair bit of crass humor between some characters in places and LOT'S of violence and blood shed. More or less every bit of which is fine in it's context and gives it a good feeling of the historical period and the culture of that place and period the story is taking place in.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Vinland Saga also is very good. Eventually I found it a bit exhausting, but I think that was still 150 or so chapters in. Something to at least lookat to see if you want to continue with the whole thing.

...oh wow. I didn't realize it was that long (and longer). I've only read up through chapter 56, I've been following the English hardcover releases from Kondansha.

[Yora]

I don't know how long the chapters are, but from the length of other manga I've read, it at least felt like about 150 or so.

Turns out it was only about chapter 70 where I got. Definitely felt longer.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I'll third Maison Ikkoku, but mostly this thread just reminds me of how much I don't actually like comics that are too serious.

[AtlanteanTroll]

Two people have already.

Well, I am illiterate. Carry on.

[Brewdude]

Akira.

Like most manga, much better than the movie. So much content was just outright skipped to make it fit in 2 hours. It's well worth reading it entirely.

[Brother Oni]

Anyway, I'm kinda amused by how there is nothing even approaching a consensus on what an adult manga is. Some go for maximum violence, some go for deep themes, some go for some vague kind of adultness in its understanding of the world, some go for having adult leads and some seem to base it on whether or not it was published in a seinen or josei magazine. I get the impression that it just might be kind of a vague term.

It is a very vague term, hence the very vague answers.

The closest analogue I can think of is the movie classification system, where if you have A amount of B level profanity, C amount of violence, D amount of E level nudity/sexuality, etc, they all combine to give it an age rating. Even that isn't a good indication of 'adult' since you have mindless action films at cert. 18 over here (Crank for example), but far more sober films like The King's Speech at cert. 12.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Anyway, I'm kinda amused by how there is nothing even approaching a consensus on what an adult manga is. Some go for maximum violence, some go for deep themes, some go for some vague kind of adultness in its understanding of the world, some go for having adult leads and some seem to base it on whether or not it was published in a seinen or josei magazine. I get the impression that it just might be kind of a vague term.

To be fair, that's not a problem exclusive to manga.

(Though in America, "adult" has a rather different connotation in some contexts...)

[Yora]

Mature often really seems to mean "immature", so it isn't better either.

[Man on Fire]

Honestly, I'm just waiting for somebody to throw in here that one C.S. Lewis quote now.

Hey, how about Marie's Music? Anybody here read it? I've read only first volume out of 2 (couldn't find second anywhere). It was pretty interesting story, but there were moments suggesting darker subtext and atleast one scene that was clearly not for kids.