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Name your top 3 favorite manga and why.

Death Note- Very suspenseful and cool. Awesome story and has mastermind L and Light. It's so awesome how Light is so smart and plan things out and it is an all out battle with him against the greatest detective L. I've only read to the end of volume 6. You look back at that volume and remember the earlier when it seemed immposoble to figure out Light was Kira. And then you see L actually watching spoiler[forgot his name]of the company act as Kira. Also Light is a prime suspect. Can't wait to see Light spoiler[get his Death Note back.]

Monster- I've only read 1-3 but I already love this manga and I know what I'm in for. Mega crazy suspense thriller that should be in anyones manga collection. Johan is a psycho and I can't wait to see What Dr. Tenma goe through in the rest of the volumes.

Dragonball- Classic. It never gets old watching Goku be awed by everyone. Example when he takes down the Red Ribbon army. I love the perverted comedy, non stop action, memorable characters, and this is a manga everyone has to read no matter what.

Hmm.

1) One Piece- a solid, unconventional slapstick adventure comedy with a would-be pirate crew with a "heart of gold". Maybe that is what One Piece is, afterall?

2) Berserk- Miura's dark adult gothic drama about Guts, the Black Swordsman, and his utterly fudged up life. This is one of the few series that actually showcase real blood and gore!

3) Mahou Sensei Negima!- Ken Akamatsu's latest manga about a ten year old teacher with a class of thirty one older girls; the spin is, he's a mage to boot.

Death Note: The characters are great even though their personality changes every two seconds. They might as well name this manga "ATTACK OF THE MOOD SWINGS OF DOOM."
The story and art is good too.

Bleach: The art is original. The characters are good. The stories are mostly good. Good humor. Just everything that makes people like a manga.

Yuyu Hakusho: I don't hear people talk about this as much as HxH. I think it's good. The art is pretty good. It's very detailed, though in later chapters you can tel it's just a few lines. The story is good after he spoiler[comes back to life]. It's ok while he's spoiler[dead], just a little slower. The characters are good for the most part. There's a few demons that could've been more interesting, but it's not like they can change anything now.

Monster- Sometimes cliche-ish, but overall a very well done manga. It has an interesting plot, with a quite scary enemy who you barely even see. One of the sadder manga I've read. I also like the way Tenma develops as a character.

Helter Skelter/River's Edge- I'm putting these together since they're by the same author and the likable about them are similar. Theyre both very dark in a sadly realistic way, geniusly written with very well done characters, possibly the best I've ever seen. In both manga, the main character is a normal person who interacts with these darker characters giving you their darkness from a perspective you can relate to. Both are just great.

She Got Off the Bus at the Peninsula- I usualy don't like one shots, but this one I liked enough for it to be one of my favorite manga ever. It has a somewhat intense subject, but the way it's presented, it's more touching than dark. It also has a supernatrual additon which I think compliments the story. A very touching story that just leaves you with a good feeling at the end.

My favorite all-time manga so far is Death Note. It is very entertaining in my mind, and I think that the bitter struggle between Light and Ryuzaki is so amazing. Of course, I've only read 6 volumes of it, but I can't wait until the next come out. I've done the best I can to stay away from scanlations when I get my urges for Death Note. Hopefully, I can stay successful until the next volume comes out.

My second would have to be Rurouni Kenshin. This is the series that I have definitely collected the most of. I have 12 volumes so far and 3 more on way since I just ordered up to volume 15 today on Borders.com. I love the action and swrod-fighting. Although it's sometimes hard to tell who's saying what in the manga because the bubbles aren't really pointing to who they come from, but I always get the point eventually. I love the Oniwabanshu onmitsu, and so far the Kyoto arc has done nothing but make me want more.

My third favorite would have to be the Naruto manga. I've read all of the manga released that takes place after the time jump, and I have to say that I like it alot. Seeing spoiler[Sasuke so badass with his ability to see the Nine-tails] just makes me want more and more new Naruto manga. Also, spoiler[Akatsuki's after Naruto again] so that's really tickling my fancy. I love Itachi. I don't care what anybody says about him. He's badass and that's all there is to it. I wish my older brother could be like him (except notspoiler[ kill everyone in my family]). But all I can say is that it leaves me wanting more.

1. I would say Monster. I've read 3 volumes so far and it is a really exciting and thrilling adventure. It turns into a hospital type manga to something much darker and different quickly. It has such great twists and turns, and you cant help but want to join Dr. Tenma on his journey. I believe it was the 2nd volume that i stayed up until 1 o'clock in the morning reading Monster because i was to into it. Now I've learned my lesson with this sort of thing and i try to start a volume of manga soon after i get up to prevent this problem.

2. This is probably the spot where i would put Deah Note, but i want to put different types of manga for my list, since Death Note is a little bit like Monster. Here, i say Dragon Ball. I, like Mr.Roboto, love the perverted type of humor in it, and it is really just a great classic. Goku is just a really likeable character who wants to do the right thing. Some of the best manga characters ever are in this, and the battles are epic and exciting. I believe Dragon Ball is a manga classic that everyone should read to see where so many shounen and other manga-ka got their inspiration from.

3. Eyeshield 21 is a really excellent sports manga. I would most definately say best sports manga ever. The whole underdog-becomes-a-champion story seems like by now it would be overdone, but it is done so well here that i just can't help but love it. The whole crew of wild characters are so wonderfully done, i say they are equal or better to Dragon Balls. Also the games are really very exciting, and keep you on the edge of your seat. They flesh out game stradagies for you and explain the game for unexperianced readers too. Last, every time i finish a volume, i just really want to run out and go play a game of football!!! Those are my Top 3 mangas, but i like so many other ones.

For me, this is updated yearly. Every summer when I return to Taiwan, I have a giant selection of new and old(with new releases) mangas to choose from in the manga rental. There is always a gem or two that comes out each year. Currently, my favorite three are probably FMA (my shounen title), Suzuka (my romance title), and Negima (my comedy title). There is another one that is getting really good, but I do not know the name in English or Japanese. It's a fairly unique name, but the art style as well as the characters are both fairly unique. The story is just entering the first climax, so I wont comment on that just yet.

My favorite 3 manga...hmmm....

Of coarse One Piece takes first place, being my first and favorite manga. With it's great characters and older setting. Not to mention the unique art style and depth of story, despite being a shounen. I can go on for so many more paragraphs, but I've said it too many times. It's just the best thing ever, and I'll leave it at that.

I'll give Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (a mouthful) 2nd place, for being a cool manga with great art and very living images. It's very gritty and grim, I'd say it's like WW2 in manga form. More like watching a movie than actual reading, because Miyazaki really captured the motions well. But I found it hard to understand, well, for me anyway, on my first and only time through. I didn't absorb it well, but then again, I rarely do the first time round. Not usually, that's why I like reading/playing books/vid games 2 times over. They're often more fun for me the second time than they were the first O_o;...

I haven't read many other manga, so I'll just put Hunter X Hunter on 3rd place for now. I like how it's pretty violent, yet still "clean". And it's interesting enough. But I think 3rd place can easily be taken over if I find a better manga out there.

Favourite manga...I honestly can't say I have three favourite manga actually, that's narrowing it too much. But I do have three favourite manga-ka, so I'm going to go with that (they have made all my favourite manga anyway).

Watase Yuu - I absolutely adore her. Fushigi Yuugi was the first real shoujo that I became a fan of and I have so much merchandise now that I joke that I've paid all of her bills for at least a month. I right now own almost every volume of hers available in English (missing Genbu Kaiden vol 4 and Absolute Boyfriend vol 2) and I love reading and re-reading them. If I could only read work from one mangaka for the rest of my life, it would be Watase Yuu.

If I had to pick a favourite series of hers, it would be Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden, because it's a really interesting story that deals with many relevant issues, as well as a very ingenius way to tell a similar story without copying the original FY manga. It also shows how she does like the changes made to the FY anime, since a fair amount of the Genbu canon was set in the anime, not the manga.

Yazawa Ai - I only recently started reading her work, when NANA was serialized in Shoujo Beat. I immediately fell in love with the series because it was different than some things I'd read before. As I've often said here, Yazawa just makes her manga seem more real than other mangaka out there. She shows failed relationships, she shows realistic sex scenes, she shows people failing and getting back onto their feet to try again. And that's what I love about her.

If I had to pick a favourite, it would be NANA, though I also adore Paradise Kiss.

CLAMP - Ah, CLAMP. They used to be second on my fav list, but now are third. But I still do love them. They have some really interesting ideas one CLAMP title can be completely different from another, most likely due to four heads working together to create them. While I don't worship them like some others do, I am trying to collect all their series, though currently avoiding the indefinite hiatus ones.

If I had to pick a favourite manga, it would be Chobits. Even though the characterization in Chobits wasn't as good as others, I really liked the ideas...this is interesting since usually I hate things that have more emphasis on "theme" than "character." (However, if we were going by series, I would go with X/1999, though I haven't read much of the manga, just seen the anime which is amazing).

My three favorites:

1) Berserk - Far and away my favorite. Though the first three volumes aren't great, the series as a whole is a masterpiece. Guts and Griffith are both fascinating characters.

2) Monster - An excellent and highly complicated series that managed to keep me guessing until the final volume. It also helps that the ending is excellent, a rarity among manga.

3) Eden - A tragically under-read masterpiece touching on numerous themes. It's very dark and incredibly depressing, but it is well-worth reading.

Last edited by Raven Shinobi on Fri Sep 01, 2006 1:05 pm; edited 1 time in total

GTO: my obssession with this series started with the anime, once I was done watching it I ended up wanting more and that what drove me to pick up the manga, especially since I heared there were several volumes of chapters that haven't been covered in the anime. great humor, realistic characters and intriguing and bold issues all in one package.

Death Note: this is one of the few series when I'm like "Nooo!" whenever I reach the end of the volume, since you end up wanting to know what happens next. A really unique experience, I can't wait to see how it all ends.

Dragon Ball/Z: I know that many people look down on this series, mostly thanks to the butchered dub, but I'll always have a soft spot for this one. If you're reluctant to try out this series because of its reputation in the west, then I suggest to to go with the manga; it has a better pacing than the anime and the fights are resolved in a fewer chapters than those of the anime. An instant classic.

Honorable Mentions:

Love Hina: awesome characters and humor, the love story is cute with a lot of violent twists and turns.

Gunslinger Girl : this series has what most mangas out there lack: political issues! I also enjoy the scie-fi and psychological undertones.

Kare Kano: A beautiful tale of comming of age, and the trials that go with it. The characters are well written especially the main characters Soichiro and Yukino. No over the top comedy. I really don't like comedy manga/anime. The story is done perfectly. It is ten times better than the anime and I enjoye d the anime.

Rurouni Kenshin: What can I say except perfect. Most people by now have either read this manga or heard of it. It is great. Much better than the anime series.

Berserk: I still haven't finished reading the manga. I'm on volume 27. It is superbly done. There is a lot of Violence, but it doesn't get in the way of the story, which is very well done.

My top 3

Descendants of Darkness: the art work is just gorgeous and I was introduced to my all time favorite character Hisoka so that's a plus. The series is tragic but humorous as well. Some of the most touching and beautiful scenes take place in this manga (as well as the anime).

Gravitation: This was my first BL series and also the first manga series that I finished collecting. This is not only has a great romance but its also hysterically funny. I know if I'm feeling down this series will cheer me up.

Angel Sanctuary: Beautiful artwork and has one of the most complicated storylines I've seen in manga/anime. I'm constantly surprised by the twists in this series. Kaori Yuki has talent for taking touchy and queasy subjects such as incest into something sympathtic.

1.Fruits Basket is my favourite manga series by far. A significant reason for this is how effectivly the series can evoke such a variety of emotions through the characters without making them feel forced or out-of-place. The characters themselves, although falling into some shoujo cliches to an extent, all get given a great amount of development - even "side" characters get a chapter or two to themselves.This focus on character development means that the plot progresses more slowly, but this almost makes the occurances seem more natural. And the plot itself, while not especially intricate, is intriguing. Oh, and as a final (superficial Wink

)point, the art is gorgeous.

2.Nausicaa is a series I was sceptical about reading after finding the movie somewhat lacking, however the manga gives a truly epic story rather than the fragment that makes up thhe movie. The well-realised post-apocalyptic world is expertly portrayed, and fantastically imaginative. It is this manga, more than any of the movies, that makes me consider Hayao Miyazaki a genius. The strong plot moves swiftly without becoming confusing. Compared to Fruits Basket it only falls short (for me, personally) in two areas. Firstly, thrilling though the series is, it doesn't quite connect to me on the same emotional level. And secondly, the artwork. While Miyazakis artwork is impressive, the stylisations of the characters and rough edges aren't as aesthetically appealing as the smooth, fine lines of Fruits Basket.

3.Saikano, one of the best (if not the best) tragic romances in anime and manga makes it into third place. Watching the two characters develop throughout the series, all the while drawing nearer to the inevitable conclusion is heartbreaking. A factor that adds to this is the realism of the series - not the initial premise, granted, but the progression of events and actions of the people have a bitter ring of truth to them. For example, when people die in the series they just... die. Nothing overblown and dramatic, they just die like normal people would - which seems to give it a greater impact. Shin Takahashis art style works well with the series, and he shows himself capable of some excellent scenes.

It was quite close for the third position, so credit where credit is due, honourable mentions to GTO, YKK, Berserk, Blade of the Immortal and Rurouni Kenshin.

Last edited by LydiaDianne on Sun Sep 24, 2006 11:11 pm; edited 1 time in total

Okay, my turn to give it a shot:

3 favorite manga series (on-going)

1) Ouran High School Host Club - This is one I broke down and got this summer because of what has been said on this forum. I have not been disappointed! I've enjoyed this series an awful lot and have laughed quite a bit at the antics of most of the cast and I'm really wondering what Kyoya Ohtori's real motives are. He's actually the best character in the bunch. I'm looking forward to seeing the anime.

2) Tsubasa - The CLAMP title that re-rights or re-tells most of their stories. I'm enjoying this one as well. I like that they added two completely new characters, Kurogane and Fai, who have no directed connection to any of their previous stories. It does start out a bit slow but the anicipation grows for me with each subsequent volume. I'm really looking forward to seeing what spoiler[the "boy in the bottle" (my personal description) has to do with Shaoran.] Admittedly, I have a bootleg copy of this series (I'll buy the legit version when it arrives, promise) and I have the same initial issues with it as I do with the manga.

3) DNAngel - This one has been on a bit of a sabbatical with Volume #11 being released here just this month. Again, I'm enjoying the heck out of it. This manga also has an anime based on it. The anime is over but obviously the manga is continuing and there has been a new character introduced that was not in the anime. I'm looking forward to seeing how the manga version ends.

3 favorite manga series (on-going) Honorable mentions

Tenjho Tenge - I've gotten the nine volumes that are currently available in the U.S. and while I did notice some of the editing so frequently complained about in the first couple of volumes, the story has gotten me so involved that I haven't noticed anything else. I really don't see why everyone is complaining that the manga has been butchered. The manga has gone past where the anime stopped and has introduced new characters and I haven't seen any signs of where the story has been changed. But then, I don't read scanlations.

W Juliet - Girl meets boy, boy meets girl. Girl is actually a boy and boy is actually a girl. Girl/boy has to hide that fact until graduation to make his dream come true. Boy/girl has never had a close friend until now. This series has drama, romance, comedy, action and angst galore! And I love it!

Favorite Manga Series (completed)

1) Yes, it's Sailor Moon! My first anime and my first manga. The manga in a way is shorter than the anime, the story line goes much quicker and Usagi isn't as dippy in the manga as she is in the anime. But, you do get to see her grow and evolve into her powers as a Sailor Senshi. Some of the other characters are not the same way that they are in the manga. And there are hints in the manga in some of the chapter drawings that this would have been different it hadn't been for a certain witch in the first volumes.

2) Alice 19th - Excellent story about how words can truly hurt, even kill. Personally I think that this is the best of Watase Yu's stories. Alice, the heroine, grows up quickly in this story. Turning from shy girl, uncertain about herself into a strong woman capable of admitting her feelings. The same thing happens to Kyo, the main male hero, as well. I sort of wish that an anime would be made out of this story.

3) Ceres - Another of Watase Yu's stories and quite possibly the darkest one she has written. Aya Mikage was the typical teenage girl, well she admits to doing a few things that nice Japanese girls should NOT do. But, on her 16th birthday, her life is turned up-side down and will never be the same. Aya, like Alice, has to grow up quickly. She finds love, hatred, friendship, murder, truth and sacrifice. There is an anime of this manga but it leaves out a character and her story line that I think is crucial to the entire story but the anime is still good.

Favorite Manga Series (completed) Honorable Mentions

The Legend of Chun Hyang - This is by CLAMP and is a one-shot title. Well written and well drawn, the story does not leave you hanging.

Tokyo Babylon - This is in essence the prequel to X/1999. It tells the story of Subaru, Hokuto and Seishiro when they were all together and happy. But, slowly, ever so slowly, it becomes darker and the truth of Seishiro gradually comes out until Subaru is broken forever.

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