Forum - View topicFavorite Obscure Manga
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Jamee
 Posts: 79 Location: North Carolina |
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What's your favorite manga that doesn't get a lot of press or exposure? Mine is Doubt!! I had never even heard of it before Viz released it but it turned out to be some of the best stuff I've ever read! I also love President Dad (though technically that's manwha). Anyone else have an obscure favorite?
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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Geez, I guess alot stuff I like could be considered obscure by American standards (or even within the scanslation community), but I'll limit my picks to titles only published in America and to ones that are really, REALLY obscure:
Blue-This ridiculously under-appriciated josei titles was one of the best releases last year, but it's only now finding its way into major bookstores thanks to publisher Ponent Mon's new distribution deal. While the price is steep, I encourage anyone interested in mature, sophisticated manga to pick it up. The story of two high-school girl's relationship and the difficulties they both go through, Blue is one of the most honest and well-told stories about growing up I've seen in the medium. Kinderbook-Another Ponent Mon manga that no one has ever heard of, this is probobly my favorite collection of short stories published in english after Sexy Voice and Robo. Created by underground artist Kan Takahama, these slice-of-life tales are truely remarkable: from a romance between an elderly couple to a young girl facing the break-up with her boyfriend to go to college, these are all poignent and heartfelt, with beautiful artwork. Even a Moneky Can Draw Manga!-A hilarious spoof of those instructional drawing booklets, as well as a witty parody of the medium. What's scary is just how accurate it is. I'd also like to know if anyone ever used their "Subliminal Messages" in a series... Offered-This really wasn't one of Kazuo "Lone Wolf and Cub" Koike's more sophisticated series, but it more than makes up for it in sheer insanity. Anything that involves nazis ploting to use Gilgamesh's frozen semen to impregnate Hitler's grand daughter and create a master race amoung many ludicras things is just plain awesome. Hotel Harbor View-A very early Viz title from well over a decade ago, this collection of two noir tales in the vein of Le Samourai (it even features a tribute to that movie) is one of the best single-volume manga available in english. The amazing Jiro Taniguchi provides stunning art to these bleak and existential tales of death and more importantly, dying. For any film noir fans out there (anybody?), this is a must have. |
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Mylene
 Posts: 2792 Location: Indiana |
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This one is obscure enough not to actually be in the Encyclopedia, or at least I couldn't find it. Ended up running a Google search, hit the Wikipedia page on it to get the manga-ka's name, and finally managed to come across it it on Amazon (because searching for the word "blue" just doesn't cut it). It sounds like something that I would enjoy, so I'm glad you mentioned. Sadly, reading Sailor Moon in French is about obscure as I go with manga. I'm still relatively new to the medium (although I've had my French Sailor Moon for 8 years now.) |
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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I would have to go with Until the Full Moon which is about a young man who's parents are a vampire and werewolf but he's not either. When the full moon occurs...he turns into a she! And s/he has been arrainged into a marriage with the vampire son of a friend of the family. It's pretty good. I've enjoyed it at least, but it's one I've never seen discussed.
Of course, there are sooo many manga titles, not all of them can be discussed. Just enjoy them and mention them when you can! |
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Alucalb
Posts: 171 |
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I liked Spriggan (aka Striker). Sadly, Viz canned it after three volumes.
manga#2425 |
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che_guevara
Posts: 102 Location: Near Boston |
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Limiting myself to American releases, I would definitely have to say Lament of the Lamb. Basically, nobody knows about it, or at least that has been my experience. I think it's a high-quality horror/fantasy manga, with exquisite artwork.
Tokyopop has released all 7 volumes. |
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Cloe
Moderator
 Posts: 2728 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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I don't think anyone knows more about obscure manga around here than Kagemusha (Blue = <3 <3), but I thought I'd add my two cents anyway.
Although my favorite manga, Black & White, is relatively obscure compared to the bulk of the manga that gets discussed around here, it has been getting more attention recently due to the Studio 4C adaptation. So I'll skip over that and pick Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show by master of the grotesque Suehiro Maruo as my favorite obscure manga. I'm a huge fan of Maruo to begin with, but I recognize that most appreciation for his work stems from reactions to his shocking artwork and intense violence/sex. Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show is more successful on an emotional level, in that it builds empathy towards characters and actually contains some very sentimental moments, a rather large departure from the standard Maruo fare. The violence is rather toned down as well (that is... compared to his other work), although the bizarre character designs for some of the circus performers prove to be very unsettling, more so than depictions of acts of violence. I honestly don't know who I'd recommend this manga to, outside of horror fans. Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show is more than just a standard horror story, but it's hard to swallow if you're unfamiliar with Maruo's work and the least bit squeamish. |
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velocet
Posts: 240 |
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Another vote for Kinderbook, it was just something really different to most of what's around in English and it took me by surpise. I really wanted to read Blue as well, but by the time I got the cash the copy in the place near me was gone. This post has reminded me to seek it out, thanks!
I'll also add the 2 volume sci-fi fantasy Baby Birth, mostly because I love Haruhiko Mikimoto's artwork. It was released fairly early on in Tokyopop's attempt to take over the manga industry and it seems to have been forgotten along the way. Another short-and-disturbing manga I enjoyed was Alien 9, though that may have something to do with it's similarities to Shadow Star, I still found it entertaining in its own right. The art isn't the best but when it gets going I really didn't notice it. For old-school hardcore shoujo, I loved Tomoko Taniguchi's Aquarium and Call Me Princess. They were some of the first shoujo manga I ever came across so I really fell for them. They're fairly cheesy and seriously dated, but fun nonetheless. Not even in the same obscurity league as some of the others, but they're probably the ones in my collection I never seem to see anyone talk about, or know anyone who's read them. There's loads of titles I feel like they don't get talked about enough (or, more to the point, as much as I'd like to talk about them...!) but I'm not sure they could really be accused of being 'obscure'... |
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sinemente
Posts: 45 |
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I also like Matsumoto's Black and White, even if the art style takes some getting used to.
Gunslinger Girl by Yu Aida is one of my favorites. I guess it's not very obscure but apparently nobody read it, seeing as it was dropped after three volumes. The characters were fascinating, having the minds of children and the bodies of combat cyborgs. The art style was satisfying to read as well. Another obscure-ish manga that was dropped for lack of readership was Gadget, which looked like it would be a fun series to continue. Appleseed is well known as an anime, but nobody I know has read the manga. It is worth picking up, to say the least. |
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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I've made a whole thread about it a couple of months ago. I'm not sure if it's that obsure, but it's pretty good. 
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Kagemusha
Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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Well, one of the editors from "The Comics Journal" probobly knows tons of stuff I haven't even heard about, but he only posted a response to the "OMG TCJ HATES MANGA!!!!1!!1!" thread a couple of months back. neilworms has a pretty vast knowlege of obscure stuff too. But thanks anyways Oh, and Nananan has a new book coming out any day now called "Sweet Cream and Red Strawberries" that's the standard price, so hopefully more people will discover her. Then again, it's from CMP, so maybe not...
But Mr. Arashi is definitally as obscure as they come. I can't confess to being a huge Marou fan, but his talent is undeniable and Freak Show is a very good read. |
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darkhunter
Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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kagemusha just have too much time on his hand
All kiddin aside, Blue and all the other ponenmon/fanfare books were really hard to find when you can only get them at comicshop. Not to mention they were pretty expensive, 20-24.00 ouch. |
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lindbloem
Posts: 7 |
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My favorite obsecure manga is
Kyoko Hikawa's Onna noko wa Yoyu! It's lovely shoujo series about three quirky girls who are best friends trying to deal with their first time dating. The characters in the book are really interesting. Kyoko Hikawa's Miriam It's set in the cowboy era and surprisingly she got lots of thing really bang on! From the way the city was drawn to the people at Grace's farm was drawn, it really evokes the "cowboy era". It's different from Watsuki Nobuhiro's Gun Blaze West in a way that Watsuki takes artistic liberties to design the environment, she stuck to the "historically correct " environment. The story itself is funny and adventurous, about this girl named Miriam and her exploits after her father abandoned her. Watashi ga Iyaraneba!! It's a shoujo series about a girl who just enterd highschool. She was about to have the "ideal highschol life" (boys, dating, fun with friends, etc) when suddenly her mother decides to finish up a college degree in Fashion Design! Being the only female in the family, she was relegated to doing what her mother does everyday. It's funny and light-hearted. |
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