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kaiza
Posts: 24 Location: Brooklyn |
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Man, it's been some time since I visited this site. Anyway, I purchased Vagabond volumes two and three yesterday, and plan to catch up to the current story arcs. I haven't read anything new in about two years, except, for Berserk 28-31. To anyone reading this post, can you help me create a library of manga- not focus only on popularity, but unforgettable stories?
Thanks |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7394 |
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Well, some consider me a master of being ignorant of "popular", I didn't even know that Star Wars existed until I was almost 13 and still haven't seen it. Not to mention all the obscure random games I'll talk about like everyone knows what they mean...
Anyway, some unforgettable stories that aren't necessarily popular (looking at my "my manga" list). To be fair, I mostly tend to really like drama series: Banana Fish is my current darling of the manga world right now, even if it was released in the 1980's originally (and takes place in the 1980's in America). It's a drama series, 19 volumes, with a bit of yaoi stuff going on, but wow, great drama, suspenseful with action, and not afraid to make the reader cry. For popular, but not necessarily in America, try just about anything Osamu Tezuka. I've liked just about everything I've read by the guy in varying degrees, Phoenix, Astro Boy, Black Jack, Dororo, MW, Ode to Kirihito, Buddha, Nextworld, Metropolis, Apollo's Song. In particular, Phoenix and Astro Boy both stand out as great epics. Except for the "Nostalgia" chapter of Phoenix (which came off as totally average to me) and "Dawn" (which I haven't read), it consists of 10( if I remember correctly) interlocking tales regarding the Phoenix and reading them individually they each come off as great and then as a whole it comes off as even better. I didn't think the Astro Boy manga would be so enjoyable, I have the first 12 volumes. The only thing I don't like is the published order, which isn't the chronological order of either the series timeline or the release timeline, so you get stupid scenarios where you see Cobalt (Astro's essentially clone robot who looks almost exactly like him in the manga) showing up in volume 2 while being introduced in 9 or something stupid. I'm upset I only have 12/23 volumes, it's great stuff, not at all like shonen titles today like Bleach or DBZ. It's a great family read, a term I don't use often. You'll get something out of it no matter your age (and it's not afraid to let sad things happen either). Maison Ikkoku is one of the less popular middle children of extremely popular mangaka Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma 1/2, Inuyasha, Urusei Yatsura). For one thing, no magic, just good old fashioned late 80's love story involving love tetrahedons. Comedy isn't slapstick but heavily based on characters and situations. It also has a satisfying conclusion and is by far my favorite R. Takahashi work. Parasyte. I'm not a huge huggy on the environment person so this and the next title do enough stuff avoiding it to please me to extremes. Has some awesome fight scenes too, a teenage (of course) boy ends up getting a space parasite in his arm when it was aiming for his head so that it could take over his body and turn cannibal on humanity. Now instead, it is going to help the boy stop the other parasites that came down to earth unbeknownest to the rest of humans (doing so will benefit the parasite's survival. It's quite an interesting relationship between the kid and the parasite, neither sidekick nor best buds...). The first few pages = huggy environmentalist mentality, rest is just sheer awesome with action and thriller type material. Please Save My Earth sound like twice the tree hugger series that Parasyte does, but it's closest involvement is that 7 space aliens (who look exactly like humans) study Earth from a moon base and long to go down there someday. Well, they all get reborn there, but one of the 7 is 9 years younger than the rest and is a bit psychotic. Did I mention his killer super psychic powers? I'm only half-way through it and can't help but love it. It's one of those series labeled "shojo" but hardly seems it. Lastly (for now), Cromartie High School does comedy the Monty Python way, dead-pan humor. Sometimes I wonder why school is in the title, they're usually doing random things in other places. A lot more happens in the manga than the anime, but since ADV only released the first 12 volumes, I haven't read past it to my dismay, but the timing of the panels is extremely well done. Feel free to look at my "my manga" list, although it's rather incomplete most of the time. |
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kaiza
Posts: 24 Location: Brooklyn |
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Thanks you, for sharing your knowledge master. I will begin reading from your list in ascending order. Also, have you read Monster, 20th Century boys, Son of Ogre (Baki)? If so, with the exception of Baki, which of the remaining two have stayed in your memory?
Peace |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 8017 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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I'd throw Tsukihime out there as a fairly obscure but highly interesting read. Ever since a childhood accident Shiki Tohno has been able to see strange lines everywhere, on structures, objects, even people. He discovers when he cuts the lines that the things die. On one particularly stressfull day he comes accross a strange girl in the park and finds himself going temporarily insane and kills her almost instinctively. Believing it to have been a bad dream, he's shocked to find her alive the next day. She explains that she's a vampire and forces him to choose either to help her kill a vampire who's been murdering people in his city or be killed himself by her for what he did. It's based off a visual novel game and is primarily a supernatural mystery/horror series. Five volumes of the manga are available from Dr. Master so far with a 6th volume due out shortly.
Last edited by Kruszer on Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:25 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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kaiza
Posts: 24 Location: Brooklyn |
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Thanks for the response kruszer, much appreciated. That story definitely generates some interest, (strings and things) I'll be sure to check that out. Is Lone Wolf and Cub as good as its reputation? Also, are there any historical or modern manga worth looking into? Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2819 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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I'd like to offer up Kaori Ozaki's Immortal Rain. It's a post-apocalyptic fantasy about a man punished with immortality, the psycho who did it to him, and the girl who starts out wanting to kill him. It's incredibly addictive. The only downside is that Tokyopop is putting it out and appears to have stopped.
Historically speaking, if you mean set in the past, Kaoru Mori's Emma is a lovely period piece/romance set in Victorian England with great detail. If you mean old manga, way back when Dr. Master (as ComicsOne) released the 1st seven volumes of Bride of Deimos, a horror series from the 70s. Get past the art and its a creepy and intriguing story about the things people bring on themselves by acting selfishly. Sorrry for the lack of plot detail - I'm typing with one hand due to a broken arm. 
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