there was a thread for comics so i'm trying one for manga. discuss manga here...
what i like the most about manga is the variety of audiences and themes it has. you can find manga based on just about everything.
most manga you can find "scanlated" (scanned + translated) on the internet, i put a short list of recommended sites at the bottom of this post
only recommending manga without an anime adaptation, or that is either different or superior to the animated version. there's a lot of "essential" manga i haven't read yet so maybe someone else can contribute
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20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa, one of my personal favorites. this is a long Stephen King-style epic story about a bunch of regular guys (and one woman) saving the world from a masked dictator. to achieve this, they must look back at the silly fantasies they had back when they were children. like I said, the plot is very long, so it can fit a multitude of characters (all pretty well done), and a solid timeline with memorable scenes and interconnected events. there's also a lot of references to classic manga and rock n roll (title is a T-Rex song), which I find pretty cool and fits with the "looking at the past" theme. there's a live action movie trilogy adaptation coming out, with a cast of 300 characters...
Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike (story) and Goseki Kojima (art) is a cult classic epic manga about a samurai who wanders around looking for revenge, while pushing his son in a baby cart (thus lone wolf and cub). lots of badass fights mixed with heartwarming moments involving the cub, plus the historical setting is very well researched and most interesting! also one of the best endings i've seen. there's other seemingly great (and more recent) samurai manga out there (that i haven't read yet) like Blade of the Immortal (with some fantasy inserted, and an apparently horrendous anime adaptation) and Vagabond (about the iconic figure Miyamoto Musashi)
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou by Hitoshi Ashinano might as well be the calmest and also most melancholy story I have read. the setting as described by Wikipedia:
Uzumaki by Junji Ito is a horror story about spirals appearing everywhere in a town, which has bizarre consequences. it's short, only 3 volumes (like it should be). also check Gyo, by the same author, a similar tale except this is about... fish with legs. Ito has a lot of other good horror stuff of varying quality, but all recommended
Franken Fran by the new and unknown author Katsuhisa Kigitsu is also a horror manga, but that is combined with an very black comedy. basically it's an "episodic" (or whatever the equivalent word for chapters is) manga which involves body surgery of all sorts. my favorite one is "cosmetic surgery", about a whole school trying to improve their looks. also Fran is a very likeable character : ) lots of gore in this, the humor might not be for everyone, but i haven't seen anyone dislike this manga yet, it's so unique.
continuing with the horror genre there's Pet Shop of Horrors by Matsuri Akino. the main character is Count D, a mysterious flamboyant man who runs a pet shop in Chinatown. people of all sorts go there to find their perfect pet, but they have to follow D's rules or something terrible will happen. now this would become a dumb moralistic series if it weren't for the count's fucked up set of values. the other main character is an average dumbass american policeman who investigates D. the interplay between these characters is quite fun to see. also, the art style for this is very "stylized". kind of obvious when we consider that this is supposedly a josei series (for young adult women)
Zetman by Masakazu Katsura is an ongoing action manga about a dude who transforms into a monster thing to fight other monster things. it is WAY better than it sounds.
in manga a lot of one-shots also get published. however, not many of them are noteworthy. a very good one is The Town of Evening Calm; The Country of Cherry Blossoms, a short melancholy look at the effects of the atomic bombing.
speaking of one-shots...
Shintaro Kago: i really won't go into detail to describe any of this guy's work here. it's very bizarre and grotesque, but at the same time it can be hilarious and even thought-provoking. if you really want to read something by him go to gelbooru and search for "abstraction" (warning: really NSFW)
and how could I make a manga post without at least mentioning Osamu Tezuka, "the god of manga". now, most of his work is aimed at children (though it may contain "adult" themes), but i've heard good things about his more mature stuff. MW is about a priest and his homosexual relationship with a sadistic criminal. Adolf tells the story of three people named Adolf, a German/Japanese boy, his best friend, a Jewish/German guy, and the nazi dictator himself... Ode to Kirihito has two doctors trying to combat a mysterious disease that makes people turn into deformed beasts.
what i like the most about manga is the variety of audiences and themes it has. you can find manga based on just about everything.
most manga you can find "scanlated" (scanned + translated) on the internet, i put a short list of recommended sites at the bottom of this post
only recommending manga without an anime adaptation, or that is either different or superior to the animated version. there's a lot of "essential" manga i haven't read yet so maybe someone else can contribute
--
20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa, one of my personal favorites. this is a long Stephen King-style epic story about a bunch of regular guys (and one woman) saving the world from a masked dictator. to achieve this, they must look back at the silly fantasies they had back when they were children. like I said, the plot is very long, so it can fit a multitude of characters (all pretty well done), and a solid timeline with memorable scenes and interconnected events. there's also a lot of references to classic manga and rock n roll (title is a T-Rex song), which I find pretty cool and fits with the "looking at the past" theme. there's a live action movie trilogy adaptation coming out, with a cast of 300 characters...
Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike (story) and Goseki Kojima (art) is a cult classic epic manga about a samurai who wanders around looking for revenge, while pushing his son in a baby cart (thus lone wolf and cub). lots of badass fights mixed with heartwarming moments involving the cub, plus the historical setting is very well researched and most interesting! also one of the best endings i've seen. there's other seemingly great (and more recent) samurai manga out there (that i haven't read yet) like Blade of the Immortal (with some fantasy inserted, and an apparently horrendous anime adaptation) and Vagabond (about the iconic figure Miyamoto Musashi)
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou by Hitoshi Ashinano might as well be the calmest and also most melancholy story I have read. the setting as described by Wikipedia:
it actually gets a bit creepy when you realize the main character, Alpha, an immortal robot, is just doing her stuff as humanity approaches its end. see mono no aware. might not be for everyone, it's so mellow.
Uzumaki by Junji Ito is a horror story about spirals appearing everywhere in a town, which has bizarre consequences. it's short, only 3 volumes (like it should be). also check Gyo, by the same author, a similar tale except this is about... fish with legs. Ito has a lot of other good horror stuff of varying quality, but all recommended
Franken Fran by the new and unknown author Katsuhisa Kigitsu is also a horror manga, but that is combined with an very black comedy. basically it's an "episodic" (or whatever the equivalent word for chapters is) manga which involves body surgery of all sorts. my favorite one is "cosmetic surgery", about a whole school trying to improve their looks. also Fran is a very likeable character : ) lots of gore in this, the humor might not be for everyone, but i haven't seen anyone dislike this manga yet, it's so unique.
continuing with the horror genre there's Pet Shop of Horrors by Matsuri Akino. the main character is Count D, a mysterious flamboyant man who runs a pet shop in Chinatown. people of all sorts go there to find their perfect pet, but they have to follow D's rules or something terrible will happen. now this would become a dumb moralistic series if it weren't for the count's fucked up set of values. the other main character is an average dumbass american policeman who investigates D. the interplay between these characters is quite fun to see. also, the art style for this is very "stylized". kind of obvious when we consider that this is supposedly a josei series (for young adult women)
Zetman by Masakazu Katsura is an ongoing action manga about a dude who transforms into a monster thing to fight other monster things. it is WAY better than it sounds.
in manga a lot of one-shots also get published. however, not many of them are noteworthy. a very good one is The Town of Evening Calm; The Country of Cherry Blossoms, a short melancholy look at the effects of the atomic bombing.
speaking of one-shots...
Shintaro Kago: i really won't go into detail to describe any of this guy's work here. it's very bizarre and grotesque, but at the same time it can be hilarious and even thought-provoking. if you really want to read something by him go to gelbooru and search for "abstraction" (warning: really NSFW)
and how could I make a manga post without at least mentioning Osamu Tezuka, "the god of manga". now, most of his work is aimed at children (though it may contain "adult" themes), but i've heard good things about his more mature stuff. MW is about a priest and his homosexual relationship with a sadistic criminal. Adolf tells the story of three people named Adolf, a German/Japanese boy, his best friend, a Jewish/German guy, and the nazi dictator himself... Ode to Kirihito has two doctors trying to combat a mysterious disease that makes people turn into deformed beasts.
