Manga Suggestions

[Reverend]

Well, if you're into ninjas, pirates, and 5000 year old reckless gambling, try picking up Shounen Jump at the beginning of the month. It's also the best bang for the buck in terms of manga.

If you can find the LOVE HINA run, it's really good, but also 14 volumes, so good luck.

Rebirth is fun. Vampires and Catholic Church conspiracies are always good.

Aoi Ori Yoshi is nice, in that love hina themes, but still very good.

[Mirai Hogosha]

Well, since I work at a bookstore ^_^ I usually get to check all the new manga that's released, and since I collect several different series I thought I'd try to help out everyone here.

Kare Kano - Yeah, sure, it is a romance-y series, but you've got your fair dosage of zaniness, angsting, and high school fun. The anime is VERY close with this one. I'm a guy, and I love this series. 9 volumes out now, and I'm not sure how close they are to the end.

sCRYed - From what I've seen from the anime, the manga doesn't follow it too closely. The uprising of the lower half of Japan causes a genetic imbalance in about 5% of all people born in the Lost Ground, causing them to have superpowers. I thought it was a good concept, but the last issue was a bit disappointing. Only 5 volumes, and a lot of action. DANGER - Fanservice in the last two issues.

Brigadoon - Set back in 1969, a floating city appears over Tokyo (again?), and robots come to destroy the world (again?). A little girl stumbles across a guardian from the floating city, and he swears his life to her. Cute, but the story line is short and fast--only 2 volumes. The anime doesn't follow the manga, either.

Sandland - If you like Akira Toriyama's style and want a break from Dragonball Z, this is a good read. After a world war, demons from the underworld started living on the earth. Unfortunately, the water supply has been drained from the planet, and an Emperor controls the world, now a desert wasteland. A man and a demon set out on finding the lost water. It's a slow read, but it's only one volume. A good short story.

RahXephon - Personally, I was extremely displeased by this manga, but that's only because I'm a big fan of the anime. The twists it takes with the storyline and the Love Hina-esque ecci style separates it from the anime. An alien race known only as the MU invade our world, and eventually take control of Tokyo. A space-time anomaly surrounds Tokyo, isolating it from the rest of the world. 17-year-old Ayato Kamina is a native of Tokyo, but he soon realizes--with the help of Mishima Reika and Haruka Shitow--that the isolated world he lives in is not what it seems. DANGER - SERIOUS fanservice in this manga.

Azumanga Daioh - Cute, cute, and cute! As long as you can handle the 4-panel format, you will love this series. Called by some "the Seinfeld of anime," Azumanga is a zany, hilarious story of 7 high school students and their adventures. 4 issues take care of this series, and the anime is almost identical.

Initial D - I would only recommend this for people who are fans of the arcade game, or have seen some of the anime. Even if you aren't a car buff, this high-speed story keeps everyone informed of all the action. Takumi has been delivering tofu for his old man for the past 5 years, but he soon finds the excitement of street racing thanks to his friends Iggy and Cole. This is supposed to be AT LEAST 24 issues, so only invest in it if you're ready for the long-haul.

I hope some of these have helped!

[Silver Adept]

If you like Akamatsu's work, Negima! looks promising.

[Daijaga]

If you liked Love Hina, pick up Akamatsu's A.I. Love you, the girl looks just like friggin Naru >_<

Dai's recent Manga picks-

Suikoden III - This is really unique in that it is a manga made about a game that has been out for a while. The story from the game was really moving, but unfortunatly I couldn't hold an interest in it. Now with the manga, I get all the good stuff in manga form, and its really good, a mix of adventure, action, family, intrigue and all those other good RPG elements.

Psychic Academy - My wife picked this one up and was laughing every five minutes. After I red it I saw why, the kooky rabbit makes this manga mo-friggin hilarious, the translation team for this mange deserves a medal. That besides its about an angsty new kid at psychic academy who has to deal with a split love interest, one was in childhod friend, etc etc. Whats really funny here as it protagonists' brother is the 'vanquisher of the dark overlord', in other words he saved the world, so you know hes always got that hanging over him...anywho, a fun read.

Desert Coral - A more whimsical adventure of a man who gets sucked into his dream world of deserts and magic. Unlike most "normal kid sucked into fantasy world" manga, in this one he only goes to the desert world when he's asleep, so he's back a forth a lot. This is my favorite of all the ones I've gotten recently. The art and feel of this manga is just very powerful, almost sudden, and uber cool.

[Shandriz]

As a bit of an update-- I've got Love Hina, all of it. But I only really got it because I was reading Battle Royale at the time and desperately needed -something- to lighten up the mood.

I wanted desperately to hate Rebirth because of the vampires (I have this thing against vampires-- I despise Hellsing, for instance) but I absolutely adore it because Desh is the best vampire ever. (Finally, an author who isn't about redeeming their vampire! Desh isn't evil, but he's not good! thankyougod!)

I've picked up some new stuff-- Psychic Academy, as Dai mentioned, is awesomely hilarious. The book is worth reading just for The Vanquisher of the Dark Overlord.

Suikoden is also good, though I haven't played the game so I can't say if those who have will approve of it.

Fruits Basket is almost better than the Anime.

Pretear is absolutely adorable.

*thinks* god, my mind is running blanks...Alice 19th is good. I'm sorta 'eh' on Ceres and have no desire to read/see that other one by Yu Watase, but I'm really enjoying Alice.

[Terin]

I'll definitely have to check out Psychic Academy!
-T

[Graillik Tur]

And you can find Initial D in your local Radio Shack...or atleast I can.