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Sampler Part 4 is here! Samplers 2 and 3 can be found in the second post. Welcome to the Manga sampler thread! This is part of a joint effort between ADTRW and BSS to introduce each other's users to series they might otherwise skip over due to preconceptions about their respective mediums. Western comic fans might think all manga is Naruto and Bleach, while manga fans might think all comic books are superhero dreck. These threads are here to help introduce you to new series you might enjoy but otherwise not be exposed to. Some you've probably heard of, others may be more niche, but the goal of this thread is to collect excellent series in one place for people to try out, with places to buy them whenever possible. Western comics are read left-to-right while manga is usually right-to-left. ADTRW Comic Book thread BSS Manga thread Places to buy manga as well as subscription services: https://www.amazon.com - slap in a given series's name and go Crunchyroll - a subscription service(anime membership also comes with manga membership) Shonen Jump - a subscription service that also sells collected volumes of various series -----  If you have not heard of I Am A Hero, do not google it(nothing but spoilers), just click this link to read the first volume before you do anything else in this thread. If you start reading it, don't give up on it until you've finished the first volume. Seriously. And don't skip around the first volume, though it's okay to skip over Suzuki's crazed ramblings and rants if you don't want to read all of that. Feel free to post a retrospective after you finish the first volume, those are always amusing.No untagged spoilers for I Am A Hero in this thread, and I mean anything, whether it's chapter 5 or chapter 150. Tag any spoilers with the chapters it takes place in, please, or just mark spoiler posts that deal with the series as a whole with "I Am A Hero series spoilers".  I Am A Hero is a series started in 2009 by Kengo Hanazawa, who has hit it out of the park with all three of his long-running series. He is EXTREMELY GOOD at what he does and is also an amazing artist. This is one of the most gorgeous and unabashedly detailed series I've had the privilege to read. It's currently over 150 chapters long, and, for the most part, very few chapters have been wasted. It is very slow, dramatic, atmospheric, methodical, with an inevitable pace and incredibly expressive and dramatic artwork. This is a story of Hideo Suzuki and the struggles he has to endure as he encounters many impossible obstacles in his normally stressful-but-tolerable life. It is a tale of love, loss, fear, violence, insecurity, and what it means to be one of the few owners of a shotgun in Japan. It should also be said that this is absolutely not a series for children. -----  Qualia the Purple(drama, psychological, sci-fi, supernatural) is a relatively new series that get s exponentially more insane every other chapter, with 12 chapters currently released. It starts out with agirl who sees every living being as robots, and some cliche stuff in the first couple chapters. But it rapidly changes pace and goes in unexpected directions with every few chapters. It also is a series that explains many quantum mechanics in layman's terms(mostly), which makes the  aspects of it slightly easier to follow. There are only twelve chapters but it's easily one of the most surprisingly good series I've read, considering how generic it begins with. Has very little fanservice.-----  Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (drama, fantasy, sci-fi, action) is a series made in 1982 by Hayao Miyazaki, most famous for his Studio Ghibli movies. It is a much more in-depth and frankly better story than the movie of the same name. Humanity, in its hubris, has precipitated a devastating environmental disaster. Flourishing industrial civilizations have been swallowed up by the Sea of Corruption, an enormous forest of fungi that releases a miasma of poisonous spores into the air. Nausicaa, a compassionate young princess, and her allies battle to heal a wounded world and its inhabitants. The entire series(7 normal volumes) in two hardcover volumes can be had for only $42 with free two-day shipping from Amazon Prime. That is a steal! -----  Spirit Circle (supernatural, tragedy, action, comedy, romance) is a series by ADTRW darling Satoshi Mizukami, author and artist of Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, another good one. It's about a regular boy with a weird mark on his cheek, who encounters a new girl at school who seems to recognize him. Turns out they knew each other...before. Can get preeeeetty hosed up at times but is a surprisingly emotional and dramatic series. -----  Masturbation Master Kurosawa (psychological, drama, seinen, mental issues, school, slice of life) No, this is not a joke recommendation. MMK is about broken people, hard choices, narcissism, psychological abuse, selfishness, redemption, and growing up. Probably in the top 10 manga I've read, pretty hosed up but surprisingly well made, story moves at a solid pace and the characters show genuine change(good or bad) throughout instead of it being yet another status quo hell. -----   Yotsuba&! (comedy, slice of life, shounen) is a manga series by Kiyohiko Azuma, who basically created the "high school girl hijinx" genre with Azumanga Daioh. It's a story about a single dad and his daughter Yotsuba, who is infinitely curious about absolutely everything. The tagline for Yotsuba is "Enjoy Everything!", and that's what she does! Together with her neighbors, the three sisters of the Ayase household Asagi, Fuuka and Ena, they go on lots of adventures like catching cicadas, going to the beach, or reenacting an action movie. Has next to no fanservice and is one of the most relaxing and enjoyable series I've ever read. Definitely in my top 5. Currently there are 11 volumes on Amazon, with a 12th available for preorder and it's definitely worth it. Yotsuba's a great example of a little kid done right. The artwork improves drastically from volume 1 to volume 11 as Azuma is constantly evolving his skills. Don't let 4chan using Yotsuba as their mascot deter you from reading it. -----  Boys on the Run (drama, comedy, romance, seinen, mature) is another Kengo Hanazawa work about a loser working at a capsule toy company. He's pretty fuckin' goony. Hell, most of Kengo's main characters are "goony". Tanishi, the main character, is a cowardly fool who never puts his all into anything. There's a girl he likes that he works with, though. He also manages to get into ridiculously absurd situations because of his cowardice, poor decision-making, chivalrous attitude, straightforwardness, or just plain bad luck. It's a pretty funny, heartwarming, infuriating, dramatic series at times. It gets pretty intense as it goes on, and it's not yet fully scanlated, only up to chapter 87(out of 10 volumes, I think 10 or 12 chapters per volume). I like this series almost as much as I like I Am A Hero. -----  Ressentiment (drama, mature, seinen, romance, comedy, sci-fi) is Kengo Hanazawa's third long-running series in this list and the first series he ever made. It's set in the not-too-distant-future and is about a total loser(shocker) shut-in who works at a paper company. One day his friend tells him about the "Unreal", the virtual world, what gaming has evolved into. If he's lonely, he should just buy a virtual girlfriend since artificial intelligence is a field that has had many breakthroughs, and so he does! And that's where the story starts. It's a pretty depressing, slightly frightening and very cynical look at where social outcasts and commercial pandering are headed. Also, every single character is a loving hideous caricature. Like an entire series of MAD Magazine covers. This was kind of a turn-off for me but I enjoyed most of the rest about it. -----  ERASED (drama, tragedy, mystery, seinen, supernatural) Fujinuma Satoru is an aspiring manga artist who always get his manuscript rejected, and told that "you're not putting enough of yourself in it". He gets through his day by working as a pizza delivery man. One day, while delivering pizza, he "sensed" something and got into an accident. This series is like a gut-punch in comic form. Update: This series has finished, and it finished quite strong. -----  Bonnouji (Seinen, slice of life, romance, comedy) is a very lighthearted slice-of-life romance series by Aki Eda. It has a very natural, easygoing flow to the events in it. The characters are fun and have their own problems, but the story largely keeps the drama off to the side. It's got kind of a Yotsuba-like appeal, but for a more adult audience. It's like "take it easy" the series. -----  Ai-Ren (seinen, psychological, sci-fi, tragedy, romance) Ikuru is a boy who doesn't have long to live. Growing up questioning the purpose of his life and the reason for his impending death, he's constantly confused and lonely. After learning that he doesn't have much time left, he requests that a special "girl" called a AGH-RMS (Artificial Genes Human Regenerated for Mental Support) be given to him. These people are genetically made so that they help heal and ease the mental burdens of the terminally ill. This manga is cute, sad, and ultimately a story about life, death, and humanity. If you've experienced significant death or tragedy in your life, make sure you're in a good mental state before giving this a read. And the apocalypse subplot is pretty much irrelevant. -----  Maoyuu Maou Yuusha(The Demon King and The Hero) (comedy, shounen, action, adventure, fanservicey) this series is what would happen if you took a semimodern world-level of agricultural and technological knowledge and put it in a Dragon Quest-style fantasy world. In fact, the characters don't have names, their class type IS their name. So the Demon Queen is called Demon Queen, Hero is Hero, the merchant is Young Merchant, etc. It's a very fun and not really serious series except when it wants to be. Can be almost educational at times. The artist absolutely loves his fanservice, but is also extremely talented at other things, as the above spread of a wide variety of characters shows. -----  Hinamatsuri (comedy, action, seinen, supernatural, sci-fi, slice of life, drama, school) is a series about a bumbling Yakuza who would be better suited to deskwork than roughing someone up. One day a weird egg-shaped object falls on his head that contains a young psychokinetic girl. Said girl is extremely powerful and also a lazy brat. Others start to appear as the series progresses and it's a pretty hilarious take on the "single dad" genre. Hitomi and Anzu are the best. -----  Wandering Son (drama, romance, transsexualism, school years) is one of the best manga I've read, period, deals with lots of real issues pretty realistically. Follows a young boy who identifies as a girl, a girl who identifies as a boy, and their struggles as they grow from elementary school kids to middle school, high school and beyond. Deals with conflicts with bullying, discrimination, and identity crises better than most series. There are some flaws but overall one of the most open-minded series I've read. Seriously top-notch book quality, to boot. -----  Paradise Kiss (romance, fashion, comedy, drama drama drama) is one of those series that when being introduced to a genre, is one of the first most folks would suggest. Very dramatic, very romantic, very well-done art(though my one major gripe is the AyeAye-like spiderfingers people have), and also very very funny at the right moments. Lots of twists and turns, some unexpected. Doesn't overstay its welcome and is very solid throughout, a real showstopper in only five volumes(three in the US). ----- Terms: Shounen: Usually for younger readers, but not always. Often has fighting, comedy, or low-level romance. Violence is often bloody, but not gory. Shoujo: Light girl stuff. Usually drama, romance, girly girl etc. Seinen: For adults. Can contain graphic violence, death, softcore sexual content, or just more mature themes. I'd love to hear some outsider perspectives on some of these series, especially I Am A Hero(remember to spoiler tag stuff about it!). And of course, there's plenty more where that comes from. I'll use the second post as a repository for other series, this is, again, just a sampling. Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Oct 18, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2013 02:26
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Sampler, Volume Two! Suicide Island(Drama, mature, psychological, seinen) - The Japanese government passes a law that anyone who is on the suicide recidivist list will be banished to "Suicide Island", an island where their citizenships are revoked and they cannot leave. Here they must make the decision of whether they will try to live, or finish once and for all what they started. It's kinda like Survivor, if Survivor was incredibly good. Also pretty educational! It's a pretty intense series but definitely up there in my list of favorites. I found myself really getting attached to a lot of the characters way more than I thought I would. -----  Attack on Titan(Shingeki no Kyojin)(action, drama, horror, fantasy, mystery, shounen, supernatural, tragedy) - Attack on Titan is one of the biggest anime series in decades. It's become an unstoppable financial juggernaut, a Colossal Titan of the industry you might say, with how incredibly good it is in only fifty chapters. It is the dusk of mankind. Humanity has been besieged and devoured by massive, mindless, human-shaped monsters called Titans. Behind the 50-meter-tall Three Walls, the last bastion of humanity survives. Eren Jaeger and his friends are spending a normal, quiet day together when suddenly a Titan so colossal that it can stand and look over The Walls kicks a hole in the wall and Titans begin streaming in. It is the last days of humankind, and what happens now will decide if we go extinct or survive. This is one of my favorite series. It is the author's first series, and it shows, because man, his artwork sucks. He can't draw people for poo poo in the beginning. This is both a blessing and a curse, as his inability to draw proper human anatomy leads to INCREDIBLY HORRIFYING TITANS. This is a very bleak series that balances hope and despair perfectly. The author is extremely good at suspense and making absolutely every detail count. It's a series that gets better on subsequent read-throughs. The anime version was extremely popular with non-anime fans, it was basically this generation's Cowboy Bebop. -----  Kids on the Slope(Sakamichi no Apollon)(drama, romance, slice of life, musical, historical, school life) - It's 1966 in Japan. Nishimi Kaoru is constantly moving from town to town due to his father's job. He settles down in his new school, but winds up actually befriending some interesting people instead of being an outcast. He discovers to his surprise that he loves to play jazz, a largely foreign sound in Japan. It's a wonderful, laid-back series about music, love, and ~DRAMA~. I haven't seen the anime yet but it's on Crunchyroll, I would imagine as a music-centric series that hearing the music in action would be better than reading it. ----- ONEPUNCH-MAN(action, comedy, seinen, supernatural) - Onepunch-Man is easily one of, if not the most gorgeous and detailed series you'll ever see. There are entire chapters that can, and have been, animated. Check this poo poo, yo:     Onepunch-Man is about Saitama, your average jobless loser, who one day decides to become a superhero. Except now he's become so powerful, that no matter what, every fight ends with only one punch. He is beyond Superman. This series is pretty god drat hilarious, both with Saitama's incredibly bland reaction to everything from cyborg gorillamen, to a cross between Namor, Cthulhu, and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the humanized form of Mother Nature's Wrath Itself, A Giant loving Meteor, etc and with his unwanted pupil's incredible brooding seriousness in every situation. Every fight is a foregone conclusion, but it's still an amusing, gorgeous, and hilarious ride perhaps all the funnier BECAUSE you know how it ends. Simulpublished in Weekly Shonen Jump. -----  I'm In Mari(drama, seinen, gender bender) - One day, Isao, a shut-in, finds himself in the body of the high school girl he's been following home from the convenience store every night. He's bewildered by this turn of events and does not...handle it well. The author of Flowers of Evil, a series that is apparently as cringeworthy and brutal as it is good, takes on the cliche of the "gender bender" genre. This series is very slow, VERY brutal, and goes in directions I was not expecting at all. I really wish I hadn't found it when I did, because it's really hard waiting for new chapters for it since so little happens per-chapter. It's unsettling and is a pretty interesting and realistic take on "what would you do if you were in the body of another person? How would people react to this person acting completely out of character?" -----  Assassination Classroom(comedy, shounen, action, school life) - This classroom has been commandeered by a strange octopus creature. He calls himself "sensei" and he is a cosmically powerful being who destroyed over half the moon in a single blow, and plans to destroy the earth in March the following year. He has completely stymied the world powers, can move at mach 25, regenerate, is far more intelligent and quick-thinking than any human and is basically unstoppable. He has given earth one chance: allow him to teach this specific class of students in both schoolwork and assassination skills. If they manage to kill him before next March, earth will be spared! If not, earth will be destroyed! This series is a pretty interesting one. It's also pretty god drat hilarious, Sensei is an amazing character and he makes incredible faces. His quirks and the way certain things react to his body composition lead to actually entertaining shenanigans. The storyline's moved at a fairly brisk pace, and I can't wait to see where it goes! It's one of the top-rated manga series in Japan right now, even managing to dethrone One Piece on one of the weekly sales charts, which is almost unheard of these days(One Piece can and often does outsell positions 2-5 combined). I just hope it doesn't fall into the serialization trap and drags on forever. The Attack on Titan guy at least made a concrete end for his series at 20 volumes, hopefully Assassination Classroom's author will set a finish line too. -----   Akumetsu(action, seinen, mature) - What would you do if you had supernatural powers? Would you use them for good, or evil? This is the story of Shou Hazama, who takes justice into his own hands as the masked vigilante Akumetsu to clean up the corruption that has completely destroyed Japan's economy. This series can get a little long-winded, but Akumetsu's antics and the developing story behind him and his powers is actually pretty interesting for a "superhero" type story. It can get pretty loving graphic(exploding heads are a routine occurrence), so be warned that it's very graphic. It's not a perfect series and a lot of the side characters don't show up for sometimes 40 chapters at a time, but overall I think it was pretty great! -----  Fortress of the Apocalypse(Apocalypse no Toride)(drama, action, horror, tragedy, psychological, seinen) - Imagine if Left 4 Dead's small party of survivors mixed with Resident Evil's balls-crazy mutated zombie monsters. You'd have Apocalypse no Toride. Yoshiaki Maeda is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and is sent to a high security juvenile prison. Soon after, the Zombie Apocalypse happens. Everything outside the prison walls is soon aflame, in ruins, or crawling with infected. That's when Maeda's cellmates decide to break out, of course. This series gets pretty loving insane as it goes. It's not a really serious series, it's definitely more grindhouse than psychological thriller, but it's got its moments of brain-thinkin'. Extreme violence and hosed UP ZOMBIE MONSTERS are the name of the game with this series. Good poo poo. When the grinning human-dogs showed up it got a legit "WHAT THE gently caress!" out of my mouth. ----- VOLUME THREE: GO! A Silent Voice - Shonen, drama, comedy, romance(???), school years, psychological   A Silent Voice is about a deaf girl, and the bullying she endures during elementary school, as well as the main bully, who has his own share of troubles. It's pretty gut-wrenching, but surprisingly frank and the characters develop rapidly in interesting ways. This manga first began as a oneshot and was so well received it bloomed into a full-blown weekly series! One of my favorite newer series, for sure. It's a wonderful and sometimes sorrowful story about bullying, redemption, forgiveness, and friendship. It has since been completed. Pokemon Adventures - Shonen, comedy, adventure  Nope, this isn't a joke recommendation. Pokemon Adventures is the manga adaptation of the game series, not the anime. Yes, the whole game series. Connected. It's played completely straight, and is pretty outstanding even to someone who hasn't been into Pokemon since the original Red/Blue. It's shonen, and reinvents a lot of characters in such interesting ways that the head writer of the games gave it his seal of approval because he liked the directions they took things so much. It begins with the story of Red and Green(Ash and Gary, essentially) and eventually continues into Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Sapphire, Ruby, etc. It's just a dumb fun romp where a character might make a hang-glider out of pokemon shooting jets of water behind them because why not? It's been running for basically forever(since the original games came out) and has like 500 chapters. A good timewaster! Unfortunately I don't think Viz has translated all the volumes, not entirely sure though. Cheese in the Trap Cheese in the Trap is a Manwha(Korean manga) about Hong Sul, a college girl who attracts the eye of Yoo Jung, the seemingly perfect rich guy at college. It's a romance/comedy/drama with some mystery elements that I've wound up completely hooked on. The translation javascript is super handy and the group scanlating it has been putting out a chapter every few days. The chapters are pretty significant in length, and while the artwork might not be the most detailed, I find it charming. The expressions are good and I think the artist is really good at doing the low-detail comedy faces. Hong Sul reacts to stuff in great ways, and a lot of the characters are flat-out hosed up, with multiple cowardly, deceptive people, straight-up manipulators and sociopaths, stalkers, etc but also obviously plenty of normal folks. The story moves along at a fairly brisk pace, and it's interesting to see some characters redeem themselves or burn every single bridge they've got over the course of the 90 or so chapters I've read. I like a lot of the side characters like Bora, Eun Taek, and Hyung(HONEY~). I'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for a fairly lighthearted romcom/drama(at least, to begin with, it goes into some pretty dark places eventually). Teppu - Action, comedy, martial arts, high school, sports   Teppu's about Natsuo Ishido, a tall, abrasive, and violent high school girl who gets wrapped up in the world of MMA. She has natural skill in fighting, but will her hubris be her undoing? I love this series for the detailed and sometimes unflattering view it gives the world of professional and amateur fighting. People may be champions, but that doesn't mean they can quit their day job. The near-total lack of fanservice is a big plus, too. Not a panty shot to be seen in this series. Characters are sometimes pretty ripped, but that's to be expected when you're an MMA fighter. The series can also be really drat funny at times, I love the interactions between Natsuo and her teacher. It's a shame that scanlations for it are pretty sporadic. Ketchup Ninja - Comedy, "drama", action       Ketchup Ninja's by a Japanese dude who lived in Jersey for a while. It's a cavalcade of stereotypes of every single nationality and revels in it. It's absurd and stupid and I love it even if it's disjointed and manic a lot of the time. Almost every frame is able to be singled out as crazy, funny, or ridiculous. It plays off a lot of misconceptions various countries have about each other, and is pretty strong for most of its run. The ending is kind of a wet fart though. Bonus content includes a very "educational" page after each chapter about American culture, slang, etc. It's a short run at only 26 chapters. And Yet The Town Moves(Soredemo) - Comedy, slice of life, romance, shonen, school life   Rivals Yotsuba for my favorite slice of life/comedy series. It loosely follows a bunch of characters in a small town(but mostly focuses on one particular airhead and the "maid cafe" she works at), and also happens to contains some of the most realistic kids I've seen in a manga. They just act exactly like kids do, it's great. Occasionally gets a little...out of this world, but the surrealness of the series is part of the charm. Very laid back, and can be extremely funny. Some of the mysteries are actually pretty clever. It was licensed by Jmanga, but Jmanga exploded and all their licenses flew into the aether, so I'm linking to scanlations instead. Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer - Seinen, drama, action, comedy, adventure, mystery, growing up    Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer is by Satoshi Mizukami, ADTRW darling and author of another series in this thread, Spirit Circle. It's his first major series and it shows, it's not perfect, but it's absolutely satisfying by the end of it and has one of the most excellent endings of any series I've read. It takes about 20-22 chapters to really hit its stride, but once it does, it never really stops. The characters that it introduces over time are excellent, and the protagonist starts out wholly a terribly person but grows over the course of the series. The art is pretty rough, as expected of an early series, but some of the monster designs are outstanding. The plot is absurd at first glance but at least makes sense by the end of it. Definitely a good read, it's funny, it's dramatic, and there's plenty of scenes you probably won't expect. It's a good, completed series. I'll do more at another time, but for now, enjoy! Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Feb 20, 2015 |
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Sep 6, 2013 02:27
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I didn't post Attack on Titan, Berserk, One Piece, or other really good series either. A sampler is a smattering of delectable tidbits, but is not the entire meal! Also I've not read Goodnight Punpun and only read a few chapters of WttNHK when it was first being scanlated, I don't think I'll read Punpun anytime soon, either, based on the overwhelmingly depressing reaction to it. Besides, the OP has enough misery at the moment with the likes of Ai-Ren, I Am Missing, and Ressentiment in it. If you don't feel miserable during at least a quarter of Ai-Ren, you might not have a soul. Same with I Am Missing. Ressentiment is miserable for different reasons than Ai-Ren or IAM, probably similar reasons to Punpun and NHK. Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 07:32 on Sep 6, 2013 |
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Sep 6, 2013 07:29
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Kgummy posted:(Volume 1)Also SDF is containing what looks like some kind of zombie virus? What with the 'stay at home, lock your doors' thing. I really wanna see some Qualia the Purple opinions. That was probably the most surprising series I've read in a long time, and that's only with 12 chapters. It's really just ridiculous in a Gurren Lagann-style absurdity ramp-up and unexpected things. Also managed to teach me a thing or two about quantum mechanics.
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Sep 6, 2013 21:44
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If Kissmanga isn't being cooperative with loading pages, try something like Batoto, that's usually a good place to go, it just doesn't have KM's incredibly convenient all-on-one-page style. Don't read comments on there though, they're usually rife with spoilers. Qualia the Purple 1-12 spoilers: I don't know if you missed that Yukari died at the end of chapter 9, but she did. The next three chapters are Gaku's incredibly badass/terrifyingly determined attempts to find out the truth and if she can fix it. Then she just realizes that she's far more powerful than she originally thought and alters reality to revert back to a time before Yukari was sent to JAUNT in the first place and stop her from leaving. Really, that Gaku is perfectly willing to throw her infinite alternate lives into all sorts of absolutely horrific and suicidal situations just in the hopes of finding new information was really powerful and also pretty drat scary. This isn't just shounen determination, this is something more than that. What happens at the end of 12 is extremely ominous though. At this point the series is about half over(it's based on a complete light novel series apparently) and I am INCREDIBLY curious as to what will happen from here on, because we've seriously reached (Gurren Lagann spoilers)Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann using-galaxies-as-weapons levels of insanity only halfway through. Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Sep 7, 2013 |
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Sep 7, 2013 00:20
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All of Kengo Hanazawa's three major series involve worthless losers in their mid-20's-30's. Whether they make something of themselves or not is dependent on the series. I would say it's worth continuing with I Am A Hero to see how Hideo evolves as a person through the story, honestly. You didn't even make it past when he got back to his girlfriend's place, it sounds like. It takes a few volumes for him to (slight spoilers for chapters 13-30 or so)realize he's not actually having another schizophrenic episode but it is, indeed, a zombie apocalypse, so he can stop trying to act normal despite all the INSANE poo poo happening around him.
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Sep 7, 2013 01:46
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Yeah, my #1 wish for an anime adaptation would be I Am A Hero. I don't know if it'd ever happen, but man, it would be loving INCREDIBLE in the hands of the right studio, KyoAni, Production I.G., possibly even Bones. There are so many things that would lend themselves to high-frame/detail animation that it would just be mindblowing.
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Sep 8, 2013 07:59
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Boys on the Run isn't finished being scanlated anyways, so you can hold off on that for a while yet if you don't want to be blue-balled. Also I got my Nausicaa box set that I ordered off Amazon and just opened it a minute ago. I am not exaggerating when I say this is a MUST-BUY ITEM. Forty-two dollars(18 off the retail price of 60) nets you all seven volumes put into two MASSIVE volumes measuring 10.4 inches by 7.3 inches each, nearly two inches thick each as well, with very high-quality paper and multiple full color artwork pages inside. Both volumes fit inside a gorgeous box that also houses a large poster of Nausicaa. For 42 dollars this is an INSANE deal for what is an iconic and extremely powerful series. You should go buy it, the link's there in the OP. I'm actually tempted to, when I have some more cash, buy a few more sets to give out as gifts, it's just that good a deal for a classic series. Man, I am really just dumbstruck by the quality of this, I am definitely not used to this level of quality with manga. It's fancy but tasteful. Someone on Amazon did a rundown of various aspects of the box set: quote:- The format is over-sized (like Akira's volumes), with a trim-size much larger than the one we are used to for mangas: the books are 10,4 by 7,3 inches. This gives you a much better appreciation of the art, and that's exactly what you want, being Miyazaki's pages so full of detail and wonder. Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 10:38 on Sep 8, 2013 |
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Sep 8, 2013 10:35
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I've begun reading this thing called Magical Girls of the End and three chapters in it's basically WHAT IF MAGICAL GIRLS(like Sailor Moon) WERE SUPER-ZOMBIE THINGS AND ALSO NIGH-UNSTOPPABLE HERALDS OF THE APOCALYPSE??? It's definitely a parody playing it completely straight. Complete with (probably not long for this world) fanservice character and death flags aplenty. It's so loving absurd that I think I'm loving it. It's horrifically gory so be warned about that! Magical girl's pet dog vomiting magical sparkle-stars from transformation sequences to regenerate the charred husk of its master's body is really something else. I don't know if it can keep this pace up, though, so it might go to poo poo after three chapters. edit: after catching up, it's so ridiculously over-the-top in every way but played straight, that I can't help but love it. It's unfortunately got something really off-putting in a fanservice way with the requisite Creepy Raper Guy part of the survivor crew, but other than that the ~magical girl mystery~ is pretty great. The fanservice character is so absurd to the point of not being titillating(and actually kind of a decent character on her own), the violence and attempted shocker scenes are absurd, and the magical girls themselves are especially absurd, of course. The whole thing is absurd. I still want to see where this goes, especially with what's happened in recent chapters. The point I knew I would love this was when some characters were decapitated and gigantic torrents of blood probably bigger than their entire bodies came shooting out of their neck stumps. It's THAT sort of series and I hope more scanlations get completed soon. 
Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 12:45 on Sep 12, 2013 |
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Sep 12, 2013 04:02
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IAAH Volume 1: Most likely, yeah. Tekko got infected by a schoolgirl jumping out and biting her arm, she mentions it once or twice though she gets interrupted the first time.
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Sep 22, 2013 01:13
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Let's have a second round of recommendations! Here's some more good stuff. Suicide Island(Drama, mature, psychological, seinen) - The Japanese government passes a law that anyone who is on the suicide recidivist list will be banished to "Suicide Island", an island where their citizenships are revoked and they cannot leave. Here they must make the decision of whether they will try to live, or finish once and for all what they started. It's kinda like Survivor, if Survivor was incredibly good. Also pretty educational! It's a pretty intense series but definitely up there in my list of favorites. I found myself really getting attached to a lot of the characters way more than I thought I would. ----- Attack on Titan(Shingeki no Kyojin)(action, drama, horror, fantasy, mystery, shounen, supernatural, tragedy) - Attack on Titan is one of the biggest anime series in decades. It's become an unstoppable financial juggernaut, a Colossal Titan of the industry you might say, with how incredibly good it is in only fifty chapters. It is the dusk of mankind. Humanity has been besieged and devoured by massive, mindless, human-shaped monsters called Titans. Behind the 50-meter-tall Three Walls, the last bastion of humanity survives. Eren Jaeger and his friends are spending a normal, quiet day together when suddenly a Titan so colossal that it can stand and look over The Walls kicks a hole in the wall and Titans begin streaming in. It is the last days of humankind, and what happens now will decide if we go extinct or survive. This is one of my favorite series. It is the author's first series, and it shows, because man, his artwork sucks. He can't draw people for poo poo in the beginning. This is both a blessing and a curse, as his inability to draw proper human anatomy leads to INCREDIBLY HORRIFYING TITANS. This is a very bleak series that balances hope and despair perfectly. The author is extremely good at suspense and making absolutely every detail count. It's a series that gets better on subsequent read-throughs. The anime version was extremely popular with non-anime fans, it was basically this generation's Cowboy Bebop. ----- Kids on the Slope(Sakamichi no Apollon)(drama, romance, slice of life, musical, historical, school life) - It's 1966 in Japan. Nishimi Kaoru is constantly moving from town to town due to his father's job. He settles down in his new school, but winds up actually befriending some interesting people instead of being an outcast. He discovers to his surprise that he loves to play jazz, a largely foreign sound in Japan. It's a wonderful, laid-back series about music, love, and ~DRAMA~. I haven't seen the anime yet but it's on Crunchyroll, I would imagine as a music-centric series that hearing the music in action would be better than reading it. ----- ONEPUNCH-MAN(action, comedy, seinen, supernatural) - Onepunch-Man is easily one of, if not the most gorgeous and detailed series you'll ever see. There are entire chapters that can, and have been, animated. Check this poo poo, yo: Onepunch-Man is about Saitama, your average jobless loser, who one day decides to become a superhero. Except now he's become so powerful, that no matter what, every fight ends with only one punch. He is beyond Superman. This series is pretty god drat hilarious, both with Saitama's incredibly bland reaction to everything from cyborg gorillamen, to a cross between Namor, Cthulhu, and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the humanized form of Mother Nature's Wrath Itself, A Giant loving Meteor, etc and with his unwanted pupil's incredible brooding seriousness in every situation. Every fight is a foregone conclusion, but it's still an amusing, gorgeous, and hilarious ride perhaps all the funnier BECAUSE you know how it ends. ----- I'm In Mari(drama, seinen, gender bender) - One day, Isao, a shut-in, finds himself in the body of the high school girl he's been following home from the convenience store every night. He's bewildered by this turn of events and does not...handle it well. The author of Goodnight Punpun, a series that is apparently as cringeworthy and brutal as it is good, takes on the cliche of the "gender bender" genre. This series is very slow, VERY brutal, and goes in directions I was not expecting at all. I really wish I hadn't found it when I did, because it's really hard waiting for new chapters for it since so little happens per-chapter. It's unsettling and is a pretty interesting and realistic take on "what would you do if you were in the body of another person? How would people react to this person acting completely out of character?" ----- Assassination Classroom(comedy, shounen, action, school life) - This classroom has been commandeered by a strange octopus creature. He calls himself "sensei" and he is a cosmically powerful being who destroyed over half the moon in a single blow, and plans to destroy the earth in March the following year. He has completely stymied the world powers, can move at mach 25, regenerate, is far more intelligent and quick-thinking than any human and is basically unstoppable. He has given earth one chance: allow him to teach this specific class of students in both schoolwork and assassination skills. If they manage to kill him before next March, earth will be spared! If not, earth will be destroyed! This series is a pretty interesting one. It's also pretty god drat hilarious, Sensei is an amazing character and he makes incredible faces. His quirks and the way certain things react to his body composition lead to actually entertaining shenanigans. The storyline's moved at a fairly brisk pace, and I can't wait to see where it goes! It's one of the top-rated manga series in Japan right now, even managing to dethrone One Piece on one of the weekly sales charts, which is almost unheard of these days(One Piece can and often does outsell positions 2-5 combined). I just hope it doesn't fall into the serialization trap and drags on forever. The Attack on Titan guy at least made a concrete end for his series at 20 volumes, hopefully Assassination Classroom's author will set a finish line too. ----- Akumetsu(action, seinen, mature) - What would you do if you had supernatural powers? Would you use them for good, or evil? This is the story of Shou Hazama, who takes justice into his own hands as the masked vigilante Akumetsu to clean up the corruption that has completely destroyed Japan's economy. This series can get a little long-winded, but Akumetsu's antics and the developing story behind him and his powers is actually pretty interesting for a "superhero" type story. It can get pretty loving graphic(exploding heads are a routine occurrence), so be warned that it's very graphic. It's not a perfect series and a lot of the side characters don't show up for sometimes 40 chapters at a time, but overall I think it was pretty great! ----- Fortress of the Apocalypse(Apocalypse no Toride)(drama, action, horror, tragedy, psychological, seinen) - Imagine if Left 4 Dead's small party of survivors mixed with Resident Evil's balls-crazy mutated zombie monsters. You'd have Apocalypse no Toride. Yoshiaki Maeda is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and is sent to a high security juvenile prison. Soon after, the Zombie Apocalypse happens. Everything outside the prison walls is soon aflame, in ruins, or crawling with infected. That's when Maeda's cellmates decide to break out, of course. This series gets pretty loving insane as it goes. It's not a really serious series, it's definitely more grindhouse than psychological thriller, but it's got its moments of brain-thinkin'. Extreme violence and hosed UP ZOMBIE MONSTERS are the name of the game with this series. Good poo poo. When the grinning human-dogs showed up it got a legit "WHAT THE gently caress!" out of my mouth. ----- I'll do more at another time, but for now, enjoy! Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 09:42 on Oct 21, 2013 |
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Oct 21, 2013 09:15
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Argh god drat it I keep mixing up the punpun and flowers of evil guy, dunno why. I'll fix it when I get back home, thanks for the correction!
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Oct 21, 2013 23:43
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Because you'd be flabbergasted at how few people actually see it coming, out of the hundred or so people I had read it. And the (series spoilers) zombies aren't really zombies, per say. They're something else, at the very least "infected" rather than shambling corpses, as shown with Tekko and in the Kurusu storyline with the captured woman zombie, they still contain aspects of cognitive and bodily functions. I think that's what sets it apart and makes it more interesting than most "zombie" series. It's not quite I Am Legend level, but definitely more than say Left 4 Dead.
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Nov 7, 2013 13:44
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Nah, I won't even excuse Maou Maou Yuusha for the T&A. It's crammed full of fanservice of almost every female character, especially Demon Queen. It's great if you can get past that though.
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Nov 10, 2013 19:58
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Chinaman7000 posted:I gave it a shot cause the setup is pretty interesting, but it isn't grabbing me. I actually do like the style of drawing, and I think the faces are pretty good, but the actual designs and content range from generic to.... Uh.... French maids? It just isn't doing it for me. The setup and some of the questions and concepts are fun to see applied to a generic fantasy plot but it is ultimately pretty shallow and weak and focused on characters who aren't interesting.
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Nov 12, 2013 03:29
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There's four new chapters of Boys on the Run, finally. They're dramalicious! Man, he picked the wrong vindictive girl to fall in love with in the first place. What a gross person. He might not have been much of a great guy before, but drat, she's hosed up.
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Nov 19, 2013 11:44
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I've got a fair number of series lined up for Sampler #3, a newcomer that was originally just a one-shot, a globally well-known series that is pretty stupid in a good way, a Manwha(Korean manga), a series about girls that is about as unfanservicey as possible, a series made by a Japanese person who lived in the US for a while, a slice-of-life that rivals Yotsuba for my favorite SOL, and a series I have mentioned previously. Also, the final chapter of Bonnouji has just been released. It's time to say goodbye, it's been a wonderful, cute, funny run, but it's over now. Thanks for the ride, Aki Eda! 
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Dec 1, 2013 05:20
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The other two series Kengo Hanazawa has made are in the OP as well, Ressentiment and Boys on the Run. A couple new chapters of BotR just came out fairly recently and it's almost finished. I still can't tell whether it will have a happy or sad ending. Ressentiment is completed and pretty messed up but also a very interesting look at the future of entertainment, especially considering it's fairly old, almost a decade old at this point. It's an extremely cynical series, so keep that in mind. In regards to  , the usual stance on it is that once it's licensed in the US, don't link to scanlations anymore, link to places to buy it legally. But until then, people post scanlations since there's literally no other way to read them, legal or not, until they're localized.I always like seeing new people's takes on the various series in the thread still. By all means, keep at it! Also, give some of the other stuff in the thread a try. My favorite recommendation aside from IAAH is Qualia the Purple because it's super misleading for the first couple chapters and then gets more and more intense until you reach the current chapter, there's like....5 chapters left untranslated. If you give it a read, I want blow-by-blow reactions to it, those are the best part! It's the only series I know of that gets more ridiculous than Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in less than 13 chapters. I really need to get around to writing up the third sampler list, maybe during New Year's break. Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Dec 31, 2013 |
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Dec 30, 2013 15:38
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I Am A Hero in particular is more that he's got serious issues before things go terribly wrong, and how he handles things as the story progresses. Honestly, I can see where you're coming from with BOTR and Ressentiment(Ressentiment ESPECIALLY, BOTR less so since he does improve over the course of it though starts slow), but with IAAH it's more that he has to deal with extreme circumstances while also being a paranoid schizophrenic. And one thing to keep in mind while reading I Am A Hero and such is that Japan is often a society of keeping your head down. "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down", basically. IAAH takes this a little far, but that part is at least based in reality.
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Dec 31, 2013 02:52
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Nausicaa, Masturbation Master Kurosawa, Ressentiment, Bonnouji, Ai-Ren, Wandering Son, Paradise Kiss, Kids on the Slope, and Akumetsu are all completely translated, whether via licensed volumes or scanlations. Boys on the Run and Qualia the Purple are finished but not completely scanlated yet.
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Jan 1, 2014 23:26
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Absolutely, Akumetsu is not perfect by any stretch, but it's an interesting take on the vigilante superpower thing. And he's usually just so gosh-darned HAPPY to be doing what he's doing. In other news, Crunchyroll picked up I'm In Mari, now officially called "Inside Mari". There's a new chapter. It's fuckin' insane and makes me hate that this is a monthly series. Go read it. 
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Jan 8, 2014 22:42
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 Yay, this thread/I accomplished something! Status on I Am A Hero(or Boys on the Run) licensing, by any chance? That'd be my biggest wish by far, and like 95% of everyone who's read IAAH is blown away by it or at least appreciates how insanely high-quality it is.
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Jan 9, 2014 10:24
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SAMPLER THREE: GO! Koe No Kotachi - Shonen, drama, comedy, romance(???), school years, psychological Koe No Kotachi is about a deaf girl, and the bullying she endures during elementary school, as well as the main bully, who has his own share of troubles. It's pretty gut-wrenching, but surprisingly frank and the characters develop rapidly in interesting ways. This is a relatively new manga that first began as a oneshot and was so well received it bloomed into a full-blown weekly series! One of my favorite newer series, for sure. It's a wonderful and sometimes sorrowful story about bullying, redemption, forgiveness, and friendship. Pokemon Adventures - Shonen, comedy, adventure Nope, this isn't a joke recommendation. Pokemon Adventures is the manga adaptation of the game series, not the anime. Yes, the whole game series. Connected. It's played completely straight, and is pretty outstanding even to someone who hasn't been into Pokemon since the original Red/Blue. It's shonen, and reinvents a lot of characters in such interesting ways that the head writer of the games gave it his seal of approval because he liked the directions they took things so much. It begins with the story of Red and Green(Ash and Gary, essentially) and eventually continues into Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Sapphire, Ruby, etc. It's just a dumb fun romp where a character might make a hang-glider out of pokemon shooting jets of water behind them because why not? It's been running for basically forever(since the original games came out) and has like 500 chapters. A good timewaster! Unfortunately I don't think Viz has translated all the volumes, not entirely sure though. Cheese in the Trap Cheese in the Trap is a Manwha(Korean manga) about Hong Sul, a college girl who attracts the eye of Yoo Jung, the seemingly perfect rich guy at college. It's a romance/comedy/drama with some mystery elements that I've wound up completely hooked on. The translation javascript is super handy and the group scanlating it has been putting out a chapter every few days. The chapters are pretty significant in length, and while the artwork might not be the most detailed, I find it charming. The expressions are good and I think the artist is really good at doing the low-detail comedy faces. Hong Sul reacts to stuff in great ways, and a lot of the characters are flat-out hosed up, with multiple cowardly, deceptive people, straight-up manipulators and sociopaths, stalkers, etc but also obviously plenty of normal folks. The story moves along at a fairly brisk pace, and it's interesting to see some characters redeem themselves or burn every single bridge they've got over the course of the 90 or so chapters I've read. I like a lot of the side characters like Bora, Eun Taek, and Hyung(HONEY~). I'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for a fairly lighthearted romcom/drama(at least, to begin with, it goes into some pretty dark places eventually). Teppu - Action, comedy, martial arts, high school, sports Teppu's about Natsuo Ishido, a tall, abrasive, and violent high school girl who gets wrapped up in the world of MMA. She has natural skill in fighting, but will her hubris be her undoing? I love this series for the detailed and sometimes unflattering view it gives the world of professional and amateur fighting. People may be champions, but that doesn't mean they can quit their day job. The near-total lack of fanservice is a big plus, too. Not a panty shot to be seen in this series. Characters are sometimes pretty ripped, but that's to be expected when you're an MMA fighter. The series can also be really drat funny at times, I love the interactions between Natsuo and her teacher. It's a shame that scanlations for it are pretty sporadic. Ketchup Ninja - Comedy, "drama", action Ketchup Ninja's by a Japanese dude who lived in Jersey for a while. It's a cavalcade of stereotypes of every single nationality and revels in it. It's absurd and stupid and I love it even if it's disjointed and manic a lot of the time. Almost every frame is able to be singled out as crazy, funny, or ridiculous. It plays off a lot of misconceptions various countries have about each other, and is pretty strong for most of its run. The ending is kind of a wet fart though. Bonus content includes a very "educational" page after each chapter about American culture, slang, etc. It's a short run at only 26 chapters. And Yet The Town Movies(Soredemo) - Comedy, slice of life, romance, shonen, school life Rivals Yotsuba for my favorite slice of life/comedy series. It loosely follows a bunch of characters in a small town(but mostly focuses on one particular airhead and the "maid cafe" she works at), and also happens to contains some of the most realistic kids I've seen in a manga. They just act exactly like kids do, it's great. Occasionally gets a little...out of this world, but the surrealness of the series is part of the charm. Very laid back, and can be extremely funny. Some of the mysteries are actually pretty clever. It was licensed by Jmanga, but Jmanga exploded and all their licenses flew into the aether, so I'm linking to scanlations instead. Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer - Seinen, drama, action, comedy, adventure, mystery, growing up Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer is by Satoshi Mizukami, ADTRW darling and author of another series in this thread, Spirit Circle. It's his first major series and it shows, it's not perfect, but it's absolutely satisfying by the end of it and has one of the most excellent endings of any series I've read. It takes about 20-22 chapters to really hit its stride, but once it does, it never really stops. The characters that it introduces over time are excellent, and the protagonist starts out wholly a terribly person but grows over the course of the series. The art is pretty rough, as expected of an early series, but some of the monster designs are outstanding. The plot is absurd at first glance but at least makes sense by the end of it. Definitely a good read, it's funny, it's dramatic, and there's plenty of scenes you probably won't expect. It's a good, completed series.
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Jan 15, 2014 00:27
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Ah, right, I forgot Biscuit Hammer got licensed, shame it's so far away though. A new chapter of Maou Maoyuu Yuusha just got released(finally, apparently someone's picked up scanlating it again), and it's a fantastic example of why I love the series. Sure, there's fanservice. But the politicking in it and the various factions arguing, as well as the dramatic twists such as the one in this chapter are exactly why I like it so much. The political upheaval that's been brewing in the last dozen or so chapters came to a head in this one, and it's handled masterfully, I had a big doofy grin on my face when I realized what was about to happen. edit: oh, right, duh, should've waited until I finished the entire chapter, of course. 
Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Jan 15, 2014 |
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Jan 15, 2014 04:21
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Please, I greatly enjoyed it, but don't oversell it like that. It has the benefit of being a completed series, but I would say there are maybe up to half a dozen series in here I'd recommend first. Spirit Circle is already shaping up to be far superior to BH if it continues at its current rate, and Mizukami has clearly improved his storytelling and characters since Biscuit Hammer. And if I had to recommend a single series in here above all others, it would be Nausicaa, no contest. Biscuit Hammer is great after the initial 20 chapter hump, but to suggest it's superior to something like Nausicaa is a bit much.
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Jan 15, 2014 09:08
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IAAH spoilers: Hideo isn't really supposed to be sympathetic to begin with. He is a loser, that's what Kengo Hanazawa does. His profession as a mangaka is literally irrelevant past the first volume, as the whole world goes to poo poo and it's not really useful for survival. He definitely has mental problems what with the hallucinations, but it also seems like something he's been keeping hidden as best he can, so he likely never told anyone about them or else he'd never qualify for a gun permit in a million years. It is rather unfortunate you're giving up on it, but different strokes I guess. You've not even really made it out of the "prologue" section yet, which sucks, since it really starts getting interesting once some other major characters show up in the latter half of volume 3. It starts to be less about the zombies(though there are certainly plenty of those still) and more about the whole "man is the real monster" scenario, plus scrounging for survival needs as well as just taking in the whole of the devastation. The zombies are much more fleshed-out(har har  ) than most other zombie series, really. If you do decide to give it more of a chance, you'll see what I mean. They're not just the walking dead, and if you check the spoilers in this thread about it, you'll notice a lot of people praise things a lot of folks miss, such as Tekko's specific act of ripping her teeth and such out on the door with the last vestiges of her humanity so that she doesn't infect Hideo as well when she bites him, and it saves his life. It's loving heartbreaking and a really powerful moment if you notice it.Maybe give some of the other series a try then, since aside from Fortress of the Apocalypse, none of them have zombies.
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Jan 16, 2014 03:42
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Eight new Suicide Island chapters just dropped, finishing off the latest volume. I haven't read them yet, but I am already tense considering the most recent chapters... edit: welp, what a loving cliffhanger. The next volume can't come soon enough! I liked the resolution to the "assassin". Poor lil' fella, all he wanted was a kiss! 
Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 11:47 on Jan 17, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 10:53
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Crunchyroll has licensed both Soredemo and Spirit Circle! I am beyond happy about this, hopefully some more of my recommendations will make it through, it'd be funny if Qualia the Purple got licensed by them and they translated it before the scanlator got to it. Though I'm not sure if that would be something they'd go for, not sure if they'll pick up any already-completed or short series.
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Jan 30, 2014 15:42
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If you're not reading Koe no Kotachi yet, I heartily recommend you do. It's real difficult to read for certain reasons that become apparent if you've ever been the target of bullying, but it's an excellent series. The latest chapter has one of the most surprising gut-punches I've read, though, I wasn't expecting that for some reason and it really got to me  .Also I'll be doing another sampler sometime soon, likely focusing on romance/comedy this time around.
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Feb 26, 2014 02:33
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Koe no Kotachi has been licensed by Crunchyroll as A Silent Voice. If you don't have a subscription to them yet, I heartily suggest it, both to encourage and support more series acquisitions and because their catalog is becoming fairly impressive at this point. They've picked up a bunch of series from this thread's suggestions as well, so if you enjoyed a lot of the series in this thread, definitely grab a CR sub!
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Mar 24, 2014 01:54
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It seems someone's uploading an entire new volume of I Am A Hero right now! At long last!
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Apr 21, 2014 06:14
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There's a new chapter of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha that is jam-packed with action and politics! And of course discussion of Demon Queen's rack, but definitely not the focus. In just a single chapter there's so much progress and endearing dialogue, it's great. The artwork has drastically improved since the early chapters, too. It continues to be a really fantastic series. I also think they made it a point to make Demon Queen's giant boobs as unappealing as possible this chapter, which is odd for the artist to do since that's like, their entire MO, but it's appreciated that the chapter (mostly) avoids absurd fanservice and focuses on story instead. It also seems like we're heading for a plot twist where this fantasy world is actually based on some sort of hyperfuturistic technological system since Magician has just started to discuss the Milky Way and galaxy clusters and such, which is odd to say the least in a fantasy setting. Archer and Hero's shenanigans were greatly appreciated levity after such a dire few chapters, too. It also seems the series has passed into the hands of a different scanlation group, so hopefully new chapters will start showing up much faster, since I believe they're like 8-12 chapters behind at this point? Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 12:00 on May 10, 2014 |
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May 10, 2014 11:58
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There's also a new chapter of Hinamatsuri too! And this one might be the best chapter of the whole series, even though the entire series is really really good. Need to have read the rest of Hinamatsuri to really get the emotional impact of it though.  Been thinking of some new stuff to put in a fourth sampler. I've got a few in mind, some not-so-significant series but still stuff I enjoyed.
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May 11, 2014 17:05
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If you've not read Koe no Kotachi(A Silent Voice in english) yet, I highly suggest picking it up now. Recent events in the series have taken things in a surprising direction, and it's some absolutely fantastic drama. There are some scenes in the manga that will literally make you  , and there's one particular moment that had me shouting out "HOLY poo poo!".It's an incredibly good series. Wow. It is a very, very, very brutal series, but it is so very good, and I believe the author's first work, which is insane for a debut.
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Jul 3, 2014 03:54
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Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Jul 28, 2014 |
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Jul 3, 2014 06:50
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After a long hiatus, I've whipped up another Sampler, part 4! I've read quite a few series in the meantime, so hopefully there's some good variety for folks in here. Let's begin!   Yokohama Shopping Trip(Drama, Sci-fi, Seinen, Slice of Life) is one of the most happy and relaxing, yet melancholy series I've ever read, that follows the story of a humanoid android who runs a small cafe out in the boonies, and her everyday life as well as those around her. Mankind has precipitated some massive natural disaster which has wiped out the majority of humanity, and the remainder are living out their lives peacefully with what still remains. It's a super relaxing and laid-back series with a classic anime art style, the 80's-ish style I suppose. One of the most satisfying series I've yet seen, most definitely. Completed series, unlicensed(some-loving-how).   Vinland Saga(Action, Adventure, Historical, Seinen) is a story set in the age of Vikings, when they pillaged and took what they wanted. It follows Thorfinn, a young man whose history gradually unfolds as he kills his way across many battlefields alongside a bunch of plundering mercenaries. Has some of the best artwork you'll ever see in a manga, and the story is pretty great too! The characters are outstanding, especially Askeladd and another giant of a character you'll meet as the story progresses, you'll know him when you see him. An incredibly brutal, violent series, so be prepared for plenty of dismemberment and horrible acts of mercilessness. Some people have issues with one of the later arcs, but I personally enjoyed it, I think being able to read it all at once instead of waiting for each chapter helped a lot with that though.  Uwagaki(Comedy, Romance, Sci-fi, Seinen) follows a boy, a girl, and a mysterious, possibly extraterrestrial science teacher who, one day, decides to clone the girl in an experiment on romance. Hijinks ensue. This series surprised me with its brevity and sincerity, it's an adorable romance series that also does well with asking the question "what would you do if suddenly there was an exact copy of you?". At only 20 chapters long, it's not a lengthy read either, it's short and sweet. Completed series, unlicensed.   Thermae Romae(Comedy, Historical, Seinen) follows an ancient Roman bathhouse architect who, whenever he submerges himself in water, winds up in some sort of bath in modern-day Japan. He is bewildered by this as he cannot speak Japanese, but learns new ideas for his bathhouses every time. It's an exceptionally god drat silly and funny series.     Knights of Sidonia(Action, Adventure, horror, Romance, Sci-fi, Seinen) is a sci-fi series by a dude who just wants to draw the craziest sci-fi stuff he wants, all the time. The story follows the colony ship Sidonia, which has fled the solar system after a type of alien lifeform called the Gauna destroyed Earth. The Gauna are nearly indestructible and can reform their shapes at will to form almost anything they want, be it defense or weaponry, they are insanely dangerous. Humanity has long since transcended mere male/female and basic reproduction systems, opting for cloning, the ability to be unisex if you desire, and incubatorial schooling simply in the interests of surviving. A human can reach full maturity and brainpower within five years of cloning, which is needed since the Guardian Pilots die like flies against the Gauna. The characters are incredibly boring(until one is introduced much later in the series) and apparently this is the first series the author is making with characters he's trying to design to be more than just cardboard cutouts, and it shows. The story and character interactions are downright schizophrenic at times and weird gags and fanservice are thrown in at the most awkward times early on. Still, it improves drastically later on, and to be frank, the sci-fi art porn ought to keep folks happy until then. Dude draws some outstanding horrifying alien creatures and awesome mechanical men/spaceships and it's clear that he upgrades stuff on a whim just so he can draw new stuff. There's a lot I love about this series, but it's not perfect. That said, it does some stuff in some of the recent chapter that I never thought I'd see a series do, and it was pretty fantastic.   Otoyomegatari(Drama, Historical, Manga, Romance, Seinen) is set in the 19th century on the Silk Road. It's one of the most gorgeous series I've ever seen by far, with incredibly detailed, intricate designs on the embroidery in pretty much every page that has them. The characters are lovable and fun, and it can go from lighthearted to intense in the span of a few pages. Lots of drama, lots of , and a smattering of good action. Really a top-notch historical-based series. Hito Hitori Futari(Action, Seinen, Supernatural) is a thoughtful series set in the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami and revolves around Riyon, a lazy soul who has been assigned to the physical world as a guardian spirit for being a delinquent in the afterlife. She tries to pick a person with a low life expectancy so she can hurry up and return back to the spirit world, but her plan backfires spectacularly and she winds up as the guardian spirit of the prime minister of Japan. It's an interesting story about forgiveness, forbidden knowledge, redemption, and love(not romance). The art style is not uguu at all, but it can get a bit dodgy at times. Also very little fanservice and the epilogue is fantastic. I love it when a good story can have a solid wrapup. Completed series, unlicensed. Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Feb 20, 2015 |
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Jul 28, 2014 03:29
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RickVoid posted:The anime is up on Netflix, and it's really good. The series is drawn from the latter part of the manga, iirc. From what I hear, the anime hasn't introduced the best character yet, so it's still not halfway yet.
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Jul 28, 2014 05:32
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Another full volume of I Am A Hero's been translated, and man, we're going full blown Fortress of the Apocalypse with the designs.
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Aug 12, 2014 10:23
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The rants are because Hideo is actually crazy. Like, crazy-in-the-head crazy. This is proved by him blowing up at his girlfriend and then it reverting back to her just sitting there watching TV because that entire blowup was in his head and he didn't realize it. Same with the discussion with his coworkers that turned out to be made up. I highly suggest you check out some of the other recommendations, as many are close to if not as good as I Am A Hero. Some are even better, like Nausicaa, which is probably the best manga ever made. Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Aug 27, 2014 |
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Aug 27, 2014 21:24
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Well, Hideo is a manga artist himself, so some self-projection will no doubt leak through from the author. The hallucinations only seem to happen when he's alone, and Kengo Hanazawa, based on his other works, is better than unexplainedly throwing in weird monster-things as representations of stress. It's possible that Hideo has some kind of neurological disorder, but with how mental issues are handled in Japan, it's never been diagnosed since Japan is infamous for its lack of treatment/caring for mental health and disabilities. Also keep in mind that, while there's been over 150 chapters, only a short period of time has passed in-series, and he hasn't really had a whole lot of alone time to really freak out. When his mind is allowed to wander seems to be when it gets all weird and crazy stuff starts happening in his head, but when he's focusing on something like survival, that stuff takes a back seat.
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Aug 27, 2014 22:21
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