rheiders's Manga
take a look at rheiders's AnimeThis section includes ongoing series that I am caught up on. I'll put number of volumes I've read for series I'm following the US release for, and number of chapters for series I'm reading online.
| Read some▲▼ | Rating▲▼ | Comment▲▼ |
| 20th Century Boys (manga) | Excellent | 16 volumes. Naoki Urasawa, which means it's fantastic. Recommended. |
| Afterschool Charisma (manga) | Good | 4 volumes. Interesting premise, takes a while to get off the ground. Recommended. |
| Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit (manga) | Decent | 1 volume. I like Elliott, so I'm enjoying it well enough, but I don't think I would recommend this iteration of Alice in the Country of... to anyone who isn't an Elliott fan. |
| Alichino (manga) | So-so | 1 volume. Pretty art, but the story didn't really grab me. May pick it up again someday, but not in a hurry. |
| Andromeda Stories (manga) | Decent | 1 volume. Not as good as To Terra. |
| Animal Academy: Hakobune Hakusho (manga) | Decent | 1 volume. Cute and forgettable. Good for kids. |
| Antique Bakery (manga) | Very good | 4 volumes. Fumi Yoshinaga is a goddess. She is also a very funny person. |
| Arisa (manga) | Very good | 6 volumes. Very good shoujo mystery/suspense series, generic art. Keeps you guessing. Recommended. |
| Attack on Titan (manga) | ||
| Banana Fish (manga) | Haven't read enough to rate. | |
| Beck (manga) | Very good | 12 volumes. Very good, startlingly real slice-of-life story even if you don't care about rock music. Recommended. |
| Bitter Virgin (manga) | Very good | 12 chapters. Very depressing, but deals with the heavy issues it brings up in a mature and respectable way. Recommended, provided you can stomach it. |
| Black Jack (manga) | Excellent | Most volumes, read out of order. Some of the stories stretch suspension of disbelief too far. Pretty much a given that a Tezuka work will be sexist, but that doesn't make it okay. However, Black Jack is a fantastic character, and it is entirely due to him that this series remains a classic. Recommended. |
| Blue Exorcist (manga) | Very good | 8 volumes. Very enjoyable shounen. Good art, likeable characters. Rin in particular is incredibly likeable. The relationship between the Okumura twins is actually pretty fascinating and adds an extra sprinkling of depth one doesn't normally expect to find in a shounen manga. Recommended. |
| A Bride's Story (manga) | Excellent | 3 volumes. Strong art and an amazing eye for detail elevate this manga from Good to Excellent. Contains all of Kaoru Mori's strengths and very few of her weaknesses. Likeable characters that feel real and a completely impartial, non-condescending look at a fascinating culture. Recommended. |
| Case Closed (manga) | Good | About half of the volumes, out of order. This one is nostalgic for me. Good kids' mystery series with likeable characters and good whodunnit stories. Recommended, if you don't mind episodic stories. |
| Children of the Sea (manga) | Very good | 2 volumes. This one is worth reading solely for the amazing art and mysterious and involving atmosphere. I don't know where the story is going, but I'm eager to find out, if only to spend more time in this beautiful, ethereal world. |
| Dawn of the Arcana (manga) | Good | 2 volumes. So far it has potential but hasn't really reached that potential yet. It seems like the world could be really interesting with a bit more fleshing out, and I'm loving Nakaba as a heroine, so I look forward to reading more. |
| Demon Love Spell (manga) | Decent | Caught up. I'm kind of ashamed to like this one xD It's a fun, trashy series that isn't as problematic as I would have assumed. Take with that what you will. |
| Dengeki Daisy (manga) | Very good | The elements of mystery and suspense are more interesting than the main romance, but that romance is pretty cute and funny in its own right. Heroine has some spunk. Mystery becomes a bigger part of the manga later on. Recommended. |
| (The) Drifting Classroom (manga) | Very good | 1 volume. Pretty scary; I want to continue it if I get the chance. |
| Durarara!! (manga) | Very good | 3 volumes. Rare good manga adaptation to come after the anime adaptation. If you like anything DRRR!! then you owe it to yourself to read this. If you're new to the franchise, then you really owe it to yourself to read this. Recommended. |
| Eden - It's an Endless World! (manga, Hiroki Endo) | So-so | 1 volume. Didn't really hook me. |
| Faeries' Landing (manhwa) | Don't remember enough to rate it. | |
| From Far Away (manga) | Don't remember enough to rate it. | |
| Fushigi Yûgi: Genbu Kaiden (manga) | Excellent | 9 volumes. I'm not a big fan of the original FY, so I came into this with very low expectations and very reluctantly, feeling a little forced into it. So it has accomplished a pretty impressive feat in making me love it so much. I'm dying to know what happens next. |
| Gaba Kawa (manga) | Decent | I seem to remember that it was pretty cute. |
| Gakuen Alice (manga) | Good | 17 volumes. Takes a while to get going, but once it does, you certainly won't regret picking it up. I'll just point out that this mangaka also did the pitch-black comedy A Portrait of M & N and let you draw your own conclusions. Recommended. |
| Gin Tama (manga) | Very good | Random volumes. Really funny and unique. Drama isn't quite as good, but it's not bad or anything. Recommended. |
| .hack//Legend of the Twilight (manga) | So-so | 1 volume. Meh. |
| Hayate the Combat Butler (manga) | Very good | 1 volume. Hilarious. Too bad the rest of the series can't also be setting up the brilliant premise :( |
| Hetalia - Axis Powers (manga) | Good | 3 volumes + random webcomic strips. Personifies the countries of the world as human. Cute, funny, lots of historical in-jokes. They got America pretty spot-on xD Recommended, but it's really doofy. |
| Higurashi When They Cry: Abducted by Demons Arc (manga) | Good | Random first volumes of arcs. Good horror, generic art. |
| Honey Hunt (manga) | Decent | 2 volumes. Poor man's Skip Beat!. Sweet and harmless, at least so far. Though considering the mangaka's reputation, I'm not so sure... |
| House of Five Leaves (manga) | Very good | 1 volume. My first exposure to Natsume Ono. I love the atmosphere and the unique art. |
| Hunter × Hunter (manga) | Very good | 28 volumes. Everyone has that one shounen they just can't get enough of, right? Well, this is mine. Recommended if you like shounen, especially if you liked Yu Yu Hakusho. |
| Kare Kano (manga) | Decent | 3 volumes. Didn't really catch my interest. |
| Kids on the Slope (manga) | ||
| Kimi ni Todoke - From Me to You (manga) | Very good | 5 volumes. Cute romance, fantastic side characters. Sawako and Kazehaya are good role models. Recommended. |
| Kindaichi Case Files (manga) | So-so | Similar to Detective Conan, but the characters didn't interest me as much. I might read more later, but I'm not in a hurry. |
| Kobato. (manga) | So-so | 3 or so volumes. It's cute, I guess, but it's pretty mundane. The dog isn't as entertaining as, say, Kero. Kobato herself is pretty bland. |
| Lizzie Newton: Victorian Mysteries (manhwa) | Decent | 1 volume. Seems like a decent enough mystery series but Lizzie herself is a bit bland and the volume was very talky, taking me twice as long as a normal volume would to read. Not sure if I'll continue with it, but if I do it's probably a library series. |
| Love*Com (manga) | Good | 3 volumes. Very adorable. The main couple have genuine chemistry and the comedy's great. So far, it's an above-average shoujo rom-com. |
| Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic (manga) | Very good | 4 volumes. |
| Maid-sama! (manga) | Very good | |
| (The) Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (light novel) | Good | I've read the first three. This is my favorite incarnation of the Haruhi story because there is more Kyon. Kyon is the best thing about this series, and if you agree, you should pick up these books, because he narrates them brilliantly xD |
| Midnight Secretary (manga) | Weak | About 4 volumes. I got in a weird mood one night and really wanted to read this one, and stayed up till four in the morning reading it before realizing it's really not my thing and quitting. I don't like how much of a jerk Touma is and the characters are pretty bland but then, character isn't really the focus of this series, is it? |
| Moyasimon (manga) | ||
| Natsume's Book of Friends (manga) | Excellent | 12 volumes. One of my favorite manga. Don't let the generic synopsis scare you away. The art is gorgeous and unique, the wispy, almost mystical style fitting the story perfectly. The designs for the humans are hard to tell apart at times, but it's never too much of an issue, and I feel like the creative designs for the youkai more than make up for it. Natsume is a very relatable character and the series makes me tear up almost every volume. Recommended. |
| Neon Genesis Evangelion (manga) | Don't remember enough to rate it. | |
| Nightmare Inspector: Yumekui Kenbun (manga) | Very good | Good shoujo horror series. The art is great and the stories are, for the most part, very strong. The one about the boy with no expressions sticks in my mind the most. |
| Only Serious About You (manga) | 1 volume. I'll rate it when I finish it. One of my first forays into BL. | |
| Ōoku: The Inner Chambers (manga) | Excellent | 2 volumes. I've only recently been getting into Fumi Yoshinaga's work, and she's brilliant. This work is sweeping and ambitious, but still maintains a strong human element, especially in the second volume. The end of volume two was beautiful and complicated and tragic all at once. I can't wait to read more. |
| Otomen (manga) | Good | I don't even remember how far I read...Eight-ish volumes, I think. It was cute and I liked it a lot, but I dropped off for some reason. I want to start reading it again. |
| Pandora Hearts (manga) | 7 volumes. I thought I had dropped this series for good, but people have convinced me to pick it back up since they apparently start answering some questions eventually. I love the art and characters, but it's just too convoluted. | |
| Peace Maker Kurogane (manga) | So-so | 1 volume. Eh. |
| Phantom Dream (manga) | Not really good | 1 volume. Not that great. Takaya learned a lot from working on Fruits Basket; that much is clear. |
| Pluto (manga) | ||
| Princess Jellyfish (manga) | Excellent | 29 chapters. Working my way through this one and pretty much in love with it. It's a ton of fun and really relatable, and there's an infectious quirkiness to it that I haven't seen in any other series. |
| Rasetsu (manga) | 1 volume. I remember thinking Rasetsu was really cool. | |
| Read or Dream (manga) | 3 volumes. Cute, but a trifle. | |
| Red River (manga) | Don't remember enough to rate it. | |
| RG Veda (manga) | 1 volume. It really confused me. | |
| RIN-NE (manga) | 3 volumes. Entertaining enough, but kinda blah. | |
| (The) Rose of Versailles (manga) | ||
| Saint Young Men (manga) | Very good | |
| Sand Chronicles (manga) | ||
| A Silent Voice (manga) | Very good | |
| Silver Spoon (manga) | 3 chapters. No FMA, but pretty damn good. | |
| Skip Beat! (manga) | Very good | 7 volumes. Great heroine, entertaining villain, fun look into the world of show biz. Don't like the art. Recommended. |
| Someday's Dreamers (manga) | 1 volume. Cute and forgettable. | |
| Soul Eater (manga) | 8 volumes. Good shounen with a very unique and interesting art style. Fascinating take on the idea of madness, treating it like an infectious disease. Promotes gender equality in a non-preachy way. Recommended. | |
| St. Dragon Girl (manga) | 1 volume. Eh. | |
| (The) Story of Saiunkoku (manga) | Very good | 4 volumes. Shuurei is awesome, and it's rare to come across a true feminist manga. Recommended if you have a taste for political intrigue. |
| Tail of the Moon (manga) | 1 volume. Eh. | |
| Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (manga) | Excellent | 7 volumes. Great art, unique and touching story. The crybaby protagonist Lag can get a little annoying, but he's also very sweet and honest. Gauche's conflict is fascinating. Recommended. |
| Time Stranger Kyoko (manga) | Just 1 chapter. Eh. | |
| Tokyo Ghoul (manga) | ||
| Toriko (manga by Shimabukuro) | Random chapters. Really not my thing. | |
| Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase (manga) | 1 volume. Kind of entertaining, but not really my thing. | |
| Twin Spica (manga) | 1 volume. I really wanna read more :( | |
| Twinkle Stars (manga) | 2 chapters. Really want to read more, but haven't gotten around to it. Off to a good start, though. | |
| Ultimo (manga) | Random volumes. Reeeaaaallllyyyy not a good series. Confusing, weird art, weird morals. Seems to take all the worst aspects of both Western comics and manga and jams them together awkwardly. Avoid at all costs. | |
| Ultra Maniac (manga) | 1 volume. Cute and forgettable. | |
| Vagabond (manga) | 2 volumes. Some of the gender issues bothered me, but I might continue it eventually because of the awesome art. | |
| Vampire Kiss (manga) | ||
| Video Girl Ai (manga) | Random volumes. Really not my thing, some of the implications bother me. | |
| Wandering Son (manga) | 2 volumes. Fantastic series, really touching and genuine look at the touchy subject of transgender issues. Recommended. | |
| Wanted (manga) | 1 chapter. Eh. | |
| We Were There (manga) | 1 volume. I can tell I'm getting into something great, so I can't wait to continue. This is exactly the kind of shoujo I love. | |
| Wild Ones (manga) | 1 volume. Boring stack of shoujo cliches on top of unremarkable art. | |
| X (manga) | Random volumes. Confusing and obtuse. At least it's pretty...? | |
| Yotsuba&! (manga) | 8 volumes. Cute and honest. Really makes you feel like a small child again. Never fails to put a smile on my face. Recommended. |