|
Read all▲▼
|
Rating▲▼
|
Comment▲▼
|
| 2001 Nights (manga) |
Decent |
|
| 20th Century Boys (manga) |
|
|
| 21st Century Boys (manga) |
|
|
| A,A' (manga) |
Excellent |
|
| Akira (manga) |
|
|
| Alien Nine (manga) |
Good |
A psychological/Kafka-esque subversion of the Magical Girl/ Defending the school from supernatural threats story, showing how a real "average joe" protagonist would most likely react to that kind of situation. It's incredibly disturbing, often disgusting, and never dull. However, the subversive elements are often swept aside for shocking images, which diminished the effectiveness of the work in general. It's good, but it could have been so much better. |
| Alien Nine Emulators (manga) |
Good |
The "True End" for Alien Nine, this volume has both the same assets and flaws that the previous volume does. However, it's ending is absolutely perfect in showing Kafka-esque themes of the book. It's a necessary read for anybody who's read the previous volumes, and on the same level of quality |
| Appleseed (manga) |
|
|
| Ashen Victor (manga) |
|
|
| Azumanga Daioh (manga) |
Masterpiece |
Comedy is hard - especially when restricted to the comic strip/ 4-koma style. However, Azuma not only delivers perfect punchline after punchline, he does so while actually developing his characters. It's probably the only use of the 4-panel manga that actually works, and works well. |
| Banana Fish (manga) |
|
|
| Battle Angel Alita (manga) |
Excellent |
|
| Black Blizzard (manga) |
Very good |
A fun little thriller. Drawn and Quarterly's edition adds to the pulp thriller aesthetic, with the yellowed page edge, and the dot coloring on the colored pages. |
| Black Magic (manga) |
|
|
| Blood Blockade Battlefront (manga) |
|
Hopefully somebody will license the sequel series. |
| Blue (manga by K. Nananan) |
Excellent |
A simple romance story, elegantly told. |
| Blue Giant (manga) |
|
|
| Chikyu Misaki (manga) |
|
|
| Chobits (manga) |
So-so |
|
| Clover (manga, CLAMP) |
Good |
Ignore the story - which is unfinished, inconsequential, and slightly pretentious - and instead focus on the stunning art within. |
| Cowboy Bebop (manga) |
So-so |
Unlike Shooting Star, this series is just some side stories to the show that don't work that well. |
| Cowboy Bebop Shooting Star (manga) |
So-so |
Almost completely different from the anime. Entertaining, but nowhere near as good as the source material |
| Cross Game (manga) |
Excellent |
|
| Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju (manga) |
|
It's an excellent story, but I'd recommend the anime first, especially if you are unfamiliar with Rakugo. Since it's an audio/visual storytelling medium, seeing it animated demonstrates it better |
| Domu (manga) |
|
|
| A Drifting Life (manga) |
|
|
| A Drunken Dream (manga) |
Excellent |
Have an interest in older manga? Check this out. A Great short story collection by one of Manga's most important authors/artists |
| Erased (manga) |
|
|
| Fullmetal Alchemist (manga) |
Masterpiece |
|
| Genshiken (manga) |
Good |
|
| Ghost in the Shell (manga) |
Excellent |
|
| Girls' Last Tour (manga) |
Excellent |
A fascinating take on a post-apoclyptic story. The sketchy, almost amateurish art can be distracting, but it works for manga. |
| (The) Gods Lie (manga) |
Excellent |
|
| GoGo Monster (manga) |
|
|
| Goodbye, Eri (manga) |
|
|
| Hatsu*Haru (manga) |
Very good |
It's a fairly standard shojo romcom, bolstered by likable characters and some really solid humor. |
| Here is Greenwood (manga) |
Good |
Horridly uneven. Nasu creates some wonderful moments, both comic and dramatic, but there are stretches of boring/uncomfortable material that separates them. |
| Imadoki! Nowadays (manga) |
|
|
| In This Corner of the World (manga) |
|
|
| JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (manga) |
|
Finished Stardust Crusaders. |
| Look Back (manga) |
|
|
| Love Roma (manga) |
|
|
| Love*Com (manga) |
|
I was expecting an old-school Hollywood romcom, with a bickering main couple who both give it as well as they take it. That being said, the leads are both immature, and the male lead is a jerk (and kinda abusive). I also really didn't like the ending. |
| Magic Knight Rayearth (manga) |
Good |
A incredibly standard JRPG-esque fantasy, but the ending, and it's potent twist, work in it's favor. |
| Magic Knight Rayearth II (manga) |
Decent |
A sad case of diminishing returns. The new characters and situations aren't as interesting as the first set, and the final page is agrivating. |
| Maison Ikkoku (manga) |
|
|
| Maria the Virgin Witch (manga) |
|
|
| Maria the Virgin Witch Exhibition (manga) |
|
|
| Mars (manga) |
|
|
| Me and the Devil Blues (manga) |
|
|
| Mobile Police Patlabor (manga) |
|
Read both volumes available in English. Wish there where more translated. Very fun, just like the anime series. |
| Mushishi (manga) |
Excellent |
Each chapter is beautiful and smartly written. This manga is amazing, but due to it's incredibly episodic nature, reading too much in one sitting diminishes the effect of the story. Still, this is only a problem with the last volume. |
| My Love Story!! (manga) |
Excellent |
|
| Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (manga) |
Masterpiece |
|
| Nijigahara Holograph (manga) |
|
|
| Non Non Biyori (manga) |
Masterpiece |
Heartwarming, funny, and constantly a joy to read. Atto runs out of ideas at the end - which means that the ending comes at the perfect time. |
| OPUS (manga) |
|
|
| Orange (manga) |
|
|
| Planetes (manga) |
Masterpiece |
There is little hard sci-fi that is as good as this. Yukimura has created not only a very realistic world that very well could be ours in a few years(his understanding of the science behind space travel, and the technologies that make it possible is startlingly deep), but some of the most rich characters I've ever seen in a manga. It's a grand, humanist story that deserves a high place in the Science Fiction canon. |
| Ranma ½ (manga) |
Good |
Like everything Takahashi does, Ranma 1/2 is too repetitive, glacial (defined by Charlie Brown as one step forward, three steps back) in moving the main relationship and moving the overall plot forward, and overly long by half. Still, there are enough good moments (Which are all in the first half, and the last two volumes) to recommend reading. |
| Red Colored Elegy (manga) |
|
|
| Saikano (manga) |
Weak |
I'm torn on Saikano. One one hand, the art is unique and at times beautiful, although the fact that the male protagonist looks significantly older than Chise, the female protagonist is slightly disturbing. And the story is quite interesting, and had a huge potential to be a great, even literary, tragedy.
However, Takahashi's huge chunks of awkward dialogue take away from the story. His characters are almost completely unlikable, the situations are sometimes unbelievable, and the sex (and there's a lot of it - especially at the end) distracts from the story. It should have been a masterpiece, but it comes off as a wasted opportunity |
| Sazan & Comet Girl (manga) |
|
|
| Short Program (manga) |
Good |
|
| Short Program 2 (manga) |
So-so |
|
| Shuna's Journey (manga) |
|
|
| Sickness Unto Death (manga) |
|
|
| A Silent Voice (manga) |
Masterpiece |
|
| Silver Spoon (manga) |
|
Arakawa's knowledge and passion for agriculture shines through. The characters and humor are outstanding, and the story kept me interested through the full run. |
| Solanin (manga) |
Masterpiece |
|
| Soul Eater (manga) |
|
|
| Spirit Circle (manga) |
Masterpiece |
It's a great story with warm, humanist themes. It can get a little edgy for it's story, which is a minor complaint for how good everything else is. |
| Spirit of Wonder (manga) |
|
|
| (The) Strange Tale of Panorama Island (manga) |
Very good |
|
| Summer Time Rendering (manga) |
|
|
| Tekkonkinkreet (manga) |
|
|
| They Were Eleven (manga) |
Very good |
|
| Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (manga) |
Masterpiece |
A beautiful work that deals with the bombings at Hiroshima - not a cry for pity, but a view of moving on and a reaciton to growing up in the shadow of the bombings. It's beautiful, and something that must be read. |
| Trigun (manga) |
Excellent |
Very different from the anime that it inspired. Much Darker, more violent, but still very creative, and well worth the read. Translation is slightly wonky. |
| Trigun: Multiple Bullets (manga) |
|
|
| Tropic of the Sea (manga) |
|
|
| Twin Spica (manga) |
Masterpiece |
|
| Utsubora - A Story of a Novelist (manga) |
|
|
| What a wonderful world! (manga) |
Excellent |
|
| X-Day (manga by S Mizushiro) |
Weak |
X-Day has an interesting concept (Who hasn't wanted to blow up their school?) that might have been great in different hands. However, once the reader takes into account the ridiculous flaws in logic, flat, unlikeable characters, lack of any suspense what so ever, and trivialization of serious abuse and problematic backgrounds in favor of angst, it falls apart. One wonders if the manga-ka was given more time to flesh out her characters and situations if it would have improved, but It's doubt-able given what we have. The short story at the end of volume 2 is pointless, creating a heavy-handed pro-vegetarianism parable that just doesn't work. |
| Your Lie in April (manga) |
|
It's the novel/movie Love Story, in Japan with classical music. You can see the ending coming from a mile away, but the story is still effective |
