Manga?

[silverthunder]

Anyone want to rec me a good manga? Stuff with scanlations available is good, preferably finished but ongoing is okay too. I like slashable series, action, and sometimes the cute fluffy romance series. Ocassional angst is good, and here-and-there humor is a must.

Also if it's *really* super good, I don't mind recs that involve going out and buying the translated version. Heh.

So, any takers?

Comments

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Cantarella is pretty good. I've been reccing it a lot recently. It's a good translation (apart from minor modern phrases every now and then that can be ignored), and the art is gorgeous, and there's yaoi subtext to both. Borgias, incest, love triangles - whee! The historical roots are accurate, but there is a more supernatural twist to it, and some of the historical events have been tweaked to fit that. I have no idea if there are scanlations around - it's likely, Aarinfantasy might be one to try - since I bought it in licensed form, but it'll well worth the money.

I spent today catching up on the latest Loveless chapters, and am now a squealing mess itching to write fic. I can't see what's goingon because they're only text translations (Loveless fandom is really strict about fansubs and manga scanlations now that both the anime and manga are out in licensed form, for some reason), but GOD, I can't wait for the translated volumes to catch up. ;___;

On a brief note, +Anima is now out in English, and Tokyopop's translation looks fairly good, which is a relief. *_*

I don't have much else, I'm afraid - apart from Prince of Tennis they're the only manga I'm following since I have very little money and disliking downloading manga anyway. I prefer having it in my hands. ^^; I clearly need to stop being lazy and starting actually trying to learn Japanese, somewhat.

[sakuradite.livejournal.com]

I second Loveless... even though the story is kind of wacked out of its mind, the art is beautiful. XD And the shota isn't really hard core or anything... XD;

There's also Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, which just started being translated by tokyopop or viz or someone... I think they may have the first 2 books out by now. Great story. :3

[joanaseta.livejournal.com]

Have you read the Full Metal Alchemist manga? From the top of my head that's the one that I can related the better to what you want.

The manga is different from the anime (which I've checked your profile for and know you've seen) in basically everything concerning the homunculi and alchemy and the characters (Roy killing Winry's parents WTF). I have to bodily chunk out my knowledge of the manga - which I read first - when I'm seeing the anime. It's the only way I can hope even making sense of any of it.

On top of that we're just coming in to some very juicy bits on Hawkeye and Roy and the whole Ishval mess.

Right. Other suggestions are:

- Death Note, by the authors of HnG (which I like better, but it's not as if comparison is fair. It's a whole different genre). It's an incredibly brainy action story - I tried to read to 2/3 of it in one go and ended up a pile of electrified little grey cells. In case you haven't heard of it - which I doubt - it's about an arrogant, intelligent teenager that aquires a book that enables him to kill anyone whom he knows the face and name and the race to try and catch him (you can imagine how difficult it is, in modern days, to catch someone who kills by writing names). It's recommended if only for the successful use of some wicked anti-clichés. It's complete now. ^_^

- Peace Maker Kurogane. I have to admit I read this manga for the gay. And Okita. (But that ends up being one and the same, yeah?) It's a short (5 volumes total, me thinks) Shinsegumi manga, with imminently slashable characters (in so much as they slash themselves, really. It's worse that HXH. There are massages involved.). It also has angst. And blood. And the story telling confused me a lot before I got to grips with the historical events. But. It has a cute main character (Tetsu), and Okita (Okita!) and his pig (yup!) and everyone is gay and pretty and silly under the sun. The end. ^_^

- Naruto. It's one of those action mangas that, like HXH, you get hopelessly addicted to. It has lots of humour and silliness and fighting (which are enjoyable in the manga - draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagging in the anime. I can only see the anime in huge chunks, because of this) and lots of lovable lovable characters (which are slashed every which way). The fandom is also enormous (and growing) and has awesome fics in every direction.

These four mangas you can find acanalated at: http://www.stoptazmo.com/

Now, there are many MANY yaoi mangas scanalated out there (most are, of course graphic and plotless). But I can leave you the names of some of my favourites:

- Gurechawanaidene (scanlated by the Obsession Scanlation Group) and Harlem Beat wa Yoake Made (scanlated by Shi-ran and Nakama), which are both humorous and endearingly silly (and - amazingly - could be rated PG13);
- Bukiyou na Silent (by mochi*mochi), humour, fluff, romance.
- Calorie (by Memory For You), romance, a bit of humour and angst.
- Saa Koi ni Ochitamae (by Forever More), humour, silliness, romance, a bit of angst.
- Wild Rock (by Obsession), romance, fluff, humour and gorgeous primitive men in skimpy clothes.
- Rin (by mochi*mochi), long (three volumes), romance, fluff, *very* good story, archery.

I have lots more, but there's no point in me mentioning them if you don't like any of these. ^_^

If you have problems getting/finding any of the above titles, drop me a message and we'll work something out (by yousendit or such if needed be).

Good reading!

[herongale]

xxxHolic is extremely slashable and the manga version is beautiful and fun to read. I don't normally care for CLAMP, but I've made a big exception for this series and I think you should too!

Scanlations here.

[sailormac.livejournal.com]

I loudly, heartily and enthusiastically recommend From Eroica With Love. Seriously, it is one of the funniest mangas I have ever read, it's slashy as hell (American slash fans were reading translations/summaries of it years before the anime boom hit this country) and it even has good action/adventure plotlines.

The plot is about an aristocratic thief, Earl Dorian Red Gloria, who is being pursued by a NATO officer, Major Klaus von Emberbach. The two of them end up being mixed up with Russian spies (the series is set in the '70s) and all sorts of international intrigue, and find themselves working together more often than they'd like. The humor is cracky as hell -- most of the charaters are insane to at least some degree and the extremely straitlaced Klaus finds himself having to deliver lines like, "The future of the free world depends on his underwear!"

The manga is commercially available from CMX (distirbution is spotty, there's only a couple of places that I know carry it regularly). Not sure about scanlations, but since the series was popular for years before its CMX debut, I'm sure they're still floating around out there.

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

Getbackers. On-going and damn long (35 vols and counting) but it's BRILLIANT. Plenty of action but tempered with plot, it's not just fighting. There is INFINITE slash potential - the two leads have a complicated and wonderful relationship (someone once described it as a love story without sex) and most of the other characters have someone who either seems in love with them or someone they are in love with! It's got angst - I think every main character has some dark thing in their past - but all the angst is covered up by the fact that the characters are wonderfully dorky and humourous. It's exciting and there's mysteries galore to try and solve. I absolutely adore and love it. There are scans out there somewhere but I couldn't tell you where - I buy it! (just to warn you about the only bit that really grates, most of the girls who do anything fighting relating get their clothes torn/burned/destoryed. And one of them never wears very much anyway. It's a shonen series and I generally just mumble and concentrate on whatever the next slashy bit is! The only other problem is that it takes a few volumes to totally get into the swing but the first volumes are still great fun!)

(um yes. I love Getbackers a lot. Could you tell?)

Yellow. It's short, only four volumes long but it's one of the best yaoi serieses I've actually read. Definite sharings of angst and humour and very hot chemistry between the leads. And there's a great plot to it too. Again, no idea about scans though. (I don't really do scans)

Tokyo Babylon is one I like a lot. Very angsty but still genuinely funny too. And there's buckets of slash in there.

I'll leave it at that for now! :D Hope I didn't bore you!

[neko4.livejournal.com]

Count Cain? :D

It's Kaori Yuki, victorian England, poison, murder, scandal, and a pretty main character with a Very Devoted butler.

The second (saner) half of the series has been licensed, but volumes 1-5 are up for grabbing here (http://sakuracrisis.ukepile.com/).