I'm looking for manga recommendations

[Elrik]

I'm basically hoping that someone can point me to enough anime/manga that can fill the current void in my inner fan's heart. At least until Legend of Korra rolls around, and then I can properly slack off and watch TV again.

I’m into Soul Eater, Durarara, Death Note, and early Bleach. I'm not fond of looking for stuff like Dragonball Z or Naruto.

I'm not really concerned with the setting, but I'm more interested in complex planning and manipulating (even if there's only a little) and character relationships, with maybe some fighting thrown in. I'm also a fan of world building.

tropes I'm into: Magnificent Bastards, Complete Monsters, Xanatos Gambits/Roulettes, Action Girls, Evilly Affable/ Affably Evil villains, Crazy Awesome, Ax Crazy.

[Terraoblivion]

Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. It's a pretty odd manga that can best be described as a seinen take on monster of the week where the monsters aren't really the important part. It is about the people chosen as champions of princess Anima as she opposes the evil wizard Animus who wants to destroy the world with the titular biscuit hammer, which is really just a huge hammer in orbit that he plans to drop on the world to destroy it. It focuses heavily on the character interactions between the main characters, with any attack by Animus' golems being a major event that they try to prepare for and worry about.

Another option that might be more cheerful than what you were initially looking at would be Mahou Sensei Negima. Don't let the first few chapters fool you, it's not harem but an action series marked by relatively short battles, intricate planning, a small legion of badass girls and villains who are often not that bad even though they have to be stopped. However, it does not have any complete monsters and people who are even partial monsters are quite rare. It also suffers from an overabundance of jokes involving clothing loss. But if you can deal with those two things it's a great manga with some very developed characters, many of whom are girls who are more than capable of taking care of themselves.

[Yora]

I’m into Soul Eater, Durarara, Death Note, and early Bleach. I'm not fond of looking for stuff like Dragonball Z or Naruto.
First, let my praise your good taste in selecting mangas. :smallbiggrin:

As for recommendations: Since you pretty much like the mangas I like, and dislike those I dislike, here are just some other mangas I enjoyed:

I highly recommend Monster. No fantastic elements and only a very tiny bit of Bond-science, but it's really, really good. A neurosurgeon gets a young boy on the table who got shot in the head and his parents killed, but some years later that boy is back and apparently out to ruin the surgeons life by making him the suspect in a series of weird murders. A bit like The Fugitive meets The Dark Knight. This is THE evil genius manga.
And I repeat the warning others have given me when recommending this manga: Once you start, you will try to read the whole thing in one 18 hour sitting. :smallbiggrin:

If you're into gritty science fiction (like Blade Runner), you should give the mangas of Shirow a try. Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed are two of my favorite mangas. Appleseed is an 80's action manga. More depths than a Schwarzenegger movie, but similar amounts of big guns and huge explosions. GitS is more complicated. Some chapters are rather straightforward "get the bad guy" plots, but the main storyline that becomes more important in the later chapters is some heavy stuff that goes more into philosophy.

I also like Ito Junji. I've read Uzumaki to see if you can really make a horror story in manga format. And yes, you totaly can! The most similar thing I can think of are Lovecraft stories, but Uzumaki is a lot longer and more complex and does not boil down to one individual incident. This one starts slow to eventually build up to more and more weird proportions. Since it's a manga, it has no jump scares and the gore is limited, so it much more focuses on being actually creepy, which I like a lot.

[H Birchgrove]

Lone Wolf and Cub, if you haven't read it yet.

I don't read much manga.

[Moonshadow]

You want Mirai Nikki, my good man. That has more than enough Ax Crazy for anyone.

[Tengu_temp]

Seconding Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer - that manga is awesome and definitely needs more love. And if you're in the mood for something serious, Monster sounds like something right up your alley.

[Akiosama]

I'm gonna step up and suggest Bastard!!, then, though I don't know if it's printed in English. That meets a lot of your criteria, but due to a lot of copyright infringement stuff - a lot of the things named in it are named after rock/metal bands without their permission - it's not an easy find. But it sounds perfect for what you're after.

Other than that, I'd probably suggest -

Elfen Lied - excellent action, graphic violence, kick-ass girls, and a fairly decent plot.

Ikkitousen - don't let this suggestion fool you - I thought the story was pretty interesting and the action was decent, with a lot of fairly unique characters. It is very T&A-happy, though... Same with Tenjou Tenge.

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Manga is very different from the anime - and much more interesting, IMO. Characters are stronger, more individualistic than they were in the anime, and the plot twists are more pronounced. Definitely a decent read.

Just a few suggestions. Happy hunting!

My 2 yen,

Akiosama

[Yora]

Oh yes, forgot about Elfen Lied. The manga is really good, but the anime is really bad and is missing all the important stuff from the manga. It's like watching a horror movie that ends before any monsters appear.

I'm just about to read NGE again. I'm writing my bachelors thesis about NGE, GitS, and Phoenix. This will be awesome. :smallbiggrin:

[Xondoure]

Fullmetal Alchemist (because someone had to say it) is awesome, and sufficiently dark in places to go along with the others you gave as examples, in my opinion anyways.

Also Bakuman is very good if a bit different.

[Teutonic Knight]

Thirding Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. See above (2). And Bakuman.

Other than that, based on your interests, you might want to check out En Passant, a chess themed shounen manga with personal powers (the main character has reality bending stuff) some manipulation. Not so sure because I lost interest around the 13th chapter, but I think I'll start again after this.

More like Bleach and the others is Code:Breaker. Lots of manipulation and secrets and special powers. The male protagonist burns sinners with blue flame. There's a magnetism guy, and sound guy, and a light guy. The sound guy is my favorite. Might get too shounen-fighty though.

Third would be Gamble Fish, though this is a tentative one. It's based around gambling, obviously, with the antagonist being a literal monster (he looks like tall, skinny, bald goblin, who works at an academy). Protagonist is a genuis/prodigy type, of course, setting out to win/scam a set amount of money from the people at the school. I don't know. Check it out.

[IcarusWings]

Sounds like you might be interested in Claymore, it's kinda' like a cross between Bleach and fantasy. It's done extremely well, and I heartily recommend it. It also has a large share of most of the tropes you mentioned, so it does sound like it would be a good fit.

[RedBeardJim]

Fullmetal Alchemist (because someone had to say it) is awesome, and sufficiently dark in places to go along with the others you gave as examples, in my opinion anyways.

It is awesome, and it hits every single one of the OP's trope list.

[AtlanteanTroll]

I recommend Gantz. But if, and only if, if you don't mind obscene amounts of violence and some sex.

[Mind Fillet]

I'd like to also say that Elfen Lied is awesome. I thought that the anime was good while the manga was the best manga I had ever read ever in my life.

[Private-Prinny]

Depending on how much complex planning you want, you may want to check out Liar Game. A fairly naive girl is dragged into an extremely high stakes tournament comprised of games with heavy psychological undertones. It's currently on hiatus, but all of the current arcs are complete.

[turkishproverb]

Offhand:

Akira

Twentieth Century Boys

Pluto

Monster

Skull Man

[Soras Teva Gee]

Another option that might be more cheerful than what you were initially looking at would be Mahou Sensei Negima. Don't let the first few chapters fool you, it's not harem but an action series marked by relatively short battles, intricate planning, a small legion of badass girls and villains who are often not that bad even though they have to be stopped. However, it does not have any complete monsters and people who are even partial monsters are quite rare. It also suffers from an overabundance of jokes involving clothing loss. But if you can deal with those two things it's a great manga with some very developed characters, many of whom are girls who are more than capable of taking care of themselves.

I will second everything here.

And I will add that the series spread all sorts of love on just about everything to do with the fantasy/RPG genre, while also showering love on the martial arts genre, and if less still shows some love for the sci-fi genre as well.

Also when the series gets in gear it has more Crazy Awesome type over the topness then anything this side of TTGL. And that's not including "That Damn Guy Who You Can Stab With Swords All You Like And It Won't Do A Thing, Dammit." (actual nickname)

However if you are looking for villains to hate you won't find them here.

[Asheram]

Action:

Needs more Battle Angel Alita! (manga damnit, not the anime! NOT THE ANIME!)

Deadman Wonderland

Full Metal Panic

Kekkaishi

Kiseijuu (Parasyte in the US)

Project Arms

Comedy:

Angel Densetsu

Midori no Hibi

School Rumble

[Elrik]

First, let my praise your good taste in selecting mangas. :smallbiggrin:

Why thank you! :smallbiggrin:


I highly recommend Monster. No fantastic elements and only a very tiny bit of Bond-science, but it's really, really good. A neurosurgeon gets a young boy on the table who got shot in the head and his parents killed, but some years later that boy is back and apparently out to ruin the surgeons life by making him the suspect in a series of weird murders. A bit like The Fugitive meets The Dark Knight. This is THE evil genius manga. And I repeat the warning others have given me when recommending this manga: Once you start, you will try to read the whole thing in one 18 hour sitting. :smallbiggrin:

I knew I was going to get told to read this eventually. Johan sounds like the best kind of antagonist, really. I'm ashamed of having not looked into this series yet.


Mahou Sensei Negima. Don't let the first few chapters fool you, it's not harem but an action series marked by relatively short battles, intricate planning, a small legion of badass girls and villains who are often not that bad even though they have to be stopped. However, it does not have any complete monsters and people who are even partial monsters are quite rare. It also suffers from an overabundance of jokes involving clothing loss. But if you can deal with those two things it's a great manga with some very developed characters, many of whom are girls who are more than capable of taking care of themselves.

That's totally fine, as long as the "intricate planning" villain part is there I'll jump on board. I'm a sucker for those kind of things. I've read a few chapters and I like it already. TV Tropes also drops alot of references to this work apparently, it must be worth the hype.

I'll also probably look into Fullmetal Alchemist, it's also something I keep hearing good things about, but brush aside because I'm too busy.

[jazylh]

Shaman King, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Beelsebub & Rahl Nur. All are great.

[Elrik]

Shaman King, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Beelsebub & Rahl Nur. All are great.

Hm. I've heard of Beelzebub, but I typed Rahl Nur into google and didn't find anything. Is it spelled wrong?

[Elrik]

Thank you all for the replies!

I'm probably also going to also try and find the anime series and watch Negima, Monster, and Fullmetal Alchemist. My cousin is a bit of an anime snob in some aspects but even he thought FMA was incredible, and I watched a bit of it on saturday after Durarara!! and it looked a little more lively compared to the animation Bleach and Durarara!! have to work with.

[tribble]

There's a manga version of Code Geass that takes out the mecha. It's called Lelouch of the Rebellion, I think, and it's pretty good.

[WoodStock_PV]

I have some suggestions:

"Adolf", written by Osamu Tezuka is great and has all the tropes you like, well.. except one.

Here's a link for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_(manga)

Another great manga is "Bastard!!", it's really cool and full of action (and a some naughtiness too). The creator of this manga based much of his story around D&D settings and quirks.

Here is another link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastard%E2%80%BC

My final recomendation based on the tropes you like is "Battle Royale". It's an extremely violent manga, but also a good one, it has some twists and the ending, althoug predictable, is very good.

My final link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Royale_(manga)

[H Birchgrove]

Batman: Child of Dreams drawn by Kia Asamiya and written by Max Allan Collins (**** Tracy, Ms. Tree, Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger, Road to Perdition, Nate Heller and Elliot Ness series of novels, etc). OK, I haven't read it (yet), but I like Max Allan Collins and you may have heard about the artist. The plot seems interesting.

From a Swedish online store:
When a crime spree takes the Dark Knight from the familiar turf of Gotham City across the globe to Tokyo, he finds himself locked in mortal combat with his greatest enemies...but are they really what they appear to be? Is Batman truly at war with The Joker, The Riddler, Two-Face, The Penguin, and Catwoman - or are they just bizarre simulations brought on by Fanatic, a new drug that's hit the mean streets of Gotham City? Batman soon learns that Fanatic turns would-be super-villains into facsimiles of the genuine article...with just one hitch: After a few hours, they melt down into mummified corpses! Now it's up to Batman to put a decisive stop to the chaos caused by Fanatic, even if the battle takes him to another continent!

[deuxhero]

Yuru Yuri/Yuri Yuri, Strawberry Panic!, Shiroi Heya no Futari

>_>

[Gilphon]

Depending on how much complex planning you want, you may want to check out Liar Game. A fairly naive girl is dragged into an extremely high stakes tournament comprised of games with heavy psychological undertones. It's currently on hiatus, but all of the current arcs are complete.

Seconding this.

[Ursus the Grim]

Magnificent Bastards, Complete Monsters, Xanatos Gambits/Roulettes, Action Girls, Evilly Affable/ Affably Evil villains, Crazy Awesome, Ax Crazy.


I highly recommend Monster. No fantastic elements and only a very tiny bit of Bond-science, but it's really, really good. A neurosurgeon gets a young boy on the table who got shot in the head and his parents killed, but some years later that boy is back and apparently out to ruin the surgeons life by making him the suspect in a series of weird murders. A bit like The Fugitive meets The Dark Knight. This is THE evil genius manga.
And I repeat the warning others have given me when recommending this manga: Once you start, you will try to read the whole thing in one 18 hour sitting. :smallbiggrin:

I have to second this. This manga is the reason I didn't get any work done at my summer job last year.

Gantz was mentioned.
Ultra-violent and exploding with fan-service. Dead people are resurrected to do battle with aliens in a twisted game. Things get plotty near the end, and its supposedly wrapping up. I found myself desensitized to it after a while, even as the horror got worse and worse. Still, I continue to read it. It hits a few of the tropes, and is long enough to keep you occupied for a while.

Ax Crazy, one of the 'protaganists'. Though you kinda have to be to survive.
Action Girl. One or two fakes, but a few legitimate examples.
Complete Monster. The manga itself.

If you like Monster, check out Oldboy.
Its a revenge story, with a decent film adaptation, possessing one of my favorite scenes to date. The protagonist, though very rough around the edges, is fairly likable, and its always fun to cheer for a badass. Much like Monster, the antagonist continues to toy with him in similar ways.