Which manga is the best?

[PlatinumJester]

What manga is the best out of: naruto, one piece, bleach, GTO, Initial D, Battle Royale, Dragon Ball series, Negima, Love Hina, AI Love You, .Hack, DN Angel, Rurouni Kenshin, Samurai Champloo, Yu Gi Oh, Shaman King, Sailor Moon, Gundam, Cowboy Bebop or Golden Boy?

[Midnight Lurker]

Well, you said "manga," not anime, so Sailor Moon is out of the running. (That's just about the only one I can think of where I love the TV show but think the comic is crap, instead of the other way around.)

Of the others, it's a tough choice between Naruto, Negima, Rurouni Kenshin, and Shaman King.

I'm going to have to say Negima, but ask on another day and you might get a different answer...

[talsine]

wow, all of those suck. Except for Sailor Moon, i though the manga was much much better than the series. I'd concider broadening your horizens a little and checking out some older stuff like Grey, Horrobi, Akira, Fist of the North Star, Guyver, hell, even Astroboy.

[Indon]

You have neither Hellsing nor Berserk on that list, and thus I can not in good conscience answer the given question.

[Midnight Lurker]

wow, all of those suck. Except for Sailor Moon, i though the manga was much much better than the series. I'd concider broadening your horizens a little and checking out some older stuff like Grey, Horrobi, Akira, Fist of the North Star, Guyver, hell, even Astroboy.

Does Guyver really count as "older" when it's the only one on that list that's still running?

[Behold_the_Void]

I've heard good things about Battle Royale, but it's not my thing.

Naruto's... OK. For awhile. I stopped after Tsunade, and it really works better in anime format.

Bleach I quite enjoy, good Shounen fun with a large cast of awesome characters and a respectable plot.

One Piece I never could get into, but apparently it's funny.

GTO I have the first volume of and it definitely interested me, but it's hard to find the right books so I don't know if I'll ever pick it up again.

Negima and Love Hina my friend absolutely adores. They're not bad, good artwork, and a metric crapton of fanservice. Hit or miss, take it or leave it I'd say.

AI Love You I've never read nor have I heard anyone talk about or even mention it, which in and of itself is probably a negative recommendation of sorts.

.Hack's only manga is Legend of the Twilight Bracelet, which is fun but not extraordinary. 3 volumes though make it easily doable.

DN Angel I've heard good things about. I saw the anime which was decent, the manga is apparently a lot better.

Rurouni Kenshin I have read and enjoyed in its entirety, a solid shounen series with some good arcs and characters.

Samurai Champloo I've only seen one anime episode of. I've heard good things though.

Shaman King's decent, nothing special but it has its interesting points.

Sailor Moon is apparently quite good but I never got into it.

There's a lot of Gundam. It's apparently quite hit-or-miss too. I think SEED, if it has a manga, was the best, from what I've heard.


Cowboy Bebop's anime was apparently good, I think I recall hearing the manga wasn't quite so good but probably worth checking out.

Dunno about Golden Boy, I think I recall hearing the anime series is heavy ecchi/actually hentai.

Honestly, I say screw all that and get Genshiken. Freakin' amazing series.

Then Bleach. Bleach is a lot of fun.

[Poison_Fish]

I've said so in many areas, and I'll stick to it. Blade of the Immortal.

[Dragor]

I second for the inclusion of Hellsing. My first and my favourite manga- who can beat Alucard for coolness?

(Please don't hit me! It was a rhetorical question!)

[Setra]

I second for the inclusion of Hellsing. My first and my favourite manga- who can beat Alucard for coolness?

(Please don't hit me! It was a rhetorical question!)
I know it's rhetorical, alas, I must answer.

Me :smalltongue:

Anyways, of the ones listed I'd go for Bleach, I guess. However my favorite, would have to be Berserk.

[Innis Cabal]

. hack has more then 3 manga, more like 10. There is A.I Buster(2), .Zero(1), Another Birth(4), Legend of twilight(3) and thats all the stuff that canon, oh and i like the .hack series as a whole if you havent noticed

Like Naruto, dislike the anime
Bleach, never really got into really dont like things that large.
R.O.D is amazing and should be added to the list
So should Deathnote, pure genius and beauty

[B-Man]

I'd have to say, include Hellsing. But from the list, it's a between Naruto, Bleach, and Rurouni Kenshin.

And another one that you've missed is Death Note.

[DarkEternal]

Rurouni Kenshin is pretty good. Didn't yet start on One Piece manga so I can't tell, but the anime is bloody amazing and I can't remember the last time an anime show, let alone a show that has over 300 episodes so far managed to intrigue me that much.

Still, I would reccomend that if you really want a damn good manga to check out Berserk. It is filled with scenes that might make you queasy so if that is not your thing, to see brutality at it's finest skip it. Otherwise, definetelly check it out. Also noteworthy would be Jojo's bizzare adventure.

[Innis Cabal]

ah i forgot beserk! Amazing

[Abacab]

Out of those, I would say Rurouni Kenshin. I used to like Naruto a lot, but since it's been popular I don't like the crazy fans it can sometimes attract (not that everyone that is a fan is insane) and that other people that are not interested in anime make fun of Naruto fans. Bleach is pretty funny, but I don't love it. And I have never considered even liking the other mangas on that list.

And anyways, who can resist samurai battles, humor, and a main character that protects the weak? I certainly can't.

(But if you wanted to ask me my absolute favorite manga, I would have to say Ode to Kirihito by Osamu Tezuka. A brilliant, absolutely amazing 800 pages worth of medical mystery goodness.)

[Bassetking]

One Piece, hands down.

Well built characters, and an overwhelmingly engaging world.

Forget your brooding anti-heros, and your conflicted "With great power comes great responsibility" Shinigami's without a cause...

Give me a man who fights for his family, and his dream, and will tear down anything that stands between him and his goals.

I'm with Monkey D. Luffy

[Finn Solomon]

Love Hina. All those cute girls who love to visit hot springs. Fine by me.

[Setra]

Like Naruto, dislike the anime
Bleach, never really got into really dont like things that large.
Isn't Naruto larger than Bleach?

At least it seemed that way.

[Abacab]

Isn't Naruto larger than Bleach?

At least it seemed that way.

I got the impression that the Naruto anime was more anticipated in America than Bleach. I remember seeing pictures in a magazine of a group of about 50 people cosplaying Naruto (y'know, the character). Both series' have a very large fandom, but Naruto is probably larger because it seems to have a wider age group. To me, Bleach seems to be a more mature anime/manga.

[InuSaga]

InuYasha. Feel free to disagree, it wasn't even a choice, but I vote InuYasha.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Isn't Naruto larger than Bleach?

At least it seemed that way.

Naruto has been going on longer than Bleach but Naruto has a smaller central caste. Naruto does have moments like the Chunin exam full of characters but most of them don't reappear. Bleach rarely kills off any characters so they'll all still there and are tyed into the story enough that they have a chance of reappearing.

[Ska Mystic]

GTO all the way.

[Nightwing]

the only good manga is a dead manga.

[The 8th Sin]

I'm an anime person, not a manga person; I've only read .Hack, Full Metal Alchemist, Cowboy Bebop, Othello, and Trigun in my entire life (and only fragments of each of these series') I would love to comment on anime, but this isn't exactly the best thread, so I say Trigun. (FMA should be on the list too, by the way.)

[Setra]

the only good manga is a dead manga.
So... Hellsing?

[GoufCustom]

While many of those are good, I'd probably have to say One Piece.

And yes, Death Note must be added to the list. It's far too awesome not to be. I'm also enjoying D. Gray Man, myself.

[Teal Kuinshi]

Bleach. Hands down.

[Innis Cabal]

ya naruto is longer with its second line of manga but as someone said cast is small, never got into Bleach, after the first 3 manga just got to be a little boring....but Deathnote and Berserk all the way. Violence, storyline yes please!

[Indon]

So... Hellsing?

That's an undead manga.

The first couple volumes of Yuyu Hakusho qualify as a dead manga, I'd say.

[Akaziel]

Yep, Death Note and the .hack series all the way.

[Innis Cabal]

ah a fellow .hacker, they seem to be so few in number

[Disposablecat]

Going to have to go with Blade of the Immortal.

[karmuno]

DeathNote's my favorite (especially the first few volumes, then it goes downhill, but it's starting to come back up. I don't know where it's going, because, to the best of my knowledge, the series hasn't ended in the United States, and I can't read Japanese). Out of the one's you listed, though, I'd have to pick Rurouni Kenshin, because Samurai are awesome, especially when they're not allowed to kill people but still kick ass. Shaman King and Naruto are good too. One Piece has its moments, but out of those definitely Rurouni Kenshin.

[Setra]

That's an undead manga.

The first couple volumes of Yuyu Hakusho qualify as a dead manga, I'd say.
Regardless, it still has one of the funnier moments that I can remember.

"Holy Cheese on Rye!"

[TheOtherMC]

Regardless, it still has one of the funnier moments that I can remember.

"Holy Cheese on Rye!"

Yet somehow I don't remember that......ELABORATE FIEND!!!

[PlatinumJester]

OK im nowing saying it can be any manga/anime

[H. Zee]

For me, it's easily Bleach. I agree that it has a huge number of characters, but Naruto's cast is almost as large and I like almost every single character in Bleach much more than I like anyone in Naruto. Bleach is funny, action-packed and has a respectable plot, and a lot of really good characters. What is there not to like?

The only other mangas I've read are Naruto, Cowboy Bebop and Death Note, though, so I can't properly compare Bleach to some other mangas.

[Piedmon_Sama]

Dragonball, it's the real Slim Shady.

All these other Slim Shadies are just imitatin'.

[TheOtherMC]

Take a look at my avatar....Ill give you a hint. It starts with B-L-E-A-C.....

[MethodicalMeat]

I'm going to have to go with Dragonball on this one, but Negima and Naruto are close behind.

[EvilElitest]

What manga is the best out of: naruto, one piece, bleach, GTO, Initial D, Battle Royale, Dragon Ball series, Negima, Love Hina, AI Love You, .Hack, DN Angel, Rurouni Kenshin, Samurai Champloo, Yu Gi Oh, Shaman King, Sailor Moon, Gundam, Cowboy Bebop or Golden Boy?

What about FMA and Deathnote? Though i rather like Rurouni Kenshin.
from,
EE

[B-Man]

My favourite anime is Samurai Champloo. It's just so... different (IMO)... that it easily beats Bleach and Naruto Shippuuden (even though I am a Narutard at heart). I've never really liked Bleach's large cast and the Naruto filler killed the anime (that, and the 5-10 of flashback per episode). I've recently began watching Mahou Sensei Negima! after reading the first couple of volumes of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, but I have to say that it is rather hilarious! It's just so random! I really enjoyed the Samurai X OVAs, but I haven't had a chance to watch the serialised animation.

[Thugorp]

sorry just doing a little test

[GoufCustom]

Manga might be hard to acquire in a (legit) readable form, but the anime I know has been released domestically.

Hajime no Ippo, or Fighting Spirit in the English anime. Boxing anime, and it is completely awesome. Great characters, hilarity, and amazing, non-repetitive fights.

Takashi Sendo for the win.

[DarkEternal]

Ahhh yes, I forgot to mention. If you do feel manly enough for the Jojo and Berserk series, then also check out Fist of the North star(Hokuto no Ken) manga. The amount of manliness within could very well make a world implode.

[Nathander]

Out of those given, I would have to say that the best of them is Rurouni Kenshin. Simply an amazing and solid shounen manga. However, Bleach and Battle Royale would run a close second.

However, the best manga I can think of you don't have in your list: Hellsing. I can give three reasons as to why it needs to be in that list:

1. Alucard
2. Father Alexander Anderson
3. Vampire Nazis being mercilessly slaughtered by a vampiric demi-god after they decide to invade his master's homeland

There are more and more reasons I could give, but those are the main three that spring to mind as to why Hellsing is so great.

[Indon]

I'm going to have to go with Dragonball on this one, but Negima and Naruto are close behind.

You know, the manga is way better than the anime is. Probably because there's no filler, so all the good parts are right next to each other without 10 minutes of screaming and stock combat footage between them.

[pendell]

Nobody else mentioned Lone Wolf and Cub (http://www.amazon.com/Lone-Wolf-Cub-Vol-Assassins/dp/1569715025/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-1656603-0832619?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177605846&sr=8-2), by Koike and Kojima?

Classic stuff, folks.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Midnight Lurker]

You know, the manga is way better than the anime is. Probably because there's no filler, so all the good parts are right next to each other without 10 minutes of screaming and stock combat footage between them.

Exactly.

Good grief I hate that anime.

[Choas_Dragoon]

Honestly, you left out Yu Yu Hakusho, my personal favorite.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Blade of the Immortal, although I drastically prefer American comics.

Because Sin City is win.

[DeathQuaker]

What manga is the best out of: naruto, one piece, bleach, GTO, Initial D, Battle Royale, Dragon Ball series, Negima, Love Hina, AI Love You, .Hack, DN Angel, Rurouni Kenshin, Samurai Champloo, Yu Gi Oh, Shaman King, Sailor Moon, Gundam, Cowboy Bebop or Golden Boy?

Of those, I've only collected Love Hina; a few others I've flipped through and others I'd not touch in a million years. (Yu Gi Oh? Isn't that an elongated toy advertisement or something?). I've heard good things about Bleach and One Piece.

My favorite manga is probably Read or Dream. For shoujo manga, Revolutionary Girl Utena. Also recently finished reading the Suikoden III manga which was surprisingly fantastic.

[Tengu]

The only manga I'm currently reading is FMA, so guess what'd be my choice.
Though I've seen the first book of Blade of the Immortal and it looks great.

[mandarinka]

Well, Hellsing is sick, if interestingly drawn. /Funny a bit also, to see one weird otaku's idea of "Good old England" (plus Protestants vs. Catholics, lol), but hey!/

Trigun is very good title. It's well-drawn, protagonist is a highly likeable person ("Why, man, I could have three pieces of pizza for the price of one round!"). It's a manga that tries to be a little different...

My personall favourites though are Masamune Shirow's works. He is pretty skilled, can write in an intelligent fashion a and what's more he can really make it into fun (Dominion? and those Fuchikoma things?). While Trigun might be better in many regards, as a cyberpunk believer through and through, what else should I say than


* G H O S T . I N . T H E . S H E L L *

!

[Amotis]

I love Nana.

http://lucid-fire.net/minus-one/costumes/nana/nana01-original.png

[Setra]

Yet somehow I don't remember that......ELABORATE FIEND!!!
When Yusuke recently came back from the dead, and was fighting the demon with the Orb that steals Souls.

I believe he says it when the guy shows off his demon form.

I believe it was in a random Manga book I picked up. I don't think it was a direct translation either (which likely was "Holy ****")

[General Leitmann]

AKIRA for the win.

[elliott20]

this is like asking me to pick a favorite painting, or a favorite movie. Without any strong factors really affecting my decision, that's basically a practice in futility.

That and I'm not really THAT into anime or manga. (The only reason I have passable knowledge about it is because I grew up with the stuff)

I personally don't like most shounen comics, it gets a little stupid on the whole "power up" thing where they feel like the only way they can write a good story is show who is a better warrior than who. That and they're starting to drag things out, which is getting annoying. It also has a bad habit of making the world horribly insular, where it seems like only people who does so and so will ever matter. So in a ninja comic? ninjas are the ultimate forces. Nay, in fact, you almost never meet anyone who is NOT a ninja.

and then you have the convention where friggin' idiot feels the need to brag and boast about how bad ass he is and how pathetically weak and crappy the other guy is. they do it so much you'd think they're compensating for something. And of course, once they get defeated, the next guy shows up doing THE EXACT SAME DISPLAY OF IDIOCY.

Having said that there are a number of mangas that I think are worth commenting on.

Naruto: good start, good premise, and most of the character development is actually pretty creative. But it's starting to show signs of characters being just plain "ridiculously powerful" as opposed to "creatively powerful".

One Piece: For a shounen fighting/adventure comic, it's actually manage to keep itself rather fresh and the characters are all very interesting. What I like even more is the fact that old villains don't just get written out of the storyline. They come back in interesting little ways.

Battle Angel Alita: I can't believe nobody has named this manga yet. You have post apocolyptic sci-fi, cyborgs, martial arts, and characters that are ironically far more human than most other manga/anime characters. The books characterization is also a bit more interesting.

[elliott20]

this is like asking me to pick a favorite painting, or a favorite movie. Without any strong factors really affecting my decision, that's basically a practice in futility.

That and I'm not really THAT into anime or manga. (The only reason I have passable knowledge about it is because I grew up with the stuff)

I personally don't like most shounen comics, it gets a little stupid on the whole "power up" thing where they feel like the only way they can write a good story is show who is a better warrior than who. That and they're starting to drag things out, which is getting annoying. It also has a bad habit of making the world horribly insular, where it seems like only people who does so and so will ever matter. So in a ninja comic? ninjas are the ultimate forces. Nay, in fact, you almost never meet anyone who is NOT a ninja.

and then you have the convention where friggin' idiot feels the need to brag and boast about how bad ass he is and how pathetically weak and crappy the other guy is. they do it so much you'd think they're compensating for something. And of course, once they get defeated, the next guy shows up doing THE EXACT SAME DISPLAY OF IDIOCY.

Having said that there are a number of mangas that I think are worth commenting on.

Naruto: good start, good premise, and most of the character development is actually pretty creative. But it's starting to show signs of characters being just plain "ridiculously powerful" as opposed to "creatively powerful".

One Piece: For a shounen fighting/adventure comic, it's actually manage to keep itself rather fresh and the characters are all very interesting. What I like even more is the fact that old villains don't just get written out of the storyline. They come back in interesting little ways.

Battle Angel Alita: I can't believe nobody has named this manga yet. You have post apocolyptic sci-fi, cyborgs, martial arts, and characters that are ironically far more human than most other manga/anime characters. The books characterization is also a bit more interesting.

[Dairun Cates]

AKIRA for the win.

CANADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

[Drascin]

ah a fellow .hacker, they seem to be so few in number

Nah, not as few as you seem to think. You can count one more here, though, if that helps, 'cause I love the whole .Hack setup :smallbiggrin:.

As to the OP's question, only taking manga into account, not anime... Berserk wins. Hands down. Nice story, the fight scenes aren't like most (the main feeling you get isn't "that's cool", like in so many stories... in Berserk, the feel is usually "...that's just... wow... I.. I mean, I wouldn't want to go like that". Which is what fights are, after all: people dying horribly and stupidly :smallamused:), and all the characters are so darn warped you really can't separate good from evil anymore. All in all, interesting ^^.

EDIT:


OK im nowing saying it can be any manga/animeOk, then. In anime, from the top of my head I'm getting a tie between Shin Sheiki Evangelion (mainly due to the impact it had on me. Watching this series when you are about the same age as the protagonists is somewhat... unsettling :P) or Suzumiya Haruhi, both anime and novels, for some reason I really can't discern myself (I simply love this series. Damned if I know why, but it ticks with me to a level few series have ever approached, and I like pretty much every character in the series, which is exceedingly rare in me)

[Mr. Mud]

What manga is the best out of: naruto, one piece, bleach, GTO, Initial D, Battle Royale, Dragon Ball series, Negima, Love Hina, AI Love You, .Hack, DN Angel, Rurouni Kenshin, Samurai Champloo, Yu Gi Oh, Shaman King, Sailor Moon, Gundam, Cowboy Bebop or Golden Boy?

I agree for the most part but Inu Yasha is discountiued But i HIGHLY recomend it, also naruto is getting good. :smallcool:

[Nathander]

AKIRA for the win.

Good God, that manga was incredible. I'll actually have to admit that, unfortunately, reading the manga first kinda made ruined the anime for me a bit, as it just fell a bit too short of what I felt it should have been.

[Abacab]

Yes, there's something special about Evangelion that I can't quite place... they were so messed up and it made you feel good that you aren't in a post-apocalyptic situation.

In my mind, The Record of Lodoss War OAV rocks. I love it because it had that RPG feel (what can I say, I'm a huge fan of RPGs) but the main character didn't become the greatest warrior, unlike many RPGs today. It was also funny at times and I had a good time watching it.

Macross is really good too. I saw the the Do You Remember Love movie
about a year ago and I love Minmei's singing, although I find her annoying.

[Konig]

I'm not into the Shounen Jump rags. They can be nice, but enough of Naruto, Inuyasha and the like, and they start blending into one another. "I must get stronger!"

Personally:
Akira - It's the Lord of the Rings of manga, a postmodern classic, and absolutely massive, taking up a whole bookshelf in it's standard manga format (2,000+ pages).
Plot:A Delinquent has an accident while joyriding around a military base. He's picked up & experimented on, and manifests incredible powers that literally change the face of the earth.


Battle Angel - I'm not a sci-fi kinda person, but this one sucked me in wholesale. IMHO the best of the 'fighting manga'.
Plot:In a scrapyard town, a cybernetics doctor fishes a cyborg's head out of the scrapheap and discovers the brain still intact inside. He revives the girl (Alita) and gives her a body. The series is about Alita's journey to find her memories, her identity and answers.


Kare Kano - Totally different from the ones you listed, (Shoujo = girl anime; drama & romance) but IMHO one of the classiest Shoujo around. Beautiful characterization. Another Shoujo worth checking out is Mars. Real men read Shoujo.
Plot:Yukino appears to be a gorgeous, smart, athletic and talented young woman, top of her class... but she's hiding the grisly truth; it's all an act, and she works herself to the bone to glut herself on the praise of others. She engages in a fierce rivalry with Soichiro, another model student who bests her in the class rankings. He confesses to her, and she laughs in his face.
But when Yukino discovers Soichiro is maintaining his own facade for his own reasons, they become good friends, work together to drop the masks they've presented to others, and blossom into a beautifully flawed romance.


Negima - Love Hina was the first manga series I bought. IMHO, Negima (by the same author, released only recently) is far better. The shows are kind of derivative, but the manga series is a work of beauty.
Plot:A ten year old wizard-in-training is given his final assignment. He must successfully teach a class in an all girls high school. Dealing with 31 dysfunctional and bizarre teenagers might be bad enough, but Negi has another duty; every wizard has a partner of the opposite sex who he forms a Pactio with, granting them special abilities so they can protect the wizard while he/she casts spells. Negi must find a girl to form a permanent Pactio with, and he must keep his abilities a secret or be turned into a small animal in punishment.


Gantz - I'm liable to forget about it in a few months, but right now it sticks in my mind as a serious, gritty action series.
Plot:A psychedelic mind-bender of a series, people of all ages are rescued from the moment of their death, finding themselves in an apartment with a black sphere that calls itself Gantz. The Sphere equips them with incredibly powerful weapons and armor, and sends them to vanquish aliens. Not nearly as silly as it sounds.

[Kojiro Kakita]

Hmm, I have to second the people that say Berserk and Hellsing. Both are really well drawn, and both have entertaining story lines. (I would rate Berserk higher, but it comes out on such a long, long intervals).

But, if you were to ask what my favorite manga was, I would have to say Lone Wolf and Cub.