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Posted by: Wesley Street Feb 23 2009, 10:10 PM

I've been a comics reader for as long as I can remember and I started picking up manga books about 15 years ago. It seemed like manga was the only place where I could get a good sci-fi or non-superhero action story. Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Battle Angel Alita, Gunsmith Cats, Planetes, Battle Royale, et cetera pumped me up and have set the tone for many of my Shadowrun games.

On a weekend and on a whim I walked the manga rows of my local Borders bookstore. I saw title after title of the following:

- kids books (cool, I like it when kids have comics to read)
- fantasy (I think the Europeans do it better but that's cool...)
- shojo romance (pubescent girls need books to read too)
- action books staring high school girls with big knockers and lecherous cops (ummm... no?)
- yaoi
- yaoi
- yaoi
- yaoi
- yaoi (?!?!?)
- Sgt. Frog

Okay, the ladies like the sensitive-dude-on-sensitive-dude action. But there was more of that than there was of the traditional sci-fi staples. Except for the phone book reprints of Akira and adaptations of anime shows like Cowboy Beebop I saw no other sci-fi books. Is there anything good post 2002 or so in the way of manga or manwah or have sci-fi/post-cyberpunk comics bit the dust? If anyone has recommendations for recently released titles, please post them here. I have an itch that needs to be scratched.

Posted by: Adarael Feb 23 2009, 11:20 PM

Now, I have no RECENT recommendations, but unless you've read all of Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, you're missing out. Sure, it's from the mid-80s, but they reprinted it in around 2005-2006 in collected form.

No, really. It's a f'ing masterpiece.

Posted by: PBTHHHHT Feb 24 2009, 02:14 AM

I second that. I absolutely loved it.

Other series would be Appleseed (also by Masamune Shirow), the manga is much more enjoyable than the movies that came out. Though, there are only 4 main books and then two smaller books (one's a databook, the other is an odd one) that have a little bit of stories in them.

Posted by: Kagetenshi Feb 24 2009, 03:26 AM

I've got some recommendations; I've stopped reading manga in English, but at least some should be translated.

Sci-fi-ish:

Gantz. I'm really not sure how to describe it; people die and then get sent to kill things by a big black ball that is also an asshole. It is amazing, even if my meager description ability might not make it sound like it.

Gunslinger Girl. Italian cyborg little girl assassins. Fairly introspective; a great deal of time is spent on the tension the handlers experience from working day-to-day with a bunch of sweet little girls who have been turned into mostly-mechanical weapons.

Elfen Lied: mutant experiment gets loose, rampages. Story vacillates between people killing each other violently and the everyday lives of the main characters.

Ibara no Oo/King of Thorns: targeted at a slightly younger audience, still very entertaining. I don't really know how to describe it

Blame!: this is another one I really don't know how to describe. Futuristic, post-apocalyptic but not in a traditional sense.


Action:

Basilisk. Ninja, with all the awesome you would expect.

Berserk. A little rough at the beginning, but becomes an incredibly well-done mediaeval black fantasy (with most of the fantasy elements being absent for something like eight of the first twelve volumes).

Black Lagoon: you were looking for ideas for Shadowrun? A group of ostensibly smugglers, in practice general criminals-for-hire do… um, illegal things. Lots of very illegal things.

Duds Hunt: a game where the players are given electronic markers, and the object is to seize the markers of other players by any means necessary. Not a deep concept, but it fills one volume quite nicely.


More recommendations when I remember them.

~J

Posted by: Shinobi Killfist Feb 24 2009, 04:32 AM

it might fall into your kids section, but Bleach maybe. A bunch of physical mages and adepts running around stopping spirits from crossing over and feeding on humanities souls. Sure its not in the future, but an alternate present, but other than the standard I take unrealistic damage and fight on like I'm not hurt thing it has a bit of a SR feel to me. I like the genre it falls in even if I am well outside its target audience. I'm more of a one piece fan though.

Posted by: ravensmuse Feb 24 2009, 12:22 PM

Second the Bleach recommendation - just avoid the fans. Also, it's a shonen manga, so you're going to get some "I'm powering up! I'M POWERING UP!" garbage in there. Lightly at first, but by the third or fourth arc it gets kind of bad sometimes.

On the other hand, it's immensely cool and has a real style to it; Tite Kubo is an awesome artist and a great storyteller and he's been weaving bits and pieces of the larger plot throughout the manga. Bleach has a heavy Mexican flavor to it and a huge cast list. I think they're starting to wrap it up now too, so get in while you can.

I'm also a big fan of Tenjo Tenge. I'll just repeat what I said in one of my recent posts -

Posted by: Kagetenshi Feb 24 2009, 01:04 PM

It's also by Oh! great, king of fanservice. Whether or not that's a good thing depends entirely on whether or not you like that kind of thing.

~J

Posted by: ravensmuse Feb 24 2009, 01:31 PM

Let's just be straight and to the point here: Oh!Great does porn. He does weird, out there, Shirow-esque porn, and it leaks out into his straight manga occassionally. This is not a bad thing, but does result in some oddities (said seventeen year old in an eight year old body).

Posted by: Wesley Street Feb 24 2009, 02:36 PM

Is this what the anime is based on or is it a parallel product like TokyoPop's Cowboy Bebop books? Same question about the Black Lagoon books (I actually did flip through those and the first volume I looked at seemed to be a direct-to-comics adaptation of the TV show).


Um, yes. So long as it's anything other than up-schoolgirls' panties shots I can do. Nudity, ridiculously tight jumpsuit, etc. are all groovy in my book. But the Japanese fetish for school girls kinda grosses me out which is why I quit reading Rose Hip Zero.


I like Shirow and I like Shirow's cheesecake so this might be a good fit for me. The Major in GitS 2: Man-Machine Interface was sexy as anything in her tight future-pants... without being super-porn-y. Yeah, the "cowgirl" from his series of erotic prints was weird and tentacles are always laughably bad but the rest of his stuff is pretty cool. You have to respect an artist who puts that much time and detail into an image of a woman sweating in a jungle.

Posted by: Kagetenshi Feb 24 2009, 04:08 PM

Yes, it's the original source for the anime; the anime covers approximately the first three volumes.


You've got it precisely backwards; the anime is a (from what I hear, I haven't seen it) faithful rendition of the manga. I believe it currently covers up to about midway through the sixth volume.

~J

Posted by: ravensmuse Feb 24 2009, 04:24 PM

Tenjo has some gratuitous panty shots, but mostly at the beginning and mostly to drive the main character nuts. Think of it this way: Fate has a way of kicking you in the balls, especially when it's trying to drive home the fact that it wants you with this one chick and god damn it, stop checking out her hot sister.

However, the American translation edited out a lot of the stuff up to volume 6 or so, because they were trying to make it for the hip teenage market. Tenjo is not for hip teenagers and the regular readers (who'd made the series popular in the first place via fan translations) protested loudly. Tenjo is loud, violent, philosophical, and not above showing you a detailed cross-section of someone's fist being sliced in half by a cursed Buddhist sword.

Posted by: EvilP Feb 24 2009, 05:06 PM

I'll throw in my somewhat related suggestions:

Death Note is a good manga with a more adult mindset. It is a kind of reverse detective story about a guy who can kill people by writing their name in a notebook. It starts to drop in quality towards the end of the story unfortunately, but it's still one of the best things I've read in ages.

A more ShadowRun-esque manga is Freesia. If i remember correctly it features a country where families can legally hire assassins to kill pardoned criminals. The story mostly centers around the assassins and their somewhat excessive mental issues. It's not for everyone, but it definitely has its grim appeal.

Posted by: Wesley Street Feb 24 2009, 05:24 PM

If that's the case, the anime is extremely faithful as it seems to have taken scene-by-scene and shot-by-shot from the manga. Must be nice to have someone do all your story-boarding for you in advance.



If you haven't seen them, check out the live action Japanese films http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichi_the_Killer (based on the manga) and Tokyo Gore Police. And bring a barf bag.

Posted by: Kagetenshi Feb 24 2009, 05:56 PM

That isn't too far off; the targets are given warnings and a state-issued pistol beforehand, but as the people coming for them are professionals and the targets often weren't even violent offenders (at least one of them was a drunk driver who hit someone), it generally isn't what you'd call a fair fight.

~J

Posted by: Amazeroth Feb 25 2009, 10:20 AM

I just can recommend One Piece. I absolutely love the thousand characters in it, I love the humor and I love for what it stands.

Posted by: ravensmuse Feb 25 2009, 12:09 PM

Heh, I've heard stories. Unfortunately my tolerance for gore only goes so far, so no Ichi for me

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Feb 26 2009, 12:12 AM

Hokuto no Ken and Golgo 13 are the only manga you'll ever need. The rest are basically for girly men. Or, you know, actual girls.

Posted by: Heath Robinson Feb 26 2009, 01:43 AM

Info dump tiem! From an HTML file I have sitting on my hard drive indexing a collection of Seinen. Selected entries follow, descriptions are in spoiler tags to save visual space.

I disclaim any association between me and these series. I have this file because I'm a massive info collector, I haven't read most of these series. I filtered on the basis of standard western male interests with a little bit of weird. I doubt you want to be told about a slice of life manga that isn't available in English and revolves around a robot that owns a cafe in the countryside.

Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano
I am rather interested in this, but I've yet to read it.

Eden by Hiroki Endo
I've read a few chapters and want to read more. That is to say, I actually reccomend this on the basis of what little I've read.



Strain by Ryoichi Ikegami
I've read a few chapters, but I don't think it's on top of my list of things to read. Certainly below Blade of the Immortal.



Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue
I've always been suggested this by various groups. Apparently it's pretty similar in tone to Blade of the Immortal, but it seems it's older.



Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaaki
Mostly echoing Akira Hasegawa's interest in this series. Sounds like a good paranoia series.



Seizon - Life by Kaiji Kawaguchi
I've not read this, but I've heard tell of it in some circles. Sounds like it could be an interesting small tale.



A Spirit of the Sun by Kaiji Kawaguchi
Not read, but it's about politics and national identity from what I gather.



Zipang by Kaiji Kawaguchi
Includes a most awesome IJN officer. Lots of ideology and some tactics/strategy.



Black & White by Taiyo Matsumoto
This mainly tripped my grit detector.



NOiSE by Tsutomu Nihei
I have a bit of a Nihei obsession. I've not yet read NOiSE, but it's related to Blame! so I'd suggest it.



Blame! by Tsutomu Nihei
You've heard other people reccomend it. An info dump describing it is what I bring to the table.



Blame: Net Sphere Engineer by Tsutomu Nihei
Same Nihei style, same Nihei world. Read a chapter or two, looked interesting and stays away from the heights of raw force that Blame! tended to wallow in.



BioMega by Tsutomu Nihei
If you want to see a talking bear with a rifle, this is the manga for you. Despite the bear, it's got some classic Nihei scenes and his nice high cotrast artwork.



Helter Skelter by Kyoko Okazaki
I've not read it, but if this manga can deliver on the cheque issued below then it should be well worth reading.



Monster by Naoki Urusawa
Read quite a few volumes. Can't remember if someone already suggested it, but I'm up to my eyes in a post already, no point in skimping.



Planetes by Makoto Yukimura
Anime adaptation, but this is sure to be glorious in Manga. I've seen the anime only. Hard Scifi.



And now for things I'd suggest from outside this particular file.

Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura
Beautiful artwork, characters across a wide range of personality types. Interesting in historical context.

Posted by: Kagetenshi Feb 26 2009, 02:17 AM

BioMega is good, but I found it hard to follow, even in comparison to Blame!. I'll have to reread it, though.

The other way I'd describe Blame!, of course: Adventure-seeker Killy in the cyber dungeon quest!

(Edit: also, WR is right about Golgo 13 being the only manga you need; at 148 volumes and counting, you may have good odds of dying before you finish it.)

~J

Posted by: Blade Feb 26 2009, 09:06 AM

Black & White's anime adaptation is wonderful. I had some trouble with the drawing style at first, but it quickly disappeared.

Posted by: Dumori Feb 27 2009, 09:09 AM

I'm a massive fan of the Hellsing mangas. Not very sci-fi but worth a read the store arcs a bit getting very good in the middle volumes the current plot that i have been importing young king ours to read have been quite insane. With more twists than a spiral staircase. However even the cheeseyness and stupidity of some parts haven't got past the fun/interesting chariators and such.

As for more SR like mangas I can't think of any not mentioned above.

Posted by: ravensmuse Feb 27 2009, 12:04 PM

You've got to admit that Hellsing plays very loose with bodily harm.

"I blow his arm off."
"Just my arm? Fuck you. Keep going. I can take it."

Alucard just laughing off dismemberment may be cheesy, but it crosses the cheesy line into awesome.

Posted by: Wesley Street Feb 27 2009, 01:44 PM

My ladyfriend and I were nearly sobbing through that one. It is quite good.

Posted by: Wesley Street Mar 5 2009, 10:06 PM

Okay, I bought Gantz and Black Lagoon this weekend. Read them both. Liked them both. Hiroya Oku's (Gantz) art was very cool; pencils over computer renderings. There was some major, major, major fanservice in "The Naked Suicide Girl" but at least he understands how female anatomy works in real life (as opposed to the cartoon world). And it was just weird enough to keep my interest without it falling into David Lynchian indecipherable-ness.

I'm on disk four of the anime so while Black Lagoon offered nothing in the way of surprises, the art was quite good as well. My only complaint was that it seemed very jumpy in places. I'm used to a more leisurely 1-2-3-4-5 pacing in manga since it's printed in weekly anthologies and this was more Western in its pacing, 2-4-6-8 jump jump jump. Ah well, a minor complaint.

More like these please.

Posted by: Stahlseele Mar 7 2009, 10:38 PM

anybody mention trigun yet?
appearantly not. read that one.
and/or watch the anime.
pretty good, much humor in there, but some quite sad/serious stuff going on too . .

Posted by: ravensmuse Mar 9 2009, 04:37 PM

Read the manga, skip the anime except for a few of the fight scenes. The anime suffers from Mai-Hime disorder; halfway through the show it stops being happy go lucky and goes straight to gutpunches every episode. EVERY SINGLE EPISODE.

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Mar 9 2009, 11:33 PM

That's probably because gutpunches are a big sexual fetish in Japan for some reason.

Posted by: Heath Robinson Mar 10 2009, 12:12 AM

Ravensmuse,
Iirc, the anime covers more than the first series of manga. I.e. read far enough (into Maximum) and you'll start hitting the gut punches in the manga.

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Mar 10 2009, 04:14 AM

Japanese gutpunching fetish, as in, http://newsimg.ngfiles.com/96000/96460_Falconpunchabortion.jpg

(I wouldn't call that NSFW necessarily but it's a little weird so I'd only click on it at home.)

Posted by: ravensmuse Mar 10 2009, 11:11 AM

Buddy, I hang out on 4chan. Weird sexual fetishes are nothing to me any more

Heath: Yeah, I know that it swings over to gut punches in the manga too, but there it's handled a lot better. The anime just up and decides, "hey, you know what would be awesome? Doing nothing but making Vash's life hell for the next thirteen episodes." I mean, I know that that's kind of the point of the story, it just put a damper on what had seemed like a fun show til that point.

Posted by: Stahlseele Mar 10 2009, 12:08 PM

well, it's not as bad as NGE or Black Lagoon . .
but yeah, you start out with lightheartened fun show, and then you get psychotic serial killers and the such . .

Posted by: Kagetenshi Mar 10 2009, 12:41 PM

Black Lagoon is monthly, if that explains anything

~J

Posted by: Wesley Street Mar 15 2009, 06:40 PM

Ah, that does explain a lot. I'm used to reading serialized manga that's been reprinted form Kodansha's manga weeklies.

EDIT

Gantz is awesome. That is all.