What I just finished reading and what I thought of it [NO SPOILERS]

[Otaku108]

Same concept as was in the anime section of the forums. Same rules apply, use spoiler tags. {spoiler} {/spoiler} substituting {} with []

Spoilers should look like below

once clicked ;)

I don't expect this to be as popular as the anime version simply because there are less manga fans than anime, or so it seems. But with the addition of manga recs database... I think we could use a thread like this now ;)

[Otaku108]

I'll start her off!

White Dragon

This was one of the first titles I found from AP directly rather than just hunting manga randomly on one of the reader sites. I was very impressed, especially for a title that's not exactly new. The artwork was pretty good, the story was compelling and sometimes funny, the characters were just so so, but sadly didn't honestly develop much past the first volume.

I had a few problems with the fact that the first few times you see him posing as a woman he's extremely thin and effeminate, later on you see him pretty much ball to the wind naked and yet he's unbelievably built. Even further down the road he's dressed up as a woman yet again and I'm left to wonder... how is that even biologically and physically possible? It's never really explained but during the 3rd volume he or rather she says that she is the "other" white dragon. However, it doesn't really appear to be the case. I dunno, makes no real sense but I let it go at that.

Other than this glaring issue I didn't have any other problems with the manga, the tear drop shooter was an interesting idea for a weapon. His inability to eat anything but what the girl cooked was kinda funny and a bit sweet... maybe a bit creepy too tbh.

In the end, I had fun with this manga, it's a bit gory, and has some nudity. Nothing wrong with that in my book ;) I suppose some people might find it a little hard to handle, consider yourself warned.

[Holychrono]

Guess I'll start off with my most recently finished one.

Saikano

First off, let me put something out there. This is a deeply depressing drama romance tragedy driven manga. To but it bluntly, it's a real tear-jerker. Quite possibly the saddest manga, I have ever read but that's probably because I did it all in one sitting.

Anywho, I feel this story was well put together and still being very character driven. Each person, no matter how insignificant they may seem, is given at least a little back story. The main characters, Shuji & Chise, are very dynamic given that they are written to have flaws which make them seem very human.

The only thing that really got to me was,

the end of the world part in the final volume. The story did not need other than to further bring out the author's point of war brings tragedy, even to those that aren't fighting in it. Which, I might add, effects each character in a different way.

All in all, I really enjoyed this manga and recommend it to any romance enthusiast. Although if you get depressed easily, try to read in moderation.

[Wrist]

I just finished Living Game

It's not bad by any means, but there is a point where the comedy and awkward situations from the first 2 volumes are being sacrificed for drama. I don't have any problems with sometimes more drama then other times, but there are two parts in 'romantic comedy' that should be balanced with a bit more care then that.

[sothis]

if spoiler tags shoudl be in spoilers, the thread still should be tagged [NO SPOILERS] as that's the same behavior of the other thread (in which people still discuss spoilers in spoiler tags)

otherwise i think youll scare people away from reading this; i know i wont touch a thread i know will have rampant spoilers about things i havent touched

[Otaku108]

Originally Posted by sothis

if spoiler tags shoudl be in spoilers, the thread still should be tagged [NO SPOILERS] as that's the same behavior of the other thread (in which people still discuss spoilers in spoiler tags)

otherwise i think youll scare people away from reading this; i know i wont touch a thread i know will have rampant spoilers about things i havent touched

maybe could get a kind mod to change it to [USE SPOILER TAGS] or if it makes you happy [NO SPOILERS] *shrugs* still, good idea... as usual I wasn't really thinking things out :\

[sothis]

ill do so :D

and not at all, a great thread idea! ^_^

[AnarchicQ]

I just finished reading Uzumaki.
Um...it was disturbing. Some parts actually made me feel a little ill. Not the best manga I've read, but it passed some time.

[Otaku108]

Originally Posted by AnarchicQ

I just finished reading Uzumaki.
Um...it was disturbing. Some parts actually made me feel a little ill. Not the best manga I've read, but it passed some time.

yea, Japanese Horror has that effect on a lot of people. It's not like American horror which usually just tries to scare the crap out of you or get veritably over gory. Japanese horror likes to creep you out both mentally and physically. I usually can't handle it at all.

Azamaru

A rather good action/romance manga. Sadly, it wasn't finished and I've been able to find no information about a followup series. It was a bit gory and had some minor nudity... lots of death and destruction. The romance in here is really just a shell of itself, and I can't say it's even a major part of this story.

I can't recommend this story to anyone simply due to it being incomplete. They hinted that there was another series but like I said before I have not found anything about it at all. I had a hard time even finding information about the first one which was finished in 2003.

Psychic Academy

This one took a while to finish... I can say with certainty that it's not going to be rated as one of my favorites. There was a lot of unrealistic issues and plot twists that the writer seemed to just throw in their for his own convenience. Most of it might be able to get chalked up to cultural differences but some of it I know can't be the case.

Some of it was pretty minor annoyances like the women's sleeping attire... no woman I've ever met would sleep in a freaking teddy. It really was just done for the sake of fanservice and for the first time I found myself turned off for it. Mainly due to how serious the rest of the manga was trying to be. A contradiction in terms in action.

Moving on to the major stuff, I've said this before about my personal preferences in stories and such, but I absolutely hate the deaths of main characters that the writers have made you root for. Mayu didn't have to die, it didn't make a lick of sense to me. Really just got dumped on the whole story through out and in the end got a nice death for her troubles.

I have a hard time considering this a true romance... and really contemplating suggesting a melancholy tag to it due to it's ending.

The spoiler kinda ended up more of a rant about my dislikes for this manga, and as expected I will not be recommending this to anyone. I feel a bit depressed now so I'm going to read some comedy one shots to improve my mood. :P

Haa Haa

I hate double posting so I'll just keep editing this post as I finish series until someone else posts :P

Anyway, onto this latest title... pretty funny, it's a style I've read before but the name of the manga escapes me. I wouldn't be totally surprised if it was by the same author. In any case the characters were quite funny if a bit predictable but being a romance/comedy it's not like I was expecting a Sherlock Holmes novel :P

Mainly it was about a couple teachers that eventually fall in love and do the naughty, but what's endearing about this manga is the way they go about courting each other. Further, being that it's not about high school students I found it a refreshing change. It's sometimes hard to find a decent josei... it was also nice that the women in this were realistically drawn.

Anyway, very little nudity though quite a lot of adult stuff in here. I'd recommend this to anyone that likes a semi-short, funny, and cute story.

Paradise Kiss

Along with some assorted one shots I really don't feel like mentioning I finally got around to reading this which has been on my "wtr" list since before there were "wtr" lists on AP ;p

I kind of wonder if the mangaka was having an identity crisis while writing this one simply due to I couldn't figure out if it was trying to be a serious shoujo manga or just a romance/comedy. In the end I felt she tried to do too much at once but still produced a decent enough manga worth reading.

It had many laughs all through out the story and a few almost tears. The way she writes characters though I have a hard time rooting for them. Usually it's the main characters that have some serious flaws to the point that you almost end up hating them. Incidentally this is the same artist/writer as the manga/anime for Nana. I had the same problem with many of the characters there too. I guess she just likes to take a realists approach to character design, I can respect that.

As I said before, the mangaka never takes this story too seriously and constantly pokes fun at shoujo manga, and even references itself a couple times. Sadly she tried to get too serious in last part which wasn't really built up from previous chapters and I was dissatisfied with the ending due to it.

Overall, this is actually a decent manga, and I rated it highly on AP as a result of the constant laughs in the first half... the sheer audacity of many of her jokes, puns, and self references. Had she continued the trend for the rest it could have been one of my absolute favorites. Further I actually wanted to watch the anime up until I finished the story... now it's not even going to gather dust on my "wtw" list. Even so, I'd still recommend this to anyone looking for a good laugh, hopeless romantics might wana go else where though.

[Fireaxe]

Kannazuki no Miko

It adds a couple of interesting elements to the story from the anime, but it's mostly messy and confusing if you haven't watched the series first. It's not outright bad, but at times it really feels like the author went waaaay too fast with the storytelling.
The ending got me particularly confused,

what exactly is that world Himeko wished for in the end? I thought they made it clear it the anime that they couldn't just ask to be re-united, because it was their fate to be reborn over and over again... I preferred the ending to the anime, but this one is probably more fulfilling, so some might like it more.

KnM is a decent read if you enjoyed the anime (especially since it's pretty short, only 2 volumes). If you're interested by any of the two, PLEASE start with the anime or you'll want to gouge your eyes out.