Manga Recommendation Database

I agree a manga recommendation database would be great.

When this database is up and running it would be great if it was possible to add a section containing mangas like those mentioned in this postLesser known great mangas (DON'T list stuff like Kenshin!). Its something thats usually very hard to find because the amount of manga is so very huge and it is something i haven't seen on other sites before.

I strongly suggest that a link to mangas related to anime in the anirec is made under relations in the anirec and vice versa.

Info that should be added.

Where the anime ends and the manga continues. Mangaupdate have a "anime start/end" section in relation to the manga but the info is rarely there. I at least have had a hard time finding this type of info and it wold fit nicely into the already existing anirec. Its not 100% unique, but it would still be something that would draw more people to this site if its possible to get a more complete database on this than what manga updates have. Something that shouldn't be to hard and ime wery willing to gather information on this on those animes/mangas i have watched

A comparison between the manga and the anime. Something in between a recomendation and a review. Leaning more towards the recommendation formate. Here it should be possible to find:
Info on how huge the difference in the stories is and how crusial the diffrence is.
A opinion on whats best and why.
A opinion on whats best to do and why: Read the entire manga, watch the entire anime, do both and in what order to do it or watch the anime then read the rest of the story in the manga.

Info on new anime thats coming out thats based on a manga should be under the manga its based on or at least a link to the info.
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Ime wondering is it really necessary to add Information surrounding how many chapters thats scanlated and whose scanlating them and so on considering that Mangaupdates already have a very good database on this?
 
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I honestly think that a manga database is what this site is missing most. I'd be more than happy to help write synopsis to get the ball rolling.
 
so we do plan on doing this eventually. what i need is you guys to agree on w hat info is needed in each core entry. for the anirec it's titles, year, studio, tags, synopsis, screenshots.

for manga, can you guys decide on what core info needs to be there? keep in mind manga scans are not something we can legally do, so it might need to be a stock cover shot in that case (instead of screenshots)

once i have this decided upon list, i will start to solicit entries from you guys
 
If the manga database project isnt catching the wind it needs to get out of the idea stage. May be it would be posible to add another section in the anime database where its posible to add information regarding manga related to the difrent animes in this databse. It would be a lote easier or?
 
err, as i just said, we do plan on doing it. i need the question i asked decided upon by all of you manga fans
 
sothis said:
so we do plan on doing this eventually. what i need is you guys to agree on w hat info is needed in each core entry. for the anirec it's titles, year, studio, tags, synopsis, screenshots.

for manga, can you guys decide on what core info needs to be there? keep in mind manga scans are not something we can legally do, so it might need to be a stock cover shot in that case (instead of screenshots)

once i have this decided upon list, i will start to solicit entries from you guys
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All right then, since you got the ball rolling, let me see what I can add.

The basics that I derived from Sothis:
Title
Year
Studio (or where originally printed? Shonen Jump, etc…)
Tags
Synopsis
Cover Shot

All right, I think we should add:
Author
Volumes in Japan

U.S stuff? (I’m not sure about this section, maybe it kinda discriminates against our non-U.S. living Otaku members…)
Volumes in U.S. ?? (or maybe if it’s just released in the U.S. however this over simplifies situations like BoBoBo where there’s only one vol so far and who knows if more are on the way? )

U.S. Company that owns rights?
 
A simple manga database is something I’m looking for quite a while! If you need some more people to help you out, I'm willing to do the information gathering (dutch is my native language so synopsis writing is not a job for me ^^)

Furthermore, I totally agree with Zakiel. No chapters, Author instead of Studio, covershot(maybe close-up), publishing year.
 
So it's looking like this so far:

Title
Author/Artist (Story/Art)
Year
Tags
Synopsis
Cover Shot
Anime: Yes/No


I still like the idea of stating where the manga was original published. True this might unintentionally label the managa as "Shonen" or "Shojo" but I consider it important basic information.

Then again maybe that's just me
 
Justice4243 said:
So it's looking like this so far:

Title
Author/Artist (Story/Art)
Year
Tags
Synopsis
Cover Shot
Anime: Yes/No


I still like the idea of stating where the manga was original published. True this might unintentionally label the managa as "Shonen" or "Shojo" but I consider it important basic information.

Then again maybe that's just me
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Anime: Yes/No oversimplifies things I think. It might be better served by a 'relation' to the anime. In particular, the Read or Die manga comes to mind, since it only shares characters with the OVA, but stands alone.

Cover shot should probably be of the first volume, if possible. American or Japanese cover though? (And then there are series like Ranma 1/2 with two different Japanese covers and two different American covers...)

Author and Artist are often not the same ('Mahoromatic', 'Read or Die', 'Abenobashi' are all like this). There may be limited cases where there are two or more authors as well.

Japanese publisher MIGHT be useful, because it's less likely to change than licensors. Original magazine might be less useful than that, and it starts to go into 'encyclopedic' knowledge. Wikipedia is more useful for that.

Year would need to be the first year it came out, preferably of the first chapter in a magazine than the first tankoubon. Likewise, American dates should be entirely ignored.

Ongoing series are a bit more relevant here than in anime. In anime, ongoing series rarely last more than through next season (26 episodes), with few exceptions. In contrast, many manga last more than 8 volumes (that's over 2 years!). The (current) number of chapters or volumes in Japan might be a useful guideline in that case as well (after all, it's comparable to number of eps)
 
Zakiel said:
If you can come up with better terms, as they will each have to be labeled, then it's open to suggestions. Unless someone else wants to help enter info, I'll probably be one of the people doing it since I already have most of it. If you think the options of Similar, None, and Alternate Retelling are better, or if you have better options please post them.
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What I was aiming for was 'relations' in a way similar to the way we relate anime together now, or possibly like the free-form 'relationships' in MusicBrainz, but that might be begging to become encyclopedic rather than sticking with a Recommendation DB (something I'd like personally, but I don't have the time to implement it myself).

Zakiel said:
My personal preference would be to a have a cover shot of the U.S. releases, no offense intended to every other country that releases manga. Of course, for those only in Japanese, it would have be the Japanese.
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Doesn't answer how we deal with those with multiple covers (Ranma, for example).

Zakiel said:
I realize this. If you look, you can see that some anime have multiple studios listed. If needed, I suppose there could be two places for author and artist rather than simply listing them together.
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That's what I was aiming for. Possibly just one field even, but with marker for 'artist-only/author-only'.

Zakiel said:
Could you please give a better reason than that? As far as I am concerned the publisher is rather irrelevant. But yes, I do have this information. Magazine sales are actually dropping in Japan, which has it's pros and cons. Maybe they are finally realizing that buying the tankubon is a more economical choice, not to mention less of a hassle. In the U.S. the only non-hentai magazine is Shonen Jump.
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Untrue. There's also Shojo Beat. But that's beside the point. I'm actually agreeing with you though, because it IS encyclopedic, and that's not what we're seeking to do here (I'd do it myself if I had the time).

Zakiel said:
Hellsing is on 11 years, 10 volumes (maybe 11 now). If you can think of someway of having volumes and chapters coexisting peacefully together, It's open to suggestions.
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Doesn't matter for which way we go. As long as it's divided up sanely (I agree with the 'volume' being a bit more sane than 'chapter', but sometimes 'chapter' is more useful, e.g. with the scanlation crowd). There are easy ways to make volumes and chapters work peacefully together, but it's far more work than necessary, given that I suspect we could get by fine with just 'volume'.

But what I was implying is that we might want to have an Ongoing Series: Yes/No option. Sorry if that was unclear.
 
yes i would imagine that manga relations would be the same as exisitng relations - so for now i'd say figuring out relation information is secondary and not as important. we havent figured out the ideal way to do the anime relations atm so yeah.
 
ok so:

Title: No Brainer
Author/Artist (Story/Art): Yes, Both
Year: Published year in Japan
Tags: Whatever Sothis/mods/community picks
Synopsis: No Brainer
Cover Shot: Not insanely important, but probably one of the first few issues/volume of whatever nations version is close at hand
Number of Volumes: Japan only
Anime: Yes/No. We can add TONS of fields to this, some manga's are off-shots of the anime, some are almost exactly the same, some are the same but they're more/less characters. I can tell you this from someone who makes his living off databases, though. The more complicated we make this field, the more work it's going to be to play the match game with Anime. I say we just leave this as a simple "Yes/No" and do the same in for anime. If between the synopsizes and reviews there's not enough to inform someone that a manga somehow different or the same as an anime (and vice-versa), there's a forum full of fellow anime fans to ask.
 
I'm still not entirely sure that Anime: Yes/No is an appropriate stand-alone field. Even ignoring plot similarity, we've still got overarching series like Evangelion that have spinoff series that are manga-only (like Angelic Days or Shinji Ikari Raising Project). Would these series be Anime: Yes or Anime: No?

I'd want to avoid these types of contentious questions by dropping the question entirely and leaving it for implementation as a relationship (A is manga of B, A is derived from B, A inspired B). Besides, a mere yes/no isn't terribly helpful without a link to the corresponding anime, at which point we're one step away from being a relationship anyway.
 
For the whole cover art bit why not put a coppy of the Japanese one and a Copy of the one used in other countries, from what ive seen so far America, UK and rest of europe all share the same cover art for the books, unlike the anime where box art tends to vary.

For the anime yes/no bit i think that would be ok or not neccesary because you could put at the botom of the synopsis or add a bit at the bottom to say that its a spinoff of the anime (e.g Full Metal Panic Overload), or that it was based on/or spawend the anime. Instead of a rigid yes no system

Just as a sujestion, not sure if this would take up to up to much space, but like you have the screenshots for the anime why not have a preview of the manga e.g the first few pages or the first chapter from the first volume.

Here are the ones i could help with. (If my help is wever needed)

Full Metal Panic
OH! My Goddess
DearS
D.N.Angel
Fullmetal Alchemist
Demon Diary
Phantom
My Hime

If anything I just said has allready been covered then slap me thrice and call me shirly
:P
 
Pipian said:
I'm still not entirely sure that Anime: Yes/No is an appropriate stand-alone field. Even ignoring plot similarity, we've still got overarching series like Evangelion that have spinoff series that are manga-only (like Angelic Days or Shinji Ikari Raising Project). Would these series be Anime: Yes or Anime: No?

I'd want to avoid these types of contentious questions by dropping the question entirely and leaving it for implementation as a relationship (A is manga of B, A is derived from B, A inspired B). Besides, a mere yes/no isn't terribly helpful without a link to the corresponding anime, at which point we're one step away from being a relationship anyway.
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Well the problem is that there are so many different things that can go into the field that it’d get complicated once we start trying to figure everything out. Soon the field becomes "Yes, but the anime's plot is a bit different," "Yes, but there's one extra character in the anime," "Yes, and then there's also a spin off," or “No, but there’s an anime that’s set in the same world, but 50 years in the future” and no one knows where to draw the line. I just say set it as "Yes/No," if it's a "Yes" have a link to the corresponding anime or manga. And other existing links in the database will work themselves out.

For instance, let's say someone is looking at the "Evangelion" anime and sees the "Manga: Yes" field. They click on this field and it takes them to the Evangelion manga, they look around a bit and see someone has made a recommendation for "Evangelion: Angelic Days." In this case a user can read the differences between the anime and manga, and they can see what's up with the spin-off series.

Now, I know it seems a little silly for someone to see an "Anime: Yes" on Angelic days when the Anime and Manga are so different, but by reading the synopsis for each item a user should be able to pick up on that fairly easily. If not, the user can always pose a question to the forums. It is a bit of a grey area, but I think it's best to keep it simple and let already existing site features do there jobs then to make a really complicated feature that's going to greatly increase the amount of work done every time someone submits a manga or anime.
 
Justice4243 said:
Well the problem is that there are so many different things that can go into the field that it’d get complicated once we start trying to figure everything out. Soon the field becomes "Yes, but the anime's plot is a bit different," "Yes, but there's one extra character in the anime," "Yes, and then there's also a spin off," or “No, but there’s an anime that’s set in the same world, but 50 years in the future” and no one knows where to draw the line. I just say set it as "Yes/No," if it's a "Yes" have a link to the corresponding anime or manga. And other existing links in the database will work themselves out.

For instance, let's say someone is looking at the "Evangelion" anime and sees the "Manga: Yes" field. They click on this field and it takes them to the Evangelion manga, they look around a bit and see someone has made a recommendation for "Evangelion: Angelic Days." In this case a user can read the differences between the anime and manga, and they can see what's up with the spin-off series.

Now, I know it seems a little silly for someone to see an "Anime: Yes" on Angelic days when the Anime and Manga are so different, but by reading the synopsis for each item a user should be able to pick up on that fairly easily. If not, the user can always pose a question to the forums. It is a bit of a grey area, but I think it's best to keep it simple and let already existing site features do there jobs then to make a really complicated feature that's going to greatly increase the amount of work done every time someone submits a manga or anime.
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Eh, I think it would be possible to hardcode the types of relationships possible, no? I agree that some of the 'relationships' are pretty damn silly and specific, but I'm not proposing we make a special relation type for everything. Indeed, I think we can subsume all IMPORTANT relations with three:

  • "is the anime/manga adaptation of" - Direct translation. Minor differences might be present (and should be expected. It is an adaptation.), but the plot and theme are largely the same. (Most manga/anime are like this, as they share a large percentage of the plot in common.)
  • "is a spinoff of" - This usually means that the former is a standalone series that happens to tie in tangentially to the latter (perhaps a one-shot character or imaginary situation, in the case of Angelic Days or Gakuen Kino, is expanded upon as the main character/plot of the spinoff), though otherwise they share nothing in common. (Angelic Days "is a spinoff of" NGE, Angel Links "is a spinoff of" Outlaw Star, Gakuen Kino "is a spinoff of" Kino no Tabi)
  • "is another story in the universe of" - A bad description, but I can't think of something better right now. In this case, the former can standalone, but usually features the characters of the latter, and often many of the same literary and thematic elements, if not directly weaving into the plot of the latter. The former is NOT, however, an adaptation, as the plot is not actually present in the latter. (The Slayers manga "is another story in the universe of" The Slayers anime, .hack//AI Buster "is another story in the universe of" .hack//SIGN and .hack//Dusk)

Pretty much all of the other possible relations fit into these three (alternate retellings are generally just 'adaptations', the plot being slightly different is CLEARLY an 'adaptation', and 'being set 50 years in the future', like Red Garden OVA to Red Garden TV, or Mai-Otome to Mai-Hime, would generally fall under the "is another story in the universe of", because they aren't exactly spinoffs.), so by limiting it to these, you can still remain expressive without falling down the slippery slope. The only thing needed is a bit better description of the third item (for things that aren't spinoffs, but aren't straight out adaptations, as they usually have a different plot that follows or precedes the anime).
 
i'd say dont worry about the semantics of relations for now - that is a design decision to be made later.

if you guys all agree on the other elements of what zakiel said, chime in and then ill talk to zakiel about what info i'd need. he can then recruit people to help with the info and such. ^_^

and i think having both the english and japanese cover would be good of v1 - we could jsut have a toggle switch or something to see each version.
 
Everything but "Anime: Yes/No" sounds right to me (since I'd rather that be exclusively reserved for explanation in relations, regardless of the final semantics chosen).
 
I gote agree with Pipians sugestion, it would be a lote bether than just a simpel yes and no and it should be posible.
Ime wondering if its posible to have a coment section together with the Hardcore anime/manga realtions that Pipian sugested or the yes/no(if thats what we end upp with) where its posible for people to add more detailed comments on the hardcore relations info after the manga is added to the database. Coments in the direction of where the anime stops folowing the manga, If they changed much of the time line of the story like they did to some degree in "Ah my goddess" and "Hayate no Gotoku!"and other personal coments on whats recomended to do. Read the manga then watch the anime, and so forth. With something like this its posile avoid many repeated questions in the forums. A coment section on the relations between then manga and the anime on the same scale as the recomendations that people are writing. As i have mentioned before this is information thats usualy realy hard to find because the info is only availible on diferent forums in long threads so it would be something that only this database hase. And it would eliminate this cind of repeated questions on the forums
 
I was wondering what to do with manga that are adapted from a game? Like Kingdom hearts, Tales of series... , Disgaea and so on.

Should there also be a choice:
Game: yes/no ?
 
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