Favorite Manga

[Grave]

Could've sworn I've posted here before. Anyway, my list will probably be fairly short since I haven't read a lot of manga, and nowadays I don't feel like trying out something new so I just stick with Bleach, Naruto and Fairy Tail these days (And yeah, they are giant roller coasters).

1. Rurouni Kenshin
2. Psyren
3. Fullmetal Alchemist
4. Death Note
5. D-Grayman
6. Samurai Deeper Kyo

[Spark Of Spirit]

Revised:

1. Monster (The best manga ever made, in my opinion)
2. Rurouni Kenshin (Pretty close to flawless)
3. Vinland Saga (Now that I know where it's going, barring a massive slip-up, I'm sure this will only get better)
4. 20th Century Boys (More expansive than Monster, not quite as focused, but its scope is incredible)
5. Shonan/GTO (Comedy mixed with life lessons and the comedy is funny and the life lessons work!)

Just a top 5 since I need to re-evaluate much again. Slam Dunk, Bakuman, and Beck are still great, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

1. Rurouni Kenshin
2. Monster
3. Death Note
4. 20th Century Boys
5. Dragon Ball
6. Slam Dunk
7. Hunter X Hunter
8. Shounan Junai Gumi/GTO
9. Bakuman
10. Full Metal Panic! Sigma

I expect that Hajime no Ippo will make it pretty high on my list if it manages to maintain its level of quality until I catch up with it. That might not be for a while, though, as I've still got about 500 chapters to go.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I said back in May that after the summer I would come back and update my favorite manga list, and I'm going to do just that. I'll extend the list to be a Top 15, though, just 'cause I now feel strongly enough about that many manga to have a list that size.

First, here are some honorable mentions, in no particular order, because I don't feel like making a Top 20 list  :
Lupin the Third
Great Teacher Onizuka
Barbara
Detective Conan/Case Closed
Dr. Slump

And now, my updated TOP 15 FAVORITE MANGA:

15. Death Note

A highly addicting battle of wits with an entertainingly misguided bastard of villain protagonist. I think the 2nd half with Near and Mello wasn't that much of a step down from the L arc, and had plenty of good moments. Still though, the appeal of the series for me was seeing Light outwit L in the first half, and Near and Mello try to outwit Light in the second half, and the extent and stakes they would go through. I don't see how this could be confused for a dark or deep series, since it's pretty clear it's more of a noir, and anyway, the fun is seeing the elaborate schemes be put into action and pulled up, seeing which side would slip up first. I enjoyed it, and am glad it told a tight story and didn't overstay it's welcome, unlike a lot of other manga and anime series. One of these days I'll watch the anime for comparison.

14. Ranma 1/2

I still feel strongly about Ranma 1/2; other contenders have just pushed it down. Still, it's a hilarious manga, with an entertaining cast of jerks who play off of each other excellently, and Takahashi's excellent blend of japanese folklore, wacky comedy, slice of life comedy, romantic comedy, and crazy martial-arts action. Needless to day I'm going to buy the omnibuses of the manga, and the blurays of the anime, when they come out next year. I wish I could go to Comic- Con for the panel too, but alas, it is not to be. 

13. Bakuman

I think parts of Bakuman are a bit inconsistent, like that arc focused on one of Ashirogi's assistants who wanted to draw a manga about his dog, or the second Nanamine arc, but overall the series is still excellent and one of my favorites, and I hope Ohba and Obata come up with another great, unconventional manga like this soon.

12. InuYasha

InuYasha is a good manga. There, I said it, and I mean it. I have read the entire thing twice now within the last year and a half, and while it goes on too long, has some repetitive elements, and some annoying moments, overall it's still a good story. Now, I think InuYasha made for a terrible anime for several reasons not pertaining to the story, but as far as the story went, I liked Takahashi's use of short arcs that lasted only 3-5 chapters, which was refreshing since most shonen series have massively overlong arcs. I liked how the cast was small and frequently crossed paths again and again, while not loosing the scale of the manga at all. I liked that pretty much for the entire manga InuYasha and Naraku were in a power struggle to one-up each other, and neither was significantly stronger than each other at any point in time until Naraku finally completed the Shikon Jewel. I liked how Kagome grew as a character to accept her responsibilities and InuYasha when it came to trusting other people and how both of them matured when it came to their feelings about each other. I liked Kagura's scheming, Kikyo's conflicting feelings towards InuYasha and sense of duty to stop Naraku alone, Moryomaru's maneuvers to try and usurp Naraku, and Kohaku's attempts to atone for what he did and his forgiveness by Sango. And Sesshomaru's character arc, by far, was so completely excellent and he is easily one of my favorite manga characters ever. He's certainly the best "stoic"-type character I have ever seen. Honestly, I went into this manga with an already negative opinion of it from watching the anime and ended up really enjoying it. It's the kind of story that works better when read, and in bunches, and while I had problems with some parts of it, overall I really, really enjoyed it, enough to read it again after I finished it the first time. It's so much better than Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tail and the other crap it gets compared to, and I blame the suckishness of the anime adaptation and it's rabid fans for the negative perception of it. I'm glad I gave the series another chance as a manga, and Takahashi didn't disappoint me.

11. 20th Century Boys

I haven't even read that much of it, and already I love it. I think that speaks to Urasawa's strengths as a storyteller, because damn is this series a page-turner, and I love the characters. I'm only at volume 6, and I already am really digging where this story is going, so I wouldn't be surprised if this series goes even higher on my list by the time I finish it.

10. Animal Land

Animal Land is an awesome, thoughtful story about survival, family, love, communication, and peace. It pulls no punches with developing it's ideas, no sappy we can all live in peace with the power of friendship crap, and Taroza really tries and thinks hard to find away to keep his family and friends live together peacefully despite the differences in the diets of carnivores and herbivores, and his determination, thoughtfulness, and persistence is admirable. In what other shonen series does the main protagonist, after careful thought, give up on his dream when he realizes it's unrealistic and he has other priorities to care about? It's a well-written series that can pack an emotional punch and I can't wait for the next volume so I can read it.

9. Hunter X Hunter

It may have gone down on the list, but I appreciate the series as just as much if not more as I did before. I wish Togashi would continue the series and write it more consistently, because if it was always at it's best, it could easily be the best thing to ever come out of Weekly Shonen Jump.

8. Trigun Maximum

After re-reading it, I found the final arc a lot less confusing and pretty fucking spectacular, and goddamn does this series have some of the best fights I have ever seen in manga. It's greatest weakness is still clarity, though, as there are still parts of the story where it's confusing as to what's going on, and that, more than anything, is why it's weaker as a story than the anime. If an anime adaption of Maximum were made though, and fixed the clarity issue, maybe even expanding on some parts of the story like Livio and Wolfwood's backstory, then it would certainly be much tougher to decide which story is better, and I honestly could see myself giving the edge to Maximum. Still, clarity problems aside, it's an awesome manga with an excellent story, fantastic fight scenes, and great characters, which is why it's one of my favorites.

7. Monster

Monster this low? Blasphemy! I kid, I kid, I do love this series and think it's a masterpiece, but there just so happens to be 6 other manga that have a tighter grip on my heart. Of course, Monster may very well be the greatest manga of all time just for how excellent it's story is. I'm not sure if it's flawless, since there are moments and chapters that could be removed without detriment to it's whole, but those are mostly nitpicks than legitimate problems. If someone were ever to make a greatest manga list, I wouldn't be surprised if this was number 1. I fully expect it to win first place in the Greatest Manga Series contest, at the very least. 

6. Maison Ikkoku

My favorite love story of all time, because of how well-developed and organic Godai and Kyoko are as characters, despite Takahashi's usual wackiness with her comedy stories. It's got a great cast, with a boatload of absolutely hilarious moments to boot, and the last legs of the story are some of the most emotional, touching material I have ever read in manga. Takahashi best manga? Definitely yes, as far as I'm concerned regarding the quality of this story and these characters. However, and it's with much thought that I say this, it's not my favorite of hers...

5. Urusei Yatsura

My love for Urusei Yatsura has only grown after re-reading parts of it, and watching it's excellent movie and it's anime. Don't get me wrong, Maison Ikkoku is an excellent story, but my adoration for Urusei Yatsura as a comedy manga, and for it's big cast of quirky but well-rounded characters just barely makes this my favorite Takahashi manga. It may have gone down a slot, but if anything, I love it even for than I did before, and that's saying something.

4. One Piece

I must have been on something when I said One Piece didn't excel in it's story, because it's got great stories even if it does follow a loose formula. Alabasta all the way to the timeskip is still some of the best manga I've ever read, and the post-timeskip stuff's quality cannot damage the excellency of the CP9 and Whitebeard War sagas. That said, One Piece's strength really is it's great cast of characters, and I think a big reason why recent arcs have been so uneven is that Oda hasn't managed to remember to balance their personalities and interactions as well as he used to do before the crew got separated. Still, One Piece is still one of my favorite mangas ever and I don't see that changing anytime soon, and I certainly do think it deserves it's status as the highest selling/most popular manga series of all time.

3. Dragonball

I wrote at length about what this series means to me in the Dragonball thread, and I don't want to be redundant, so if you want my thoughts on the series, check my post in there. But even those words may fail to perfectly capture the extent to which I love the series, but I think enough people here enjoy it enough to see why it would be one of my all-time favorites, regardless.

2. Excel Saga

Excel Saga is the greatest social-political-satirical-psuedo philosophical-slice-of-life-sci-fi-action-comedy manga I have ever read. Hilarious, likable, well-devloped characters, great commentary and character interactions. The first 9 volumes are hysterical pieces of comedy and if the whole manga was just like that it would still be incredible, but when the plot kicks in in volume 10 it starts to becomes flat-out amazing and the series continues to get even better and better. The only two things I didn't like in the manga while I was reading it were Umi and Miwa...and then even they became enjoyable as the story progressed! I can't really formulate the proper words to describe how excellent this series is, right now, so maybe I'll come back and re-write this explanation, but you gotta trust me when I say that nearly every volume is perfect and it's one of the funniest pieces of fiction I have ever had the pleasure of reading, and depending on how the ending turns out, I could very easily consider this my favorite manga ever, although it'd still have  tough competition from...

1. Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo

Excel Saga is much better done as a whole, honestly, but Bobobo's sense of humor, parody of shonen and in general action series, hilarious artwork, spontaneity, and a little someone called Don Patch still edge it out as my favorite manga of all time. Even with the whole thing not translated, it's still a laugh-riot for me beginning to end, and has been a big part of my life for many, many years now, and will likely be for years to come. Bobobo was probably the first anime and comic I ever read that really got me to laugh, and it's influenced me creatively and artistically as well. Much like Dragonball and One Piece, I will always hold it close to my heart, and treasure my rare out of print stand-alone volume of the series released by Viz all the way back in 2006 until I wrinkle up and die or the pages rot into an indecipherable goop. Whichever comes first. 

So, for the most part a lot of my list stayed the same, but some new series I tried out really endeared me well-enough for me to have to expand the list to a Top 15.  I have a feeling Rurouni Kenshin and maybe even Berserk and Black Cat'll rank high by the time I finish them, and for 20th Century Boys to only grow higher in place than it already is. Of course, I still have a boatload of manga to read and some to revisit or re-read, so for all I know this list could very well become radically different once I reach the goal of reading all 100+ manga on my backlog. I'll be curious to see how this list'll look next May...

[Foggle]

Cartoon X, are you by chance a reincarnation of our dear friend Dingleberry from the early days of AR? His favorite manga was also Bobobo, and he too loved Excel Saga after I introduced it to him.

I am so very happy to see that you love Excel Saga almost as much as I do. It's more personal for me, though. (Perhaps you read my letter at the end of volume 26.) Oh, and we seem to feel the same way about Umi and Miwa as well. Just a reminder that I wrote this earlier in the year: http://animationrevelation.com/readables/?p=992!

Cool list overall. Very cool to see Monster on it; a true masterpiece. I will be sure to read some of your other favorites in the future.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Cartoon X, are you by chance a reincarnation of our dear friend Dingleberry from the early days of AR? His favorite manga was also Bobobo, and he too loved Excel Saga after I introduced it to him.

Haha, I'm afraid not. Always nice to hear of other Bobobo fans, though, especially Bobobo fans who also love Excel Saga. 

I am so very happy to see that you love Excel Saga almost as much as I do. It's more personal for me, though. (Perhaps you read my letter at the end of volume 26.)

Oh my god, so it really was you who wrote that letter?!  I had a feeling it was from some of the stuff you mentioned in it. I'm glad they put it in the volume!   

Cool list overall. Very cool to see Monster on it; a true masterpiece. I will be sure to read some of your other favorites in the future.

Thanks! 

[Foggle]

Oh my god, so it really was you who wrote that letter?!  I had a feeling it was from some of the stuff you mentioned in it. I'm glad they put it in the volume!   

Yuuuup. I'm glad they did too! Beyond stoked to be kinda' sorta' immortalized within the pages of my favorite work of fiction.

[Spark Of Spirit]

This is sort of embarrassing to admit but I did not realize the author of Vinland Saga was also the author of Planetes and that Vinland Saga is his first action adventure story. I thought Planetes (both anime and manga) were pretty great so I think any reservations I had bout Vinland Saga stumbling are probably gone now.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Made a grid for my favorite manga too. No explanations this time. When I update my list the next time in May or something I'll go into details.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's great to see that both AnJ and RK cracked your list.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

10. Bakuman
9. Slam Dunk
8. Hunter X Hunter
7. Shounan Junai Gumi/GTO
6. Monster
5. Dragon Ball
4. Death Note
3. 20th Century Boys
2. Ashita no Joe
1. Rurouni Kenshin

The only thing holding AnJ from the number 1 spot for me is my current inability to finish the rest of the manga. Once I do, though, you can bet that it'll easily take my top spot. It's just that good.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Man, your list is always remarkably consistent! Mine's changed so rapidly in less than a year. 

I really need to finish Slam Dunk and read SJG sometime. The later is tricky, though, since while it's been completely released some of the volumes are hard to find and the scans have gaps of their own. Still, I should check out as much as I can one of these days since I did enjoy GTO a lot, and SJG is better from what I hear.

As for Ashita no Joe, yeah, it'll probably be my number one too once I can actually finish it. As it stands it's easily my favorite action/story manga by far anyway. It'll only take a little push for me to put it over my "manga comedy trinity" (Bobobo, Excel Saga, and Urusei Yatsura), since I love those three series about equally.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That push for me would just be finishing the manga. Though, it also may depend on what you get out of the ending, which once again I don't want to spoil (especially since I hated having it spoiled for me), but I really do love it. It's not just a tremendously exciting and suitably intense climax, but it's also something that you can analyze and that has meaning to it.

AnJ really makes me want to learn Japanese just so that I can finish the rest of this manga AND read the other works of Ikki Kajiwara/Asao Takamori/Asaki Takamori (the dude had a lot of pseudonyms because he wrote for multiple magazines, and apparently was at one point working on 3 different series at once, INCLUDING AnJ, according to Bakuman) which unfortunately are just as obscure as AnJ in the West, and obviously unlicensed and not scanlated.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Three hours left until ALL OF EXCEL SAGA IS IN MY POSSESSION! BWA HA HA HA!!!

I swear to god, if I get outbid just before this is over....

[LumRanmaYasha]

ANNNDDDD...it's bought! I now own the entire Excel Saga manga for the fairly low cost of $122.50!

I've been spending waaayyy too much money on manga and dvds lately. After I order the Ranma 1/2 bluray and omnibus, I'm going to have to stop....for a long while.