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So what manga do you read? We can set this up like the webcomics thread where we can each review the manga we suggest. We can also suggest manga fandom as new chapters are released.

Here's a few of my faves right now:

The World God Only Knows
Now, whenever I try to tell anyone what the manga is about, they're all "That's really weird" and then they read them and they're hooked. The manga is about a gamer nerd who specializes in dating sims named Keima and refered to by his classmates as "Otamega". One day he receives a letter asking him to take a challenge and is provoked into accepting it since he believes that they are doubting his ability as "the best gal-gamer in the world". Turns out the request came from a devil who is now forcing him to hunt down a bunch of missing evil spirits that hide away in the hearts of girls. It's really great because there's the whole romansu element from Keima trying to woo the girls in order to force the spirit out and because we get to see how Keima grows from only caring about games to being more involved in real life. I believe I got Gnukko hooked on it~ Hahahaha. It's cute and hilarious.
Updates weekly

Franken Fran
Franken Fran is about a teenage girl who was built from body parts from other people like Frankenstien. Even though she is young, she has studied medicine and is a skilled surgeon. In fact, tons of people go to her for procedures that would otherwise be illegal or too costly. The series has tons of squick, nightmare fuel, and high octane nightmare fuel. It's also really damn hilarious, like the chapter where the TRUE origin of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is shown. The abominations Fran creates are because she believes that she is helping them. Sometimes it goes horribly wrong... other times it goes horribly right. There are even a few sweet scenes and tearjerker moments, however, later on you realize that you're crying over the disgusting sight of a dog's brain inside the body of an old man. And then you wonder why you thought it was sad. and then you read it again. And then you cry some more.

I have many more, but these are the two which not many people have heard of.

EDIT:
Hey, feel free to tell me if you read any of the manga I suggest and end up liking them. (inflate my ego)

EDIT II:

Feel free to discuss anime as well. Lord knows we don't need a separate topic for it.

This post has been edited by Kaxbe: 11 April 2012 - 08:47 PM

I like them mangas better than animes.
But lately I haven't followed many.
Just Gantz, I think.

the few manga i read are
Gundam Seed/Destiny/Wing/00 side story that are manga and Kingdom Hearts

Hmm... I actually quite liked the Rurouni Kenshin manga, although I have never really read it. The style (generally, not just that one) is a bit too... graphic, violent, for me to fully enjoy, so I have mostly just borrowed a few copies from my sister (who is an avid reader of manga) and read when I have felt like it.

I only read One Piece these days.

I believe I was one of the only people to read the original Elfin Lied manga. Or at least without vomiting and burning it.

im not really a fan of japanese comics, i just read One Piece

I read a heck of a lot of shoujo manga, but by favourite has to be Maid Janai Mon!, which is about a 15 year old girl, Momoa Hidaka, goes and lives with a rich boy, Akira Kaigazaki, because of her deceased mother's will. Momoa eventually has a crush on Akira. And that's where I've read up to, but the series has ended now.

ONE PIECE
but i do adore pokemon special


oh and +anima its soo cute its about kids that have animal powers cause something bad happened to them

I read "Miki Falls". It was pretty awesome.

I read Cromartie High, really funny stuff

ChewySmokey, on 09 December 2010 - 01:30 AM, said:

That's one of my favorites.

Berserk
Out of everything I have ever read in my life, Berserk is hands down The Best. Don't watch the anime, it ends after the first arc which is just the lowest point in the series. Everything after that contrasts The Eclipse. Guts evolving as a character, introducing new characters who are engaging and fantastic...and then there's the Skull Knight. Christ, it only gets better and better and better. The art improves, the story improves, etc. Read it, but be ready for lots of gorn.

I've always preferred manga over anime, though it's been awhile since I've read much lately. The most recent one is Azumanga Daioh, which I love so far. I used to collect a ton until I found out that people actually SCAN them online..

Some of my favorites (warning: I am stereotypically girly when it comes to manga so many of these are shojo)

Monster
Card Captor Sakura
Snow Drop (technically Korean though)
Ayashi no Ceres
Confidental Confessions
Saikano
X/1999
Ranma 1/2
King of Bandit Jing
Anima+
Tsubasa
Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
Pokemon Adventures
Dolls
Magic Knights Rayearth
Ragnarok (not the game)

Oh and by the way kaxbe, I remember you recommending one manga specifically and I started reading it, but I totally forgot what it was...

what is manga? i have avoided basically any art that looks slightly like naruto ever since i saw that show, but i did like BO BO BO BOBOBOBOBO if that counts for anything

Aika, on 13 December 2010 - 08:52 AM, said:

You are automatically awesome. Fuck yeah, King of Bandit Jing. Read both the original series and Twilight Tales.

And that manga that I recommended is in the original post. "The World God Only Knows".

lolwut, on 13 December 2010 - 12:24 PM, said:

This post has been edited by Kaxbe: 13 December 2010 - 07:52 PM

Aww. If you want to convert him to your cause, you should not extradite him. ^_^

Found this and this and thought it might be relevant enough to revive this thread since I want to fucking talk about it without starting a new thread.

Btooom!: Basically this is survival horror in the Gantz vein, only with more necrophilia. Not that it can really compare to Gantz. I mean, Christ: look at the last update. Shit's so cash. Having said that, the author of Btooom! really finds other ways to horrify you viscerally. Carnage is a strong suit of his, but it's pretty limited in nature; his strength is more subtle. He will lure you into a false sense of security and then hit you with imagery that will make you want to vomit. And I'm not talking about gore. The counterbalance to all this is the hero, Ryota Sakamoto. He doesn't want to fight you but so help you God if you want a piece of him HE WILL STRAIGHT UP WRECK YOUR SHIT.

The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer: The name alone put me off for awhile, and the animation looked kind of cutesy. Don't fucking fall for it. The character development is excellent, and the fight scenes gradually advance to Epic status. The story is just well-written and concise, beginning, middle and end. No waiting for six months between updates: the whole story is done. Gantz and Berserk fans can probably appreciate that distinction.

I'm addicted to Go Nagai's works. My favorite:

DEVILMAN (1972-1973)



It's about a meek high schooler named Akira Fudo. He goes with his friend Ryo Asuka to his mansion, where he reveals a secret that will change Akira's world forever: Demons are real, and are dwelling among humans. He tells Akira that the only way to defeat a demon is to become one of them, and teaches him how to acquire the powers of a demon. This eventually leads to Akira acquiring the abilities of a mighty demon known as Amon; thus the birth of Devilman is complete.

This post has been edited by Giygas: 06 December 2011 - 04:36 AM

Jerk has good tastes. Both of those are excellent.

If you like psychological stuff, then I recommend Liar Game. It's about a girl who is roped into participating in a huge scam competition. She hires a former con-man to help her out and eventually grows to be one of the leading participants in the competition as a whole. It's well worth the read and it recently came back out of hiatus. It's definitely worth the read!

I've read more than I can possibly count at this point, but I'll list a couple of current things that I'm reading.

Sugar Dark: A dark fantasy story follows a boy named Muoru who has been falsely arrested and sent to a forest cemetery to perform forced labor. There, he calls himself the "grave keeper" and meets a beautiful girl named Meria. Muoru becomes fascinated with Meria as he spends his days digging holes containing the undead monsters named "The Dark."

It's a relatively new manga as far as I know. It's fairly interesting thus far, but there's only about 20 chapters released right now.

Another: Horror novel reader Kouichi Sakakibara moves to his grandparents home after his father went abroad, but soon after turning 15 he's hospitalized by a sudden pneumothorax, missing his first day of school. In the hospital he meets a mysterious girl called Mei Misaki. After recovery he joins the 3rd year 3-Class at North Yomiyama Middle School. Kouichi finds Mei Misaki is in the same class, but notice that the rest of his classmates ignore her and avoid speaking about it. He later hears from his aunt from the story of a prestigious girl in the same class from 26 years before that died in an accident. Refusing to accept it, her classmates kept pretending she was still alive. In that year's graduation commemorative photograph, the girl supposedly not to be was there. Her name was Mei Misaki.

Also fairly new, but it interests me enough for me to keep waiting for updates.

Also Kaxbe; right on for Franken Fran. Love that.

Iris Zero: Mizushima Toru is an Iris Zero, a person who was born without a special power called an Iris, a power to see information that cannot be seen through normal vision. Nearly all boys and girls his age was born with an Iris, and so he lives his school life quietly by keeping a low profile to avoid discrimination. One day, Sasamori Koyuki, a very popular girl, approaches Toru to tell him something that will inadvertently challenge his way of life. As a result of their meeting, he meets new people and encounters many problems, which he must solve to keep living in peace.

This one I found by accident. It amuses me quite a bit though. Iris abilities can vary from mind reading to being able to know what you'll have for dinner that day. It's also pretty new.

AiON: Tsugawa Tatsuya just lost his parents in an accident, but he's trying not to let that keep him too down as he starts high school. While trying to obey his father's final wish for him to become an upstanding man, he ends up helping a girl who was being bullied. Despite her exceedingly cold nature, he just can't leave her alone... which may not necessarily be to his benefit, as he ends up getting wrapped up in a world where things like parasitic mind-controlling entities exist.

I forgot why I began reading this. It hasn't updated in a while though.

Doubt: Yuu, Mitsuki, Rei, Hajime, Eiji, and Haruka have enter the game called 'Rabbit Doubt', which all of the players are 'rabbits' in a group, and among them is randomly chosen to be a 'wolf' in the group of rabbits. Each round, the wolf kills another rabbit. The rabbit group tries to figure out which of the rabbits is actually a wolf in disguise in order to kill it. If the rabbit killed the real wolf, they win and if they're wrong, all the rabbits will be killed.

This is a poor description, but eh. It's a finished manga and I enjoyed it. Not to be confused with the manga Doubt!!

This post has been edited by MintyLimeGreen: 06 December 2011 - 04:39 AM

Oh man, Gabe is responsible for me reading The World God Only Knows AND Franken Fran. I have read both at least three times from beginning to end. He knows his shit.

I'd also like to recount here my reaction to Junji Ito's "Gyo":

Franken Fran and The World God Only Knows are pretty awesome.

Also yes. Gyo. Have you read his other works?

I've also been reading Princess Resurrection lately. God why do I like gore related things so much? Am I screwed up in the head?

This post has been edited by MintyLimeGreen: 06 December 2011 - 04:50 AM

Full metal alchemist
Soul eater
+anima
YU YU Hashuykn. pretty sure I spelled that wrong.
Death note.
Chrono crusade

@ MintyLimeGreen: Emphatically yes. Pretty much everything he's drawn. My personal favorites are Uzumaki, Hellstar Remina and that one short story about the holes in the mountain. Seriously, I just can't get enough horror stuff and it just oozes off of him. Though, I should add that I still feel gratitude to Craft Aids for recommending Biomega. Even if I didn't understand a lot of it, it was still cool as Hell. I mean, seriously: go look at my profile page. See the guy with the bear on the motorcycle? That's Biomega. And that was before I even got to the good parts.

@ Tokoz: Yu Yu Hakusho? It was kind of cheesy in the beginning but they sure as shit found a way to up the ante as the series went on.

Yes, thank you. It's been a while.

GEEZ TOKOZ. WAY TO LIKE BORING GENERIC BULLSHIT.

EDIT: Jerk, I enjoy Biomega not because it is good, but because it is terrible. Also bears.

This post has been edited by Kaxbe: 06 December 2011 - 04:56 AM

I live for horror, Jerk. I've read every horror manga I've been able to find. I just love it.

Meh. Not so much for manga as anime. Those are literally all I've ever read.

Oh, wait, and hollow fields

MintyLimeGreen, on 06 December 2011 - 04:55 AM, said:

What about Devilman?

@ Gabe: I enjoy it because I like science fiction and horror, especially when taken to extremes like that. Still haven't read the sequel yet. I mean, I know the other one came first but there's not really a better way to explain its chronological relationship to the other.

@ MintyLimeGreen: Shit, if you've got recommendations, I'll give them a shot. The only way I get horror out of manga now is by digging through TV Tropes High Octane Nightmare Fuel and reading whatever warrants a full separate page of commentary.

@ Giygas: I don't know that I could get into the art style. I know it's kind of a shitty reason but I can't get over how bad the art is sometimes. Hell, Gantz is nigh unintelligible visually but I can still hang on because, you know, ultraviolence.

Nice post, Jerk. I don't read manga all too often, but what the hell?

Here's something I found a few months ago:
Oyasumi Punpun (manga) - Anime News Network

An oddly endearing mash-up of growing up and the philosophy of life all told with an almost cartoon-like duck figure (His family and he are the only ones in the manga that are like that, the rest of the cast is normal). Listened to Adrian Belew the entire read through.

Edit: I'm actually surprised that no one has mentioned Akira. That's a pretty good read as well.

This post has been edited by Moosack: 06 December 2011 - 05:07 AM

Hmmm... Are you looking for things more inclined to gore or things that are more mentally disturbing? I pretty much browse manga every day and I'm currently keeping tabs on about... 60 or so? Not just horror, but horror is one of my absolute favorites. Are you wanting just finished things or ongoing? I mean, this is probably a given, but if you can keep up with the manga form of Higurashi and Umineko you'd probably enjoy it for the psychological bits. Also a fair amount of blood.

I'm also currently reading Corpse Party Blood Covered and Cradle of Monsters. Hohzuki Island was before Cradle of Monsters I believe. Some of the art styles can be off putting though. Ah and Deadman Wonderland is pretty good too. Although it's not really horror, but it's plenty bloody.

Ahahahah Moosack you read Punpun?

This post has been edited by MintyLimeGreen: 06 December 2011 - 05:07 AM

MintyLimeGreen, on 06 December 2011 - 05:06 AM, said:

Heh, yeah. I've actually only read two manga in my life and that's one of them. It's something I generally avoided for some reason.

This post has been edited by Moosack: 06 December 2011 - 05:13 AM

Oyasumi PunPun is one of my all-time favorites. It's weird and poignant. It takes A LOT of patience to read, though.

I'm currently re-reading Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro. Great mystery series, something that I honestly think is rare for a Jump title.

And Tokoz, I feel that it's better to read the comic as opposed to watching only anime. The kinds of shows that tend to get animated versions are very generic and "safe". Also, considering how production is rushed for several projects, a lot of projects tend to get canceled after a single season or even retconned into its own entity, which in all honesty only fucks things over. You're missing a lot of real gems by only watching anime.

Back in the day, a friend of mine liked Naruto, so I started reading the manga. I read like 273 chapters before giving up on it. I also read a bit of Dragonball (the original) and Rurouni Kenshin. Oh, and this one online shounen-ai piece called Your Wings Are Mine. So much for my dalliance with manga. ^_^

PunPun is hilarious, but it actually has a story.

Also Variante is another horror manga and pretty short. I liked it though. Jack Frost was interesting, but then it stopped updating forever and I never got to finish it. Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni isn't as good as Higurashi or Umineko, but it hasn't gotten very far yet. The style is different too. Weird rape and what not.

Shiki is also something I enjoy very, very much. The style wasn't my thing, but I came to like it after a while. Also Alive - The Final Evolution was better than expected, but I hated the ending.

Doll Star is something I started about 3 days ago. Interesting stuff there as well.

Also I meant Cradle of Monsters and Hoozuki no Shima.

Emerging was interesting too. I'll stop flooding the topic now.

This post has been edited by MintyLimeGreen: 06 December 2011 - 05:16 AM

@ Moosack: If you're talking about the necrophilia thing, no: it's not implied. You see Character A stick his penis into Character B who is, at that time, pining for the fjords. And as for Akira, I can't think of anything an artist could do with that that the director didn't do so much better.

@ MintyLimeGreen: Not necessarily completed, I guess. Ideally? Some cross section of horror and science fiction. Japanese culture really does a fantastic job on both genres, and it seems to leave more potential for things that would otherwise hit me pretty hard. Horror just happens to be an excellent platform from which to launch into Crowning Moments of Awesome.

Honestly, one of my favorite manga has to be 20th Century Boys. It stands out from the rest for several reasons.

First off, most manga that deal with THE END OF THE WORLD OMG focus around kids and teenagers. Not this manga. It follows a group of grown-ups who find that a fictional book that they wrote when they were children is predicting these catastrophic events that are happening all over. It's incredibly suspenseful and it's one of the few manga that handles time-skips well.

Don't read it's sequel, though. It pales in comparison.

MintyLimeGreen, on 06 December 2011 - 05:13 AM, said:

How good is the manga version of Higurashi? (Only got halfway through umineko before hating the latter end of the premise, which is weird because I enjoyed Higurashi)

This post has been edited by Moosack: 06 December 2011 - 05:18 AM

@ Gabe: 20th Century Boys was probably the best suggestion you ever gave me, Gabe. Seriously, I never even liked the band T.Rex until I read that manga and now I only do like them because the manga was named after one of their songs. How often do you read something that improves the way you look at other things? That's pretty fucking awesome.

I like the manga versions, but they're so hard to follow sometimes. A lot of people love Higurashi, but then detest Umineko. But I mean, his name is Battler, do they really think Americans have such ridiculous names? On a side note, if I ever have a child, I'm naming it Battler for hilarity.

Anyways, back on point, the manga version isn't bad. If you can follow it, then by all means, it includes things the anime does not.

Jerk, you might like Orochi or anything I've listed thus far. Also, possibly Parasyte. Bokkesan is also supernatural with little bits of horror. I don't think that's what you're looking for though. Ibitsu you might like. Also Tsumitsuki. Ludwig Kakumei if you enjoy twisted fairy tales. Bio Meat if you're alright with the style. I also really enjoy Zekkyou Gakkyuu, it's only been updating recently.

This post has been edited by MintyLimeGreen: 06 December 2011 - 05:25 AM

I'm all about finding gems in the crapsack world that is manga.

You've listed good things Kaxbe. I approve of your taste in manga. And here I thought you just seemed annoying.

And here I thought you judge people based solely on their posts on a small forum on the internet, said posts being mostly tongue-in-cheek and not at all serious instead of actually talking to me and basing a decision on that.

But it's nice to know that you approve of me just because I like good manga. How wonderful.

This post has been edited by Kaxbe: 06 December 2011 - 05:30 AM

*takes a look at my manga shelf*
Lots of .hack// manga. For those who don't know, .hack// originally started out as a series of four PS2 games made to resemble an MMORPG called "The World". The World suddenly got really buggy and glitched up, unbeatable monsters showed up everywhere. The main character, Kite, formed a team known as the Dot Hackers to set things straight, and that's how the games begin.
//XXXX, //Legend of the Twilight Bracelet, //G.U.+, //Link, //Alcor, //4koma are basically all the .hack// manga that I have because it's all that's out. I'm missing a few volumes of //XXXX, though, and //Link hasn't finished yet.
//XXXX (pronounced X Fourth) is an alternate storyline of the original games that loosely follows what actually happened. //LotTB was a manga-only sequel to the original games, and goes off the premise of the main character and his twin sister winning special character models based directly off the two main Dot Hackers, Kite and Black Rose. Lots of shenanigans happens and they end up saving The World again. //G.U.+ loosely follows the sequel to the original games, known as .hack//G.U. (it had 3 games in the series), and follows a Player Killer Killer (PKK) known as Haseo, the Terror of Death, in an upgraded version of The World. Basically he's an bosnian kid and his online girlfriend got PK'd and she fell into a coma (a common occurrence in The World), and he was determined to save her. //Link is the manga adaptation of the newest (and presumably last) game in the series, and it follows another protagonist in yet another new rendition of The World, but this time he gets physically sent into The World through a cursed game console. Funny stuff happens. So far it's more comic relief than action, but it hasn't gotten that far anyways. //Alcor is a side-story based in the same version of the game as //G.U., and it's about this girl and how she tries to win this guy over or something. //4koma is just a bunch of 4koma (four-panel) comics about the series compiled into one volume. I had to do a lot of research into the series to actually get all the jokes because a ton of them are based on character interactions from the games.
All seven volumes of Lucky Star. Huge fan of the series, hoping they eventually come out with a second season of the anime because 24 episodes and one or two OVAs isn't enough. For those who don't know, Lucky Star is basically the classic Slice of Life manga. Main character is an otaku named Konata Izumi.
A couple volumes of Neko Ramen. Hilarious yet badly drawn manga about a cat who opens up a ramen shop. Only has one frequent customer. Lots of shenanigans.
An Ace Attorney manga. Based off the game (obviously).
Volume 1 of Toradora~!. Haven't bothered getting more of the manga because the anime was already finished so I watched it all. It's a romantic comedy about a short, all-tsun no-dere girl and a really tall guy who has a crush on her best friend.
Volume 1 of Shakugan no Shana. Again, watched the anime as opposed to finishing the manga. Haven't finished the anime though, since season 3 is still ongoing. It's... very difficult to explain, but it's part horror, part romantic comedy.
Volume 1 of Cat Paradise. School with a secret organization of kids who protect the school from demons by forming contracts with a god that gives them and their cats supernatural powers. Need to find more of it.
Volume 1 of Hetalia. If you haven't watched or read it, DO SO NOW.
Volume 1 of Yotsuba&!. Amazing slice of life/comedy manga about a 5 year old girl and her dad. Makes you crack up every other page or so.
Some Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. About a teacher who is always in despair and constantly trying to end his life. Has a class made up of misfits, including an overly-positive girl, a text-flamer, a perfectionist, a shut-in, a balding kid, etc.
Various volumes of Prince of Tennis. Found the anime to be preferable, since it's a series about a sport, although I eventually went back and read through the entire manga online.
Volume 1 of Soul Eater. Watched the anime instead since I can't find more of the manga in-stores and I'm too lazy to read it online.

Stuff not on my manga shelf:
Break Blade. Very good series about a "non-sorcerer" living in a world of people who can freely manipulate quartz, starts basically on the verge of a massive war that he has to participate in.
Full Metal Alchemist. Of course I've read it.
Death Note. Already explained in other posts.
Naruto. 'Nuff said.

...wow that was a long post.

This post has been edited by Detta: 06 December 2011 - 05:35 AM

My absolute favorite manga is Solanin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanin

It's the reason I decided to go into comics.

Well, I've never had any sort of extended interaction with you before and most of your posts just seemed... boring. That being said, I know you could care less what I think of you, so I'm not going to apologize for what I said in the first place.

Detta, I like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. How much have you read of it?

Jerk, on 06 December 2011 - 05:00 AM, said:

I like the art. It reflects Go Nagai's style from the '70s.

Solanin is great! However, if you have the time, you should totally read his other manga, such as the earlier mentioned Oyasumi PunPun and his first work, What a Wonderful World,\\

@Minty: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is great, but it tends to become stale after a while like most gag manga. It doesn't really help that many of its jokes are heavily reliant on an in-depth understanding of Japanese culture. It's one of the few series that I'd rather watch the anime as opposed to reading the manga.

This post has been edited by Kaxbe: 06 December 2011 - 05:36 AM