Since the forum is almost dead, and the manga section is even more dead(what with half of the manga threads that actually belongs to the request section), I decided to get chatting going by talking about several manga I have read. Any opinion on any manga you have read in the past is welcome. Ranma - Read a few volume of it, though I knew mostly about ranma through their narration in anime. I was rather surprised that the anime edited the details of the manga but kept the main story the same. Several things came up on my mind: Shampoo in the manga appeared right after Ranma's battle with the ice-skating couple by breaking the stadium wall, while in the anime Shampoo appeared when she break down the wall of a restaurant with ranma eating ice cream. Black Cat - Currently my favorite manga at the moment, very great plot line, more mysteries that are revealed about Train and Sven in the later chapters. The only thing that disgusts me is how they use ki to explain why the Tao practitioners were able to use their abilities, rather cheesy in my opinion. Hana Kimi - My favorite shoujo manga. Unlike Power!!, hana kimi does not have loopholes(when you apply shoujo schoolkid's reality into it). It would have been alot better if not so many characters were introduced and disappeared after a volume, then come back again 10 volume later for no apparent reason. The relationship between Sano and Miyuki can probably get the shoujo hater hooked onto this series. Power!! - This series is hana kimi with less characters and shorter storyline. Power!! concentrates more on the relationship between eniwa and (forgot the girl's name) while hana kimi also has chapters delicated to letting the reader understand the characters around the main two. There are two serious loop holes in the story, but if you can ignore those or don't think of them as plotholes, then it should be an okay manga for shoujo fans. hikaru no go - I only read the manga because I was extremely bored. I finished the anime and I was disappointed in the ending, and I hear people agreed that the manga ending was even worse. With nothing to do I decided to read the manga from where the end of the anime left off. Well, they were right, the manga continuation is just going toward an ending that is not an ending. For the people that have finished the anime but not read what happened afterward, don't. It merely covers the hokuto cup and if you think the anime ending is disappointing, the manga ending will give you permanent depression. The whole series overall is okay. Pretty Face - This is the first manga that I read when I started manga reading as a hobby. I really laugh my ass off when I first started reading this. The ending however was bad, there was little closure to the story, in the end the situation is still no different than when Randoh got stuck with a girl's face and start living with Rina. Haru yo Koi - My attitude toward this manga has been most dramatic compared to the other manga. Let me just summarize:
Ch 1-3: Yuri softcore porn = good. Ch 4-5: The agressive girl(the one who always strips the passive girl and starts fingering her) sees the passive girl enjoying herself with her classmate, she starts to think the passive girl is starting to forget about her. Ch 6-9: Both girls started having interest in men. I have stopped reading at the beginning of vol 2, and I am still trying to figure out if those girls are lesbians or bisexuals. If you like to guess a person's sexual preference, this manga is for you. If not, well, you can still d/l the first 3 chapters for the eyecandy. Chrno crusade - I have to confess my sin: "I read this manga because I saw a hot blonde chick with a kickass gun and as I read on and on I have damned myself for reading this trash and not realize it, may father forgive me."
So I don't know how to confess, but what I do know is that aside from the magnetic combo of girls+guns this manga does not have much to uphold. The characters aren't very interesting, now that the readers who have read up to volume 3 knows about Rosette's and Joshua's past the only thing that is of mystery is Chrno's past when he still works for Aion. The plot later on may have develop into something unpredictable, but I have already lost total interest in it now that the cute babe hypnosis is starting to wear off. Initial D - Ricing fan, read. Non-ricing fan, don't read. Oh, and a reminder, there can be no other manga series that drags on like this one. One last thing, I'd like to keep this thread purely manga discussion. If you want to do requests, do it in a separate thread on the request forum or check the past requests there. Do NOT email me on where and how you can get the manga. In the past everyone keeps emailing me on how you can get it on websites and if I can directly transfer it on AIM. I am not going to do the leeching for you, if you want a website then find it yourself. Email me only if you are requesting an irc channel or a BT site(provided you can read traditional or simplified chinese).

-- ubb (demonreaper73@hotmail.com), February 16, 2004

Answers

Oops, forgot to put breaks on paragraphs. I'll repost my topic post for better readability. Since the forum is almost dead, and the manga section is even more dead(what with half of the manga threads that actually belongs to the request section), I decided to get chatting going by talking about several manga I have read. Any opinion on any manga you have read in the past is welcome.

Ranma - Read a few volume of it, though I knew mostly about ranma through their narration in anime. I was rather surprised that the anime edited the details of the manga but kept the main story the same. Several things came up on my mind: Shampoo in the manga appeared right after Ranma's battle with the ice-skating couple by breaking the stadium wall, while in the anime Shampoo appeared when she break down the wall of a restaurant with ranma eating ice cream.

Black Cat - Currently my favorite manga at the moment, very great plot line, more mysteries that are revealed about Train and Sven in the later chapters. The only thing that disgusts me is how they use ki to explain why the Tao practitioners were able to use their abilities, rather cheesy in my opinion.

Hana Kimi - My favorite shoujo manga. Unlike Power!!, hana kimi does not have loopholes(when you apply shoujo schoolkid's reality into it). It would have been alot better if not so many characters were introduced and disappeared after a volume, then come back again 10 volume later for no apparent reason. The relationship between Sano and Miyuki can probably get the shoujo hater hooked onto this series.

Power!! - This series is hana kimi with less characters and shorter storyline. Power!! concentrates more on the relationship between eniwa and (forgot the girl's name) while hana kimi also has chapters delicated to letting the reader understand the characters around the main two. There are two serious loop holes in the story, but if you can ignore those or don't think of them as plotholes, then it should be an okay manga for shoujo fans.

hikaru no go - I only read the manga because I was extremely bored. I finished the anime and I was disappointed in the ending, and I hear people agreed that the manga ending was even worse. With nothing to do I decided to read the manga from where the end of the anime left off. Well, they were right, the manga continuation is just going toward an ending that is not an ending. For the people that have finished the anime but not read what happened afterward, don't. It merely covers the hokuto cup and if you think the anime ending is disappointing, the manga ending will give you permanent depression. The whole series overall is okay.

Pretty Face - This is the first manga that I read when I started manga reading as a hobby. I really laugh my ass off when I first started reading this. The ending however was bad, there was little closure to the story, in the end the situation is still no different than when Randoh got stuck with a girl's face and start living with Rina.

Haru yo Koi - My attitude toward this manga has been most dramatic compared to the other manga. Let me just summarize:
Ch 1-3: Yuri softcore porn = good.
Ch 4-5: The agressive girl(the one who always strips the passive girl and starts fingering her) sees the passive girl enjoying herself with her classmate, she starts to think the passive girl is starting to forget about her.
Ch 6-9: Both girls started having interest in men. I have stopped reading at the beginning of vol 2, and I am still trying to figure out if those girls are lesbians or bisexuals. If you like to guess a person's sexual preference, this manga is for you. If not, well, you can still d/l the first 3 chapters for the eyecandy.

Chrno crusade - I have to confess my sin: "I read this manga because I saw a hot blonde chick with a kickass gun and as I read on and on I have damned myself for reading this trash and not realize it, may father forgive me."
So I don't know how to confess, but what I do know is that aside from the magnetic combo of girls+guns this manga does not have much to uphold. The characters aren't very interesting, now that the readers who have read up to volume 3 knows about Rosette's and Joshua's past the only thing that is of mystery is Chrno's past when he still works for Aion. The plot later on may have develop into something unpredictable, but I have already lost total interest in it now that the cute babe hypnosis is starting to wear off.

Initial D - Ricing fan, read. Non-ricing fan, don't read. Oh, and a reminder, there can be no other manga series that drags on like this one.


One last thing, I'd like to keep this thread purely manga discussion. If you want to do requests, do it in a separate thread on the request forum or check the past requests there. Do NOT email me on where and how you can get the manga. In the past everyone keeps emailing me on how you can get it on websites and if I can directly transfer it on AIM. I am not going to do the leeching for you, if you want a website then find it yourself. Email me only if you are requesting an irc channel or a BT site(provided you can read traditional or simplified chinese).

-- ubb (demonreaper73@hotmail.com), February 16, 2004.

ubb, as long as someone posts, this forum will not die. If you want to talk about manga, I will always have something to say. Don't ask me to tell about shojo, I am all shonen ;) I've read manga for many years and let me talk about some "must see" manga... Some of those mangas are scanslated and some not. I consider thoses real good. I'll not talk about all classic manga, but only some special ones...

The Silent Service - (political-action, not scanslated): It's rare that you'll see a good political manga. The silent service is talking about nuclear submarine and global politics. I've re-read this manga recently and it's pretty special to read it after 9-11 event and Irak war. One point has been discussed in this manga is what if United Nations has his own army and even his own nuclear weapons...

Great Teacher Onizuka - (drama-comedy, partly scanslated): I've read the manga, watched the anime and live drama series, but the manga is still the best. The manga has the most complete story and a good ending. Sadly, it's been only partly scanslated, so get the anime if you can... It's just good to see that how a "good" (ex-gang LOL) teacher cares about his students.

Kindaichi (detective, not scanslated): It's just sad that no group is working on this manga. It's really good. If you like Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Chritie, you will like this manga. It's about solving murder cases with hints...

Kotaro Makaritoru (action-comedy, Puui is still working on it): It's one of two monster series in shonen magazine (the other one is ippo). Hiruta Tatsuya sensei created this school,karate,judo fighting manga. It has around 90 volumes if you counted "Shin" and "L" series,they are kind of sequels. Sadly Puui has done only early volumes, because it's getting funnier and better drawing later...

When I think about sport mangas, there are only three mangas crossing my mind.

Hajime no Ippo (boxe, snoopycool is scanslating): Another moster series from shonen magazine. I've read 65 volumes so far. Usually, manga with more than 25 volumes is good. More than 40 volumes (DB, Ranma), the mangaka must really like drawing and real rich. MORIKAWA Joji sensei is keeping this manga getting better. It's real serious when it comes to boxe matches and real funny while training...

Slam Dunk (basketball, tensai manga project is scanslating): What to say about this manga. I've known people who have started to play basketball because of this manga. You just learn what is basketball with this manga...

Captain Tsubasa (soccer, tsubasa-united is scanslating "road to 2002"): The first time that I read "Prince of tennis", I wasn't impressed. Ball that challenges gravity is nothing new for someone who has read Tsubasa. There has 3 parts for the Tsubasa's story. The first part is when he was at primary in Japan, the second part is when he was at Junior in Brazil and the 3rd part is when he was at Pro in Spain. "Road to 2002" is story about pro soccer (or foot in europe), and you will see the match Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, so Tsubasa vs. Ronaldo...

I've said that I don't have time to talk about all the classics, so you any one of you want to talk about mangas like Zodiac knights, City hunter, DB, Ranma, Yu Yu, one piece, naruto...

-- Andy Tsao (nohead88@yahoo.com), February 17, 2004.

ubb, if you think Haru yo Koi is bad, you obviously haven't read the travesty known only as Haou Airen. That one they should just have dubbed "hentai" and gotten it over with. X-(

-- Controller J (kuochjoe@hotmial.com), February 22, 2004.

Hao Airen is listed as mature shojo on dailymanga, and from my experience mature shoujo is at the same level as H except the sex scenes are drawn in a more abstract way.

-- ubb (demonreaper73@hotmail.com), February 22, 2004.

i don't know if this thread is still alive, but here's my 2 cents worth:

HnG - yes, the ending is disappointing, but as far as i'm concerned it's one of my favorite series just because the mangaka was able to make a reasonably exciting manga about a board game (albeit a cool boardgame)

Whistle! - this one's a question really. I know that some group has scanlated the first 10 chapters or so, but I've heard that there are 40 volumes of Whistle! I've seen the anime which has 39 episodes. Does the manga go further than the anime does? I assume it does, but ... does anyone know?

Arislan Senki (The Heroic Legend of Arislan) - I've seen the anime and really want to read the series (this isn't a request). I was just wondering if anybody had read it and knew what it was like as compared to the anime. I think there's supposed to be 12 or 13 volumes for the manga. I hope that the manga is different than the anime. The first four eps of the anime were cool, but the last two were disappointing. I can also only assume that the story line in the last two is from way later in the manga?

Gantz - just started reading this. One of the first manga that hit me as being really good in awhile. It's better than the anime (what manga isn't?). The manga is more risque. If you haven't read it you should. End of story.

Actually, since i mentioned it, does anybody know an anime that is better than the manga even though the manga was also popular?

Air Gear - this was being scanlated by ushi but snoopycool has taken it over. As snoopy describes it, "there's these guys on roller-blades...and they fight". I checked it out and it is really cool.

Yakitate Japan - also on snoopycool. It's about this guy that makes bread and is searching for the ultimate bread. It sounds like a lame manga but it's really great. I'm kind of a softy for manga that's great despite it being in a less than popular genre (like breadmaking or go).

-- sam (tsukimi1977@yahoo.com), May 18, 2004.

As long as people post on this it is still alive.

Midori no hibi - Another series scanlated by snoopycool. Although it was rather shocking and hilarious when midori became seiji's right hand the comedy pretty much repeats itself. Not saying that they like to reuse jokes, but the story itself doesn't go anywhere after vol 3.

Shoujo Shonen - I don't think anyone scanlated this. Each volume is always about a boy around the age of 10-12 being forced to dress up as a girl and became an idol. If you don't mind kids crossdressing I guess it is an okay manga, but I wouldn't know if anyone can enjoy reading 5 volumes of the same thing.

-- ubb (demonreaper73@hotmail.com), May 19, 2004.