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Joe Zhang
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: 19 May 2007 at 8:24pm | IP Logged | 1
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I don't much like Manga either.
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Aaron Smith
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Joined: 06 September 2006
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| Posted: 19 May 2007 at 8:26pm | IP Logged | 2
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I could never get into it either.
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Aric Shapiro
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Joined: 16 April 2004
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| Posted: 19 May 2007 at 8:34pm | IP Logged | 3
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I am very surprised by the response to my initial inquiry. I admit that I am perplexed by Manga. Growing up with conventional comics, I have always had trouble even looking at Manga. I don't know anyone into Manga, so I appreciate everyones feedback, especially those of you who have suggested examples of good Manga. In an effort to be open minded, I will be picking up a Manga book to try it out
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Landry Walker
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Joined: 29 August 2006
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| Posted: 19 May 2007 at 8:36pm | IP Logged | 4
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I find manga to be like any other medium. Some of it is good and some
of it is bad. Depends on the talent of the creators and if I find the
subject matter interesting. Ultimately, "manga" just means "comics"
after all.
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Karl Bollers
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Joined: 09 May 2006
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| Posted: 19 May 2007 at 10:29pm | IP Logged | 5
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I love manga (comics) simply for their diversity of style and content.
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Lars Johansson
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Joined: 04 June 2004
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: 20 May 2007 at 12:07am | IP Logged | 6
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As I wrote earlier, I like Anime shows, and if JB reads this I'm sure he like Chichiro (or what it could be called inthe US?)
Another show I like a lot is Neon Genesis Evangelion that I try to collect, I have the pilot, and a new Ending Pilot and some TV epsiodes and this is how it looked on VHS, I found a picture. Unforetuntely the manga was not as good.
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John Angelo
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Joined: 08 January 2007
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| Posted: 20 May 2007 at 12:35am | IP Logged | 7
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<<Who would change a person's mind about the medium?>>
By all means, try Blade of the Immortal. The only drawback to jumping in is that there are currently 16 volumes already in print. But each one is oh soo good.
The artwork is to die for good.
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John Angelo
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| Posted: 20 May 2007 at 12:41am | IP Logged | 8
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Then there's the action/fight sequences. Just pure bad-ass.
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Francesco Vanagolli
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Joined: 03 June 2005
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| Posted: 20 May 2007 at 12:45am | IP Logged | 9
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I add two other names to the important manga authors list:
Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump and Arale...) and Tsukasa Hojo (Cat's eye, City Hunter...). I don't consider their styles really "mangaish". I see them near to our standards. Especially Hojo, who has a very detailed and clean style.
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Brian Floyd
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Joined: 07 July 2006
Location: United States
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| Posted: 20 May 2007 at 3:53am | IP Logged | 10
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Rumiko Tanahashi also did a series called One Pound Gospel, which was about a boxer and a nun. I don't think the series ran very long, but it was fairly good.
For anime, I'd like to recommend Raxephon, which I thought was pretty good. I know its also a manga, but I've yet to read it.
The Big O is also another good series, and even if you prefer your anime subbed, I definitely suggest you get the dubbed because the voice cast is THAT good. You can watch episodes from season one as stand alones (except there are a couple two parters), but season 2 has to be watched as a whole as its one big storyline. The problem is, the show only lasted two seasons and the series had an ending that people are still to this day going `WTF?!' over.
One problem I have with both anime AND manga is fanservice; ie, showing female characters in bathing suits, lingerie or flashes of their underwear or implied (but not necessarily shown) nudity, often for no good reason EXCEPT to show them in bathing suits, etc. There's one writer\artist whose work I enjoy, but he uses fanservice way too much. (Ken Akamatsu, creator of Love Hina and Negima. His first series was called A.I. Love You, but I couldn't get into it much)
One manga I'd suggest avoiding is Vampire Game. According to the back cover, its supposed to be a comedy, but I bought volume 1 and thought it was a total waste of my money.
You can actually find some well written mangas about subjects that you wouldn't think would make good subjects or sound like things you wouldn't be interested in. For example, one of my favorite mangas at the moment is Hikaru No Go, which is being serialized in the U.S. version of Shonen Jump. Its about a kid who is given a Go board by his grandfather that turns out to be haunted by the ghost of a legendary ancient Go instructor, and the main character ends up trying to become a master of the game. (The game Othello is based on Go) And before reading the series, I had little knowledge of, or interest in, Go at all.
Oh, and regarding Case Closed, to show how popular it is, it was made into an anime. Most anime series in Japan only last 13 to 26 episodes. Case Closed, aka Detective Conan, has gone over 300 episodes and several movies. (Cartoon Network aired the first dozen or so episodes on Adult Swim, then dropped it after re-running them two or three times) May be over 350 episodes by now, if its still going on. (I haven't checked in a while to see if it is)
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Lars Johansson
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| Posted: 20 May 2007 at 4:51am | IP Logged | 11
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I have also Raxephon. I liked it, almost Marvel style.
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Carmen Bernardo
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| Posted: 20 May 2007 at 5:34am | IP Logged | 12
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Most of the answers that I have about manga are already answered here, and I agree with many of them. A large part of its appeal to me has been found in the series chosen for translation and publication in the United States by companies like Viz and Dark Horse. The anime-style "big eyes" aside, there seems to be a willingness to pursue types of stories not well-covered in contemporary American comics.
"Manga" is actually Japanese for "comics", just as "anime" means animated cartoons for television and theatrical release. They're basically the same. Some people who do not get into them are either not into comics and cartoons in general or have developed a sort of Chauvinist attitude against Japanese comics. So much for cultivating open-mindedness in American society...
Some of the Japanese artists currently being overlooked in this thread include the following:
Go Nagai was one of the most prolific manga artists of the 1970s, working on comics with various themes including giant robot sci-fi (Mazinger Z) and supernatural (Devil-Man). Stylistically similar to Osamu Tezuka and Leiji Matsumoto.
Yoshikazu Yasuhiko actually had his start in anime as a character designer for such popular series as Mobile Suit Gundam and Crusher Joe. His style is a neat compromise between the more common "big eyes" style and a realism that reminds me of American artists such as Gene Colan and John Romita Jr. He most recently worked on a retelling of the original Gundam story focused on the characters Amuro Rey and Char Aznable (Gundam: the Origin).
Haruhiko Mikimoto is another character designer whose work for such series as Macross (made part of Harmony Gold's Robotech cartoon in the mid-1980s) and Gunbuster is easily recognizable. However, he has also worked in manga and book illustration like Yasuhiko, currently featuring in a Gundam story Eau de Colele being brought over to the States. It was Mikimoto's designs (after Leiji Matsumoto's "Star Blazers") who really awakened my interest in the anime and manga styles. His style is a somewhat softer variation of the type used by Yasuhiko, making massive use of screen tones.
Kenichi Sonoda is another anime character designer cum manga artist who made his mark with series like Gall Force and Bubblegum Crisis in the mid 1980s before moving on to his own manga, Gunsmith Cats and Cannon God Exxaxion. Stylistically, he'd be one of the "big eyes" artists out there, although there's a crispness of detail and elements of realism (in objects and settings, not people) in his work.
Masashi Kishimoto is a manga artist whose comic Naruto is currently being brought into the United States in print and cartoon form. His style is more in the keeping with "big eyes" anime, aleit kind of stiff and sketchy at times. Although the story was begun in 1997, it is only recently being imported and does not yet include episodes currently being produced in Japan.
My two ¥
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