Any Other Manga Fans Out There?

[rmthunter]

OK, I've lost it: manga (especially yaoi, natch). They're like punked out (or goth) soap operas, except that yaoi is like boy-meets-boy soap operas, but finite.

I'm amazed at the richness and sophistication of a lot of these series, too. Maybe I haven't been reading comic books enough.

Anyone else following this? Favorite series? Things to avoid?

Favorite series so far are Dragon Knight (shoujo) and Black Cat (shounen), which are awesome. Got copies of the first volumes of Bleach and Gravitation that I haven't read yet.

What are you reading, if you are?

[jgibson2[$]]

my 27 yo son is a big time manga fan. I'll see if I can get him to log on here. I know he has piles of the stuff and downloads anime, but his seems to be mostly of the boy meets girl variety, so your tastes probably differ there.

[rmthunter]

Not necessarily -- romance is romance, after all, although in the regular manga I tend to go for action/adventure stuff. (And strangely enough, I tend to like movies where they blow everything up at the end. Like I'm still nine years old.)

Turns out my book editor at Green Man Review is not only a fan, she's an expert, although she tends to go more for the shoujo manga and the stories for younger readers.

Yeah, get your son to log on -- I'd be interested to hear what's current, since I'm new at it.

[emeleel]

What's the diff between manga and anime? SurfThe Channel's got a good-sized anime section:

SurfTheChannel - Anime

[rmthunter]

Manga is the comic-book version, anime is the animated film version. A lot of manga generate anime series, and sometimes vice-versa. Basilisk, which I reviewed at Eps, is a good example. There are even manga series that have spawned live-action films.

There is also a boy-on-boy subgenre called "yaoi," which strangely enough is directed mostly toward teenage girls. They tend to be very romantic and very steamy. In fact, some of them are explicit enough to give even me pause -- mostly, I guess, because I'm not used to seeing that sort of thing in a comic book.

One thing I'm finding fascinating about them is the range of visual styles, all the way from the "Disney realism" of something like Basilisk -- detailed, almost sculptural figures -- to very sketchy, really "cartoony" renderings on the order of Garfield, and just about everything in between.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I manga a lot, especially pasta.


Oh wait, that's "mange," and that's Italian, not Japanese. My bad.

[rmthunter]

Y'know, you're rapidly accumulating a trail of off-the-wall jokes here. You need to be more careful (or at least warn us).

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

rmthunter said

Y'know, you're rapidly accumulating a trail of off-the-wall jokes here. You need to be more careful (or at least warn us).

They only really work as sneak attacks

[jgibson2[$]]

rmthunter said

Not necessarily -- romance is romance, after all, although in the regular manga I tend to go for action/adventure stuff. (And strangely enough, I tend to like movies where they blow everything up at the end. Like I'm still nine years old.)

Turns out my book editor at Green Man Review is not only a fan, she's an expert, although she tends to go more for the shoujo manga and the stories for younger readers.

Yeah, get your son to log on -- I'd be interested to hear what's current, since I'm new at it.

Action adventure and blowing things up? I think You'll get along just fine with Rob. He'll be home late this evening. I've been working extra, so I haven't seen anybody around here but my husband and the little guy since Thursday.

[emeleel]

You could always manger in French.

[rmthunter]

Actually, one of my favorite yaoi series is "Tea for Two."

[jgibson2[$]]

I wasn't able to get Rob on-line last night, but he nearly talked my ear off. I should have sat down at the computer and typed while he was talking.

Some names I remember

"Full Metal Alchemist" and "Naruto"

I looked at the piles in his room and found

volumes up to 16 of "Berserk"
and up to 17 of "Negima"

from Christmas and birthday suggestion lists:

Love Hina
Gravity Boys & Lifting Girl
GTO: The Early Years - Shonan Junai-gumi Graphic Novel
Sakura Taisen Graphic Novel

He also mentioned several web sites where he orders anime and manga, but those blew past me. I'll have to try again.

He has a subscription to Shonen Jump - a thick manga monthly. He says it often has a chapter or so of a new series so you know whether or not to be interested in it.

[theworm[$]]

I love mango. Yummy!

[thinkerlady[$]]

theworm said

I love mango. Yummy!

Mango Water Ice (Rita's) and Vodka. Yum Yum!! In a big martini glass!!

[rmthunter]

jgibson2 said

He has a subscription to Shonen Jump - a thick manga monthly. He says it often has a chapter or so of a new series so you know whether or not to be interested in it.

I've actually seen Shonen Jump -- I might consider getting a subscription. It appears most of these series start out as serials anyway And thanks for passing on those titles. I've seen some of them around and will give them another look. (Factoid du jour: "shonen" or "shounen" is, roughly, "manga for boys," as opposed to "shojo" ("shoujo'), "manga for girls." There's also a Shojo Beat magazine. It's pretty loose, but shojo will generally have a female protagonist and focus on relationships, while shonen is more action/adventure with a male protagonist.)

There seem to be all sorts of websites for anime and manga, and even Wikipedia entries on particular titles. I've even seen fan edits of anime clips on YouTube.

On the other hand, reviews of manga and yaoi at Eps seem to get small response, I suppose because of all those fan sites.

Whew. A whole new world. I'm reaching input overload.

[emeleel]

How funny I should run across this today:

Book Review: The Manga Cookbook | Lunch in a Box: Building a Better Bento

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

See, it comes back to food. It ALWAYS comes back to food.

[rmthunter]

Not if you don't keep shoving, it doesn't.