So I anders talked to me, asking about some good manga without superheroes, and that got me interested in just fanboying over some things I like in front of complete strangers. I’ll arrange it in descending order depending on my general opinion of quality, but don’t read too much into it.
Berserk
This one shouldn’t really need any introduction; it is a classic for good reasons! A dark gritty fantasy story with great art. What I think is exceptional, especially in the origin story, is how much is told through body language and facial expressions instead of dialogue; complex characters act in contradictory ways and it’s deeply engaging.
20th Century Boys, 21st Century Boys
An intricate story that weaves together events in different time periods. It’s quite out there storywise and hard to explain. It’s by Urasawa Naoki, the person behind Monster, which was mentioned earlier. Basically som kids make up stories when they are young which later start happening when they are adults. We follow them as they try to figure out what’s actually going on. Thematically relevant to our current global predicament.
Planetes and Vinland Saga
Planetes, also mentioned above, is an interesting and poetic story that starts of as a slice of life in space, but goes into some philosophial ruminations about isolation, trauma and life/death.
Vinland Saga is by the same author and is more action oriented, a tale set in the viking times. It also has a poetic flare and changes tone quite much as the main character matures through it. We follow a young icelandic boy as he gets swept up with some mercenaries, growing up in war and violence.
Nausicaa of the valley of the wind
In my opinion the best work by Miyazaki (the guy who did those ghibli movies, yes). Post-apocalyptic story, somewhat messianic, centering on the inanity of human conflict in the vaster context of ecology
Vagabond, Real, Slam Dunk
All works by Inoue Takehiko are great; mostly famous for his samurai manga Vagabond which really blurs the line between classical ink painting and comic book, it starts of looking fantastic, and it ends in some of the best painted scenes I have ever seen. A historical manga about Miyamoto Musashi, probably the most famous swordsman in japanese history, it mostly fictional, but it draws heavy inspiration from Musashi’s treatise on martial arts.
Slam Dunk is more of a typical underdog story about a misfit who joins a basketball team in school, exciting, but nothing revolutionary. Real is more interesting, focusing on wheelchair basketball and has more mature subject matter.
National Quiz
In the future Japan is a dictatorship by game show, the National Quiz. The winner gets one wish, the loser are sent to labor camps. What can you wish? Well, if you want eifel tower in your backyard, the japanese army will make that happen. Satire like this is rare in manga!
To you, the eternal (fumetsu no anata e) and Koe no Katachi
Fumetsu is a strange story about an object that learns through contact and becomes conscious through imitating living things it encounters. It’s a story about an immortal that lives through ages, it’s about the people he meets and the loss he feels at outliving those he loves.
Koe no Katachi deals with themes about bullying, it follows a boy who meets a deaf girl who he treats really badly, and then seeing the consequences of his actions and how to deal with that responsibilty
Welcome to the NHK
A story about a hikikomori (a shut-in, that never dares to leave his appartment because he fears meeting other people) and how he get’s pulled out of his normal shut-in life to do stuff like joining death cults and making porn games. Completely crazy, but surprisingly poignant.
Touch, H2, Cross Game, Rough, Katsu! and other works by Adachi Mitsuru
These are slightly silly, yet cozy, love stories/dramas mostly centered around baseball and other sports. Adachi has a special style of understated slapstick that is quite charming.
Narutaru.
I’m not quite sure how to explain this one, because it has a strange tonal dissonance between a cutesy art-style that is quite mellow, but with sudden bouts of violence that makes it kind of creepy and scary.
Gunnm (Battle Angel Alita)
It’s a pretty great story, I’m sure most are familiar with it in some way or another. I love it because of the transhumanist themes and how the story widens in scope over time.
Homunculus
A guy gets a trepanation on his forehead to open his third eye, then he starts seeing some scary auras around people. Very well written and well drawn.
Shingeki no Kyojin
“Attack on Titan is good” is basically a meme by itself, but it is good, and has consistently kept an engaging narrative that keeps you guessing. It seems to be nearing its conclusion soon, but yeah, well worth reading. I think the anime feels a bit too slow compared to the manga.
Angel Densetsu
The nicest and gentlest boy just so happens to look hella evil and becomes the local Delinquent Legend unbeknownst to him.
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