Manga in Japanese

[emi]

1. Does anybody know a site where I can buy manga in Japanese?
2. Can anybody recommend a good series that's NOT about school girls or women in tight clothing?

Thanks gais!

[Vurin]

While I don't know about purchasing Manga you might want to try "Nana." Its a quite popular slice of life/romance and definitely targeting a slightly older audience than say Naruto or Sailor moon. I watched the anime prior to reading the manga but the anime was quite faithful and honestly both were excellent ( I preferred the anime for as far as it goes). It gets a tad emo at times, but overall very enjoyable. The manga was never finished but overall I was satisfied. I believe a common thing that folks appreciate about the series is that although the characters make distasteful or bad decisions the reasons and feelings behind those decisions are explained and thus while you may not agree with the decision the characters remain sympathetic and/or identifiable.

If you're looking for something less effeminate you could try Berserk or Gantz. Personally both got a little TOO weird for my tastes before long, but both have their appeal I did enjoy them for quite a while. I would attempt to describe them but I'd fail utterly... Berserk is guy with sword fights demons ... Gantz dead teenagers kill aliens for another chance at life... yea doesn't really do it justice.

Some other possibilities include
Skip beat -Slice of life of a young actress who became an actress for revenge. ongoing
One Piece = basically pirate comedy + shonen tropes. ongoing
Beck - Slice of Life about a rock band. finished

Its depressing that every series I listed here I watched as an anime first. I don't really read much Manga.
Edit: is suppose its worth mentioning that i believe all of the above are officially licensed now and available in America.

[Shamlarie]

Theres a decent series called "RAPE RAPE RAPE" that I think you'll enjoy. Its pretty much the pinnacle of Japanese art and story telling, Kurosawa-esque you could say even.

[pontifex]

what kind of story are you looking for?

[Thelnie]

Aqua suggests J-list. http://www.jlist.com/

I'm reading Naruto right now. I don't know if you're asking for current mangas, or if you've read mangas before, but Rurouni Kenshin is one of my favorites.

I also suggest Death Note. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Note

It's about a notebook that a really smart boy finds that kills people by heart attack when you write the name of a person in it. There are also other rules to the notebook but basically a different really smart guy tries to figure out the cause of the mysterious deaths of bad guys and it becomes a battle of wits between two super smart guys.

[emi]

I like action and fantasy adventure, and some comedy and romance. Kenshin, like you suggested, was my favorite OVAs of all time (the series was way too elongated). I loved the chrono crusade mangas, and RG Veda and X and adventure stuff like that.

Thanks for the suggestions. Nana looks too drama for my tastes, and Gantz just looks CRAZY. Deathnote is too much psychological thriller (asmo was a fan though). I'm looking for something that has a start and an end (like Vandread, Trigun, or Cowboy beebop), not something that goes on and on and on to cash in.

I wouldn't normally be picky but I'm going to be struggling through it with my Kanji dictionary so it's gotta get me really into it!

not sure about Jlist, looks like it caters to male tastes. Course, Aqua is definitely male so it prolly works great for him!

[Vurin]

Maybe give Claymore a try? Its pretty action-y, the story is not terrible nor too drama-y... I guess the females do wear tight clothes though... its actually kinda a lot like Berserk with females. I wouldn't unequivocally say its good enough to slog through with a dictionary, but you can check it out to see if its to your taste. Not sure if it has ended/will end.

I've recall hearing some good things about Hunter X Hunter back in the day although I know nothing about it.

I doubt you'd like Air Gear since its kinda fan-service-y especially in the beginning and a very young boyish in its action/plot, but I read a good bit of it and it was fairly enjoyable, and I for one like the concept of motorized roller skates. This series has officially ended as I recall.

Also consider GTO/Great teacher Onizuka this series was terrific as well its actually the third (?) in a series but is self contained for the most part as it focuses on Onizuka's life as a teacher. I guess I'm really a sucker for slice of life series, but this one is quite amusing and appealing to me. But it may because I'm a guy and enjoy identifying with Onizuka.

[Killingtale]

Nobody mentioned Black Lagoon?   

I know ima spell it wrong but Karukami was a good series too.

[pontifex]

Air Gear has not ended, but I would agree that you probably wouldn't like it. LOTS and i mean LOTS of fan-service.

Black Cat is a pretty good action/adventure type manga that's not too too long, I think it's under 200 chapters.
Shaman King was pretty good up until about halfway through when it just got weird. Again action/adventure story.
Death note I really really enjoyed, but if it's not your cup of tea, then you probably won't enjoy it as much.
Bakuman is by the same author/artist pair as Death Note, but it's not dark/gloomy at all. It's an ongoing series about a couple of high school kids that want to become mangakas. I found it really interesting. It's around 100 chapters now, and still going.

Just a few of my recommendations out of what I've read personally.

[Himeko]

www.amazon.co.jp has site options to shop in english, and ships internationally (although only by UPS express). I ordered a bunch of manga in bulk once, and the price actually turned out to be pretty reasonable considering you're paying japanese cover price (usually about 450-550 yen ~= $5) per copy + an equal amount in shipping/customs; which basically puts it at the cover price for a fully translated volume at the bookstore. They will pretty much have hands down the largest selection you can find online.


www.yesasia.com has a slight premium on the cover price, but offers free shipping options on a lot of their products. Selection is a bit more limited, but they seem to have a lot of the popular titles.

As for recommendations, since you're still relying on a dictionary quite heavily, I'd recommend mostly shounen titles as they'll have the furigana beside all the kanji.

Black Cat is a definite recommend, D. grayman was good too, but I never got to finish it.

The Mai Hime manga was a semi-decent read from what I remember when I was working on it with a scanlating group. It follows a quite different storyline from the anime.

Oh, and for the love of god, read Gintama. Having a decent knowledge of other series and japanese puns is a plus. It's one of those series that can go from absolutely absurd to super serious without missing a beat.

Also, Berserk isn't technically finished, just on indefinite hiatus. The author took an extended leave of absence so he could play Xbox and browse video sites all day.

[emi]

Thanks! I just checked out amazon.co.jp, and when I searched kuokami of course it shows you "customers who bought this also bought" so that should be great! For price comparison, the Japanese book store in Seattle sells them at double the original price or more.

Most of those are serialized and just go on a really long time (like Gin tama, description and art looks great, but volumes and volumes and volumes!!) Black Cat and Kurokami look good, though, I am writing those down, thanks!

As for difficulty, I got through RG Veda (uses very difficult long strings of Kanji with some classical uses and no furigana) so I think I'm good to go on pretty much anything after that (Crno Crusade, for example, was way easier).


If anybody's looking to pick up something, I'm watching Seimei no Moribito atm which is amazingly awesome.

Edit:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E9%BB%92%E7%A5%9E-1-%E3%83%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B3%E3%83%9F%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9-%E3%82%A4%E3%83%A0%E3%83%BB%E3%83%80%E3%83%AA%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3/dp/4757514433/ref=pd_sim_b_1

woo

[Desi]

This is kind of a necro, but I hope you didn't pass up Gantz the anime. It was a bit crazy but the show was pretty amazing.

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