the long-awaited(???) insert credit manga thread

whatsarobot

I’m starting this thread because today, I went to the conbini to buy volume 100 of beloved manga ONE PIECE (thank you @Syzygy ), and while I was there, I discovered that Jump Comics is quite savvy, because they also released the first volume in what appears to be a new ongoing reprint of beloved manga ONE PIECE, starting all the way back at chapter one (which was published originally in 1997).

Well, I bought ’em both, because I knew I wouldn’t know what the heck is going on in volume 100. I haven’t read ONE PIECE since 2010 or 2011, at which point it was already a certified classic. I only got about 20 volumes in, but thought, “Hey, this is a pretty fun manga. I’d like to read the rest of it someday.”

Perhaps today is the first day of that someday.

So, do you like manga? Do you aspire to like manga? Or perhaps you think manga is only for jerks and weirdos (I think that can be true and you can still love it).

I’ve tried several times to become a Fan Of Manga, but it’s never really stuck. The only series I’ve ever really truly loved are Yotsuba&! and メタモルフォーゼの縁側 (BL Metamorphosis), but I’ve sampled a wide variety over the years. So I guess you could say I have a love-hate relationship with manga.

But I gave up yeeeears ago on non-Japanese comics, so manga is still winning lol.

Syzygy

I read a lot of manga. Like I’ve mentioned I self-taught Japanese and manga is basically the ideal resource for practicing the written language with an endlessly wide variety of topics, demographics (including reading level) and obviously illustrations to aid comprehension. I still recommend it for aspiring learners and you will have a much easier time today obtaining “raws” than I had in the 00’s. Hell, there’s plenty of web manga released free.

Stuff I am keeping up with week-by-week currently:
ONE PIECE
バキ道
カイジ 24億脱出編 (and everything FKMT)
Gunmn Mars Chronicle

Probably forgetting others (some too trashy to mention here :X). The recently-concluded JoJolion. Longing for the Hiatus x Hiatus to end. Along with all the random things I read when I feel like it or revisiting favorites.

Syzygy

antillese
I mentioned it Syzygy by the Japanese name, Gunmn, but BAA is one of the first manga ever professionally translated / published in English (along with Akira; Blade of the Immortal; some others) and one of my own entry points into manga. I’ll admit some nostalgia, but I do think that first version had a superior translation to the one currently sold; however, it also mirrored and edited the art in places, and the new print quality is better. Trade offs!

It’s still ongoing under the same author-artist, Kishiro Yukito, and the same overall story— Gally / Alita’s story became a real ‘epic’ in the original sense of the word. His flow in action sequences I might say is the best ever in the medium. However, it remains relatively obscure in Japan, nevermind America (especially before the James Cameron movie). Like a number of original works, the outsized influence of BAA creatively on a whole spectrum of pop culture media is overshadowed only by how little recognition it gets: everyone knows Cloud and Sephiroth are Guts and Griffith, but FF7’s Midgar is 1:1 just the PG-13 version of Scrap Iron City, right down to the giant tubes hanging from a monolithic central tower.

Fun fact, Yukito has maintained his own personal web page since the early 90’s, and so was probably the very first ‘direct line’ to the manga industry accessible on the English web; he had the first version of the 2ch-type BBS on there, and back in the day would talk with fans directly— including to say that Cameron really had approached him in the 90’s to express an interest in adapting it. That was a long time coming.

If / when you finish the ‘first arc’ (you will know clearly) I recommend also to check out the 1993 OVA.

Unbeknownst2U

The pandemic and lack of EMS shipping from Japan has slowed down my consumption quite a bit.

If you’re into Yotsubato! I’d recommend at least taking a look at the first vol of Azumanga Daioh. Same mangaka and it’s very formative in their finding the humor in the mundane.

I’m following SpyxFamily on Jump+ which has been a lot of fun silly nonsense. For some reason I have always really like the James Bond/Spy genera so having a manga take a fun spin on it has been appreciated.

Kaiju No.8 Is also a surprise pick for me and is one of the hot darlings of the moment in Japan as well. It’s only 4 vol. deep so it’s easy to jump into and really bounces back from slapstick humor to some really serious consequences along with some fun paneling for the fights.

I also recently found Sousou no Frieren which has hit my fantasy/D&D itch by taking a literal look at the extended lifespan of elves by dropping you right at the end of the battle to vanquish the evil demon lord and walking you through what happens to the heroes after the battle.

And with American Football season starting up again, I’m always reminded of Eyeshield 21, which was a whole lot of fun and managed to keep my interest as it moved past the 20 volume mark. Yusuke Murata ( who also did One Punch Man’s art) was really great here and watching him expand his style in the various action scenes was a real joy. Even if you don’t really enjoy or have an affinity for American Football ( I wasn’t big on the sport myself) its a fun shounen sports series, a genera I would have never expected myself to fall into.

Gaagaagiins

I mainly watch anime much to my chagrin–my brain can’t wrap itself around reading manga whilst also enjoying it that much except in physical print form, and I can’t afford to read the sort of stuff I would want to read.

But I feel compelled to say somewhere on this here forum I’m a big ONE PIECE devotee. I skip filler arcs, on principle (I’ll watch a recap and a partially non-canon episode but life is too short for ONE PIECE filler), but that does mean I watched damn near 900 episodes of something, sequentially, and I didn’t start doing so until, I dunno, 5 years ago or so, so it’s not like I’ve been keeping up week by week forever either.

ONE PIECE is good, is all I mean to say

穴

Gaagaagiins I mainly watch anime much to my chagrin–my brain can’t wrap itself around reading manga whilst also enjoying it that much except in physical print form, and I can’t afford to read the sort of stuff I would want to read.

I was like this for the longest time, I knew I would enjoy manga inmensly but I couldn’t afford it or wrap my head around to reading on my computer, but last year I bought a Kobo e-reader and that pretty much fixed it, it looks almost like real paper, i can read while laying down on my bed, and I can even read in the dark (please pay me for this kobo marketing people)
It’s weird to me that the martket for e-readers is mostly old people when e-readers are so cool.
I guess it is because young people feel like they already spend so much time on a screen that they want their reading time away from one? It barely feels like a screen to me.

My favorite manga so far is Hikaru no Go which is the best and most charming sports manga imo, i feel like it has a lot of heart.

Another one that I enjoyed was Otōto no Otto (My brothers Husband) which talks a lot about internalized homophobia in japanese society, and is overall a pretty charming story that runs for only 4 volumes.

And the most recent one that I read was Otherside Picnic , I thought it was finished already when I started reading it but only 6 volumes have been published so far. It is based on the same book that Tarkovsky’s stalkert was loosely based on but Otherside Picnic has gay girls with shotguns and that’s my review.

Syzygy

kingnothing

Syzygy Jojolion is a triumph but I wonder what the legacy will be after people have the chance to consume it in whole a few more times. I truly don’t know whether I like it more than Steel Ball Run yet. It was quite a trip to come in toward the back quarter and catch it monthly until its finish. Some of my favorite battles.

fugazi57

Like many others said I hate to read manga on my computer, but I do follow one piece there because it is just too goooood man.

Still, I gave myself a couple of physical Berserk volumes for my birthday and god damn, it is just so pleasurable to read manga on actual paper and to be able to put my face 1-inch away from the drawing’s details without losing my eyeballs. I wish to one day be a rich dude so i can just spend all my money on manga. My favorites and one’s I’d buy first are:

Dragon Ball! - You can’t deny how much of a master Toriyama is. I’m pretty sure his panelling and the way he depicts movement have influenced practically every manga artist since.
Stop! Hibari-Kun - I found out about Hisashi Eguchi via the video bellow (that channel, Archipel, is a great way to find out about amazing mangakas and other Japanese artists). I vibed with them and their art heavily and decided to check Hibari-Kun out. It is VERY problematic but like, in a very interesting way?
Hibari-kun is a trans woman and everyone, INCLUDING THE AUTHOR (who appears in cameos sometimes), is very transphobic towards her. HOWEVER, and this is why it is so interesting, it seems that even though Eguchi seems like a complete ignorant towards transsexuality issues, they made the main character so strong and so sure of her womanhood that, in my opinion, she became a total trans icon! It is very fascinating how the character sort of creates a life of her own and is able to stand her ground against all odds (one of the odds being the author themself).
That all being said, Eguchi says in this interview that their drawings are fueled by the frustration of not having been born a woman. His gender-dysphoria certainly adds another layer to the whole thing, and shows how the transphobia present in the manga is more a fruit of their own frustration and of Japan’s prejudice in the 80s than anything else.
Anyway it’s very interesting and extremely fun lol. The transphobia present in there is no match for Hibari-kun!!! Also watch the video it’s great

One Piece - the ultimate shonen masterpiece.
Battle Royale - another classic, and one that makes us think what would CULTURE as whole be like if it didn’t exist. For real tho, it’s very good and very heavy and goes deep into psychological stuff and it’s honestly kinda disturbing but I love it.
Tekkonkinkreet - Just look at this style mannn

Akira - it is very interesting when you realize that the magnum opus that is the Akira movie is more of company-piece to the manga than anything else. Lord and the manga just makes so much more sense. you’re even able to understand the movie after you read it lmao

Some other ones that I deeply yearn to read but haven’t yet due to low ca$h are Vagabond, Ping-Pong, Slum Dunk and the rest of Berserk (which so far is incredible). Maybe I should get some of those e-readers 穴 mentioned. Are the Kobo ones better than the Kindles?

Gaagaagiins

穴 I was like this for the longest time, I knew I would enjoy manga inmensly but I couldn’t afford it or wrap my head around to reading on my computer, but last year I bought a Kobo e-reader and that pretty much fixed it, it looks almost like real paper, i can read while laying down on my bed, and I can even read in the dark (please pay me for this kobo marketing people)

I don’t think I’d like it for manga but I have a paperwhite that I adore for reading, also for those same reasons… reading in the dark with barely any backlight with one hand and it can hold all the books I could ever want.

穴

fugazi57 Are the Kobo ones better than the Kindles?

I bought a Kobo mainly because I didn’t want to buy from Amazon, for a moment I thought about getting an used older kindle because that would have been way cheaper, but I learned that you need to convert everything to amazon’s format in order to be able to read external books.
While any Kobo (and most other brands) will open almost anything you throw at it. (there’s even some comfortable ways to read PDF’s)
There are some workarounds for kindles but with most other brands you will get a more open and friendlier device out of the box.

Stop! Hibari-kun sounds very interesting, I think I have the stomach to handle the problematic stuff and the transphobia but I’ll watch the archipel video before checking it out just in case.

kingnothing

fugazi57 Right now is the best time to finish Berserk. It’s a masterpiece.

whatsarobot

As someone who works for the company that owns kobo, I must say thank you for the kind words lol.

Reading the replies in this thread has reminded me of good manga I’ve read in the past, and of ones I’ve been meaning to check out.

@Syzygy That hiatus chart is a thing of beauty. The first few volumes of Hunter x Hunter were wonderful though.

@UnparalleledDev Yes! I watched all of the Azumanga Daioh anime back when I still lived in Canada, and before I even knew Yotsubato! existed. I love it, except for the creepy bits (that should be the official slogan for all manga). I still sing Chiyo-chan’s “tsukurimashou” song all the time, and have taught it to my daughter lol. I got the manga volumes when they were reprinted in a nice three-volume set several years ago.

@fugazi57 Heck yeah Tekkonkinkreet is dope.

To everyone here: I recommend the Mangasplaining podcast. Created by Deb Aoki, David Brothers, Christopher Butcher, and Chip Zdarsky/Steven Murray. They pick one title each week and talk about it. Three manga superfans, trying to convince Canadian comics artist Chip Zdarsky why manga is good. It’s fun.

穴

whatsarobot As someone who works for the company that owns kobo, I must say thank you for the kind words lol.

my request for sponsorship wasn’t that far off then (lol)

UnparalleledDev

whatsarobot @UnparalleledDev Yes! I watched all of the Azumanga Daioh anime back when I still lived in Canada, and before I even knew Yotsubato! existed. I love it, except for the creepy bits (that should be the official slogan for all manga). I still sing Chiyo-chan’s “tsukurimashou” song all the time, and have taught it to my daughter lol. I got the manga volumes when they were reprinted in a nice three-volume set several years ago.

@whatsarobot you tagged me instead of tagging @Unbeknownst2U :)

whatsarobot

穴 haha the crazy part is, kobo (the company) is actually located in toronto (where i’m from), whereas the company that owns kobo is located in japan (where i am now).

oh well!

whatsarobot

Uhhh whoops?

I guess I must have really enjoyed going back to the very beginning of ONE PIECE, because now here I am with the first 44 tankobons. Almost all of these only cost 110 yen apiece, which is cool. And I did exercise some restraint – there were boxed sets of volume 1-98, which was tempting, but those were priced at 25,000 yen!

Aiming to complete these by the end of the year, and reevaluate from there.

I have to say, the art style in the early volumes is so much more round, with much cleaner lines, than volume 100. I’m intrigued to watch that visual style evolve as the series progresses.

ONE PIECE pros: What are the arcs I should be excited for???

Gaagaagiins

whatsarobot ONE PIECE pros: What are the arcs I should be excited for???

While reiterating I don’t read the manga, I’ll echo @Syzygy’s endorsement of Water Seven/Enies Lobby! Thinking about that one moment on the wall (anyone who has watched/read it) gets me feeling simultaneously teary-eyed and goosebumpy any day of the week.

I would say the strongest early arc is Arlong Park, and Alabasta serves as a decent blueprint for the level of scale and pacing you can expect in the future, even if that pacing will occasionally if not often bloat more often than feel lean.

I’ll maybe come off as more of a sucker for the Moments than Syzygy in the sense that I feel like the moments can tower above an arc so much that it lifts all of it up with it. Summit War has a moment I cannot help but feel in awe of, and maybe that whole thing is a big goddamn mess in general, but it’s a good mess in that sense, and it’s incredible to me how much complexity is introduced and then also later made use of as the series progresses.

For all its flaws, Dressrosa is pretty inventive and feels like Alabasta 2.0, with a real humdinger of a central antagonist.

Also this obviously doesn’t serve as something that will keep you reading but the current arc is pretty damn great, I’d say it is maybe one of the best ones since Water Seven/Enies Lobby!

Syzygy

The first few volumes of Hunter x Hunter were wonderful though.

The publishing schedule (or lack thereof) hurts because except maybe Greed Island, HxH has gotten better with every volume since 1998. The ‘current’ arc could be a masterpiece of the medium if it were ever completed and managed to fulfill the promise of all its complexity.

ONE PIECE pros: What are the arcs I should be excited for???

Skypiea (26-32) and Water Seven / Enies Lobby (34-39) are almost without flaws. Plenty of stuff to like later but it becomes more ‘I love these scenes’ than ‘I love this whole arc’, maybe unavoidably as the setting lore piled up.

I generally prefer the earlier art, though Oda’s busy paneling of recent years definitely reads better on paper than digital.

whatsarobot

Syzygy Thank you! Water Seven in particular seems to be universally praised.

Yes, the most recent art is clearly all about bodies and objects in motion, to the extent that I find it hard to parse what’s actually happening in a lot of panels at first glance.

Out of curiosity, and on a different topic entirely, around what volume do you expect ONE PIECE might end? Has there been any indication? Or are people expecting the series to outlive Oda Sensei at this point?

SU2MM

Syzygy

Man, I love Hunter x Hunter to a completely unreasonable degree which I think it not quite in proportion to the quality of the actual work, but who knows. There is just something about it that grabs the essential appeal of a battle shounen for me in a way that nothing else quite does. Some tout it as a “deconstruction” of the genre or whatever, but I kind of feel like it is just a really, really good example of what the genre can be when it’s best (apologies to the One Piece fans, but HxH is by far my favourite). A lot of my emotional attachment to the characters is admittedly likely because I’ve been following it for 17 years or so. I watched the 1999 anime for the first time around 2004 I think and since then I have read through the manga and watched that first anime as well as the 2011 anime multiple times.

The hiatuses can be painful, but at this point I’ve just sort of accepted it to the point that it doesn’t even bother me anymore. If the manga is never finished I am very happy with what we already have, if Togashi ever finishes another arc I will read it. In fact in general, I have become very chill with unfinished artwork over the last decade, I enjoy what is there and if it ever finishes great, but if not it doesn’t really diminish my enjoyment of what is there.

In general I sort of have the same problem that many mentioned in the thread, namely that i always enjoyed anime and I always enjoyed books, but somehow comics/manga were never quite as appealing to me as either. However, I did enjoy some manga, I remember reading through about half of the Danish translation of Dragonball in a single day when I got my hands on it as a child.

In general I agree that it is a lot more enjoyable to read physically than digitally. Since I moved to Japan I have been reading more as used manga is very cheap here. For example I finally read through a bunch of Urasawa Naoki’s manga which I had always wanted to do because of how much I loved the Monster anime. His other stuff is also great! I also read Berserk for the first time here, despite having really liked the 1997 anime for a long time. Good stuff.

Gaagaagiins

whatsarobot Out of curiosity, and on a different topic entirely, around what volume do you expect ONE PIECE might end? Has there been any indication? Or are people expecting the series to outlive Oda Sensei at this point?

I can’t say for sure in terms of volume numbers, but ONE PIECE is without a doubt currently building toward some kind of definite finale. At least in terms of a lot of the things the series has been building up to, there is a Thing that seemingly Will Happen, and it could act as a natural Finale to the Story.

But it’s hard to express at this point the scale at which Oda has set things into motion. ONE PIECE is truly the ultimate shounen in the sense that it seems the stakes involved have never truly stagnated, they’ve always been building and building.

I expect that ONE PIECE will conclude somewhere within this decade but can’t pinpoint it any more than that.

穴

Gaagaagiins my brother has an e-reader that’s the same size as the paperwhite and yeah it’s too small for manga, mines a 7 inch Kobo Libra and while it is a little bit smaller than the average tankobon (I think?) it’s still pretty good. Something with an 8 inch screen like a Kobo forma must be amazing for manga though

whatsarobot

Gaagaagiins Oooh, this is VERY intriguing.

At this point, I’m just hoping that Luffy will come back and pay Makino with treasure, like he promised. (But I suppose becoming King of the Pirates and finding that there ONE PIECE would be pretty cool too.)

whatsarobot

Oh and just so this doesn’t become exclusively a ONE PIECE thread, I do want to put in another mention of BL Metamorphosis, which I hope more people will read, because it’s so tender and warm. The epitome of “slice of life” as a genre.

https://sevenseasentertainment.com/series/bl-metamorphosis/

Syzygy

You can definitely see the ending from the current chapters, there’s a logical path to a climax, with stops along the way to make good on things hinted at since the early days. If it were early OP with 5 to 8 volume arcs, I would say 150. However, they have kept getting longer; the ongoing one is the longest ever and frankly doesn’t need to be.

To be blunt, OP prints money so I’m sure Shueisha wants it to go as long as possible. A couple years ago they started to often have Oda take every other week off, which looks like them learning from their experience with such mangaka as Togashi about not overworking the golden goose. Oda is just 46 and in good health, and many successful mangaka go into their 60s or more. And unlike a lot of Jump’s past stars he doesn’t seem to chafe under being made to continue OP, or if he ever does it never comes up publically.

whatsarobot

Syzygy These are good points you raise.

Building on them, I will add what a friend of mine, who used to work at a company that licensed Shueisha products, shared with me. According to the scuttlebutt, once ONE PIECE comes to an end (if it ever does), there are real fears within the industry that the entire model of printed weekly and monthly publications might tank along with it. In a very real sense, it is considered the tentpole franchise for an entire industry. It just dwarfs everything else in terms of sales.