Manga / Yaoi / Wowie!

[stevieDisme]

Ok, so i know we have some manga/yaoi fans on the boards but i didn't see a thread dedicated to it, so i thought i'd start one.

now, you all know i'm definately (and unapologetically) a mainstream tights & flights fan. i won't change and i'm fine with it. but i do dabble in the odd independent here and there...and that includes manga. to get the ball rolling i'm going to list the manga that i own and what i thought about it:

battle royale vol 1 - 15 - i not only love this manga, but i love the 1st movie and the novel it was all based on. ultra violent and suggestive nudity, so watch yourself if you're reading it on the bus on the way to work. it's so intense i read each volume in white knuckled anticipation.

ranma 1/2 vol 1. - LOVED it. i rented the 1st volume of the anime series way back when i worked at cocksucker *ahem* blockbuster video and fell in love with it.

fullmetal alchemist vol. 1 - similar deal as ranma. i started dvr-ing the anime when they were playing it on the sci-fi channel, it's just brilliant to me.

poison cherry drive vol. 1 (not sure if there are more) - this one is interesting yet hard to explain. there are these pretty boys who run a revenge agency. basically, if you've been violated you can hire these guys and they'll violate your violator. they don't accept money, but there is a price to pay.

what i own, but have not read yet:

museum of terror vol. 1 by junji ito

casino lily by youka nitta

desire by maki kazumi and yukine honami

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Y'know....yeah.

[merboy]

I have volume 1 of Battle Royale and I am gagging to read the rest of them. Poison Cherry Drive also sounds pretty awesome.

[ZdrowcaB]

Hands down, my favorite manga is Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The animated movie of it is all right, but it only encompasses the first three manga volumes (it is a seven volume series).

Apparently gay guys have a thing for strong female characters...this book is filled with 'em! It is so insanely good, I can't wrap my mind around it. Some people are turned off to manga because of the art style (big eyes, asses, and jugs) but I think the art is well done.



Also, Great Teacher Onizuka is another manga that I would recommend to people that are new to manga/not really into manga. The story follows a 21 year old slacker/former bike gang member turned social studies teacher. Hilarity ensues.

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Mulch often and plant a tree seasonally.

[howtaobrowncow]

I've been hearing good things, consistently, about Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO). Really must rent that anime series.

I'm just finishing up the Beck anime, about a kid in a beginning rock band. Really terrific.

My favorite anime and manga series is Card Captor Sakura, as I've said many times before. Warm and funny, and a great pair of teenage gay characters in Sakura's older brother and his "best friend" Yukito. There's even a little understated lesbian relationship, in the crush Sakura's best friend has on her. Sadly, Sakura is chasing Yukito, and never notices.

For our transgendered members: there's a couple of transgendered series that are pretty good: After School Nightmare about a "boy" who's a boy on top but a girl on the bottom, trying to come to terms with his sexuality (and choose between the boy and girl who are both interested in him). And The Day of Revolution, about a high school boy who gets sick and discovers that he's genetically a girl and his hormones are kicking in. He decides to become a she, and then has to learn how to be a girl, and deal with his former-buddies-turned-admirers.

We mentioned one of my favorites, Only the Ring Finger Knows in the other thread, a great high school gay romance story. And Antique Bakery, another favorite, about a straight guy who opens a bakery, and hires an expert baker who's actually a former high school acquaintance and "a gay of demonic charm" whom no man can resist.

And, for comic geeks of all orientations: Genshiken, a great anime and manga series about a college anime/manga/gaming/cosplay club, with characters that we'll all recognize (or see ourselves in). Also, DramaCon, an excellent American manga-style series about a set of characters who end up at the same comics/manga convention several years running: comedy, drama, and romance ensue.

There are many more, but I'll pause and let someone else get a recommendation in edgewise.

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Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.
- Brendan Gill

[KidEternity]

I go through manga phases, I guess. They are not always on my radar but when I check something out that I think I might like I have never been disappointed by them. Currently on my shelves:

Crying Freeman: Handsome mentally programmed deadly assassin that cannot stop his tears of remorse for those he kills. Classic manga style and pretty covers:
http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/crying-freeman


Iron Wok Jan: Iron Chef on steroids. Over the top, simple funny and sprite. Jan is an arrogant chef who challenges the niece of the head chef at the restaurant they work at to a cooking competition. Hilarity ensues. 27 volumes!
http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Wok-Jan-Graphic-Novels/dp/158899256X


Fake: Romance between two New York City detectives. Pretty light fare, romance wise, but a fun read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-Fake-


Just about anything from Osamu Tezuka! Buddha, Astroboy, Ode to Kirihito, Apollo's Song, etc...... There is something about his work that makes you feel "full" after reading it.
http://tezukasite.tripod.com/

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"Truth speaks best in the language of poetry and symbolism, I think."
--Elfayaed, The Invisibles #1

[MatMutchmr]

Here's a quick list of just a few of my favorites...

My number one favorite is Matsuri Akino's Pet Shop of Horrors, which revolves around the enigmatic, androgynous Count D who runs an exotic pet shop in L.A.'s Chinatown. Each chapter is a new story as a new pet is sold and a new contract formed with each buyer - a contract that's always broken in one way or another with a terrible result...some more terrible than others. It reminds just a little of the old Friday The 13th TV series from the 80's, with the antique shop that sold cursed objects. Throw in just a dash of Gremlins, too. But it's so much more than either of those. There are 10 volumes in the original series and a sequel just started, this time located in Tokyo. The one-volume anime adapts 4 early stories - I would recommend it as well.

My other all-time favorite is Mai The Psychic Girl, which was one of the first wave of manga serialized (bi-weekly) by Viz in the late 80's. The fantastic art by Ryoichi Ikegami (who also did Crying Freeman) is what really fueled my love for this. It's a pretty typical story, a psychic girl on the run from an organization that wants to use her powers to control the world, but it's very well done. Tim Burton was supposed to do a film adaptation of this that never panned out.

On the comedy tip, Rumiko Takahashi's Lum (Urusei Yatsura) didn't last very long in the U.S., getting upstaged by both Ranma 1/2 and Inu Yasha, but it's a whole lot funnier, in my opinion.

Also have to give some love for the previously mentioned Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Crying Freeman. Both amazing.

If you enjoy Junji Ito's Tomie in Museum of Terror, you'll have to read Uzumaki and the deeply disturbing Gyo, which is probably the most horrifying thing I've ever read. (It gave me nightmares, seriously.) There are live action movies of Uzumaki and 5 Tomie movies (!) but none of them are all that great.

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"Can you do an 'I'm Sorry' spell? I don't wanna get too near him." "It's not the staff of Hallmark, Mol." -- Molly to Nico, Runaways #29

[HarleyQuinn]

Miyazaki is a god! Nausicaa, Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away...all of them. they are all so warm and fluffy but heartbreaking at the same time. CLAMP is also wonderful tastic. Card Captor Sakura, Magic Knight Rayearth (which has some hints at a gay couple (Eagle...and i forget what the prince guy's name was) and those girls like each other far too much), X, Chobits.... for MKR, i would REALLY recommend the manga over the anime. the anime is very 80s and CHEESE, and loses a lot of the very touching moments the manga has.

UMMM yaoi...i mentioned Only the Ring Finger Knows. AWESOME. Earthian was very beautiful, and i loved the art style. Beyond my Touch... I usually go for the fluffy get-together ones, instead of the smutty, so I usually get rather limited choices...FAKE was the first one i bought, still has a place in my heart.

Reading First Love Sisters, a yuri (girl/girl) manga with first volume released. It's sweet, but i don't know if it's gonna end up being very deep.

One of my favorite manga of all time is Angel Sanctuary. it's a HUGE 20 volume arc (and yes, i bought all of them...that's 200$ worth of manga on one story). It starts out being incest but ENDS UP being two female angels that were reincarnated on earth and fell in love in their corporal bodies. beautiful story, beautiful art, deep and heart wrenching and makes you question god and religion and all that kinda stuff.

Hellsing. the anime. the manga. ALL OF IT. Crazy anti-hero vampire killing vampires with gore galore!! I want to have Alucard's babies.

TWELVE KINGDOMS. another beautiful deep storyline. starts out seemingly generic: unloved, unhappy, unbeautiful girl gets whisked away to a magical kingdom where a magic unicorn decides to make her the queen of a kingdom. Its a story about how she comes to terms with her own weaknesses, becomes strong in her own beliefs and gains knowledge of herself. they're coming out with the novel that the anime is based off of, and it's even better than the anime is.


I could keep going....but I'll be good

[howtaobrowncow]

The Junjo:Romantica boys-love manga is being turned into anime in Japan! (Full story here.)

It's a great manga series... it'll take forever before we see an English dub, but here's the promo site for it, and a far-too-short Japanese trailer:

http://www.suzukisan.info/pv.html

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Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.
- Brendan Gill

[Lezzie Lindsay]

My all time favorite mangas have been .dot//hack (if I'm remembering how to type it!), Rurouni Kenshin, used to pick up Princess Ai by Courtney Love just out of curiosity and it actually wasn't have bad. I wipped thru all the Battle Royale...LOVE them! Steve, didn't you lend those to me? It's all a blur!

I have to say though - there are very few mangas that I will actually buy. Most of them I read while sitting in Borders. And when I use to work there and we could check out books like a library I was all over the manga! I miss those days a lot! :-)

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”...There’s nothing that time, whiskey, and the novels of Virginia Woolf won’t heal.” - X-Men #187

[nihil]

I'll second 12 Kingdoms (the novels) and Angel Sanctuary. I, too, have all 20 volumes of Angel Sanctuary. Kaori Yuki's art is gorgeous; it's very clearly shoujo but it has detail and flair that sets it apart from the pack. The story gets kind of convoluted but ultimately it's very good.

The other manga that I absolutely adore is Naoki Urasawa's Monster. I pimp this one almost constantly, so I'm sure you guys have already heard this, but it is a powerfully dark story about the journey of Dr. Tenma, a Japanese doctor working in Germany. In the first volume he learns to stand up for what is right when he goes against the will of the hospital director and refuses to abandon a young boy's operation in favor of a more high-profile patient. This choice forms the foundation of his sense of morality and self-worth. Then, ten years later, he discovers that the young boy grew up to be a serial killer who has left a trail of innocent bodies across eastern Europe. The story is awesome, but the things that stand out even more are the characters. Even the minor characters are each unique and well-realized, both artistically and in writing. Urasawa is not afraid to dedicate time to fleshing out the backstories even of characters you only see once, and it is so well done that every digression feels just as important as the main story. Thirteen of the eighteen volumes are already available; that's a lot of manga but if you were going to have just one manga title on your shelf this would be the one I recommend. My only nitpick is that they mistranscribe my favorite character's name: it's supposed to be Runge ("roon-geh," like the mathematician), not Lunge.

[MatMutchmr]

I just spoke with the friend of a friend who took a Yaoi tour last year and said it was amazing.

It's all sold out for 2008, but they have other types of packages.

Here's a link for anyone who's curious.

I'm looking at you, Charles.

http://www.popjapantravel.com/tours/

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"Can you do an 'I'm Sorry' spell? I don't wanna get too near him." "It's not the staff of Hallmark, Mol." -- Molly to Nico, Runaways #29

[howtaobrowncow]

I've read about those, and I'm highly tempted. My only back-off has been that I don't speak really any Japanese past "Domo arigato" (with the "Mr. Roboto" implied), and hate the idea of being totally lost and dependent on guides. But then, I don't suppose that's any different than Nepal, and I spent a month there hiking around the Himalayas with a trekking group, so maybe this isn't any different. So maybe I should reconsider...

By the way, I just finished watching Akira again, for the first time since its theatrical release (mumbledy-mumble) years ago. Wow, that movie still holds up to this day. I actually ended up watching it 3 times in 3 days: first in the English dub, then the subtitled Japanese, then, after watching the bonus material, watched it again with the "easter egg" popups turned on. I should have been totally bored by the 3rd time, but I wasn't -- it's that good.

I'm really going to have to read the Akira manga now... I've heard it's got a lot of great stuff that just couldn't be fit into a 2 hour movie.

_________________

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.
- Brendan Gill

[MatMutchmr]

If I remember correctly, and without looking it up first - I could be totally wrong, I think he hadn't finished the manga yet when they made the movie.

So the manga is very different, and very enjoyable. I have all the floppies from Marvel's EPIC comics, so that's how old those are. Yikes!

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"Can you do an 'I'm Sorry' spell? I don't wanna get too near him." "It's not the staff of Hallmark, Mol." -- Molly to Nico, Runaways #29

[howtaobrowncow]

[MatMutchmr]

Sharing the soundtrack, if you or anyone else would like a copy.



http://www.mediafire.com/?9jmymyybm2m

My favorite track (from my favorite scene in the film) is #5.

_________________
"Can you do an 'I'm Sorry' spell? I don't wanna get too near him." "It's not the staff of Hallmark, Mol." -- Molly to Nico, Runaways #29