13 Manga

I have a thing for manga. Manga is what the Japanese call graphic novels. I call it manga, but I like the stuff from China and Korea too, and they have other words for it. Anyway, there are 13 I like:

On the left there is Air Gear. On the right is Bakuman. Air Gear is about a young punk who becomes someone special when he puts on a special kind of roller skate that can get you airborn for a long time. It’s a bit Science Fiction and a bit funny. I liked the earlier, funnier issues better.

Bakuman is about a couple of boys in Jr. High and later High School who want to draw manga for a living. I started reading it to see how drawing manga compared to writing, but their passionate devotion to the pursuit caught me.

Bleach (on the left) is where it all started for me. I got a second hand copy of the first two books from Hastings three years ago. I loved it, and tried to get Mr. Al to read it. No go. A year later I’m laughing myself silly reading the thing during family reading time. Suddenly everyone’s got to read it. We now have 26 volumes of it floating around the house.

Bremmen (on the right above) is about four men – yes, I said men regardless of what one of those men looks like – form a punk rock band and fight and play their way to super stardom. Again, they got me with laughter.

Cat Street (left) is a sweet, delicate story about four missfits who attend a special school. It’s the kind of school I wish I could have attended -one which you only go to when you want to and only study what interests you.

Cross Game (right) is great in every way except for the drawing of the characters. Which is not to say they are not “well drawn” in a literary sense. They are deep, with wonderful internal and external conflict involving a girl and boy who play baseball. The artwork on the backgrounds is fantastic. The drawing of the people, not so much.

I can not say enough about 1/2 Prince! Of all the manga I love, and I love more than 13 of them, 1/2 Prince is my all-time favorite! It’s a Science Fiction manhua (meaning it’s from China) about a girl who takes on the character of a boy in a MMRPG (Massive, Mulit-player, Role Playing Game) She incidentally makes her character very handsome, the kind of handsome that gets it’s own word in manga; bishounen. She then accidentally charms and intentionally fights her way to fame and fortune within the game while trying to keep her true identity a secret outside the game. The Girl introduced me to this one. When The Boy and Mr. Al overheard us talking about it they had to check it out too. The next thing we knew, all of us were eagerly awaiting the latest “scanlation” (scanned translation done by fans in the hope of promoting their favorite mangakas) The return of this one to activity after over a month with nothing prompted today’s post. What do I like about it? It makes me laugh. A lot.

Kaiche wa Maid Sama (left) is about a girl who has to work nights in a “cosplay” cafe to help her family make ends meet. Cosplay means grown ups dressing up in costumes without a good excuse. In her case, she dresses as a French Maid most of the time. She’s the school president and doesn’t want anyone to know about her job.

Skip Beat (right) is about a girl who becomes an actress to get revenge on a pop star who dumps her. This one provides a fascinating look into acting and does great things with character. I got hooked when The Girl brought it home from her school library.

The One (left) is about the orphaned daughter of two super models who gets sucked into the modeling world by her aunt. She’s a lamb in a wolf’s den and doesn’t even know it. Great fun watching her trip the wolves up, including making one cold bishounen fall for her.
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Until Death Do Us Part (below) is a lot like a Keanu Reeves movie. Need I say more? All right, fine. It’s about a blind modern samurai who uses a mono-filament sword to protect a pre-cognizant girl.

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Vagabond (above) is not for the faint of heart. It should be rated R for all the usual R-rated reasons. So as long as you’re of age and not squeamish, I recommend it. The facial expressions and movements of the characters and even the backgrounds are all rendered beautifully all the time. This one is not funny at all. It’s about a soldier gone renegade in old Japan and how a cycle of violence set against Buddhist philosophy leads to his deconstruction and reconstruction. Yeah. Not for kids.

And in the end we come to Zombie Loan. (right) It was really a toss up between this and Zombie Powder – which is done by the same guy who does Bleach – but Zombie Powder was simply abandoned without resolution. Zombie Loan is about a girl who can see a black ring around the necks of people who are about to die, and two boys who have been granted a new lease on life after a terrible traffic accident in exchange for killing zombies. Until they pay of their debt, the boys are zombies. Frankly, I have no idea why I like this one.

The one thing they all have in common; every single one has a love story involved.

You can find them and a lot more at www.onemanga.com

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