Top 50 manga: 40-31
Part two is here! Just a note I
do have the full list finalised so as much as I want to add a few new discoveries
on here I can’t and the order is fixed; no more changes no matter what. So let’s
take a look at this lot shall we?
40 Digimon V-tamer this isn’t an adaptation of the anime BTW even if it does have Tai as the main character. It’s set in an AU that features a different Tai than the one we are used to from the anime. I don’t have much to say about this series except that it was good; far better than the anime. I think the strength is that it focuses on far less characters with most of the series only featuring Tai and his partner; an Ex-Vemon called Zeromaru. Worth checking out if you’re a Digimon fan and even if you aren’t then you might want to give it a shot.
39 Ranma ½ a story about a guy who turns into a girl when hit with cold water and back when hit with hot water. Ok if you’re gonna be all judgemental about this kinda thing every time we are going to be here forever so just let it go. So I normally can’t get into Takahashi Rumiko’s work, especially Inu Yasha; god was that not my thing. Don’t get me wrong her work isn’t bad just not for me. Ranma ½ on the other hand grabbed me right away and didn’t let go until the end. Several characters have the same curse as Ranma but turn into something different; his dad is a panda, Shampoo is a cat and so on. The plot revolves around the fact that Ranma, either because his dad is a jerk or because of complicated misunderstandings, is engaged to loads of different women including Akane who is the main love interest of the series. The series is a load of fun and no matter what is happening in each story, from ice skating to tea ceremonies; it is treated like a martial arts comedy. It also isn’t afraid of going serious when necessary like the last arc.
38 Yu-Gi-Oh now I’m specifically talking about the first 7 volumes which are the only ones with no subtitle or letter suffix. Now these volumes have very little of the children’s card games save the world aspect; the only stories to feature them are the ones with Kaiba and the only threat is by Kaiba’s own hand. The early manga also had a much darker tone and each story other than the Kaiba ones basically ran like this: someone would annoy Yugi or his friends at which point the king of games (another, darker, personality inside his mind) will come out and challenge them to a game. The loser of this game would then suffer a ‘penalty game’ which is usually based around the king of games’ dark powers. What I love is the fact that the games are completely even and the king of games has just as much of a struggle to win as the villain; this means that it’s more about how he will win rather than if he will win since we all know he will.
37 Dragon Ball OK so you should really know what this is considering it is one of the most popular manga and anime in the world or at the least the most well known to everyone. In fact what puts it so low on the list is not any indication of quality but rather the fan base. It really isn’t as good as people make it out to be but it’s one of the ones that everyone knows about before they even get into manga; there are a few more popular things on here but you will notice there is also a lot of lesser known stuff and even a few really obscure things, at least from American standards anyway. So on to the 36th man...Damn! Forgot to actually talk about why Dragon Ball made the cut. While I prefer the first part for its humour but this covers the second part, or Dragon Ball Z as it’s called over here, as well. Toriyama Akira is one of my favourite artists and his character designs are instantly recognisable; look at Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon and the Dragon Quest series and you can tell at a glance that he had his hand in there. The first half is funny as hell and Z is more straight martial arts/fantasy style but both are well told examples of their genre.
36 Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya so this one is going to take some explaining. Remember my Fate/Stay Night review? Well this is a spin off manga that takes the token loli and making her a magical girl. Did I mention I love magical girls? Yeah this is one you want to have some experience of the main universe either from the game, the anime or the manga since half the fun is spotting all the references that would make no sense to outsiders. For example Rin and Iylia invert to famous “I ask of you, are you my master?” scene and all the class cards and stuff like that. The unfortunate truth though is it really does nothing new to the genre so if you are a fan of magical girl stories or F/SN then I recommend it but if not then you probably want to give it a miss.
35 Law of Ueki+ OK so I can’t really talk much about this one since the first series is further up and I don’t want to have nothing to talk about there. I separated these series out since + has nothing to do with the original except the main character. When I heard there was going to be a sequel I was stoked and was foaming at the mouth...until I read it. It did manage to be really good and if it wasn’t Law of Ueki then it would most likely be even higher on the list since most of what I have to complain about is the fact it doesn’t measure up. It’s like your humdrum everyday manga that we have all seen a hundred times except it is all turned up to eleven, no scratch that it is turned up to fitfteen! For example chapter 42 starts by introducing these four guys that look like they are gonna be like sub bosses before they fight the end boss and on the next page this happens. Yes the three heroes ram them into a TKO with a T-Rex!
34 Death Note the first manga on the list drawn by Obata Takeshi and it won’t be the last since this guy is my favourite artist on the planet. Yeah Obata is only an artist and that isn’t a dig at him or artists or anything it’s just manga are usually written and drawn by the same person. The series gets my vote of approval because of the back and forth between the main characters; it’s a constant game of chess between them as the hero and the villain as they each try to find out each other’s identity. It also looks into if killing all the criminals is the right thing to do as in the end the world will be perfect.
33 Kampfer this is a hard series to describe. Mostly because I am 8 chapters in but also because it follows a guy who gets made a Kampfer (German for fighter) by his stuffed animal (a rabbit with its guts hanging out) and for this to work he has to be a women so whenever he is in proximity to another Kampfer he turns into a hot chick with pyrokinesis. This is a thing that exists! And it is glorious. So if this hasn’t put you off give it a try is good and off what I have heard it gets even better later on.
32 Soul Eater again I’m not far enough into this to really judge it but it has one of the best casts ever and each is introed in one of the three opening chapters. Maka is the serious one and is paired with Soul; the goof off, Black*Star is the show off and he is paired with Tsubaki the quiet one. Last but certainly not least is the obsessive OCD son of death himself; Death the Kid paired with the Thompson twins Liz and Patty. Each of the characters can turn their partner into a weapon to fight in combat; Soul into a scythe, Tsubake into ninja weapons and the Thompson twins into a pair of hand guns, which Kid wealds back handed. I wasn’t far into this so I don’t know the plot or anything but the characters are going to a school to learn to be grim reapers and Hijinks Ensue.
31 Pokemon Adventures yes Pokemon. Like Digimon this is very deferent to the anime. There are three main differences and the first is that each arc has a different lead, they are all named after the games along with their rivals so the first had Red, Blue and Green the second had Yellow and so on. They do come back but it’s kinda like the episodes of Power Rangers where old characters help out for an episode. Second is the fact that it is much closer to the games in terms of plot and style; in fact Tajiri Satoshi (the creator of the games) said it was the closest to the series that you could possibly get. The third and, in my opinion, most important is the imagination behind the Pokemon uses; for example Gold uses a cue stick to get his pokeballs behind the opponent for a surprise attack. Also Cris is a freaking badass and I love the Ruby/Sapphire arc but that is for a later day. The only problem is I feel the manga peeked at the R/S arc and I stopped reading midway through the Diamond/Pearl arc.
Next we go a bit more obscure and revisit some titles already on this list. Might be a while since I want to work on some other stuff for the moment but I won’t forget it. So for now I’m Silica and don’t go doing anything I wouldn’t.
40 Digimon V-tamer this isn’t an adaptation of the anime BTW even if it does have Tai as the main character. It’s set in an AU that features a different Tai than the one we are used to from the anime. I don’t have much to say about this series except that it was good; far better than the anime. I think the strength is that it focuses on far less characters with most of the series only featuring Tai and his partner; an Ex-Vemon called Zeromaru. Worth checking out if you’re a Digimon fan and even if you aren’t then you might want to give it a shot.
39 Ranma ½ a story about a guy who turns into a girl when hit with cold water and back when hit with hot water. Ok if you’re gonna be all judgemental about this kinda thing every time we are going to be here forever so just let it go. So I normally can’t get into Takahashi Rumiko’s work, especially Inu Yasha; god was that not my thing. Don’t get me wrong her work isn’t bad just not for me. Ranma ½ on the other hand grabbed me right away and didn’t let go until the end. Several characters have the same curse as Ranma but turn into something different; his dad is a panda, Shampoo is a cat and so on. The plot revolves around the fact that Ranma, either because his dad is a jerk or because of complicated misunderstandings, is engaged to loads of different women including Akane who is the main love interest of the series. The series is a load of fun and no matter what is happening in each story, from ice skating to tea ceremonies; it is treated like a martial arts comedy. It also isn’t afraid of going serious when necessary like the last arc.
38 Yu-Gi-Oh now I’m specifically talking about the first 7 volumes which are the only ones with no subtitle or letter suffix. Now these volumes have very little of the children’s card games save the world aspect; the only stories to feature them are the ones with Kaiba and the only threat is by Kaiba’s own hand. The early manga also had a much darker tone and each story other than the Kaiba ones basically ran like this: someone would annoy Yugi or his friends at which point the king of games (another, darker, personality inside his mind) will come out and challenge them to a game. The loser of this game would then suffer a ‘penalty game’ which is usually based around the king of games’ dark powers. What I love is the fact that the games are completely even and the king of games has just as much of a struggle to win as the villain; this means that it’s more about how he will win rather than if he will win since we all know he will.
37 Dragon Ball OK so you should really know what this is considering it is one of the most popular manga and anime in the world or at the least the most well known to everyone. In fact what puts it so low on the list is not any indication of quality but rather the fan base. It really isn’t as good as people make it out to be but it’s one of the ones that everyone knows about before they even get into manga; there are a few more popular things on here but you will notice there is also a lot of lesser known stuff and even a few really obscure things, at least from American standards anyway. So on to the 36th man...Damn! Forgot to actually talk about why Dragon Ball made the cut. While I prefer the first part for its humour but this covers the second part, or Dragon Ball Z as it’s called over here, as well. Toriyama Akira is one of my favourite artists and his character designs are instantly recognisable; look at Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon and the Dragon Quest series and you can tell at a glance that he had his hand in there. The first half is funny as hell and Z is more straight martial arts/fantasy style but both are well told examples of their genre.
36 Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya so this one is going to take some explaining. Remember my Fate/Stay Night review? Well this is a spin off manga that takes the token loli and making her a magical girl. Did I mention I love magical girls? Yeah this is one you want to have some experience of the main universe either from the game, the anime or the manga since half the fun is spotting all the references that would make no sense to outsiders. For example Rin and Iylia invert to famous “I ask of you, are you my master?” scene and all the class cards and stuff like that. The unfortunate truth though is it really does nothing new to the genre so if you are a fan of magical girl stories or F/SN then I recommend it but if not then you probably want to give it a miss.
35 Law of Ueki+ OK so I can’t really talk much about this one since the first series is further up and I don’t want to have nothing to talk about there. I separated these series out since + has nothing to do with the original except the main character. When I heard there was going to be a sequel I was stoked and was foaming at the mouth...until I read it. It did manage to be really good and if it wasn’t Law of Ueki then it would most likely be even higher on the list since most of what I have to complain about is the fact it doesn’t measure up. It’s like your humdrum everyday manga that we have all seen a hundred times except it is all turned up to eleven, no scratch that it is turned up to fitfteen! For example chapter 42 starts by introducing these four guys that look like they are gonna be like sub bosses before they fight the end boss and on the next page this happens. Yes the three heroes ram them into a TKO with a T-Rex!
34 Death Note the first manga on the list drawn by Obata Takeshi and it won’t be the last since this guy is my favourite artist on the planet. Yeah Obata is only an artist and that isn’t a dig at him or artists or anything it’s just manga are usually written and drawn by the same person. The series gets my vote of approval because of the back and forth between the main characters; it’s a constant game of chess between them as the hero and the villain as they each try to find out each other’s identity. It also looks into if killing all the criminals is the right thing to do as in the end the world will be perfect.
33 Kampfer this is a hard series to describe. Mostly because I am 8 chapters in but also because it follows a guy who gets made a Kampfer (German for fighter) by his stuffed animal (a rabbit with its guts hanging out) and for this to work he has to be a women so whenever he is in proximity to another Kampfer he turns into a hot chick with pyrokinesis. This is a thing that exists! And it is glorious. So if this hasn’t put you off give it a try is good and off what I have heard it gets even better later on.
32 Soul Eater again I’m not far enough into this to really judge it but it has one of the best casts ever and each is introed in one of the three opening chapters. Maka is the serious one and is paired with Soul; the goof off, Black*Star is the show off and he is paired with Tsubaki the quiet one. Last but certainly not least is the obsessive OCD son of death himself; Death the Kid paired with the Thompson twins Liz and Patty. Each of the characters can turn their partner into a weapon to fight in combat; Soul into a scythe, Tsubake into ninja weapons and the Thompson twins into a pair of hand guns, which Kid wealds back handed. I wasn’t far into this so I don’t know the plot or anything but the characters are going to a school to learn to be grim reapers and Hijinks Ensue.
31 Pokemon Adventures yes Pokemon. Like Digimon this is very deferent to the anime. There are three main differences and the first is that each arc has a different lead, they are all named after the games along with their rivals so the first had Red, Blue and Green the second had Yellow and so on. They do come back but it’s kinda like the episodes of Power Rangers where old characters help out for an episode. Second is the fact that it is much closer to the games in terms of plot and style; in fact Tajiri Satoshi (the creator of the games) said it was the closest to the series that you could possibly get. The third and, in my opinion, most important is the imagination behind the Pokemon uses; for example Gold uses a cue stick to get his pokeballs behind the opponent for a surprise attack. Also Cris is a freaking badass and I love the Ruby/Sapphire arc but that is for a later day. The only problem is I feel the manga peeked at the R/S arc and I stopped reading midway through the Diamond/Pearl arc.
Next we go a bit more obscure and revisit some titles already on this list. Might be a while since I want to work on some other stuff for the moment but I won’t forget it. So for now I’m Silica and don’t go doing anything I wouldn’t.