What Current Manga Are You Reading?

[Seto Kaiba]

 

Did someone say dark?

Try Biomega or Blame. Also both from knights of Sidonia creator Tsutomu Nihei

Speaking of, has anyone seen the recent-ish animated Blame! feature?

[Bolt]

I saw it on Netflix late last year. I enjoyed it as an adaptation of the manga. The animation was great. It did Veer off from the manga a bit but was still entertaining. And left us hoping for another installment..

No way it could hope to include all the characters and elements of the manga, but that’s no surprise.

Edited March 14, 2019 by Bolt

[Focslain]

 

Speaking of, has anyone seen the recent-ish animated Blame! feature?

 

 

I saw it on Netflix late last year. I enjoyed it as an adaptation of the manga. The animation was great. It did Veer off from the manga a bit but was still entertaining. And left us hoping for another installment..

Pretty much this, it's done in the same style as Knights of Sidonia, so if your ok with that it's a decent watch.

[Seto Kaiba]

 

I saw it on Netflix late last year. I enjoyed it as an adaptation of the manga. The animation was great. It did Veer off from the manga a bit but was still entertaining. And left us hoping for another installment..

Good to hear.  I first got introduced to Blame! back in high school, and it took me ages to find proper copies of the series.  Kodansha recently finished re-releasing the complete series in a six volume "Master Edition" both in print and e-book form.

Google Play currently has the ebook edition priced to move at $9.99 a volume.

[Bolt]

Sweet!  Would love to see how it compares..I’ve got the old , I believe 9 volume series and the one prequel volume.. I’d been rummaging thru a discount pile @ the local comic shop about 10 years ago and stumbled upon volume 4. After reading it( haha never a ton of dialogue in Blame!) I immediately sought out the rest. 

And then Biomega came out..hardcore!

Edited March 14, 2019 by Bolt

[Seto Kaiba]

 

Sweet!  Would love to see how it compares..I’ve got the old , I believe 9 volume series and the one prequel volume.. I’d been rummaging thru a discount pile @ the local comic shop about 10 years ago and stumbled upon volume 4. After reading it( haha never a ton of dialogue in Blame!) I immediately sought out the rest. 

It's beautifully cleaned up.  I bought all six volumes as they were coming out.  I got introduced to it by one of the IT guys when I worked at the Henry Ford Museum, and he loaned me the first two volumes and I read them in the breaks between tour groups.  Such an amazingly atmospheric series, but since it relied heavily on ontological mystery and "show don't tell" I'd despaired that it would never get an animated adaptation capable of doing it justice.  Took years for me to find the rest of the volumes since they were out of print by the time I had the money for it, and didn't get copies in decent shape until Google Play dropped this Kodansha re-release in my recommendations last year.

I haven't read Biomega yet, but VIZ Media has all six volumes of that series also on Google Play, at $8.99 a volume, so once I get done with the light novel for The Rising of the Shield Hero I'll probably take a whack at that when it goes on sale.

[Bolt]

I too never thought Blame would never see anime.. I’m glad they did it. 

Knights of Sidonia was a shoe in.. I had no doubt THAT would get animated. 

[RavenHawk]

 

As far as recommendations go, I'd renew my suggestion of the fairly lighthearted almost-comedy Developers: Mobile Suit Gundam Before the One Year War.  

Looked for that one, but it doesn't look like it ever got an English-language release.

 

 

Did someone say dark?

Try Biomega or Blame. Also both from knights of Sidonia creator Tsutomu Nihei

 

Haha, I actually started this thread because of picking up Aposimz, them re-reading Biomega (which I had read when it first came out), and then entering into a Tsutomu Nihei binge, including Blame!.

Biomega is still, to date, my all  time favorite manga. The back half of the story goes a bit out there (figuratively and literally), but I just love the first half so much, and am good with how it ends, that I don't mind. That's one that I have in multiple editions just because I like it so much.

[Seto Kaiba]

 

Looked for that one, but it doesn't look like it ever got an English-language release.

Not a legitimate one... you can find it on a few of the usual suspects when it comes to fan translated manga.

Most of Gundam's manga releases are like that, since manga's a limited market in the west and Gundam has so damned many of them.

[RavenHawk]

 

Speaking of, has anyone seen the recent-ish animated Blame! feature?

 

 

I saw it on Netflix late last year. I enjoyed it as an adaptation of the manga. The animation was great. It did Veer off from the manga a bit but was still entertaining. And left us hoping for another installment..

No way it could hope to include all the characters and elements of the manga, but that’s no surprise.

I've watched it a couple times, and I like it. I will say (and I know I'm being nitpicky here) that I don't view it as really being an "adaptation", since it really follows very few beats from the manga. To me, it's more of an original story set in the Blame! framework, with appearances by characters that we know (though Cibo is somewhat different in her journey in it). It takes a lot of cues from Blame!, but is almost like Blame!^2 or NSE: Net Sphere Engineer, where the characters we know are more passing through the story, but it's in the world that we know from the original.* Even visually it seems to have gone with some designs more from those sequels than from the original (with Nehei's supervision and approval).

It really is the electrofishers' story. To that point, the BLAME! Movie Edition: The Electrofishers' Escape comes out on April 2nd.

 

* By the way, if you're like me and do the no-rush shipping on Amazon and rack up a bunch $1 digital credits, check out "Blame! Academy and So On". It's a cheap buy, and has a bunch of Nihei's short stories, including the ones I mentioned above, some humorous ones, and Battle Lepidopteran Hawk Moths, which reads like Nihei practicing for Sidonia.

[Bolt]

Sounds awesome. Will definitely check those out!

[Vifam7]

In terms of Gundam manga, I'd recommend Mobile Suit Gundam Aggressor. The story centers around 2 Zeon soldiers who defect to the Federation during the One Year War and fight alonside other Zeon defectors in the "Aggressor Squadron" (formed as an adversary squadron to train Federation soldiers but in the story they are thrown into the frontlines). Ofcourse there are subplots like the reasons why the 2 defected, the Federation's machinations behind the experimental GM handed to the Aggressor Squadron, etc.) 

It leans a bit more as a shonen action series and it has a rather old school feel (which I like). If you like your good guys good and the bad guys bad, you might enjoy this. It also has a good deal of mecha action that (IMHO) is well done.  Unfortunately, it's not available in officially translated form. But you might find fan-translations online (I don't know for sure, I haven't checked).

[kajnrig]

This isn't strictly manga, but I thought I'd share anyway for anyone interested.

In case you wanted to read the light novels these designs come from, a company called "J-Novel Club" are re-releasing the FMP! novels with a brand new translation.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2019/03/18/j-novel-club-announces-full-metal-panic-novels-and-more

You can read a preview on the product page: https://j-novel.club/s/full-metal-panic

I had thought that only the manga had been localized, but I guess some of those volumes I passed by in the Borderses and BnNs were actually the novels.

[JB0]

Oooooh. The original translations weren't complete or the best ever, so this is rather welcome news.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

 

This isn't strictly manga, but I thought I'd share anyway for anyone interested.

In case you wanted to read the light novels these designs come from, a company called "J-Novel Club" are re-releasing the FMP! novels with a brand new translation.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2019/03/18/j-novel-club-announces-full-metal-panic-novels-and-more

You can read a preview on the product page: https://j-novel.club/s/full-metal-panic

I had thought that only the manga had been localized, but I guess some of those volumes I passed by in the Borderses and BnNs were actually the novels.

I heard about it and I will be glad to get it.  J Novel Club has good translations, but a few spelling mistakes here and there. 

 

[Dangard Ace]

Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicles.  So far really focusing on Yoko as a babe (not spoilering it) and only sporadic sequences of after the Z.O.T.T.   Not sure I really like her origin story but it's Y.K's story to tell and I liked BAA until now so I'll ride it out.

[RavenHawk]

Two Nihei new releases came in the mail today. Looking forward to re-reading Sidonia in the larger format, and checking out this adaptation of the Blame! anime.

I have to say, the Blame! The Electrofishers' Escape is more substantial than I was expecting. For the price, I'm pleasantly surprised.

 

[Bolt]

Very cool. I’m interested to check out that electrofisher’s! 

[TehPW]

Either everyone stopped reading Manga or something more important was happening the past two years...

I don't know if web comics meets the criteria *as manga* but *shrug* Necrothread, Full speed ahead!

Quantum Vibe by Scott Bieser, published by Big Head Press

Gaia | The fantasy webcomic (sandraandwoo.com)

Questionable Content

Pixie Trix Comix -

These four comics have been my go-to for 'a while' now. In fact, Gaia just recently completed it's run (to much sniffles). What are these long running serials to you, i ask? 😅

[Sanity is Optional]

FYI for all the other people who missed it, but Tite Kubo did a 1-shot bleach chapter for the 20th anniversary.

Official translation/reader here: https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/viewer/1009802