Personally-followed manga, under-the-radar for everyone else

In the manga he has, uh, snake/cat like irises.

Anybody wants teenage drama? I have some teenage drama.

Ao no Flag: High-schooler Taichi is a loser. He's short, hangs out with the nerds, and average at everything. In the same class is Futaba, a small, shy, clumsy girl whom he can't help but dislike since she reminds him so much of himself. As it turned out, Futaba has a crush on Touma, the most popular guy in the school, and also Taichi's childhood friend. Dismissing it at first, Futaba's earnestness is getting closer to Touma moved Taichi, and he decided to help her out.

Complicating matters, however, is that Touma apparently has someone else he likes. Meanwhile, Futaba's best friend Masumi seems opposed to Taichi's plan to help her. And so, the four teenagers entered a complex relationship of love and friendship.

Despite it sounding generic, I find this a decent read actually. All four main characters are likable and sympathetic, and there are barely any cheesy or cringey scenes you expect from teenage dramas. In fact, the story manages to be quite comfy while still maintaining the air of fleetingness of youth.

I find it a bit odd that despite being the first couple introduced in both the anime and manga of Tsurezure Children, Takase and Kanda don't exactly get as much screen time as other couples like Sugawara and Takano or even Chiaki and Kana/Akagi and Kaji.

Think that might be because Alice is in a lot of the later chapters featuring Takase and Alice isn't appearing in the anime.

Well, Touma's and Futabas respective love "targets" does make it quite non-standard imho...

DDDD volume 5 just came out here.

Lots of aliens dying, some start to have revenge wishes, and the malfunction and crash of the big ship might cause the extinction of all life on Earth. And this is apparently Asano's Lighter and Softer work. Pretty sweet to see Ontan fall in love, of all people, though.

A special chapter of Criminale! that was recently released implies that idol assassin was probably the endgame. I smiled, and then felt sad again remembering that Criminale! was criminally short. I hope the author goes on to hopefully write another manga, but it should be any job that'll keep them healthy.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii (It's Difficult To Love An Otaku): Two childhood friends with hardcore otaku tastes have since became coworkers in the same office, although they've never considered getting together all this time due to personal preferences. However, after the lady gets dumped yet again, the man makes a very eccentric confession, and the whole decision to upgrade the relationship to boyfriend/girlfriend status boiled down to: "You know what? This isn't too bad." Also features another couple with similarly nerdy interests who take Like an Old Married Couple and Belligerent Sexual Tension to new levels.

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun: A boy who has never learned to say no is sold by his parents to a demon who really, really, really wanted a grandson. Said demon is the principal of a demon school, to which he promptly signs his new boy in to attend. What follows is the misadventures of a human who can only survive thanks the power of The Fool (as in the very definition of the trope). Premise kind of reminds me of the beginning of Rosario To Vampire without the harem shenanigans.

edited 11th Sep '17 11:27:55 PM by ChefFailure

I'll check out Ao no Flag, but man...

I saw that summary, had a hunch, checked a spoiler, and turned out to be totally right.

Just read all of Criminale!.

Was enjoyable. I did like idol assassin so that finale chapter makes me glad.

According to 4chan, it's just the artist that got sick, which lead to the author deciding to cut their losses. The author is currently looking for another artist to make another series, so there's that at least.

Could be a lot worse, at least the author didn't just straight up die. And yes, I've once read a promising series that got cut short for that reason.

In other news, Hinamatsuri is getting an anime adaption (Colored, moving, and voiced Anzu fucking when?).

Well, Shinobu's Pure Heart (or as I called it earlier in the thread, Ninja Shinobu-san no Junjou) has been fully scanlated, and I now have fluff-induced diabetes and heart failure. Gee, thanks. It's only 30 chapters long, but it didn't overstay its welcome and I'd like to think it ended on its own terms. Great for a quick fluffy read if you have half an hour to kill.

edited 17th Sep '17 10:21:17 PM by Pyrite

Yeah, it was a fun manga. Very cute. Overall nice characters, without too much drama. Well, no real drama to speak of. Which is nice.

Here's one genre that I don't think fares well in this thread, but here goes anyway.

Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!: Nakamura is a 17-year old gay boy who fell in love with his classmate Hirose, and he's determined to get closer to him. One problem, Nakamura is extremely shy and tends to overreact when he gets close to Hirose.

This one is really refreshing for a BL. It's very much comedy first and romance second. It's also very light on the romance side, and lacks the tropes often associated with BL. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a short, cute, and funny manga who don't mind a bit of gayness. Also I find the artstyle unique and charming.

You've piqued my interest. "Cute" is usually not a word that's associated with BL in my mind. >.> Then again I don't know much about that niche.

…Otherwise, I've read the first chapter of Okamoto Lynn's new series "Parallel Paradise". The protagonist is an Ordinary High-School Student who one day gets attacked by a mysterious figure and is transported in another world… where only women exist. And just touching them is enough to make them extremely horny. I almost want to continue out of sheer Bile Fascination. Or to see if there's some kind of subversion, cause, come on, there has to be. He can't play that premise completely straight.

edited 24th Sep '17 3:01:11 PM by Lyendith

Oh, I've read a chapter or two of that story. Even among isekai genre, this one is such a blatant, shameless, wish fulfillment I couldn't help but find it hilarious.

Try it out. It plays out just like a regular cute romcom, except both main characters are male.

I dunno if any (or all) of these will break the rules, but here goes:

So I finished Old Boy, the original, which by the way was very damn good. Don't worry if you saw the more known Korean adaptation, they're completely different outside the premise with the former being more "laid back" and more investigative.

I decided to check what the author did next, and stumbled upon Astral project. It's generally a supernatural mystery with the concept of astral projection, the main character investigating it as a cause for his sister's death. Sadly I found out the scans never finished it, but that's okay because it was localized I just need to- OH WAIT that's unfinished too Gosh Dang It to Heck! Now I wish I knew Japanese.

There is also Jagaaaaaan, which is pretty promising so far. I'd say it's like Parasyte if it didn't take itself (as) seriously, the artwork is great as well. Will keep an eye on it.

Anyways, I'm halfway through Billy Bat, really getting into it now especially with the more Meta Fiction aspects coming up. Me and the Devil Blues resumed publication a couple years ago, so I should probably get back to it.

Holy macaroni, you saw that too? Stumbled upon it by accident and... yeah it pretty much almost reached hentai territory at times. Yeah I'm not sure how that will go, unless the main character is actually mutating into an Incubus or something.

edited 25th Sep '17 3:25:54 AM by UltraWanker

That reminds me, I need to finish Billy Bat. It's finished now, right?

Yeah it's concluded, you can go all in.

Cool.

I caught up with the 18 chapters and... It is hentai in almost every aspect (save for the genitals not being shown). >.> Full with a looooot of Unfortunate Implications, casual misogyny and a hero who acts more like a crazy rapist than a harem protagonist. Plus a few things that hardly make sense, like the girl who "hates men" even though she's never met one, or the fact it never crosses anyone's mind that Youta could simply wear gloves. Oh boy. I gotta admit, I often read jokes that Mashima Hiro should do hentai because he clearly wants to... but I didn't think another author would actually do just that. You almost gotta give him credit for taking an idea, running all the way to Cap Canaveral and flying into space with it. ^note Although I've once read an actual "man in a women's world" hentai that had a better story and better characters. And where the male MC treated women like, you know, human beings.

edited 25th Sep '17 5:32:14 AM by Lyendith

Oh, looks like I can't even "research" it then... don't mind what I just said.

Aaaand I think I'll start reading Historie at some point, even if reading history spoiled the main plot. Then you got Sanctuary which I kept holding off for too long.

edited 25th Sep '17 5:40:12 AM by UltraWanker

So, Nakamura-kun… Yeah, it's cute and fluffy, and the title is pretty fitting. You really do want to support him − it's almost a pity that he's not aiming higher than just "being friends" with his crush. It's also refreshing to have a gay character worrying he might be bi for a second, instead of the other way round. Like a reverse Stupid Sexy Flanders.

But it left me a bit hungry for more honestly. There are several characters that are introduced and then just kinda dropped. Like the author hadn't planned anything (and going by the afterword, they indeed hadn't).

Read two mangas lately. A dozen chapters or so, and to my knowledge complete.

Karakasa no Saien. A bit old manga by now, but I've not heard much about it. Completely deranged characters. It's about a guy, who's escaping from a yandere into an inn, but she's already there, and then he gets stuck there. The innkeeper reminds me of a psychotic version of Kamikaze.

Ki ni Naru Mori-san is the other. It's more recent, and somewhat different. It's a light-hearted yonkoma with two very awkward students. One of them is a dryad, and the other likes plants. Also probably has the best take on the Indirect Kiss trope. And the third character is a fun one.