Manga & Anime Recommendations

Blue Flag's ending this week, so I'm looking for something else to binge read on Mangaplus.

I guess my parameters are 1.) doesn't have an anime adaptation and 2.) ideally a length of about 30-40 chapters.

I'm not particularly fussed about genre, which is really why I'm asking in the thread because I dunno what kind of manga I really want to read next.

I've always been a big fan of Rumiko Takahashi, and I've read everything she's done up to Inu-Yasha. I lost interest in Inu-Yasha mid-way through, and haven't read either of her two subsequent series Rin-Ne and Mao. From the bare descriptions I've read of those two, the sound like essentially the same basic premise of "ordinary girl meets mysterious/super-natural/other-worldly boy" as Inu Yasha. Has anyone read these?

I'm looking for two recommendations:

1-Anyone knows a good manga that has sex in it but does revolve about sex? Maybe a story about musicians or young people or battling enemies but having sexual content? Not in a serious way, but rather in a lighthearted way similar to American Pie.

2-Anyone know a good manga/anime about exploring Tokyo? Durarara and Digimon did this but they were so focused on their premises that they couldn't do it. For instance, in Digimon Tai returns to Tokyo but then has to face monsters. I'm looking for something like a young person moves to Tokyo and then becomes an idol or plans soccer or learns about the mysteries of the city. Maybe exploration of Graffiti, maybe a little bit of urban music even gangs. However, without the supernatural elements. Honestly, I felt Durarara had a lot of potential but it had too many supernatural elements.

Edited by Kratistos on May 17th 2020 at 4:45:32 AM

For 1) Maybe check out [[O Maidens in Your Savage Season]] for something that's more lighthearted coming-of-age exploration of sex or [[Interspecies Reviewers]] if you want something closer to the raunchy comedy of American Pie?

@moberemk

I'm thinking something sleek like Cruel intentions With rebellious guys and girls who are into sex. But no "sex is bad" but rather "sex is part of life" or "sex can be fun." I'm really into stories about rebels, runways, or musicians.

But feel free to recommend me as many as you can, I'm trying to figure it out myself.

Anyone knows some classic shonen manga(that's not too long) maybe like Shaman King 300 Chapters. For each decade. I'm learning more about how the genre developed, starting from 60's or 70s up to 2020's. Maybe 2-3 classic series per decade. I recently found Devilman but I know that seems a bit more adult.

Browsing the Wiki shows pages for the series in various shonen publications like Weekly Shonen Jump, Weekly Shōnen Sunday, and Weekly Shōnen Magazine, which conveniently has major titles in bold, but even all that probably doesn't cover everything.

So just from scanning these for relatively shorter notable titles (many of which I have not read myself, but probably should):

• 60s: Cyborg 009, otherwise nothing else jumped out at me.
• 70s: Devilman, likewise.
• 80s: Fist of the North Star and Saint Seiya. Both very influential.
• 90s: YuYu Hakusho might be a good one to focus on.
  • There's also Rurouni Kenshin, Shaman King, and Ushio and Tora
• 00s: If I had to narrow it down to one, definitely Fullmetal Alchemist
  • There's also Kekkaishi, Zatch Bell!, Rave Master, and Soul Eater
  • Death Note also technically qualifies, though it is also atypical.
• 10's: Kimetsu No Yaiba just recently concluded, so that's a convenient option right there.

And this isn't even getting into the Sports genre, which has it's own significant lineage in the same publications.

And of course JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is running throughout, and when broken down into the individual parts they're generally a pretty manageable length.

Edited by Eschaton on May 23rd 2020 at 9:17:46 AM

I was about to suggest Gunnm but it might be too adult? Possibly less so than Devilman though.

Just rewatched Miyazaki's Spirited Away. I'll say first that I like the film a lot (though it's not my favorite Miyazaki film—that's a tie between Castle in the Sky and Porco Rosso), but it strikes me that in most similar films or stories or what have you, there is some sense of fun to the adventure. One imagines that the protagonist, on some level, enjoys their adventures, or might come to enjoy the memory of them once it's all over. The audience enjoys experiencing the adventure vicariously. While Spirited Away is an engaging film, beautiful to look at and with much to enjoy, it doesn't really have any sense of fun. You really wouldn't want to go through what Chihiro/Sen goes through; her whole story is mostly fear, weirdness, and hard work. In this, I suppose it's very true to it's fairy tale/fable roots, in that it comes off feeling a bit like an all-ages horror movie.

Not a criticism, just an observation.

I'm looking for some 90s/early 2000s anime. I don't really have any specific wishes aside from it not being too long (as in less than 100 episodes). I'm already planning on watching NGE and Slayers and am watching Bebop, Yu Yu Hakusho, Shaman King and Inuyasha.

Give me everything you got.

Edited by CrayonKiddo on Jul 18th 2020 at 11:39:28 AM

Martian Successor Nadesico's a good one. Great spoof of Gundam and co that still knows when to get serious.

And Giant Robo's amazeballs.

Edited by kkhohoho on Jul 18th 2020 at 4:53:08 AM

One of my lesser-known favorites from that era is Dai-Guard. It's a Real Robot show with Super Robot aesthetics; the protagonists aren't military, but work for an insurance company who crunched the numbers and decided that sending a giant robot to defend Japan from kaiju was cheaper than paying out on policies for the damage the kaiju would cause.

Another good one is Outlaw Star, which was pretty popular on early Toonami but hasn't had a huge presence since. It's a pulpy far-future Space Opera about a group of Lovable Rogues (including a Han Solo type gunslinger, a teen genius, an android, an alien werewolf, and a samurai assassin) butting heads with the Space Yakuza. Also, magic is low-key a thing in the setting, and mostly treated like a weird type of technology with its own strengths and weaknesses, which is neat.

Edited by NativeJovian on Jul 18th 2020 at 8:05:33 AM

Tweeny Witches is an obscure 2004 anime series, with each episode only nine minutes long. I find the show good.

Edited by IukaSylvie on Jul 18th 2020 at 10:58:54 PM

Figured I should ask here: what's the consensus on Great Pretender and specifically its dub? I've heard some good things about it and that it's apparently set in the US for most of it, so I kinda want to see if the dub does better with it.

The Great Pretender is very good, basically a cross between Lupin III and The Sting.

I haven't seen the dub, though I imagine it might run into some slight incongruity at the beginning, because the protagonist's Engrish is commented on before throwing up a Translation Convention disclaimer about halfway into the first episode, and it's mostly Japanese after that (aside from actual French voice acting later on).

Edited by Eschaton on Aug 21st 2020 at 7:17:00 AM

Looking for shows with dark, preferably evil girls. And girls, not adult women (No Claymore). Examples would be Hotarubi from Basilisk, Seryu from Akame ga Kill!, Tomie.

Ie: Dark Action Girl, Femme Fatale, Evil Sorceress, Evil Is Sexy, The Vamp.

I prefer dark, r17 stuff. Here is my anime list. Thanks.

Looking for some sports anime to get my brain flowing with ideas on my own sports story.

I adore Big Windup! but Haikyuu!! put me to sleep. I don't know if that helps illustrate my tastes.

Well, the go-to recs are Slam Dunk (Basketball), Hajime no Ippo (Boxing) and Eyeshield 21 (Usonian Football ^note  or just "football" if you're from the US)

I dunno about Eyeshield, but Slam Dunk's anime was terrible and you should stick to the manga, and Ippo's anime is gucchi and still regarded as a stand-out.

Blue Exorcist - a teenager who discovers he and his twin brother are the sons of Satan born from a human woman, and he is the inheritor of Satan's powers.

x3 I know of only one reviewer who was also bored by "Haikyuu", and he really seemed to enjoy "Kuroko's Basketball", so maybe give that a shot? Other than that, you can try "One Outs" if you want a different kind of sports anime (although it takes a few episodes to get into the actual sport).

The adaptation of Ping Pong is very good, quite short and may give some ideas.

Can someone suggest any good romance manga with a younger man and older woman?

Edit: Something like The Garden of Words. I was reminded of Maison Ikkoku after I made this post, but reading the first two chapters I found it a bit too much "lol hijinks" for my taste.

Edited by Elfhunter on Jan 30th 2021 at 7:32:39 AM

It's been a while since I watched it, so no guarantees about quality, but Natsuyuki Rendezvous is about a guy falling in love with a widowed florist. There's also a relationship like that in Honey and Clover, but it's not the main focus.

Do you guys want to check out the Lord of Vermilion anime?

I made and proposed a CM entry about a character in it!

Edited by MalleoWeegee on Jan 31st 2021 at 9:43:18 AM

Greetings to the hivemind.

Looking for some anime suggestions (dubbed for preference) for my wife.

In the past, she's liked most of the Miyazaki stuff we've watched, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, Naruto, Hunter X Hunter, Yu Yu Hakusho, My Hero Academia, One Punch Man, Slayers, Lyrical Nanoha, Attack on Titan, Seven Deadly Sins, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, G Gundam, that kind of deal.

That being said, I'm not sure that she's as fond of Shonen stuff as the list might suggest, but previous attempts to branch out into other genres have not been terribly successful (I remember trying Yotsuba&, Inuyasha, and Macross).

Anyways, any and all suggestions would be welcomed.