Manga is available these days in most general bookstores, fine libraries, comic book shops, and a few specialty outlets. Local aficionados had many, many suggestions. These are the cullings. For more suggestions, enter any library or shop and stand around near the manga looking dumbfounded. Classifying any of these tales within a genre may be helpful, but no fairer than pigeonholing any work of art. For instance, the ultra-violent Hellsing contains moments of laugh out loud humor. The fairest taxonomy might be to describe them all as fantastic adventure romances.
Humor
What’s Michael? by Makoto Kobayashi – rotating stories about cats in every imaginable permutation
Azumanga Daioh by Kiyohiko Azuma – manga Mary Tyler Moore and friends in high school; a great example of the Japanese comic strip
Action Adventure
Gon by Masashi Tanaka – exquisite artwork effective without text details the escapades of an undersized dinosaur in the natural world
Bleach by Tite Kubo – “a boy and his family who can see the dead and they are recruited by the Grim Reaper to hunt down wayward ghosts” (Luke Morgan, Hammergirl Anime)
Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto – ninjas, ninjas, ninjas
Romance
Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya – “Who knew that a story about a cursed family that turns into animals of the Zodiac when hugged by a person of the opposite sex could be so sad and deep at times?” (Elizabeth Kovach, RIT Anime)
Marmalade Boy by Wataru Yoshizumi – more romance that you can shake a stick at.
Historical
Buddha by Osamu Tezuka – the life of Siddhartha retold with the addition of imagined characters; serialized in the 1970s in Japan.
Apocalypse Meow by Motofumi Kobayashi – “It is sure to stick with you long after the latest angsty robot fighters, battle monsters, and teen dramas have been replaced by the next generation of the same stories.” (Tony Salvaggio, comicbookresources.com)
Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima – epic samurai adventure
Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa – the first manga translated into English; riveting
Science Fiction
Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka – the sine qua non, the beginning, folks; read it and love it for what it is
Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo – “striking and poignant tale of a child psychic in post-World War III Tokyo” (Mental Flossmagazine)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki – before Spirited Away and all his other wonderful films, Miyazaki made manga, and dandy manga at that
X/1999 by CLAMP – the female artists’ collective CLAMP has been a major force in manga for the past decade; this is their most often recommended work
Fantasy
Inu-yasha by Rumiko Takahashi – “I was just flipping through it and I said, ‘What is this?’ And then I come upon this caption that says ‘The Smell of Death’ on it.” (komikku coffee klatch, see the other sidebar)
Full Metal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa – “a very, very good comic about loss and acceptance… it’s rated Teen for its theme- people die and people are sad” (Luke Morgan, Hammergirl Anime)
A recent issue of Shonen Jump also suggested the following for the grown-up manga virgin: Wrong About Japan: A Father’s Journey With His Son by Peter Carey; Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, and Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga by Frederik L. Schodt.
December, 2005