Welcome to a new weekly general thread! That means it is time for Monday. Or, is it the other way around? In any case, feel free to use this thread to ask questions, ask for recommendations, or any other general discussion topic you please. May the manga be with you!
Like normal, please be careful with spoilers. I wrote a guide about spoilers in case you need a refresher on how to handle them (also linked in the sidebar).
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So I wandered in from /all and was just curious where you’d recommend starting if you’ve never really read manga before.
I’ve never really been able to get into comic books, though I’ve read Sandman and a few other graphic novels with mixed results. I’m vaguely curious if manga would take for me in a way comic books might not.
Anyone have any recommendations for an absolute newbie?
This is a really tough question to answer. Manga (and Korean manhwa) do have a lot more volume and variety of series that are published in my experience compared to Western graphic novels and comics. However, because of that, every type of story that exists in fiction is represented in some way within the genre. So, if you decide to try out a manga, but don’t connect with it in a couple chapters, I would just quickly move on. Don’t get bogged down in a series that you don’t click with very quickly as there are so many fish in the proverbial sea.
The easy place to start is if you have any anime that you have watched and liked, there are likely lots of manga that are similar to that. Usually, only the most popular manga/novels get an anime adaptation, but for every one that gets adapted, there are loads more that never make the leap off the page.
Below I have made some broad suggestions that I have liked over the years. I suggest reading synopses and picking out series that sound interesting to you. To help ease the barrier to entry, I only chose series which are available on mangadex. Many of them have anime adaptations as well if that seems like a simpler way to consume them.
Romcom
Fantasy
- Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
- Delicious in Dungeon - I haven’t personally read this, but it is universally recommended and I fully intend on reading it after the currently airing anime finishes
Harem (Yes, this is a whole separate genre from other romance)
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You
- We Never Learn
- Quintissential Quintuplets
Slice of Life (Often some crossover with Romance)
Action (I don’t read too many of these tbh)
- One Punch Man
- Omniscient Reader
- Vinland Saga - I haven’t read this, but my wife has and loves it.
- Blade of the Immortal - Another wife recommendation. The early volumes aren’t on mangadex, so you would have to find them elsewhere, but she said it’s worth it and I can’t bring myself to disagree ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Isekai (this is a very broad genre, here are just a couple different types)
- The Eminence in Shadow - basically the One Punch Man of isekai, parodies the entire genre the same way OPM does the superhero genre
- Campfire Cooking in Another World - a slow-paced, cooking focused isekai
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime - This is pretty much a “by the book” isekai without the added controversy baggage that comes with Mushoku Tensei and a bit easier to follow story than Tsukimichi (which Slime was heavily inspired by).
Villianess/Otome
- My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
- Villainess Level 99
- Endo and Kobayashi’s Live Commentary on the Villainess
There are many other types of series out there just like you would see in other mediums as well (mystery, drama, etc.). Feel free to lurk and check out series that people post and catch up if a synopsis catches your attention.
Thanks so much, for the starting ideas!
I would have known it would be best to provide some anime I’ve enjoyed. I have some experience with anime and One Punch Man is one I’ve very much enjoyed. I also liked Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Spy X Family. Obviously anything from Studio Ghibli is a delight. I discovered Your Name. recently and found it to be charming and delightful.
Is there a best way to read these on iOS? Just use Safari and Mangadex?
Just as an FYI, Aidoku requires a subscription to guarantee a spot in their TestFlight.
Paperback no longer directly connects to MangaDex without third party support and the third party guy just announced he won’t be developing for iOS anymore.
I very much appreciate your response, just want to make sure future readers have appropriate expectations.
Ah, I see. Thanks for coming back with an update!
I hope you’ll find a decent way to read.
Thanks! That’ll be great!
Similar to the other answer you got, I don’t use iOS, so I can’t speak for what apps are available. Pretty much all the Android users are going to be using some fork of the mihon app (formerly called tachiyomi).
However, I do know that mangadex, the website, can be installed as a PWA. So, if you have an account on the site and track your library through mangadex, then the pwa route may work nice.
That’s a good suggestion and it’s a feature I rarely use, so I wouldn’t have thought of it.
EDIT: This ended up being the best solution. Thanks so much.
Okay, so I started Sousou no Frieren. I didn’t expect to be kicked in the emotional “vulnerables” right out the gate.
My god, how could no one warn me.
In all seriousness, what a great start. Not what I expected at all and really enjoyable. Thanks for the recommendation.
Oh no! I finished the second one and it hit even harder. Are they all going to be emotional powerhouses?!
What have you gotten me into?!
Oh man, you chose a great series to start. Frieren has been one of my favorite manga…ever. It is still being published too, so once you get caught up, you can join us in the new chapter threads! Also, the anime’s first season is airing right now and is similarly excellent. Truly just an incredible story no matter what medium you consume it in.
That’s really cool, I’ve never really followed media as it’s released, but getting to participate in the discussion around it sounds amazing. I’m looking forward to it and thanks for the suggestions and help.
I have been on the road a lot this past week and haven’t been able to read as much as usual (hard to do when driving). That doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading at all though. In fact, did you know that there are series that I read that I don’t post to this community? It’s true! I thought I would share two recent chapters from those series that I enjoyed.
The first series is Shiawase no Machi. This is something of a romcom with supernatural elements. Honestly, I haven’t been super into this one since I randomly picked it up after seeing it’s first chapter translated a couple weeks back. However, the most recent chapter hopefully sets things in a new, more coherent direction. We will see!
Second up is a series that is pretty different than what I normally read. In case you haven’t gathered from my post history, I am what the youths of today consider “an old.” So, it feels a bit out of character that the next series I am going to write about is titled on mangadex “Meme Girls.” I honestly don’t remember when I picked this series up randomly in my past, but each chapter is usually an independent story, or even just a single page joke. Their recently posted chapter 260 was fantastic though. I highly recommend it as a oneshot.
I have a serious whiplash of a post today.
First is Hibari no Asa, short (14 chapter) story about a 14-year old student who’s appearance is used to justify shitty behavior by people around her (kids and adults alike). It’s depressing, disappointing (in how characters act) and, at times, a bit unfocused (I swear I had a better word for it last night). The last one isn’t really a surprise considering the afterword where author openly states that
afterword spoilers?
this story became a dumping ground for their anger.
It’s not a fun read in an entertainment sense and it has some issues caused by the spoilers above but it was interesting enough, in a “watching an unstoppable tragedy” kind of way.
Next is Cats Own the World, a comedy 4-koma about a cat wanting to exterminate humans. It has a simple yet expressive art style and fantastic translation. Pretty great gags too.
Finally there’s Satellite Coin Laundry - another comedy, this time about a girl working in a space laundromat. Just started this one but what I’ve read so far was really cute and funny.
I ended up reading through another series by the author of Hibari no Asa titled Don’t Cry Girl. It’s an absurd comedy about a school girl moving in with her father’s acquaintance who’s a nudist.
It was pretty funny for the most part but I hate the ending. Should’ve stopped with chapter 5.
MangaDex also has a bonus chapter that seems to be a completely separate story - this one was kind of ‘meh’, I guess? Perhaps I’m dumb but it felt rather random and disconnected story wise, with another terrible ending popping out of nowhere. It actually made me more confused rather than angry or disappointed.
It is sometimes easy to forget that the people writing these stories we consume are humans with all the emotions that come with that. These works, despite the commercial nature of manga publication, are really outlets of creative expression for the authors. Sometimes the things they want to express can evolve over time, be very dark, or change suddenly on a whim. I have certainly come across series in the past in which there is a big narrative turn at some point deep into the story and it makes you wonder if something happened to the author irl.
As for the other two you list, I have seen both recommended before, so I will have to try to find some time to check them out. They certainly check all the boxes to get me interested: cats ✅, sci-fi slice of life ✅.
I didn’t necessarily mean it as a negative. Yeah, the story is messy and ugly in a very human way that’s unfortunately present in real life. It was mostly just an observation that I could definitely feel the anger author mentioned when reading the chapters.
It’s a bit of a rough read but I didn’t find it to be bad per se.
