I’ve been on a manga reading spree recently, having completed good manga like Helck (2014; Nanao Nanaki), Thermae Romae (2008; Yamazaki Mari) [and its IMO better ongoing spinoff Olympia Kyklos] or Boku dake ga Inai Machi (2012; Sanbe Kei)
Does anyone have some recommendations for something that’s…
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Plot-driven (Romance is fine, as long as it’s not one of those stories that moves at a snail’s pace)
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At worst mildly horny
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Doesn’t have awful politics
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Isn’t half the length of One Piece
and of course
- good?
Obligatory Berserk. Not really horny but is sexuality graphic and general [content warning].
Land of the Lustrous follows a race of gem people who have to protect themselves from the people of the moon who abduct and harvest them. They’re generally asexual and non-binary though there is a bit of a subversion of that later. Has a 12~episode anime you can start with that covers about 30 chapters of the 100 chapter manga that’s wrapping up.
20th Century Boys has been a lot of fun, I can’t say if the politics fall off because I haven’t finished it yet but it’s been a good thriller. If you liked Monster it’s the same author.
Rurouni Kenshin especially if you liked the anime. The anime is competely different (and bad) after the Shishio arc, so if you want the proper ending read the manga. You can find fan made coloraled versions even.
Planetes is about the drudgery of space capitalism following people cleaning up orbiting space litter, but there’s a revolution near the end, if resolved a bit lib-ly (I think editor intervention there though). I don’t recall any big differences in the anime so I’d actually suggest that first for the great music.
Jojos Bizarre Adventure no politics just high fashion body horror fights. Can find colorized versions as well.
If you haven’t used it before find the Tachiyomi app. It compiles a lot of fan sources for manga and comics in one app so finding anything is mostly hassle free. It’s not on app stores so you have to get the .apk yourself (or whatever Apple equivalent). It can be a bit confusing so I can help if you decide to check it out.
Parasyte.
And if you’re okay with cute gay romance stuff, sasaki to miyano is the best in the BL genre. The anime misses out on the meta-comedy in the manga, which pokes fun at the genre and its clichés. Miyano is (adorable :meow-melt:) a BL fan who introduces Sasaki to the genre, and it goes from there.
One Piece is twice the length of half the length of One Piece you should consider it
No
spoiler
I actually read up to the 110th chapter of the manga. It was pretty good (but no masterpiece), but that being less than 10% of the whole thing (so far) made me put it aside and forget about it for a long time.
Full Metal Alchemist
Chainsaw Man is pretty good (although it is sometimes way too horny for my tastes). It has an extremely brisk pace and little politics beyond “everything is fucked”. Also, Soviet Union.
Anime is basically just a start of the insane rollercoaster that is the manga, it added some pretty cool scenes expanding on the characters, but had problems with adapting extreme mood changes in manga.
Also really recommend avoiding spoilers for manga, even if it is still very enjoyable (for a specific definition of enjoyable at least) even with spoilers.
