i cannot stress enough that chainsaw man is fucking incredible. i’m sure others have mentioned it (i haven’t read the replies yet) but oh my god. even if you’ve seen the anime, the manga is so much better it’s absurd. tatsuki fujimoto’s one shots also very good, especially look back. goodbye eri is good but it didn’t hit me as hard. some horny stuff in chainsaw man, but it’s all central to the characters and themes in a way that’s genuinely critical of said horniness, and the actual horny content is super rare

jojo’s bizarre adventure: it’s all pretty good, but if you want a single story that fits the criteria of “not half as long as one piece” read steel ball run. cutting critique of american foreign policy, the golden ratio, homoerotic cowboys, absurd superpowers, :pizza-mozzarella: and genuinely good emotional beats. it’s really good, and it’s completely standalone outside a few little things that’ll mean more if you’ve read the rest. cw for some people being horny for a 14 year old girl

the ideal way to read umineko: when they cry is to read the visual novel. however, that’s like 1.2 million words, so that’s something of a commitment. the manga is much more reasonable, though it doesn’t have the club bangers and kickass voice acting. it’s still one of my favorite stories of all time. there’s a family rich assholes on a private island with their servants during a typhoon, discussing the family inheritance. people start dying and it gets blamed on the golden witch beatrice, but main character battler is unwilling to accept the existence of witches or magic and is resolved to find the truth. some horniness is there, but it’s mostly frontloaded outside some of the outfits later on.

the authors first work, higurashi: when they cry, isn’t as good but it’s still excellent. high schooler moving to a small rural town with a dark secret and starts to wonder if he can trust any of the people he’s met. very anti cop, especially in the visual novel. minus points for having horny bullshit, but it’s not super central and it mostly feels like bait to drag otaku in before making them read about how neo-nazis and cops and imperial japanese war crime apologists are fucking evil

both when they cry manga are technically like 8 different manga, so you might need to consult a reading order. here’s one for higurashi and here’s one for umineko. if you’re confused feel free to @ me

our dreams at dusk is about a queer teenager finding community after almost committing suicide. some heavy stuff, but it’s short and has absolutely gorgeous artwork. not super plot driven, but the mood is incredible

also, if you have any nostalgia towards pokemon, pokemon adventures might be right up your alley. retelling the games story in as close to a realistic world as is possible, with new villains and plots to spice things up. genuinely really good

i'm now realizing that i need to do a better job of marking what manga i read, because now all i can remember of what fits the criteria are manga i'm not caught up with or have only read parts of

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otherside picnic has a pretty good manga from what i’ve read. two women exploring a world where japanese creepypasta are real and trying to uncover mysteries. also they’re in love. i’ve seen more of the light novels, which are also pretty good, though i’m way behind on those as well

golden kamuy is like if jojo’s bizarre adventure didn’t have any magic. buff dudes doing absolutely wild shit in search for gold. lots of really cool historical details about late 19th century hokkaido

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also some manga people like that i haven't read, but i've seen the anime

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gundam the origin is a retelling of gundam 0079. if it’s as good as the anime was it’s really really good. the original real robot story about the horrors of war and space politics and being autistic in ways that make you a useful asset for the military

kaiji is about a poor guy trapped in absurd debt doing high stakes gambling to try and be free of it. mind games galore, incredible at tension

hellsing is just surviving on how cool the stuff going on is. vampires under the control of the hellsing organization fighting catholic holy warriors and nazi vampires and werewolfs and shit. pretty horny at times, but it’s got seras shooting down zeppelins by dual wielding anti aircraft weaponry, so it’s impossible to say if its bad or not

if you’re not vegan and like cooking Dungeon Meshi is kind of fun, it’s basically a Dungeons and Dragons setting but there’s no magic bag of refrigeration so if you can’t carry enough food or lose it you’re fucked but the main characters meet a dwarf who teaches them how to cook and eat all the dungeon monsters

for some reason Trigger is going to be doing the anime adaptation and I’m so excited for it

Isn’t half the length of One Piece

i have a sugestion then ONE PIECE, IT IS A FULL ONE PIECE LENGHT it fits perfectly here

if that is a no go, Pluto from Naoki Urasawa is an absolute incredible robot noir, with some astro boy in there and a big anti war message, which seems to be actually about the iraq war, it is great, from the same author there is also billy the bat in which a man after world war 2 recalls seeing his character billy the bat (knock off mickey) during his time in japan during the war and goes there and then finds himself inside a conspiracy, i believe that if you enjoy reading pluto you will want to read billy the bat, another author i really like Q Hayashida wrote Dorohedoro which has an anime, the plot goes man gets cursed and turned into a lizard man by magic people and decides to find this people, the magic people live in luxury while the people who are affected by their magic live in slums, it is pretty good and her follow up work dark dai has been entertaining enough and it feels even weird than doro was

I’m halfway through reading ‘Witch Hat Atelier’ right now and it’s so good - fantastic world-building, an endlessly creative magic system and great characters. Also the art is actually incredible, some of the best panelling I’ve ever seen.