Favourite manga cover artwork?

Red XIII

Straw Hat Pirate
They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but sometimes manga cover art looks so good that you can't help it ;) . Anyway, as if the the thread title wasn't enough of a giveaway, is there any cover art that really stands out for you?

I love the artwork in the .hack//Legend of the Twilight, so it's no surprise that the cover of volume 3 in particular is one of my favourites (as is the cover of AI Buster). Yotsuba& vol 1 is another good one, as are many of the Bleach and Fruits Basket covers.
 
I enjoy the slight minimalistic look of Bleach and Fruits Basket, as you mention, especially the volumes shown below. I also love the style of Azumanga Daoih, Paradise Kiss (both US and UK covers), the Japanese Honey and Clover covers, Death Note and many others. But the covers that really spring to mind are those for the two-volumes of pure insanity that are FLCL, in my opinion the reason Gainax were put on the Earth.

As for bad covers; much as I love Hunter X Hunter, some of the early covers are dire, the Killua one coming the most to mind.
 
My fave covers have to be those wrapped around tokyopop's release of Tokyo Babylon. The manga itself it a very stylish affair and the covers are no different, very bold and colourful but at the same time uncluttered and refreshingly simple. As previously mentioned Bleach's cover art is extremely cool, as is Berserk's - Kentaro Miura is one hell of a painter.
 
Love Hina 11(Goth Hina), Hellsing 4 and 5, Yotsuba&! 4, Chrono Crusade 5, Excel Saga 4, FLCL 1, Evangelion 5, Trigun 1 and Trigun Maximum 6.
 
@Chomolungma: your Paradise Kiss cover is of the 2nd edition, the first edition covers weren't so nice and I was almost tempted to buy it all over again, just for the new covers :lol:

I love the covers of the new Fushigi Yuugi manga series; Genbu Kaiden. There is so much beautiful artwork, that really makes your mouth water and really want to read the books! Infact I love all Yuu Watase's cover artwork ^_^
I also love the artwork of Hana Kimi, W Juliet and Kare Kano and can't wait to see the new volumes (although I only have 1 volume of Kare Kano left to buy now).
I also like the front covers of the Prince of Tennis ^_^

I'm often fooled into believing a manga will be good because of the front cover artwork and again, bad artwork has put me off buying a certain title and then when I finally do buy it, thoroughly enough the story and kick myself for leaving it so long before buying!
 
Miaka-chan said:
@Chomolungma: your Paradise Kiss cover is of the 2nd edition, the first edition covers weren't so nice and I was almost tempted to buy it all over again, just for the new covers :lol:

Oh, I see, I always assumed that the older cover artwork was the original US edition! I certainly prefer the new covers, they have more of a sense of style than the older editions, although some of the older ones don't look so bad. I also love the new Fushigi Yuugi covers, but i've yet to read any.

I love a lot of CLAMP cover art, but many from the X/1999 series stands out for me, as well as one particular volume of the afformentioned Tokyo Babylon, and Legal Drug.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/15 ... ZZZZZZ.jpg
Tokyo Babylon; volume seven.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/15 ... ZZZZZZ.jpg
X/1999; volume eighteen

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/03 ... ZZZZZZ.jpg
xxxholic; volume six

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/15 ... ZZZZZZ.jpg
Legal Drug, volume three
 
I agree that the Legal Drug art is really nice. The cover art for the DN Angel manga is staggeringly good - not a big fan of the manga itself, but I could stare at the cover art all day!
 
I'm another who goes for Tokyo Babylon as a fave for manga covers. The covers brilliantly convey the visual uniqueness of the manga, and the colours and text used really make them stand out on shelves. But then I am rather biased ^^;;

For the X/1999 covers, I wish Viz had stuck closer to the Japanese design of a black cover with the letter X in various colours (different for each tank) and the illustration of the character(s) on the back. I have a couple of volumes of the Japanese release and they look really stunning.
 
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