What manga are you reading now?

Lucky Star 6, brilliant as ever. Not too long till the next one's out either. The final note (of the narative bit, i.e the bit from Comptiq) of Kagami suddenly realising Konata may have got into one of their top Universities seemingly effortlessly (as it would be closer to Akiba), is brilliant. .
Now too wait to see where they all wound up, and it'll only be 1 voulme behind Japan then.
 
Stuart-says-yes said:
Bakuman vol 2
It just got better, hattori appears but still no meeting with eiji, not until next volume, shame, that one of my favourite parts of the series.
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Ahhh, I picked that up and MCM and it was sooo good. I thought it really picked up from the first volume. I'm up to volume 5 now (Thanks to 1 Korean friend, the favours he owes me and his manga obsession. So I get a running translation as he reads it :D )
 
Halfway through volume 12 of Love-Hina.

I can't believe that it has taken me this long to read the series. An excellent series (though sometimes it does tend to cop out on character building moments with it all ending in slapstick).

The whole business with Kanako is rather creepy.
 
Berserk, The Black Swordsman arc - One of the most raw and enthralling opening salvos to a manga series that I have ever read. Guts is unbelievable, with crucial hints of emotions beneath his hard-ass exterior, on top of being one of the most determined and outright violent heroes you could wish to see. The hints of the bigger story towards the end of the arc, with Griffith and the God Hand, suggest something totally epic, and I can't wait to move on to The Golden Age.
 
Finished off Love-Hina.

Volume 13 was a little bizarre, but everything redeemed itself in the final volume.

A sweet ending, but certainly one that comes as no shock. The '4 years later' epilogue was cute, seeing how everybody is doing is always a nice and emotive touch.

Yet this story device only ever works if the characters are a memorable bunch...

and they were.

Yes, it's Harem in its purest form, yes, it relied a little too heavy on slapstick at times and yes, you could see the ending coming a mile off (for obvious reasons). But it all worked. I'll miss these fellas, been one heck of a ride.

Anybody know if Negima! is worth a punt?
 
The only work of Akamatsu's I like is Love Hina, which I LOVED back when I read it. I was hoping everything else drawn by him would be equally involving... but it turned out he's only good when he's re-working Maison Ikkoku and adding in pervy boob humour.

Negima is about a little boy being hit on by high school girls, in an all-girl school. It's the ultimate shota-harem. There are too many girls (30ish in Negi's class, iirc) to remember and none have distinctive personalities due to the number of characters. Going on what I read, it's endless and not especially funny.

Since you're probably bored of more typical rom-coms by now, and have no doubt read Love Hina's spiritual prequel (going on your avi), why not give the more unusual rom-coms a go, such as Midori Days and B-Shock?
 
AironicallyHuman said:
Negima is about a little boy being hit on by high school girls, in an all-girl school. It's the ultimate shota-harem. There are too many girls (30ish in Negi's class, iirc) to remember and none have distinctive personalities due to the number of characters. Going on what I read, it's endless and not especially funny.
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No they're all distinct after the first few volumes, which are a mess. It's an action series not a harem comedy, still got tons of fanservice though.
 
Max Takeshi said:
Finished off Love-Hina.

Volume 13 was a little bizarre, but everything redeemed itself in the final volume.
Anybody know if Negima! is worth a punt?
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i'm sure Ken Akamatsu was on an acid trip when he did volume 13, it was insane

i would recomend giving Negima a go though, it has elements of harem and a ton of fanservice (ableit rather bearable in my opinion, as it's done for a comic effect), but it's an action manga so don't expect another Love Hina
 
Yotsuba&! Volume 8. Compared to previous volumes this one sort of lost something, it did not seem to finish off all of the chapters satisfactorily leaving the comedy to fall a bit flat.
 
Suzuka 13-15

A bumper installment of romantic angst. By creating the bitchiest bitch and the most simple-minded simpleton ever seen and forcing them into the lead roles, it's clear that Kouji Seo wants me to hate his manga. But I'm not letting him have his way; the abject stupidity of the main couple is readily believable and the story of their turbulent romance has a great soap opera appeal. No stalkers, kidnap, or rape is a huge bonus.

And it's probably worth mentioning that Seo draws some of the sexiest girls I've ever seen. How some of them maintain such... voluptuous figures when they're so athletic is a secret only he knows, but I'm willing to overlook that anomaly.
 
I can't get into the mood to read Suzuka 13-15, knowing 16-18 still has no date. I'd have to re-read the post-anime volumes to get back into the mood, and I don't want to do so more than once.
 
At this point the future of all Del Ray titles are uncertain. A couple of months back it was annouced that Kodansha have taken all their licenses, with plans to publish them directly and distribute through Random House (Del Ray's parent company).

It could be that nothing changes or that less profitable titles disappear. Nobody knows.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
At this point the future of all Del Ray titles are uncertain. A couple of months back it was annouced that Kodansha have taken all their licenses, planning to publish them directly and distribute through Random House (Del Ray's parent company).

It could be that nothing changes or that less profitable titles disappear. Nobody knows.
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Some big titles were already stalled before that, notably Nodame Cantabile.
 
I want Yagyu, Suzuka & Alive!!! Incomplete collections suxxors...

I believe it was Kodansha behind GTO: The Early Years, and a number of other Tokyopop titles being dropped, too. Grrrr.

It irritates me greatly that 9's like Fujoshi Rumi and Life will be forever incomplete, in English.
 
AironicallyHuman said:
I believe it was Kodansha behind GTO: The Early Years, and a number of other Tokyopop titles being dropped, too. Grrrr.
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Yup they pulled all their Tokyopop licenses, including full shop recall etc.

Not entirely bad as some of them were awful hackjobs, and it's meant all of CLAMPs back catalogue is getting very good reissues courtesy of Dark Horse
 
I think Kodansha also pulled some of the Dark Horse stuff as well. I hope It just means that Kodansha will have a load of decent titles ready when they start their direct involvement in the western market. I really hope they don't just start with volume 1s for everything and do something more sensible like release the most recent unpublished volume alongside the first couple of volumes of things, otherwise they will lose a lot of their market. Those that already have the earlier volumes are unlikely to re-buy and if they don't have the later volumes available they will either give up, forget or pirate.
 
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