Manga Recs

Go Nagai’s groundbreaking horror classic that inspired the genre for decades.Hordes of demons, once thought entombed forever in the underworld, have now returned to Earth. Evil and corruption begin to seep into our world, as demons seize human hosts. Mankind’s only hope for salvation is to use the demons’ power against them–and only a pure-hearted man like Fudo Akira can do so without losing his humanity. Once little more than a crybaby, Akira now wields the terrible power of a devil, yet holds the innocent soul of a man–Devilman!

Saving the world is hard. Saving yourself is even harder. One summer, 15 kids innocently wander into a nearby seaside cave. There they meet a strange man who invites them to play an exciting new video game. Sounds like fun, right? This game, he explains, pits a lone giant robot against a horde of alien invaders. All they have to do is sign a simple little contract. The game stops being fun when the kids find out the true purpose of their deadly pact.

El ritmo no decae. Asano no se acomoda, ahonda o gira bruscamente. Si ya era complicada la visión de este microuniverso alucinógeno lleno de niños de extrarradio, la cosa se complica cuando añades adolescentes a la ecuación. La violencia doméstica acampa a sus anchas y contextualiza las historias personales de los personajes. Niños buscando redención entre clase y clase de un colegio de primaria.Sigo insistiendo en el estilo artístico de Asano. No concibo cómo mezcla tres estratos -la belleza, la fealdad y lo caricaturesco- dentro de la misma viñeta. Y cómo define a sus personajes en función del trazo que les aplica.Aún queda mucho Punpun, pero no sé por qué derroteros tirará la historia. Estoy intrigado.

Humanity, having faced extinction at the end of the 20th century, would not have entered the new millennium if it weren't for them. In 1969, during their youth, they created a symbol. In 1997, as the coming disaster slowly starts to unfold, that symbol returns. This is the story of a gang of boys who try to save the world.Failed rock musician Kenji's memories of his past come rushing back when one of his childhood friends mysteriously commits suicide. Could this new death be related to the rise of a bizarre new cult that's been implicated in several other murders and disappearances? Determined to dig deeper, Kenji reunites with some of his old buddies in the hope of learning the truth behind it all.

MPD-Psycho, the most-requested manga series in recently memory, has found a fitting home at Dark Horse Manga, where it will be presented uncut and uncensored in all of its controversial and unflinchingly grotesque glory! If Takashi Miike’s MPD-Psycho television series still has you confused and reeling, the original manga series that inspired the show is sure to take you on a longer, darker journey into madness. Enjoy the 11-volume MPD-Psycho series for all of its absurd twists, sci-fi touches and inventive torture scenes, but you’ll also be mesmerized by the plethora of odd conspiracies and case files found in Otsuka and Tajima’s uncontrollable, urban horrorshow. In MPD-Psycho Volume 1, police detective Kobayashi Yousuke’s life is changed forever after a serial killer notices something "special" about him. That same killer mutilates Kobayashi’s wife and kick-starts a "multiple personality battle" within Kobayashi that pushes him into a complex tempest of interconnected deviants and evil forces. Earning praise for its consistently shocking plotlines and Tajima’s clean, arresting art style, MPD-Psycho is the manga event of the decade!

R to L (Japanese Style). When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does.Ruka's dad and the other adults who work at the aquarium are only distantly aware of what the children are experiencing as they get caught up in the mystery of the worldwide disappearance of the oceans' fish.

Life is never ordinary. R to L (Japanese Style). The cruelty of childhood. The delusion of adulthood. The endurance of death. Laugh in the face of reality. With this series of intersecting vignettes, Inio Asano explores the ways in which modern life can be ridiculous and sublime, terrible and precious, wasted and celebrated. A dream recaptured. A life on a new track. The absurdity of death. Laughter in the face of reality. With this series of intersecting vignettes, Inio Asano explores the ways in which modern life can be ridiculous and sublime, terrible and precious, wasted and celebrated.

'Your body is their business! Five young students at a Buddhist university, three guys and two girls, find little call for their job skills in today's Tokyo... among the living, that is! But all that stuff in college they were told would never pay off - you know, channeling, dowsing, ESP - gives them a direct line to the dead... the dead who are still trapped in their corpses and can't move on to the next reincarnation. The five form the Kurosagi ("Black Heron" - their ominous bird logo) Corpse Delivery Service: whether suicide, murder, accident, or illness, they'll carry your body wherever it needs to go to free your soul! The kids from Kurosagi can smell a customer a mile away - it's a good thing one of the girls majored in embalming!

In the aftermath of a strange earthquake, an entire elementary school vanishes, leaving nothing but a hole in the ground. While parents mourn and authorities investigate, the students and teachers of find themselves somewhere far away...somewhere cold and dark... a lifeless, nightmarish wasteland among which their school stands like a lone fortress. As panic turns to terror, as the rules start to fall apart, a 6th-grade boy named Sho and his friends must try to survive in a hostile new world...

I found out what I hate in this manga: teeth! How ugly their teeth are drawn! They seem like a monster when they show their goddamn awfully big teeth! I wanted Murano and even Kana have some big parts in the story or some solid personalities. Still the story is about Shinichi and Migi, so I guess I have to roll with it. Now another person near to Shinichi died. I didn't feel sad or anything, so it is a minus for the story. Still I am curious what will happen to all these parasites on earth. What are they planning? Are they going to coexist with humans? I doubt so. Despite not liking manga art, I like the animation. In anime Shinichi and other characters are more modern. Hate oldie hairstyles and clothes!PS: (view spoiler)[ Kana's death in anime was more emotional. (hide spoiler)]

In a future world rife with decay and destruction, Killy is a man of few words who packs one very powerful gun. He wanders an endless labyrinth of cyberdungeons filled with concrete and steel, fighting off cyborgs and other bizarre silicate creatures. Everyone is searching for the Net Terminal Genes, but no one is quite certain what kind of power they contain. The answer may lie hidden among the scattered human settlements of this vast and desolate future world.

3.5 stars so I rounded up.Ok. So to put this bluntly, this is a manga about a douchebag, who has been made immortal, so he can redeem himself and avenge his sister's death. He meets a very naive girl, who is hellbent on revenge for her father's murder, and together, she does stupid things, and he ends up jumping in to save her. Personally, I'd rather have a badass female main character, instead of a weaker female, in need of a man to help her. This girl is good with a sword, but not as good as necessary to take on all these swordsmen. Plus she is young and her mind is weak. I'm not against having a strong male lead character, I'm simply against the trope of a simple, stupid woman, getting in over her head, and needing a man to dig her out of her hole. It was more enjoyable toward the end though, and the art is good, hence the half star and round up. This book was readable, and if a man saving a helpless woman is your thing, feel free to pick this one up. I will be giving the second volume a go, just to see if maybe I judged it a little too harshly at first. In all honesty though, if you want to read about a male samurai who is reluctant to fight, but will do so if pushed, or to protect his loved ones, and with a strong female lead, I recommend reading Rurouni Kenshin instead.

Longing for Something BiggerFrom the Eisner Award-nominated Inio Asano, creator of Solanin and Nijigahara Holograph, comes one of his most challenging works yet; an intense teen romance set in what may at first glance be one of the sleepiest places in Japan. When Koume and Keisuke's relationship begins to take shape, it is apparent that they are both searching for something. Maybe Keisuke wants something more than a kiss from the fair Koume. Maybe Koume is looking for someone better than Misaki, the local playboy. But what they find in each other over the course of a summer might be far greater than anything they were expecting. Their lives are going to change. And this will all transpire before high school exams!

2008 Eisner Comic Winner! Street urchins Black and White have skyscraper-sized chips on their shoulders, but are fiercely loyal to each other. Black is especially quick to avenge any slight against his dim-witted pal. The result? The citizens of Treasure Town are afraid of them, the police are afraid of them--even the local yakuza gangsters are afraid of them! But when the crime boss known as the "Rat" returns to Treasure Town, it looks like there's gonna be a rumble... The violence in this unique European-influenced manga title is more mindful than it seems at first glance, and the subtle relationships between its unique cast of characters are marked by surprising poignancy.

A secret U.S. chemical weapon called "MW" accidentally leaks and wipes out the population of a southern Japanese island. Though Michio Yuki survives, he emerges from the ordeal without a trace of conscience. MW is manga-god Osamu Tezuka's controversial testament to the Machiavellian character and features his most direct engagement of themes such as transvestism and homoeroticism. MW is a chilling picaresque of evil. Steering clear of the supernatural as well as the cuddly designs and slapstick humor that enliven many of Tezuka's better-known works, MW explores a stark modern reality where neither drive nor secular justice seems to prevail. This willfully "anti-Tezuka" achievement from the master's own pen nevertheless pulsates with his unique genius.

Brilliant anime director Satoshi Kon (Paprika, Paranoia Agent, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, Perfect Blue) died tragically young in 2010 at the age of forty-six. But before he became a director, he was a manga artist, and Dark Horse is honored to remember Kon with the release of Satoshi Kon’s OPUS,an omnibus collection of a two-volume manga from 1996, created by Kon on the eve of his first film. OPUS contains the mastery of both realism and surrealism that would make Kon famous in Perfect Blue,as a manga artist planning a shocking surprise ending to his story gets literally pulled into his own work—to face for himself what he had planned for his characters!OPUS is Kon's metafictional tale of Chikara Nagai, a creator under pressure to finish his latest graphic novel, Resonance, who finds that the harshest critic of the shock ending he's got planned is the character who'll have to die in it! Nagai's stregths and weaknesses as a creator are tested beyond their limits as his present and his past, and the worlds of the manga and of reality, become the levels of a maze he may never escape... let alone get a chance to resolve the story!

Butterflies ominously proliferate as children whisper rumors of a mysterious creature lurking in the tunnel behind the school. To appease its wrath, they decide to offer it a sacrifice--a human one. But this is only the beginning of Nijigahara Holograph, which takes place in two separate timelines and involves the suicidal Amahiko; Kohta, the lovestruck bully; their teacher Miss Sakaki, whose heavily bandaged face remains a mystery; and many more brothers, sisters, parents, co-workers, teachers, aggressors, and victims who are all inextricably linked to one another. Ten years later, all will have to face what they've done or suffered through--and maybe the end of the world. Nijigahara Holograph--complex, challenging, and elliptical--was named one of the most anticipated new manga at Comic-Con International: San Diego. Hailed as a voice of the current generation in Japan, Inio Asano, whose Solanin was nominated for Eisner and Harvey awards (and was made into a feature film), delves into David Lynchian territory with this psychological horror story.

If you are aware of fashion in Japan you must have seen Liliko's face. For the last few years she has been at the top of the modeling world, with her face and body promoting the biggest brands. But as everyone who is in this world admits, staying on top is a constant and never ending battle. There are always new faces introduced to the public. Younger models and new looks are brought into the fold every season. And keeping that position means learning to adapt and learning to cope with change.To maintain her position Liliko has decided to under the knife. This is not her first go with this service. It is yet another round of plastic surgery, all done to keep herself looking young and vibrant. However in this case just a little nip and tuck was not enough. Liliko is bent on undergoing a full body makeover. From head-to-toe, every inch of her will undergo cosmetic surgery, and thus begins her madness.