| Until recently, I used to be an anime-only watcher, limiting myself not just to anime, but to anime that's either a complete adaptation of the manga, or at least ends conclusively. While I generally didn't have too much of a problem finding what I wanted, there was always one thing I couldn't find in anime - good writing. Everybody and their mother was telling me that anime that gets adapted is, for the most part, the lower tier stuff that's guaranteed to sell because it targets the lowest common denominator, and I'm missing out a lot by not reading manga, especially when it comes to writing more ambitious than your average shonen or a high school romcom. Not to mention, I was missing out because a lot of anime only gets a partial adaptation, to serve as, more or less, a glorified advertisement for the manga it's being adapted from. A few days ago, after finally reaching my breaking point of being frustrated by the stuff mentioned above, I decided to finally give manga a chance, and see what I'm missing out on. Since I'm currently in a mood for Dark Fantasy, I decided this was going to be the first genre I'm gonna go with. And so I asked around for recommendations in multiple places, including MAL itself, and requested a Dark Fantasy manga containing everything I heard manga on average excels at when compared to anime. I requested something complex and well-written, with elements I'd consider essential for a serious story to be good: characters with rich personalities, no Mary Sue/Gary Stu characters, and as little edge and melodrama as possible. You know how many recommendations I got? Four. I was promised nigh endless possibilities and variety I wouldn't find in anime and all I got were four recommendations. And it's not like I was too impatient and couldn't wait longer. It's just that people seriously couldn't come up with anything fitting what I wanted other than the four recommendations I got. I set up a limitation to only include finished manga in their recommendations because I specifically wanted to start reading manga to free myself from the trap that is incomplete anime, but while technically a severely limiting factor, even that wasn't really the case here. Even when I took the unfinished ones, which inevitably got suggested as well, into account, the recommendation count rose to 6. I honestly feel kind of cheated because I was shown manga as a medium rife with finished stuff I'll never see adapted because it's too complex and ambitious, and what I got were pickings even slimmer than when I was asking for anime. |
ninja666Feb 4, 2018 12:20 PM
| Nah man there are plenty of good manga. People are just too lazy to go check their lists so they name the first few that comes to their mind. Most good "Dark Fantasy" are unfinished so the choices for completed ones are pretty low. Not to mention only a dozen gets translated so your choices are considerable lower than that of the Japanese audiences. You seem to like mature dark fantasy so maybe try asking for dark psychological adult manga recommendations instead. Most dark seinen manga never get an anime adaptation because they are too dark or too complex so I recommend making a thread asking for some. I know a lot of good ones that will no doubt interest you. |
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| I dont know who you were asking, but i can easily tell you ten atleast good dark fantasy manga, even though i have to admit that they're not finished because i buy all the finished manga i want to read so im kinda restricted by my budget. to the list: Berserk Vinland Saga (more historical with vikings and shit, still wonderful) Made in Abyss Drifters Jagaaaaaan (more supernatural than fantasy) Dungeon Seeker Houseki no Kuni Jojos Bizarre Adventures Tokyo Ghoul actually has a decent Manga believe it or not Übelblatt |
aSuperiorGamer said: Nah man there are plenty of good manga. People are just too lazy to go check their lists so they name the first few that comes to their mind. I wouldn't really say so in this case. The recommendations I got are stuff I've never heard of before that seemed to be far (or at least a reasonable distance away) from mainstream. aSuperiorGamer said: Most good "Dark Fantasy" are unfinished so the choices for completed ones are pretty low. Not to mention only a dozen gets translated so your choices are considerable lower than that of the Japanese audiences. I kinda noticed that already, you know? Still, I didn't expect it to be that bad. aSuperiorGamer said: You seem to like mature dark fantasy so maybe try asking for dark psychological adult manga recommendations instead. Most dark seinen manga never get an anime adaptation because they are too dark or too complex so I recommend making a thread asking for some. I know a lot of good ones that will no doubt interest you. That's an option I'm definitely gonna consider. You can recommend some if you'd like. Right now, however, I'm specifically in a mood for a sword & sorcery type of Dark Fantasy, and nothing else will scratch that itch for me at the moment. Pantemic said: I dont know who you were asking I was asking on reddit, 4chan, MAL, and one gaming website I usually get good results from when asking for recommendations because people there generally have good taste and dabble into everything more than just the mainstream stuff. The results I got are the combined effort of those 4 sites. I still can refresh two of those threads and keep asking, but I doubt I'd get anything. Pantemic said: but i can easily tell you ten atleast good dark fantasy manga, even though i have to admit that they're not finished The problem is I want finished manga. I got too fed up with anime never getting a proper ending, so I turned to manga in order to finally get some complete stories. That's why I felt so baffled when I found out it's really hard to find finished manga, too, especially since there's supposed to be way more of them in general than anime. As for your recommendations, some of them were recommended in those threads I made, too, but alas, they're unfinished. The ones that weren't don't seem to fit what I'm looking for at all (I mean JoJo, seriously?). |
ninja666Feb 4, 2018 12:11 PM
| Well let me know when you're done thirsting for Dark Fantasy. Right now I can't be bothered to name things that you'll probably not read. |
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aSuperiorGamer said: Well let me know when you're done thirsting for Dark Fantasy. Right now I can't be bothered to name things that you'll probably not read. Get off your high horse, will ya? In those threads I made I got recommended some cyberpunk and horror manga as well. I added them to my list, with the intent of reading them at another date, because they seemed interesting regardless, so it's not like I'll shoot down everything you throw at me just because it's not what I'm in the mood for right now. |
| Arre you sure the ones recommending on that thread werent just people who only read a few manga themselves? and only popular ones at it? |
| Fine fine here are a few good one I'd recommend. They're all dark seinen so don't expect them to be anything like anime. They're also all finished. Oyasumi Punpun is pretty much a must read if you want dark adult psychological stuff Onanie Master Kurosawa, don't let the title fool you, it's a really good read. Pure psychological and no romance. Arigatou is really dark though the art is kinda bad and it can get a bit silly but in the end it's a pretty grim story. I Am a Hero is a zombie apocalypse survival story but isn't as cliche as you think. It's great. Boku wa Mari no Naka is a fucked up split personality psychological thing. Wolfsmund is a great historical manga about the independent of Switzerland. It's dark and pretty bloody. Don't expect happy ending for anyone. Ichi the Killer is a story about bad people. No good guys in here. A few of these are pretty well known and a few are relatively unknown. There's more but try these first. |
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BlackFIFA19 said: Arre you sure the ones recommending on that thread werent just people who only read a few manga themselves? and only popular ones at it? I'm pretty sure they weren't. 4chan is generally a good bet when it comes to asking for manga and anime recommendations because it's filled with extremely passionate fans, who appreciate the entirety of the medium and their knowledge far exceeds one of a casual anime/manga fan. In case of people from MAL, I had a look at their profiles and each had a few hundred finished manga, spread across multiple genres. The gaming site I mentioned is also trustworthy because it's not the first time I asked them to recommend something under highly specific criteria and they almost always delivered in that regard. Only reddit I'd have doubts about, but I got nothing from them anyway and mentioned them only for the sake of mentioning every place I asked in. |
| @aSuperiorGamer Thanks for the recommendations. I'm more fond of titles less contemporary in terms of setting, so I'll be trying out I am a Hero, Ichi the Killer, and Wolfsmund. If you have any more recommendations for less grounded dark manga, I'd be happy to hear them. |
ninja666Feb 4, 2018 12:37 PM
ninja666 said: @aSuperiorGamer Thanks for the recommendations. I'm more fond of titles less contemporary in terms of setting, so I'd be trying out I am a Hero and Ichi the Killer, and Wolfsmund. If you have any more recommendations for less grounded dark manga, I'd be happy to hear them. What do you mean by less grounded dark manga? |
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ninja666 said: BlackFIFA19 said: Arre you sure the ones recommending on that thread werent just people who only read a few manga themselves? and only popular ones at it? I'm pretty sure they weren't. 4chan is generally a good bet when it comes to asking for manga and anime recommendations because it's filled with extremely passionate fans, who appreciate the entirety of the medium and their knowledge far exceeds one of a casual anime/manga fan. In case of people from MAL, I had a look at their profiles and each had a few hundred finished manga, spread across multiple genres. The gaming site I mentioned is also trustworthy because it's not the first time I asked them to recommend something under highly specific criteria and they almost always delivered in that regard. Only reddit I'd have doubts about, but I got nothing from them anyway and mentioned them only for the sake of mentioning every place I asked in. Ah well then, still kinda weird seeing as how there are 40K+ mangas and you only get a few recommendations, wish i could help you here OP but i havent read many dark fantasy series and the few i have read are either ongoing or are Novels(or both) and seeing as youre kinda how should i say it picky? im fairly sure you'll end up not liking these. |
aSuperiorGamer said: What do you mean by less grounded dark manga? I wanted to use the term "less grounded in reality", but then realized Wolfsmund is technically grounded in reality, so I had to make something up on the fly. What I meant was something with some less realistic and generally more "out there" elements in its story and setting (like the protagonist being a maniacal killer in a battle suit, who triggers his bloodlust by crying in Ichi the Killer for example). That kind of stuff makes the read far more entertaining for me because I watch a lot of realistic drama films, and to manga and anime I tend to reach when I want something more creative and bizarre that simply wouldn't work in live action without being campy as hell. |
ninja666Feb 4, 2018 12:45 PM
BlackFIFA19 said: still kinda weird seeing as how there are 40K+ mangas and you only get a few recommendations The only other highly limiting factor I can think of was that I wanted manga with really good art (at least on par with Berserk or Hokuto no Ken, both of which are pretty high quality when it comes to detail), but then again, some people were recommending manga with simplistic art, too, because they thought I'd like them regardless, so I don't think it had a really high impact on the number of recommendations I've gotten. |
| Seems kind of dumb to base your entire opinion on manga off of a few recommendations you received and have yet to even read, and to say manga has "slimmer pickings" than anime just sounds like bait. If what other people suggest isn't to your satisfaction, then you should do your own research if you're really that interested. ninja666 said: If you have any more recommendations for less grounded dark manga, I'd be happy to hear them. Gunnm. Eden: It's an Endless World. BLAME! Akira. Dorohedoro. Tekkonkinkreet. Uzumaki. All You Need is Kill. Blade of the Immortal. 20th Century Boys. Pluto. |
Touka said: and to say manga has "slimmer pickings" than anime just sounds like bait. Maybe the wording came off as a little bait-ey, but I didn't mean for it to sound that way. What I meant by "pickings slimmer than anime" was that when I usually searched for anime, I was getting around 30-45 suggestions to narrow down from to the ones I'd like to watch. I've heard manga has way more to offer than anime, so I expected way to receive way more recommendations and was kind of baffled when I got only four. Touka said: If what other people suggest isn't to your satisfaction, then you should do your own research if you're really that interested. Except doing my own research in that particular case seems kind of pointless. Not to mention, much harder to do because not only I'd still have to rely on other people's judgement (in form of ratings and reviews) to determine whether or not a manga is good, but also I wouldn't be able to accurately narrow it down to what meets my criteria because a search engine wouldn't provide me with anything that'd help me in that regard, except maybe the tags and whether or not the manga is finished. I can't really be going too much by descriptions either because those often tend to be deceiving. It's overall much easier to ask around and then determine whether or I'd be interested in reading what was suggested, when the suggestions are narrowed down to a number smaller than a few hundred titles. Also, thanks for the recommendations. I'll have a look at them later and see if anything catches my attention. |
ninja666 said: I wanted to use the term "less grounded in reality", but then realized Wolfsmund is technically grounded in reality, so I had to make something up on the fly. What I meant was something with some less realistic and generally more "out there" elements in its story and setting (like the protagonist being a maniacal killer in a battle suit, who triggers his bloodlust by crying in Ichi the Killer for example). That kind of stuff makes the read far more entertaining for me because I watch a lot of realistic drama films, and to manga and anime I tend to reach when I want something more creative and bizarre that simply wouldn't work in live action without being campy as hell. If this is what you're looking for then they're mostly battle shounen. Claymore is an example but you seem to dislike it so I guess not battle shounen then. That kind of over the top thing that you're looking for is pretty rare in the seinen category so it's pretty hard to come by. Maybe these will do. Spirit Circle: it's about reincarnation of a group of friends throughout multiple periodes in human history. Gantz: This one is contemporary setting but it's dark action and really popular. It's nothing like the Gantz;0 movie that you've seen so give it a try. Aside from Berserk I don't really know any good finished manga with the Dark Fantasy setting. |
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aSuperiorGamer said: Maybe these will do. Spirit Circle: it's about reincarnation of a group of friends throughout multiple periodes in human history. Gantz: This one is contemporary setting but it's dark action and really popular. It's nothing like the Gantz;0 movie that you've seen so give it a try. Well, the "creative and bizarre" part definitely seems to check out but I don't think either of these is something I'd wanna read. I'm not a big fan of comedy in anime, and Spirit Circle definitely seems like one, and Gantz seems to be more action than story-driven, which is something I like to see in anime form (because, you know, the action scenes are animated) and not really in manga form. I appreciate the effort, though. |
ninja666 said: Well, the "creative and bizarre" part definitely seems to check out but I don't think either of these is something I'd wanna read. I'm not a big fan of comedy in anime, and Spirit Circle definitely seems like one, and Gantz seems to be moree action than story-driven, which is something I like to see in anime form (because, you know, the action scenes are animated) and not really in manga form. I appreciate the effort, though. Spirit Circle a comedy? lol no, it's not the darkest manga but definitely not a comedy, not even remotely. It's mainly psychological so yeah take it as you will. As for Gantz, the anime and movie adaptation were both shit but the manga is freaking great. It's not mainly action, the story is really engaging as well and the character development is one of the best there is. |
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aSuperiorGamer said: As for Gantz, the anime and movie adaptation were both shit but the manga is freaking great. It's not mainly action, the story is really engaging as well and the character development is one of the best there is. Why does literally every review of the manga complain that the story is piss-poor and full of holes, and the characterisation is weak, then? |
ninja666 said: Why does literally every review of the manga complain that the story is piss-poor and full of holes, and the characterisation is weak, then? Don't know about that. Look at the average score, clearly most people enjoyed reading it. Only a handful of people hating on popular manga really. Well I'd suggest try reading a few chapters. If you don't like it you could always drop it. |
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| @aSuperiorGamer Alright, I've added it to my list. I'll give it a shot when I feel like reading a dark Urban Fantasy. |
| Okay I was one of the people who commented. Part of the problem is that the type of fantasy you’re looking for isn’t common in modern manga. It may be more common in older series but I don’t read that many old manga so idk, and Also your constraints were extremely hard. Dark, not edgy, completed and art as good as berserk... there’s a reason berserk is considered the best manga and it’s not because theirs 100’s of hidden gem Manga just like it. For example, seven deadly sins is a medieval fantasy like what you’re looking for but isn’t mature. Additionally most people rec things that they enjoy more. I personally usually only rec something I score 8+ unless I feel like it’s exactly what they’re looking for. If you don’t want only what people consider the best you can try https://myanimelist.net/manga/genre/13/Historical With 1733 results Or https://myanimelist.net/manga/genre/10/Fantasy With 6713 results. With a bit of practice finding something good, it isn’t that hard (though the fantasy tab could be tough to find the type of fantasy you’re looking for) |
ExtectFeb 4, 2018 10:25 PM
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| There is a lot more variety in manga compared to anime. You just got so little recommendations because less people read manga than watch anime. That's my guess. A few recs: Omoide Emanon Haruka na Machi e Kamisama ga Uso wo Tsuku. These are nice, short, story/character-driven reads you can all finish in a lazy afternoon. |
Extect said: Part of the problem is that the type of fantasy you’re looking for isn’t common in modern manga. I'm inclined to believe that. Even in anime, I noticed the Japanese tend to go to Science Fiction rather than Fantasy to tell darker storylines, which is kind of surprising to me because some of the best Dark Fantasy stories I've seen come from Japan. Extect said: Also your constraints were extremely hard. Dark, not edgy, completed and art as good as berserk... The only legit reason I can see it being hard is the good art, but then again, I already mentioned a lot of people in all of the threads I made were recommending manga without extraordinary art because the content and story matched what I was looking for, so I don't think that requirement had that big of an impact on the results. As for the other two, no offense, but you're really making manga look bad, when simply wanting writing to be good apparently turns finding something into a near impossible task. Extect said: Additionally most people rec things that they enjoy more. I personally usually only rec something I score 8+ unless I feel like it’s exactly what they’re looking for. I kinda wish more people would give recommendations based on the taste and needs of people who's making the request and not theirs. When I'm making recommendations, I sometimes recommend anime series I gave 3-4/10 because while I personally didn't like them, they're similar to what that person liked in the past and I'm sure they'd like those as well. Extect said: If you don’t want only what people consider the best you can try https://myanimelist.net/manga/genre/13/Historical With 1733 results Or https://myanimelist.net/manga/genre/10/Fantasy With 6713 results. With a bit of practice finding something good, it isn’t that hard (though the fantasy tab could be tough to find the type of fantasy you’re looking for) Ah, the good ol' "do your own research, then". Someone in this thread mentioned that already so I'm just going to quote my reply to them: ninja666 said: Except doing my own research in that particular case seems kind of pointless. Not to mention, much harder to do because not only I'd still have to rely on other people's judgement (in form of ratings and reviews) to determine whether or not a manga is good, but also I wouldn't be able to accurately narrow it down to what meets my criteria because a search engine wouldn't provide me with anything that'd help me in that regard, except maybe the tags and whether or not the manga is finished. I can't really be going too much by descriptions either because those often tend to be deceiving. It's overall much easier to ask around and then determine whether or I'd be interested in reading what was suggested, when the suggestions are narrowed down to a number smaller than a few hundred titles. N30-R3TR0 said: There is a lot more variety in manga compared to anime. You just got so little recommendations because less people read manga than watch anime. That's my guess. Maybe over here it's the case, but I doubt it's the same on the other three sites I asked on. I think the case really is that Dark Fantasy is not a common genre in manga. N30-R3TR0 said: A few recs: Omoide Emanon Haruka na Machi e Kamisama ga Uso wo Tsuku. These are nice, short, story/character-driven reads you can all finish in a lazy afternoon. Thanks. Omoide Emanon and Haruka na Machi e both sound intriguing. I'll add them to my list. |
ninja666Feb 5, 2018 7:56 AM
ninja666 said: Extect said: Part of the problem is that the type of fantasy you’re looking for isn’t common in modern manga. I'm inclined to believe that. Even in anime, I noticed the Japanese tend to go to Science Fiction rather than Fantasy to tell darker storylines, which is kind of surprising to me because some of the best Dark Fantasy stories I've seen come from Japan. Extect said: Also your constraints were extremely hard. Dark, not edgy, completed and art as good as berserk... The only legit reason I can see it being hard is the good art, but then again, I already mentioned a lot of people in all of the threads I made were recommending manga without extraordinary art because the content and story matched what I was looking for, so I don't think that requirement had that big of an impact on the results. As for the other two, no offense, but you're really making manga look bad, when simply wanting writing to be good apparently turns finding something into a near impossible task. Extect said: Additionally most people rec things that they enjoy more. I personally usually only rec something I score 8+ unless I feel like it’s exactly what they’re looking for. I kinda wish more people would give recommendations based on the taste and needs of people who's making the request and not theirs. When I'm making recommendations, I sometimes recommend anime series I gave 3-4/10 because while I personally didn't like them, they're similar to what that person liked in the past and I'm sure they'd like those as well. Extect said: If you don’t want only what people consider the best you can try https://myanimelist.net/manga/genre/13/Historical With 1733 results Or https://myanimelist.net/manga/genre/10/Fantasy With 6713 results. With a bit of practice finding something good, it isn’t that hard (though the fantasy tab could be tough to find the type of fantasy you’re looking for) Ah, the good ol' "do your own research, then". Someone in this thread mentioned that already so I'm just going to quote my reply to them: ninja666 said: Except doing my own research in that particular case seems kind of pointless. Not to mention, much harder to do because not only I'd still have to rely on other people's judgement (in form of ratings and reviews) to determine whether or not a manga is good, but also I wouldn't be able to accurately narrow it down to what meets my criteria because a search engine wouldn't provide me with anything that'd help me in that regard, except maybe the tags and whether or not the manga is finished. I can't really be going too much by descriptions either because those often tend to be deceiving. It's overall much easier to ask around and then determine whether or I'd be interested in reading what was suggested, when the suggestions are narrowed down to a number smaller than a few hundred titles. So i'm too lazy to split it up into parts, I'll just leave it like this. 1)About the fantasy thing, Personally, fantasy is one of my favorite genres, but in manga most of my favorites are other genres. There is only one that is really like a medeival fantasy story, several have fantasy tags but it's pretty different like https://myanimelist.net/manga/3031/Pandora_Hearts which doesn't sound like what you're looking for to me. 2)For constraints I was more talking about edgy. It's kind of a buzz word for bad but doesn't really have a set line, and I don't realy think it's always bad. For example I'd say clockwork Orange is edgy and it's a critically acclaimed movie. Also, no offense taken, manga sucks 3) For recs it can be hard to tell what the other person will like so I recomend things that fit the criteria that I think are good. And given that most people don't want to be flooded with recs I try to stop before I put a large number . Personally this didn't aply to your case as I didn't know that many recs to give but I figured it could have been the case with someone else. Additionally, if someone asks for a genre that I don't care for like ecchi harem or something, I will usually just not respond. How should I know what someone who liked To Love Ru but disliked Highschool DXD will like? 4)self research isnt that hard, if you just judge the covers you might skip a couple good series but you can quickly skip most things that won't fit/bad. And, if you just don't look at the scores they would not affect what you find. I'm one of the biggest manga readers I know and their are a shit ton of manga I havn't read. I'm not sure how good 4chan or the gaming board are for recs, but mal and reddit are usuually crap for manga recs in general. |
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Extect said: self research isnt that hard, if you just judge the covers you might skip a couple good series but you can quickly skip most things that won't fit/bad. And, if you just don't look at the scores they would not affect what you find. I'm one of the biggest manga readers I know and their are a shit ton of manga I havn't read. I'm not sure how good 4chan or the gaming board are for recs, but mal and reddit are usuually crap for manga recs in general. I wish MAL's search engine and recommendations weren't borderline useless. It'd definitely make self research much easier and I'd be encouraged to do it more. But what am I supposed to do, when the search engine on this site doesn't even have such a basic function as "include these tags, while excluding these ones at the same time", and the majority of the recommendations made by people using the site's feature tend to be based on very superficial things and often even the top recommendation has barely anything to do with the title in question? Unless there exists some more useful search/recommendation engine for manga than the one on MAL that I don't know about, I feel I'd be wasting more time doing research on my own than simply asking around. |
ninja666 said: Extect said: self research isnt that hard, if you just judge the covers you might skip a couple good series but you can quickly skip most things that won't fit/bad. And, if you just don't look at the scores they would not affect what you find. I'm one of the biggest manga readers I know and their are a shit ton of manga I havn't read. I'm not sure how good 4chan or the gaming board are for recs, but mal and reddit are usuually crap for manga recs in general. I wish MAL's search engine and recommendations weren't borderline useless. It'd definitely make self research much easier and I'd be encouraged to do it more. But what am I supposed to do, when the search engine on this site doesn't even have such a basic function as "include these tags, while excluding these ones at the same time", and the majority of the recommendations made by people using the site's feature tend to be based on very superficial things and often even the top recommendation has barely anything to do with the title in question? Unless there exists some more useful search/recommendation engine for manga than the one on MAL that I don't know about, I feel I'd be wasting more time doing research on my own than simply asking around. Ive never used it, but it has tags and include/exclude https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?act=genresearch ... and more tags than they probably need... |
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ClodRaker said: The Gantz manga is only marginally better than the adapation, so I wouldn't waste my time with it. There is some interesting potential with a few characters, but it's ultimately wasted on a muddled mess that gets worse with later chapters. Thanks for the heads up. I knew something didn't feel right about that recommendation. ClodRaker said: "I honestly feel kind of cheated" For some odd reason, I have little inclination to assist beyond that. You don't have to, nobody's forcing you. |
| How about Not Simple? A tragic life story of Ian (check the synopsis). You may also want to check out seinen magazines like Big Comic Spirits. You can find some good dark stuff from them. |
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Thanks for the recommendation, but I already mentioned somewhere in the thread that I'm not a huge fan of stories grounded in reality when it comes to manga and anime. Shineee_ said: You may also want to check out seinen magazines like Big Comic Spirits. You can find some good dark stuff from them. I had a look at what they had to offer, but nothing in particular caught my attention. |
ninja666 said: Thanks for the recommendation, but I already mentioned somewhere in the thread that I'm not a huge fan of stories grounded in reality when it comes to manga and anime. Shineee_ said: You may also want to check out seinen magazines like Big Comic Spirits. You can find some good dark stuff from them. I had a look at what they had to offer, but nothing in particular caught my attention. I see. Too bad. Maybe I'll come back sometime when I have something else to recommend. |
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| After reading through this thread all I can say is, I'm sorry to hear that, bro. :( I too used to only watch anime and when I started reading manga, it was life changing, and I came upon so many series that I absolutely adored, and my love of anime was completely blown out of the water. I'd have been one of those people claiming manga had so much more to offer, so it's upsetting to hear that your experience so far has been disappointing. As for recommendations on my part, I unfortunately haven't read any dark fantasy. I tend to go for psychological horror, sci-fi, drama or romance. The closest manga I could recommend based on your personal preference would be Biomega, but it's more in line with dystopian sci-fi than straight up fantasy. Wish I could be of more help, but it's just not a genre that I'm particularly interested in. Hope you find the series that you're looking for; there's bound to be some out there. :) |
| I mean outside of the being unfinished the title that comes to mind that is most likely what you are looking for is Berserk. I would still say give it a shot. Some other suggestions that are not quite on the mark but in the realm. Finished -Giganto Makhia -Lychee Light Club -The Cain Saga --On that note, most titles from Kaori Yuki would count -Bride of Deimos -Witches -The Demon Ororon -The Poe Family -BURNING HELL -Devilman -Demon Detective Nougami Neuro -Hellsing -God's Child -Last Quarter -Petshop of Horrors -Akuma na Eros -Koudelka -Alisa of the Silver Hair -Alichino -Unico (You may think I am kidding you but I am not) Ongoing -Drifters Your mileage may vary with these titles. There is actually quite a bit of shoujo that would fall under dark fantasy. I do recomend checking out Kaori Yuki titles. Everything I have read from her would be dark fantasy. Might end up not being your cup of tea but worth checking out. |
Brand said: I mean outside of the being unfinished the title that comes to mind that is most likely what you are looking for is Berserk. I would still say give it a shot. I'd rather read something I'm certain is going to be finished in this century ;) Brand said: Some other suggestions that are not quite on the mark but in the realm. Well, can't say you're wrong, but pretty much all of these aren't the type of Dark Fantasy I'm looking for. They fall more under supernatural horror, while what I was looking for was a more "traditional", sword & sorcery style of Dark Fantasy. The problem with that is, however, that this type of Fantasy is super unpopular in Japan, as they prefer their lighthearted, unimaginative, video game-y type of Fantasy setting. |
| You're killing me smalls. Yeah, the hardest part is finding a finished one. Here are some on-going suggestions: -Bastard!! that considers its self heavy metal dark fantasy. - Guin Saga which is a novel series but has manga based on it. -The Twelve Kingdoms is a series of high-fantasy novels that pull from Chinese mythology. Not as dark as Berserk but it series and gets pretty dark. -Arslan Senki again based on a series of novels but does have manga adaptations, that is based in Persia. Less dark than the ones above but still serious. -Moribito another series of novels that draws from Japanese mythology. Lighter on magic but lots of sword play. |
| @Brand I appreciate your help, but I think this is a lost cause for me. I guess I'll either read the fantasy ones I already have on my list, or try to find some Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk ones, since it seems to be where the Japanese put all their ultra dark shit into. |
ninja666Feb 8, 2018 7:09 AM
| I feel like you just gotta dunk your toes into the water. Not everything you read will be a treasure, but it makes finding those gems that much more of an enjoyable experience. I'm.. kind of hesitant to throw out Tsubasa as a recommendation, for many reasons. In some ways, it sounds like something you're looking for (dark fantasy, swordplay, sorcery, complexity, campy yet serious), and in others, not so much (well-written? debatable depending on who you ask + "edgy" tone shift). Mainly though, it's a depressing and confusing read just because of how massive the plot is; it's a tall order for anyone to get through. It's complete though, and long. You'd definitely have your hands full. Annarasumanara has bizarre visuals and takes an almost surrealist approach when transitioning from panel to panel. No historical aspect, but psychological with a strange & mysterious magician. I haven't read this myself but want to, I've heard nothing but good things: Ruroni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan I'm someone who prefers manga over anime myself, so hopefully soon you find something that inspires you! |
opheliakc said: To me, you sound like a whiny little kid. -You don't read anything that's currently publishing -You don't read anything that's slighlt off than your preference -You demand it to becomplex and well-written, which is acturally really hard to find in japanese media -It shouldn't be set in the real world Are you like this when you are looking for anime too? They have a low mean score, so I would guess so. I mean, what they are asking for is pretty western. They might have a better time with fantasy samurai stuff. My first manga were Ranma, Yugioh, Inuyasha, Fushigi Yugi, and Chobits. None of those titles are the least bit perfect. Ranma doesn't have an end, Fushigi Yugi is tropey and the ending will make a lot of people mad.... I dare not get into the manga I actually love. |
Energetic-NovaMar 10, 2018 10:45 AM
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