Thanks for stopping by, looking for some new anime/manga?
Last Updated: 2014-07-17 (YYYY-MM-DD)
Notes:
Updates apply to both this page and the lists; they'll be listed under 'Major Updates'
A tilde (~) means that section was most recently updated
Two tildes in a row (~~) means that the section was recently updated twice in succession
(✿◕ ‿◕ฺ) Major Updates: ~
[*] Fixed links, encoding corruption and formatting [17/07/'14]
[*] Lots of miscellaneous additions and changes that you'll see if one looks really closely (Hint: Those sentences without a space after the punctuation marks were really bothering me for some reason) . Includes additional tag additions/revisions to multiple manga and anime entries [??/09-10/'12]
[*] Began a Record of Favourites, which can be considered as an extension of the Favourites list, so to speak. Includes favourite couples as well (regularly-updated WIP) [18/08/'12]
[*] Started a Tag Glossary. Still in the early stages [07/09/'12]
[*] Added a Date Started and Date Finished to 99%+ of manga and anime entries [??/09/'12]
[*] Added some eye candy [27/05/'12]
[*] Updated both lists to make use of the very useful tagging userscript provided by Ash88, and revived by Luna_
[*] Added the basic tags to all Anime entries [26/05/'12]
[*] Added the 'oneshot' tag to at least 99% of all manga [?/04/'12]
[*] Tagged at least 99% of all entered manga (addendum: with the basic tags; josei, seinen, shojo or shonen along with standard themes such as action,drama,romance etc.) [30/03/'12], [10/04/'12]
[*] Sorted at least 99% of all entered manga by priority (good to check when looking for the more promising series first) [30/03/'12]
[*] Fixed the urls & display problems [-/03/'12]
[*] Added tags to all 'Currently Reading' & 'Completed' manga series [-/03/'12]
[*] Added tags to all Anime series except 'Plan to Watch' [-/03/'12]
(◡‿◡✿) Planned:
[*] Have a separate page that lists most of the possible tags, with explanations and possibly some examples [Started ??/09/12]
[*] Add in the 'oneshot' tag where applicable for all manga [?/04/'12]
[*] A section for Manhwas, Manhuas, some Web-toons and OELs (Original English Manga)[8/10/'12]
[*] Add basic tags to all anime entries [26/05/'12]
[*] Addition of more tags to reflect obscure/detailed themes (such as types of characters,settings etc.) [WIP]
[*] Add definitions for all tags
[*] Create a recommendation list to be stickied in the Recommendation forums [If you're also interested in doing something like this, feel free to send me a pm with your thoughts]
(´◕ฺω◕ฺ｀) How to Find Something You Like- An Explanation of How Tags are Used:
[Updated:27/05/'12]
Big thanks to: Ash88 for making a tagging userscript that works extremely well. You can view the original message here. Luna_ for both linking to the original post, and providing a mirror.
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[*] Search for series with similar themes by making use of tags
[*] Enter these tags into the find-in-page feature (ctrl + f on most browsers),then click 'next' to move on to the subsequent matching entry
[*] Each entry by default has at least one of the 4 following tags that gives you an idea of the intended viewing/reading audience:
Josei
Seinen
Shojo
Shonen
[*] Then there are tags according to theme,
Some well-known ones:
Romance [contains an actual romantic plot, not hints of it. Therefore, quite a bit of series that normally carry the romance tag are excluded]
❀ Action
❀ School/School life ['School' refers to a series that features students,while 'School life' refers to a series that places emphasis on the school setting]
❀ Comedy
❀ Adventure
❀ Supernatural
❀ Large cast [features many,many characters]
❀ Fantasy [explanation pending]
❀ Drama [deep storyline, character relationships (not necessarily romantic), plot twists & suspense in general]
❀ Slice of life
❀ Ecchi [not necessarily blatant 'fanservice', with cleavage on-screen every other frame, but it's noticeable. You probably won't be finding much of this either way]
❀ Harem
❀ Smut [usually tagged with romance as well. Anything with tasteful nudity (this means no hentai)]
Not-so-popular:
✿ Psychological
✿ Aesthetics [focuses on presentation.This could be through sound & music, fashionable characters designed with an attention to detail in their attire or picturesque sceneries.Usually used in the latter case]
✿ Tragedy
✿ Gothic [not necessarily for anything with lots of black (although it helps). Contains elements of Gothic architecture, fashion, atmosphere, & a healthy amount of romance, usually tragic in nature]
✿ Music [notable reference to the music world; i.e. bands, musicians, idols, music students, music trivia, etc.]
✿ Art [some focus on the Fine Arts, except for music, since it has its own tag]
✿ Experimental [unorthodox methods of visual presentation, story development, or subject matter. Somewhat akin to the 'Dementia' tag
✿ Surreal [think 'dream-world']
[*] You can match multiple tags by separating them with a comma
[*] If you want to know more about an entry, check out the detailed info (always spoiler free) located by clicking the 'More' button- which is found to the left of the 'Score' column, and to the right of the edit/add button [WIP]
(ฺ✿◡ฺ‿ฺ◡ฺ) How the Ratings are Sorted:
They've been grouped using a pyramid-hierarchy of sorts:
Apex The best of its genre
10 - Instant classic. Tastefully blends visuals, audio & the metaphysical in ways never before seen/experienced, or to an extraordinary degree. Contains multiple elements of the genres/elements listed above
9 - Encapsulates most, if not all of the above elements, but it's not immediately recognized as such.May require re-reading, or approaching from a different perspective
8 - Contains one key point that catches the eye, in addition to the other well-executed elements (see #6, #4)
Lower Apex Great, but not that great
7 - Amazing in its own right,but may not appeal to everyone/ takes a little while to become acclimatized to the series
6 - For those series that you would dearly like to be immersed in, but there might be a key/crucial point missing or is poorly executed, which affects its maximum enjoyability. This could also be the other way around; There's one key point which catches the eye, but the rest of the elements detract too greatly for full enjoyment (see #4, #8)
Body I try to avoid rating material lower than this, since each person has their own idea of what is 'good' and 'bad'
5 - Cookie-cutter material. Contains too many stereotypes and familiar situations
Base The chances of finding an entry with these ratings are more improbable than possible, since there is a lot of pre-filtering
4 - Unbelievably horribly-executed visuals &/or audio, but great storyline and development.Converse situations fall in this category as well (see #6, #8)
3 - Unbelievably horribly-executed visuals &/or audio, and storyline/character development
2 - Same as above, but also contains subject matter that touches a nerve, or is poorly handled
1 - I've never encountered a piece of work this unwatchable, and I never hope to. Reserved for the most heinous of creations
(✿◎‿◎) A Note About Guro Ratings:
I've recently begun reading guro manga as a substitute for the 'horror' genres out there. These are always tagged as such, along with any other possible themes. One thing to look out for is the rating; all guro manga is rated with its own genre in mind; i.e. they are not rated alongside regular manga.
Put simply, the harder it is to complete a guro manga, the higher the rating. Therefore, a series tagged as guro with a rating of 8 is not the same as a normal series also rated 8.
The ratings are inversely proportional to each other, so to speak.
In short: Be wary of the guro tag & its ratings. They are not rated the same way as non-guro manga.
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Preferences (Please note that most of my recommendations & ratings are based on this) Likes-
Demographics: Josei, some Shojo, Seinen
Genres:
Horror
Romance
Some Slice of Life
Fantasy (Low and High)
Adventure
Supernatural (Western and Eastern)
Historical works; especially Victorian, Medieval, and most pre-Taishou Era portrayals
Themes:
Most, if not all works that pay special attention to Aestheticism
Everything Gothic-themed; Settings, architecture, music, romance, characters, you name it
Tragedy
Surrealism
Mature
Some Smut
Not too fond of-
Demographics: Most Shonen
Genres:
School
School-Life
Ecchi
Most Hentai
Most 'Hard' Sci-fi
Comedy
Themes:
Works with a misogynistic tone; especially featuring rape, and objectification
Naïve, entitled protagonists; especially those usually found in most shojo (female protagonists) and shonen (male protagonists)
Male protagonists that treat female characters with contempt (unless done so as a plot device) & expect every situation to work out for them by shouting about their convictions louder and/or being more stubborn than everyone else
Female protagonists that allow themselves to be treated as objects, are overly-dependent on male characters, and willingly let others dictate their lives
Most Space settings
Futuristic settings with a focus on technology (unless de-constructed later on in the story)
Cyberpunk
Instead of using the 'tags' section for them, spoiler-free comments that contain my opinion of each series can be found by clicking on the 'more' button (next to edit)
Thank you! Although my manga list feels like it's lacking compared to many people on here. I simply lost track of most of the manga I read before I joined MAL, so now I doubt that I could find it all again. You certainly have an impressive list! :)
What I didn't like about Onna Nano De Shouganai is that in 3 chapters, NOTHING happened. None of the characters had anything interesting about them beyond the superficial qualities they were assigned (asshole boss, gossipy office ladies, comforting friends). The main heroine. Wow. Literally all she does is go to work and listen to people talk crap about her, (behind her back and in her face) following by getting home and crying about how inadequate she is as a woman while eating cup ramen. Its boring and there isn't anything interesting or deep being said by her beyond "woe is me" bullshit. In chapter 3 there's a focus on a different female character, to which I responded: THANK GOD. But the new character does the SAME THINGS! Only she gets berated about different things! Who caaaaares! The thing that broke me was the end of chapter 3.Where something actually happened. I won't spoil it, but the plotline the mangaka started was so idiotic I couldn't handle this nonsense anymore and decided to tap out.
I had that realization with Tezuka recently. Watching and reading more of his work (thanks to Anime Sols crowd-funding and Vertical's manga licenses) and I am astonished on the frequent amount of sexually charged characters, sex, and rape in his stuff. I know he's one of the 'fathers of anime' but I was not prepared for that level adult-ness from the guy who made Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion.
OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD
I-I-I guess that's the test of true talented artist. When you can make a loveable children's manga and hardcore porn manga in the blink of an eye and nobody knows till they dig up your history.
That's weird that the target demo was seinen. MU doesn't list that and neither does the wikipage for Comic Cue which is the magazine it ran in. All it says is that the goal of the magazine was to feature "artists with a style of their own" with a single theme in each issue. So it looks to be an artsy-fartsy magazine targeted at anyone who liked artsy-fartsy stuff (i dislike stereotyping but I assume art school students, film students, lit writers, extreme museum goers would be the target demo---aka the 'coffee house' crowd).
SoR was in the "Love" edition and I can't find any of the other ones in that publication scanlated.
The full list:
●おおひなたごう【死神魔球】 ●和田ラヂヲ【ザ・ホワイトハウス～ああ、あれは春だったね～】 ●高野文子【sewing】 ●吉田戦車【F１】 ●黒田硫黄【象の股旅】 ●貞本義行×たかはまこ【System of Romance】 ●やまだないと【ソラミミ】 ●朝倉世界一【Sympathy for the DeviL】 ●小原愼司【GP異聞】 ●しりあがり寿【ネックレス】 ●藤井リエ【8MINUTES】 ●水谷さるころ【天使ちゃんと悪魔ちゃん】 ●森本晃司【近くて遠い距離】(イラスト） ●青島千穂【MAGNOLIA】(イラスト） ●水野純子【ドリーム★タワー(3)】（連載） ●地下沢中也【兆-Sign-】（連載
They also had a Tezuka themed one, a children's themed one, a food themed one, a Doraemon's secret tool themed one. They're all over the place!
Also, SoR was made by a husband and wife team. Sadamoto (famous for making the Summer Wars anime and the NGE manga) and his wife Mako (who specializes in pregnancy/childbirth/child-rearing manga) worked on it together. Quite a fascinating dynamic that they together decided to make a story like that. I never really jump deeper into the manga past just reading it. This is mind-blowing.
You seems to rate Mitsukazu Mihara's works higher than I do. What do you fancy about her works? It feels like she's trying to hard to be 2deep4me so it doesn't hit the mark for me.
Really enjoyed SoR (obviously) about the way it realistically portrayed a woman who rebounded from a previous rape, and encountered another rape (where she fought with as best as she could), and self-admitted that she felt infatuation with her rapist without the realization that she suffered Stockholm syndrome. Real women who have been raped have been documented to experience such a psychological change towards their rapist. Some manga do use a "rape is love" trope to a gross extent where "girl x gets raped by handsome boy z and proceed to become a 'normal' couple". Now that's some wtf-ery horrible approach to a delicate subject manner. Seems insulting at that point. But for SoR it was real, it was unromantic, it was an acknowledgement to "hey this happens and those feelings are there but you're better than that". Now that's a rarity in manga. It's sorta like the Fetish chapter in Fetish which we rated 10/10 as a whole.
The cross-hatching with realism looked just like the assigned art projects of middle school kids I tutored. Not anything particularly remarkable, just time consuming so it came off contrived.
It didn't find it enjoyable, I didn't fancy the art style, and I didn't find the story engaging. It's lack of real dialogue wasn't a problem as I frequently enjoy graphic novels and comics with such a method of story telling but Gon was a swing-and-a-miss for me.
I just have to say people like you are the ones who make my boring life tolerable. Thank you for the suggestions, and right now, they go into my downloading cache.
I also see you like Angel's Egg, which was sometime ago recommended to me. :) I am now considering watching it.
All Comments (59) Comments
I-I-I guess that's the test of true talented artist. When you can make a loveable children's manga and hardcore porn manga in the blink of an eye and nobody knows till they dig up your history.
SoR was in the "Love" edition and I can't find any of the other ones in that publication scanlated.
The full list:
They also had a Tezuka themed one, a children's themed one, a food themed one, a Doraemon's secret tool themed one. They're all over the place!
Also, SoR was made by a husband and wife team. Sadamoto (famous for making the Summer Wars anime and the NGE manga) and his wife Mako (who specializes in pregnancy/childbirth/child-rearing manga) worked on it together. Quite a fascinating dynamic that they together decided to make a story like that. I never really jump deeper into the manga past just reading it. This is mind-blowing.
Really enjoyed SoR (obviously) about the way it realistically portrayed a woman who rebounded from a previous rape, and encountered another rape (where she fought with as best as she could), and self-admitted that she felt infatuation with her rapist without the realization that she suffered Stockholm syndrome. Real women who have been raped have been documented to experience such a psychological change towards their rapist. Some manga do use a "rape is love" trope to a gross extent where "girl x gets raped by handsome boy z and proceed to become a 'normal' couple". Now that's some wtf-ery horrible approach to a delicate subject manner. Seems insulting at that point. But for SoR it was real, it was unromantic, it was an acknowledgement to "hey this happens and those feelings are there but you're better than that". Now that's a rarity in manga. It's sorta like the Fetish chapter in Fetish which we rated 10/10 as a whole.
Wow, she sounds... different! In a positive way. I will try to get my hands on some of her works! :) Thank you for the suggestion! :)
I just have to say people like you are the ones who make my boring life tolerable. Thank you for the suggestions, and right now, they go into my downloading cache.
I also see you like Angel's Egg, which was sometime ago recommended to me. :) I am now considering watching it.
<3 <3 <3