Manga

This is a list of all my (v7 Silent’s) manga recommendations. Be warned that I am mostly into comedy and romance, though I do like my fair share of action stories every now and then. I’m only listing works that I’ve read within the year as well, as I’m 100% confident in my recommending those. Not sure how long this list will end up being, so I’ll update it as I go. These aren’t in any particular order unless I say I recommend a particular story over another, so just keep that in mind. I’m not going to go too deep into anything about the series except for what the synopsis has unless I believe the synopsis is a bit misleading. I do this because I believe experiencing the characters by yourself for the first time to be an entire experience, and I don’t want to ruin that experience for others. All works listed here are not licensed for publishing in the U.S. so I’m fairly limited in what I can recommend.

• Fujimura-kun Meitsu

Genres: Harem, Comedy, Romance, School Life, Shounen

Synopsis: Fujimura is a loner delinquent at his school. Feared by his classmates since the first day of high school, he’s had no friends and usually ditches class. But even his standoffish nature can’t hold up when a class representative with a few screws loose comes after him! And two more class representatives. They’re a few cards short of a full deck too. (Actually, he’s more like the tsukkomi in a world of boke.)

This series, where do I start? It’s probably one of the funniest series I’ve ever read. Don’t let the harem genre scare you away from this series. You will end up missing out on the best comedy series ever made. The comedy is Boke-Tsukkomi type comedy like D-Frag, but this series comedy is executed a bit better and doesn’t rely on just that type of comedy (though it does use it a lot.) Not to mention that it has one of the best endings of a harem series I’ve ever seen. It’s about 90 chapters long, and each chapter is around 15-20 pages long, and you’ll be laughing the whole time.

• Sore wa Totsuzen, Unmei no Aita ga

Genres: Comedy, Ecchi, Romance, School Life, Shounen

Synopsis: Imagine a country where couples are chosen based on the compatibility of their genes. Whenever a resident reaches the age of 14, a partner will be suggested to him or her based on which match would result in the best child being born.

This is a collection of stories about some of the more “interesting” pairings chosen by this system.

Sore wa Totsuzen, Unmei no Aita ga or “Suddenly, the Marriage Partner Showed Up” is a very well done shounen romance series. It uses an interesting, (yet realistically horrifying) premise to show 4 different couples. I won’t go into depth about any of the couples though, you’ll have to find that out for yourself. The series is filled with sweet moments, and was overall an enjoyable read. It’s a short series with only about 30 chapters, making it easy to read in a day.

• Nukoduke!

Genres: Comedy, Shoujo, Slice of Life

Synopsis: A heartwarming story about the daily lives of a freeter named Yuuya and his two part cat, part human pets.

Nukoduke! Is probably my favorite Slice of Life manga, and is definitely in my top ten manga of all time. It’s funny, cute, filled with sweet moments, and is in general fairly well written for a Slice of Life manga. The titular Nukos are some of the most adorable things I’ve had the pleasure to set my eyes on, and they always keep me coming back for more, even after I’ve read it nearly 6 times. The series can get fairly sad later on though, and that’s part of what makes the series so well written. The author has a way of writing this sweet slice of life story and throwing in something kind of sad, yet making it feel completely in place with the way the series has played out. An absolute must read.

• Bokura no Kiseki

Genres: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Gender Bender, Historical, Josei, Mystery, Romance, School Life, Supernatural

Synopsis: From a young age, Minami Harusumi has had recurring dreams of Veronica, a princess whose kingdom is on the verge of destruction. He believes them to be recollections of his past life, and that he is her reincarnation. Because of this, he is ridiculed by his classmates. One day, when the mockery escalates into bullying, he rediscovers magic – something Veronica had studied and used. Reassured his past life is not merely a fantasy, Minami tries to learn more about his past memories and the reason behind them…

Bokura no Kiseki is an excellent manga for those of you who like a good mystery. Don’t be turned away by the Gender Bender tag, as the gender bendery stuff comes from a past life where the MC was a female, but don’t worry, the MC is not questioning his gender or dressing like a girl. Nothing like that in this series. The series takes a while to set up the main mystery, which is good as it allows you to get attached to the characters and care more about the mystery, all the while setting up multiple mysteries inside that one to keep you interested and engaged.

• Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko

Genres: Comedy, Romance, School Life, Shounen

Synopsis: Tomo Aizawa was able to successfully confess to her crush Junichirou Kubota. There is only one problem:

He just sees her as his buddy. He even thought that she was a boy until they went to middle school together, because her grade school was in a different school district. So, Tomo-chan’s struggle for Jun’s affection begins.

Tomo-chan is a 4-koma manga. This is important. Not only that, but each chapter is only one page, so it can seem like the story takes a while to get somewhere at times, but it usually doesn’t dawdle for the most part. It can be quite funny, and is honestly quite a good read. Though I’m still not completely caught up with it, I have read over 300 chapters, (300 pages) and I enjoy it a great deal. The way the characters interact is well written, and there are lots of likable characters in the series making the process of reading it enjoyable and fun.

• Akuma mo Fumu o Osoreru Tokoro

Genres: Comedy, Romance, Shounen, Supernatural

Synopsis: Every 666 years in the Demon World, a fight to decide the next King the “Demon King Festival” is held. It is a battle royal fought with demons paired with human sorcerers. The demon Aini, carrying the desire to be King in her heart, quickly responds to her summoning in the human world, but what awaited her was…

A battle comedy with humans and demons begins!!

Akuma mo Fumu is a 4-koma manga, and uses that to it’s advantage. The jokes get set up fast and have a fast pay-off, and when the punchline comes out, boy does it pay-off. The main character is one of the funniest protagonists I have seen in some time, and he alone makes it worth a read. But it gets better because there’s a second character who is very similar to the MC except female, and she’s just as good. This series in particular has a lot of sexual jokes in it for the amount of chapters it has, (only 13 at the time of writing this,) however the series hasn’t gotten any updates since May. However, in spite of this, I highly recommend checking this series out, as you are guaranteed a good laugh.

• Takane to Hana

Genres: Comedy, Romance, School Life, Shoujo

Synopsis: When Hana replaces her sister at an omiai, little does she expect to be insulted and called a gold digger by the handsome and older Takane! Furious, she throws her wig in his face and leaves. Unexpectedly she gets asked out on a date by Takane the next day. How will these two ever find love?

Note: The title is a pun on the main character’s names (Takane and Hana) and the phrase “takane no hana ” (lit. flower on a high cliff; meaning something unreachable, out of your league)

Takane to Hana is a series that spits in the face of your typical Shoujo stereotypes. Takane and Hana have good chemistry for comedy, and generally just work well together as characters. It’s a good comedy series, (as you can probably tell, I have a huge taste for comedy and not much else,) and overall good read if you want something different than your typical Shoujo manga. I haven’t read all of it, but I have read more than enough to know that I can recommend this series to everyone.

• Wakebayashi Toshiya’s 4-Koma Collection/Tsurezure Children

Genres: Comedy, Romance, School Life, Shounen

Synopsis: Wakabayashi Toshiya shows us a series of 4-koma manga depicting various scenarios of young love. These short stories range from a boy, crippled by his absolute lack of confidence in himself, cannot even accept the fact that the girl of his dreams actually asked him out on a date, to the near-psychotic girl that pours her own blood into her homemade chocolate in order to win his heart.

Another 4-koma manga series, this one is another great one. By far one of the best romance series I’ve read in my life, Tsurezure Children is amazing. The romance is developed at a very natural pace between the different couples, and it uses comedy to advance these couples in a brilliant manner. The comedy is spot on, and all the jokes hit just right. There’s not much more I can say without spoiling some things, so just go and read it. You’ll have to read many chapters of Wakebayashi’s 4-koma Collection before reading Tsurezure Children though, as the translation group for Tsurezure Children decided to not translate the first 16 or so chapters. Don’t wordy, the two are the same series, Tsurezure Children is just the serialized version that was re-drawn.

These are currently all the series I feel comfortable with recommending at the current moment, as I’ve read all these fairly recently or have read the series multiple times. This list will probably be updated as I go back and re-read stuff. If you can only read one series from this list, make it Fujimura-kun Meitsu if you want a completed series with longish chapters, or Nukoduke! if you just want to heal your heart. If you want a list of licensed works that I recommend you buy, I’d also be willing to make that as well.