Manga
“Manga is virtual. Manga is sentiment. Manga is resistance. Manga is bizarre. Manga is pathos. Manga is destruction. Manga is arrogance. Manga is love. Manga is kitsch. Manga is sense of wonder. Manga is … there is no conclusion yet.”
-Osamu Tezuka, the old man nailed it
Manga are like comics, except Japanese, and read from right to left. Alongside anime, manga are one of the stereotypical weeaboo's favourite things. It is very common for popular manga series to receive animated adaptations and vice versa, prompting endless debate amongst fans about which version is better. Manga are sometimes referred to as mangos by both detractors and fans.
Notable and/or /tg/ Related Manga
- One piece - Your average retarded shounen characters, with motivations that make about as much sense as those of the most mediocrely roleplayed of D&D characters. The real meat of this series is the setting, which is basically an entire planet of high seas, with uncharted islands beyond number, ripe for exploration. Despite the cheerful and colorful atmosphere this series presents to its reader, it's got highly 40k-esque politics going on behind the scenes: A corrupt worldwide government is known to obliterate islands for treason, revise documented history, and enforce its unjust laws with an elite band of superpowered assassins with stupidly OP martial arts. They are also the only thing between the average opressed citizen and superpowered pirate crews that can counter the entire planet's military. About half the monarchs represented are sociopathic assholes, and the cake is taken by the Shichibukai, two of which are known to lead dictatorial regimes, and most of them being overall an unbalancing force for world stability (contrary to their goal). The privateers are supposed to tip the balance in the favor of the military, which already has admirals that have the power to shit volcano fists, become lasers, and freeze the fucking ocean in half to deal with pirates.
- Fullmetal Alchemist - The industrial revolution, but with magic. An alchemist embarks on a quest to find the Philosopher's Stone, an artifact that he believes can recover his brother's body and his own missing limbs. Really, how could you not have heard of this?
- Berserk - HUEG GUTS
- Blame! - Silent cyberapocalypse goodness.
- Claymore - What if berserk was a (monster)girl? MC looks like a fantasy version of a battle sister.
- Coppelion - In 2036 AD, Tokyo has turned into wasteland after a nuclear reactor explosion. Coppelion, a group of genetically engineered girls in school uniforms, has to find a way to restore Japan from the fallout while fighting off a rebellious faction of the Death Korps of Krieg. It's basically the same thing happened on Krieg, but in Japan.
- Death note - [Just As Planned]
- Demon Detective Neuro - Tzeentch's early days before the grimdark future.
- Fist of the North Star - Manly enough to cause you to grow a penis if you don't already have one, or to cause your penis to grow a penis if you do.
- Franken Fran - "Dude...what?!" Body horror story that looks like a particularly nasty acid trip. (Note: you cannot turn these into good campfire stories no matter how hard you try.)
- Gunnm/Battle Angel Alita- Dystopian futuristic cyberpunk martial arts character piece about cyborgs, all drawn beautifully. Also very nineties.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - A long-running supernatural action-adventure about people with psychic powers manifested in the form invisible spirit guardian dudes who beat each other up and stir up the same bizarre shit that happens in the warp. As gay as Freddie Mercury and at least as badass. This manga is also where the WRRRYYY meme came from, but the only differences is a steamroller.
- King of RPGs - American "manga" about many things /tg/. Suspend some disbelief, but much better than it sounds.
- Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou - We... we
don'tlike to talk about this one. - Ookami no Kuchi: Wolfsmund - A true grimdark tale of a sadistic creed set in 14th century of Europe (Switzerland). It has violence, sex and basically everything Berserk has minus the fantasy elements. Like Warhammer, it has no happy ending.
- Quick Start!! - Affectionately called "My Little Neckbeard", this series is about a group of teenage girls traveling through the world of traditional gaming.
- Wizard's Soul: Jihad of Love - A drama centered around a fictional collectible card game, based closely off Magic: The Gathering. Like Yu-Gi-Oh, the card game is SERIOUS BUSINESS in the setting to an unreasonable degree, but unlike Yu-Gi-Oh, the story does a decent job of depicting what it's like to play MtG. This is because in this setting the game is the go-to way of measuring someone's combination of luck, intelligence, and ability. Wealth isn't explicitly stated as being evaluated in this assessment, even though if you can buy better cards to go in your deck, you will probably do better at the game (it is a TCG after all). There's less of a focus on the cards themselves and more of a focus on the general strategy used by the players. Now concluded, but not yet fully translated.
- Uzumaki - Goddamncreepyasfuck supernatural/cosmic horror story about spirals. Author Junji Ito was originally in dentistry, which explains a lot.
- Vinland Saga - One of Berserk's spiritual successors, though more rooted in reality. This one is about historical vikings.
- Yotsuba& - A comedy manga about a single father and his 6-year-old, adorably ignorant of the ways of the world, named Yotsuba. She is the de facto mascot of 4chan.
- Dungeon Meshi - A relative newcomer to the scene of /tg/-related manga, this delightful little series chronicles the escapades of a small adventuring party exploring a dungeon while butchering, cooking, and eating the monsters within for sustenance. Detailed recipes for the lavish dishes are provided, sadly unaccompanied by advice regarding the procurement of the required ingredients. Reading this comic on an empty stomach is not advised.
- Ii Orc No Hi, Centered around a kinky nymphomaniac elf's attempts to get into an asexual hermit orc's pants. There is a mention of levels so it might take place in a game or something.
- Kumo Desu Ga, Nani Ka? A shutin Japanese RPG fan is blown up in a mysterious explosion and finds herself reincarnated as a low-level spider enemy in a universe that follows RPG levelling and experience rules. Originally started as a light novel, but now a manga that's still ongoing. A well-written tutorial on the importance of basic skill use in any tabletop game.
- Golden Kamuy A Western, though not set in the West. Hokkaido, 1905: a 12-year-old Ainu girl, a Russo-Japanese war veteran and a wolf go in search of a massive treasure of gold stolen from the local tribes. Beautiful art, incredible historical accuracy, and generally speaking a great adventure. You'll come out of this one feeling like you've learned something.
- Goblin Slayer I'm goblin slayer, I hunt goblins. A manga about the GS (goblin slayer) that won't kill anything that's not goblin. In order to hunt goblins, GS would use many tools like bomb and bow for any kind of situations, but the most important tool at his disposal is his undying hatred for goblins due to an old accidents involve goblins raided his village when he was young, and that makes him rip and tear whenever he heard the word "Goblins". GS later ally with a party with its member being a female teenager priest(who he saved in the early chapter), a "young"(1000 years old, tolken style) female elf, a dwarf and a lizardmen . The manga also portray the importance of wearing armor so that goblins won't pull a sneak attack on you with their toxic feces covered shiv. Also rape.
- Otoyomegatari A romance/slice-of-life story set in rural Turkey on the north shore of the Caspian Sea in the late 1800s, following the lives of a young couple forced into an arranged marriage that neither of them are entirely comfortable with. Gorgeous artwork and character-building, as well as a very well-researched look into the world of a fairly obscure and unknown culture.
The portion of /tg/ that doesn't immediately shout "weeaboo!" whenever anything remotely Asian is mentioned generally agrees that Berserk (at least, early Berserk) and Blame! are very good reads. Although Blame! might be more accurately described as a "look" since it has very little dialogue.
If any of you have noticed a disproportionate number of notable titles over at the /tg/-Approved anime page, this comes from two main factors. First, the number of good manga that don't have an anime adaptation or overshadow their anime adaptation is very small these days. Usually this restricts "manga-only" stories to older manga or quirky manga. The second reason is simply a culture issue: few /tg/ neckbreards are also /a/ or /jp/ enough to know and recommend good, /tg/-related manga.