Please advise a Manga and Anime virgin!

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Lincolnshirelass
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Please advise a Manga and Anime virgin!

Post by Lincolnshirelass »

No, that doesn't apply to my role in one of those works :!2: I've realised that apart from seeing a TV cartoon with a little Japanese girl with rather manic eyes playing a lot of volleyball, I know nothing at all about either of these genres! Where would you advise me to start? I prefer historical/romantic stuff to battle-related, but am open to suggestions.
An Eye for an Eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi
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inaramid
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Post by inaramid »

I'd recommend starting with an animated movie. Any Hayao Miyasaki movie (or pretty much anything Studio Ghibli has produced) will be a good place to start. Some of them are actually adaptations of/based on books, like Dianna Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle and Joan Robinson's When Marnie Was There. If you're into romance with a bit of fantasy and time travel elements, I'd highly recommend the animated drama/romance film Your Name.

If you enjoy the movies, then you can probably start getting into an anime series. And then, start on a manga.
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Lincolnshirelass
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Post by Lincolnshirelass »

:text-thankyoublue: for the advice!
An Eye for an Eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi
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Popot
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Post by Popot »

I'd recommend Rurouni Kenshin.
The setting is set on ancient Japan where there are samurais so it's sort of historical (I guess?). It's about a mass murderer who decided to use his skills to save people.
The main genre of the anime is drama, because of the protagonist's will to change and be accepted by society, but it also has comedy in it, unlike in manga where everything is serious. It also has romance in it.
It's a classic anime and loved by many, so I hope you'll love it as much as I do.
I hope this helps and hope to here your feedback regarding this so I can recommended more, Mahatma Gandhi. 😊
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Post by Molly May »

Hi there,

One of my favourite historical/romantic mangas is this one:

Hadashi de Bara wo Fume
It is basically about an arranged marriage.

Here are some others:

Hana to Akuma
This is adorable. It is about a demon who raises an abandoned girl. However, he doesn't age so she grows up to be a similar age to him.

Dear My Girls
This one is great! It's a manga adaptation of the novel "Little Women".

Hakushaku to Yousei
This is set in the Victorian era and is about a Earl who enlists the help of a lady who understands magic. They go on this adventure but I read it years ago and can't remember much.


However, the two mangas that I recommend 100% happen to not be historical (sorry), but they are romantic.

Boku no Hatsukoi o Kimi ni Sasagu
This is a coming-of-age story about a guy with a heart condition. He wants to marry his childhood friend but worries that his dreams are selfish depending on how long he has left to live. It is amazing! My emotions were all over the place.

Goong
This has a historical theme to it because of the traditional outfits etc. It is about a normal girl who marries into the Korean royal family but it has a modern setting. I found this harder to cope with because it is so dramatic but the art is beautiful! So entertaining.


Please let me know if there are any that you recommend :D
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Post by stoppoppingtheP »

I'm busy reading a graphic novel called Lookism. It is about this fat boy who is bullied. His life changes when he wakes up in a different body. when he goes around in this new body people treat him differently. He also realizes that his attitude to the situation is also part of the problem. A very deep and ongoing Manhwa.

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instead
beat his heart until it was unconscious.

-masculine”


― Nayyirah Waheed
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Post by marieelise08 »

Konnichiwa! I like anime/manga years ago but I'm a little more concerned about other stuff. The following series I am going to suggest are quite old but nonetheless they are classics and famous ones.
*Nana- music themed
*Zettai Kareshi (Absolute Boyfriend)- a girl having a robot boyfriend
*Paradise Kiss- Fashion themed
*Fruit Basket- cursed family turning to chinese zodiac animals
*kareshi kanojo no jijou- high school romance
*fushigi yuugi-girl gets sucked up in a book travels to ancient place
*eyeshield 21-chasing your dreams, american football themed
*slam dunk-basketball
*hunter x hunter- adventure
*knight hunters- with a mix of german stuff
*gokusen- female teacher coming from a yakuza clan teaching juvenile delinquents
*katekyo hitman reborn-mafia themed

that's all I can think for now, enjoy!
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Post by Lincolnshirelass »

Thanks for the recommendations!
An Eye for an Eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi
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Post by SPasciuti »

I feel like you'd probably love Castle in the Sky which is a Miyasaki film, and I'm about 80% sure it has a novel to go along with it?

Admittedly, I'm not super well versed in mangas or animes, but I did power through both reading and watching Fullmetal Alchemist which I think is an amazing manga and anime. There's a little bit of romance (on the side), though it's not very historical and is more of a steampunk/science fiction. Frankly, I loved the romance even though it was somewhat subtle and Edward is the best character.

If you do decide to watch the anime, definitely watch Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and not the original Fullmetal Alchemist because the manga hadn't finished when they were making the original and the plot isn't nearly as good since they had to make it up.
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Post by uyky »

I would also recommend anything from Studio Ghibli. Then my other favorites are Cowboy Bebop, Record of Lodoss war, Full Metal Alchemist. These do have some fighting, but storylines are worth it. From comics I really recommend Anarasumanara. It's magical.
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Post by nataliecannon13 »

AHHHH, so many great recs already.

I second the motion to read Rurouni Kenshin: while the author himself is not so good, the art and story he created for the series is soul-affirming. Set during the Meiji Era, Kenshin Himura is a wandering swordsmen who helps those in need as atonement for his deadly work during the recent Bakumatsu War. While in Tokyo, he crosses swords with Kaoru Kamiya, a nationally ranked swordswoman, who is still reeling from her father's death and her new responsibilities at the family dojo. To top it off, a murderer is prowling Tokyo's streets, claiming to kill in the name of the Kamiya dojo. Kaoru and Kenshin join forces to stop the murderer, and this starts a great partnership with many more adventures!

I have two romance recs! First, Milk Moringa's Girl Friends. This one is a comparatively short will-they-won't-they lesbian love story. Mariko Kumakura is the bookish and shy one at her high school...until the bubbly and popular Akiko Ohashi says hello. The two quickly become best friends, and Mariko is enjoying school for the first time in a long time. Akiko and Mariko get closer and closer, and Mariko realizes she wants to smooch Akiko. Oh noes!

My second romance rec is Natsuki Takaya's Fruits Basket, which is longer and has a fantasy element. High schooler Tohru Honda is homeless after her mother's death, but then the most popular boy in school, the secretive Yuki Sohma, offers to let her stay with him and his uncle. By accident, Tohru discovers the Sohma family hides a big, fantastical secret. Whenever one of their "cursed" members is embraced by a person of the opposite sex, they turn into an animal of the Zodiac! From the outside this seems like a strange premise, but the strangeness hides a tour-de-force meditation on empathy, loneliness, family duty, kindness, love, and the power of two people connecting. It's a truly great series.

Best of luck in your quest for more manga! I hope you find what you're looking for!
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Post by Honeybeetle »

Secoding Rurouni Kenshin and Fruits Basket, they're both considered classics with good reason. I mostly catch s/sf shows, so I'll second Cowboy Bebop as well. It's a sci-fi noir with a killer jazz score, and while the love story is very much in the background, it's lovely and sad.

The same creator behind Cowboy Bebop also led Samurai Champloo, an action/adventure set in Edo-era Japan, in which two low-life swordsmen travel with a teenage waitress while she searches for her missing father. It has a hip-hop soundtrack that makes a neat contrast with the historical setting, and the characters are really fun. The show weaves in historical and social details of the time, sometimes in a serious way and sometimes for a gag (such as a ship full of Americans showing up to issue a challenge to a baseball game as a diplomatic strong-arm tactic. I don't remember reading U.S. contact with Edo Japan going quite like that!)

I will say that both Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo are a bit violent, if that would be a turn-off.

The only romance I really end up watching is within the magical girl genre. Princess Tutu is one you might like. It's a fairy tale set in a (possibly Viennese?) ballet school, where a young student (who's actually a duck; it makes sense in context, I swear) tries to protect the boy she loves from a curse. This brings her into conflict with another girl whose love for the boy is more possessive and less self-sacrificing in nature. It has a lot to say about the nature of storytelling as well, and how cruel authors can be to the characters they create. Also, ballet references. So, so many ballet references, especially Swan Lake. It has a two-volume manga, so there aren't a thousand books to track down.

This is getting even farther from historical and/or romance, but on the slightly weirder side of things I also really love Mob Psycho 100, about a middle-school kid with psychic powers (and themes about coming of age, navigating public school, duty, maturity, self-improvement, strength through adversity etc. The creator has mental health struggles that he explores to great effect in his work). It's got a creative, whimsical art style that I just love. There's both an anime and a manga that just recently completed. I'm a little sad about the manga finished, but on the other hand I know I'll love whatever he does next.
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Post by Poppy Drear »

It's not a classic anime by any means, but the dub of Assassination Classroom was excellent. The voice actors really sold their roles, so if you're considering your stance on the great subs vs dubs debate, you should check it out. The premise is hilarious and dramatic, the characterization is excellent... one of the main characters is an unkillable octopus. It's really worth watching, especially because it's only two seasons.
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Post by jvez »

If you're only starting in the anime world, I'd recommend 'Kimi No Nawa.' It's a very popular anime film. It's romance with a touch of fantasy. I'm sure you're going to love it. Hayao Miyazaki's take on the 'Howl's Moving Castle' is also beautiful. If you want something about history, you can try 'In this Corner of the World'. It's about the Second World War.

As for anime series, I don't really watch romance anime so I can't really recommend a good title. But if ever you'd like to try action/fantasy, you could go for Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood or Death Note.
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Post by freakkshowx »

I think that a great place to start is with High School Host Club. I'm not an anime fan at all, and the only manga I've ever touched is Pichi Pichi Pitch, but I've heard a lot of people mention that it's a good first series. It's a romance series surrounding the ever-present boarding school motif, but the twist is that the protagonist, Haruhi, is thrust into a boy's role at the school despite being believed to identify as female for much of the series. The commentary on gender expression is hard to miss, but it's very light despite the main themes.
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