Manga

Akira

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Dandadan

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Blame!

Set in a futuristic-post-apocalyptic world where being a "human" is more akin to being a robot this manga is vast in its presentation. Unlike most other manga this one has very few words in it which made it difficult for me to understand everything that's happening. We follow a man named Kiri who is looking for something called net terminal genes. He's looking for this to hopefully restore humans access to the web, without that access this mega-structure he lives on will keeping growing and growing. I love how small this manga can make you feel. Not only are most of the panels filled with huge structures but they are labyrinthine and seemingly go on forever. The art is impeccable and borders into body horror with certain silicon based life Kiri fights. Not the easiest to grasp but when you really imerse yourself in the world the manga feels grand.

Red Living On The Edge

Straight-up, this manga made me cry several times. A heartbreaking story about a native american man who calls himself red, on a quest for revenge. His tribe (wisa) was completely annihilated by an army unit of colonizers taking them from there land and putting them into internment camps (what we now call native reserves). Red is honestly one of the few depictions of a colored main character in Manga and the Managaka writes him extremely well. I resonated with red in his moments of anger towards the white-men but also in his tears from the violence he commits. A lot of twists and turns in this story with a fantastic side-cast that keep red feeling human. The art is that classic 90s anime style but still looks crisp. This manga does not hold back either in terms of the brutality that the natives had to face when the colonizers came and stole their land. Suprisingly historically accurate with certain regiments and prominent figures during the time. Cannot recommend this manga enough, a true classic that I wish more people knew about.

Alice In Borderland

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Vagabond

Just an incredible manga. Vagabond will always have a special place in my heart for inspiring me with its art. So much so that I consider the Mangaka, Inoue Takehiko, as one of my art fathers who I look to when I need some ideas. A historical-fiction about the legdsendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi. This manga really hones in on the idea that the point is not the destination but the journey. Musashi goes from being a violent, uncaring, and repressed young man into a calm, understanding, and genuinely loving person. Unfortunately, he chooses the path of the blade to do this and we watch as he struggles to transition from his violent past to something entirely new. As much as I love this manga sometimes the philosophic writing can be a bit grating especially when its done right after Musashi just got done slaughtering a group of people but I still welcome it. By the end (well what we can call the end because its indefinitely onhold) I felt like I had personally gone on this journey with Musashi. We get to listen in on all of his internal dialogue, all his cognitive dissonance and it really builds Musashi as this fundamentally flawed yet aspiring man. If you wanna look at some truly magneficent samurai art and read some pretty good philosophy I would definitely read vagabond.

Chainsaw Man

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Promised Neverland

When I first read this I went in completely blind to the premise. Only knowing it was about children trying to survive in a world hostile to them. I’ve read books like maze runner when I was younger so this type of story scratches at my adolescent wheel house. The story ended up being exactly that with just a bit of twists and turns added in. I so desperately needed every child to survive when I was reading this week to week. Norman, Ray, Emma, Gilda, and especially Phil! This manga brought out my paternal instincts and I couldn’t bare witnessing any of these very young but brave children being hurt. I wanted to see them succeed in their mission of saving all the other kids from Goldy pond and I couldn’t wait for the main trio to be reunited again after being separated. This manga really had me rooting for kids the entire time, hoping that they could achieve their ultimate goal of finding safety and living all together as a family. If you do end up reading this there is an anime adaptation to it and I do not recommend watching it. It skips over one of the most pivotal arcs for seemingly no reason. Stick to the manga with this one.