The last manga post I made was back in March, so it’s about time I made another. I scanned through the numerous series I was reading to decide what to present.

This was when I noticed I was following more than a few manhwa, which led me to pick my current top 3 out of those.

1. Noblesse – Vampires in the modern world. It focuses more on their supernatural powers/abilities instead of their stereotypical need for blood. The main character is a vampire from centuries ago who has just woken up. It’s amusing seeing how he reacts to things he is unfamiliar with, such as a banana.
2. Tower of God – A fairly new series about a young man that enters a tower where any wish may be granted if you complete all the trials. This is your classic heroic journey story, which makes for a good read.
3. Sfumare – Vampires once again, except this one is more of a high school drama. Thus, way less epic than Noblesse. The setting is in a world where vampires coexist with humans. The main character is a girl who loves money, which of course results in comedy.

These series are done in a webcomic format, which makes for some quick and easy reading.

I haven’t posted in a while about manga, so here goes.

As I was browsing around looking for manga to read, I came across Baby Steps. At first I was skeptical as to whether it was any good due to its focus on tennis, which could possibly mean it’s simply jumping on the Prince of Tennis bandwagon. Fortunately, it proved to be an excellent read thus far.

The summary via One Manga:

Maruo Eiitirou (E-chan), a first year honor student, one day decides he’s unhappy with the way things are and lacks exercise. He finds a flier for the Tennis Club and decides check it out. He’s instantly captivated by it. With no prior experience and poor physical conditioning, join E-Chan as he embarks on a tennis journey using his smarts, dedication and work ethic.

The main character, E-chan, is an honor student who’s also a bit of a perfectionist (just look at his lunch). His constant effort in his studies is what got him to where he is now.

He figures that he could use some exercise and decides to try out tennis. By applying the same constant effort and analytical skills he uses for studying onto tennis, E-chan steadily improves.

There’s hints of a possible future romance, but so far the manga is focusing on the tennis aspect.

So in a way, it’s the opposite of Prince of Tennis. I actually think it’s more fun and interesting seeing a novice fight the entire way to becoming a pro. As long as the story and characters continue to develop and doesn’t get as ridiculous as PoT, I’m happy.

Image Source: One Manga

There’s something I noticed about manga in the medical genre, which is that they all have a “genius” doctor as the main character set in a hostile political environment with corrupt hospital directors. This leads me to think about the actual state of the health care system in Japan, although the one we have here in the United States could be improved upon as well.

Saijou no Meii fits the stereotypical medical manga like a glove. Other series I’ve read that fall into this category were Say Hello to Black Jack and GodHand Teru. Even though they might share some general themes, each one is different enough to hold my interest.

Image Source: One Manga

BLOOD ALONE is a manga centering around Kuroe and Misaki, a human male and a girl vampire.

Usually when I see a series focusing on vampires, I assume it’s either going to be an overemotional drama (e.g. Vampire Knight) or fan service oriented. However, BLOOD ALONE falls in neither of those categories and is instead quite easy to read with a serious plot surrounded by lighthearted events. I just started reading it and before I knew it, I was already finished with a considerable number of chapters.

Don’t get me wrong though, there are plenty of excellent series out there involving vampires. For starters, Blood+ is an amazing anime and ranks near the top for me due to its extensive story.

Image Source: Manga Fox

I started reading this manga today and quickly finished the 31 chapters that were translated. Now I want more.

A very brief summary of what it’s all about:

The son of a legendary swordsman is representing one of the sons of the ruler in a martial arts tournament that will determine which one of his 31 sons will succeed him. Lots of battles, action, and killing.

Gamaran was better than I expected when I initially picked it up. I prefer seeing a main character that’s already pro instead of a weakling that miraculously levels up.

Image Source: Manga Fox

I haven’t posted about manga in a while, so here’s what I’ve been doing.

When I’m bored or have minimal sections of free time, I look for short series to read (10 chapters at most). I went through a ton of series, so it’s a bit difficult to remember all of them. One of these was Liar Game – Roots of A, which is depicts Akiyama from Liar Game in his senior year of college along with various other short stories.

The psychological series are the more interesting ones I’ve read, so that’s the genre I’ve been on the lookout for.

Image Source: One Manga

It feels like I’ve been reading a bunch of manga in the mystery genre fairly consistently.

This one is about a guy with a special red eye that allows him to see ghosts. He assists a girl that keeps coming to him for help in solving mystery cases. It’s quite short with only 9 chapters; I would definitely love to see more.

Image Source: One Manga

Saw a link for this Japanese Lisp manga over at reddit and decided to go check it out.

Highly amusing concept considering that Scheme (a dialect of Lisp) is essentially the first computer programming language we were required to learn at UC Berkeley in CS61A.

One of the comments on reddit translates the character descriptions:

• Riko-san: the god of lazy bums who hang out in the Ikeda-city electronics stores.

• Suzu: famous in his area for being that guy who caught the alligator in in the swamp

• Wakana: SFC mario kart, able to complete some course in 1.56min flat

• Rikka: loves tofu, never thinks about anything but tofu.

• Mirin: a local cat. until recently often confused the concept of ‘macros’ with ‘maguro’ (maguro is Japanese for tuna)

• kuda- (i guess this explains the above): a vehicle that uses/travels the right side of the road (vehicles in japan drive on the left side)

• aya: a small animal. shes not very bright.

Needless to say, those are some epic characters.

Image Source:  マンガで分かるLisp

Well, I’m back from a hectic academic week. When I was taking a short break from studying, I saw this manga and decided to quickly read it.

I guess I like the medical genre since I have read quite a few manga in that category. This one contains the usual drama regarding Japan’s medical system and is quite a good read.

Image Source: One Manga

I couldn’t wait the one week for the next episode to come out, so I started reading the manga to see what happens next in the story.

It seems to be focusing a lot so far on misunderstandings when I instead want to see the romantic relationship develop more between the lead characters. Hopefully that will come soon…

Image Source: One Manga