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I have red quite alot of mangas in my free time. But by far my favorite genre is seinen.
Today, I was able to read the lastest chapters for several of them and I was completle immersed by one of them, inspiring me to write this. More on this later.
So, what is seinen manga? Well, I don't have an exact or tecnical definition, for me it's a style that shows situations in a rather crude way, using alot of themes like blood and death.
So the first one I want to introduce is BERSERK. imo, the best manga written so far, still ongoing. I don't want to spoil the story, you're basically following the history of the main character "guts". Now, this character is one hell of a man. He doesn't have fancy superpowers or is cursed by half of your uncle's farm animals. He just rellys on a hudge chunk of metal that we call sword, for comprehension issues.
Ok, the situation isn't ground-breaking or very innovative, basically a dude that smashs everything that comes in his way, not very original.
But the feeling displayed in each of his battles, the intensity of these battles is just breath taking. You really suffer with the character. Also his grown curve is rather inusual in mangas. The more you go, the more he lose, beggining with almost losing his sanity, he then lose an arm and an eye (completly different from those "oh, I just had a mortal battle yersterday but XXX cured me so I just have some bruises lol"). The never ending torment of the main character really grabs the lector and drags you into the story.
A must read for... basically anyone that enjoys mangas.
Now for the second topic, I want to talk about Gantz. I'm not going to praise the manga alot, it starts like an horror movie, transition into a beat them up midgame. But the late game... OMG, last chapter (304) is a piece of art. And the story takes an incredible turn. Really, if the middle of the story is borderline boring, it was worth waiting for the end.
Personnally I even think that you can manage to skip the whole book and read only this chapter (maybe one or two before too) to be inmersed in it. The situation is just perfectly feeled tanks to the amazing art displayed.
Meh, this turned up to be more like random thoughs vaguely connected to the main point but eh.. I do what I can.
Cheers tkx for reading
 
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Wow, finally someone I completely agree with. Gantz and Berserk are the two manga I associate with Seinen myself. Other than that you get things that were written for the seinen demographic mostly cause they don't fit anywhere else (Lucky Star lolololol), but Seinen > Shounen all day. Gantz is definitely my favorite running manga though, it's like a manly emotional roller coaster for men.
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If you like manga and you haven't read Berserk, don't even think about it, just go read it now, you won't regret it.
It's a great action manga, filled with intense battles, monsters, gore, sex and every adult theme you can imagine.
But the greatness of Berserk lies in the fact that you can enjoy the story just because of those superficial elements, but if you're interested in something more profound, Berserk has a lot of that, dealing with issues such as our reason to live, the meaning of life and death, the reason for evil to exist and many others, together with the strongest point of this manga in my opinion, it's amazing character development.
Really, just read it, and unless you really dislike the medieval/gothic fantasy kind of story, i can almost guarantee that you will like it; the sheer viscerality (is that a real word? lol) and feeling of despair in some parts of the story are incredibly involving, the story never feels cheesy or cliche (well, maybe it has a little more rape than necessary lol) and the fact that the characters in such a fantastic world still feel so human and realistic is nothing but proof of the status of this manga as a masterpiece.
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+1 for gantz
i heard berserk was good too but shit seems so damn long... maybe later
bloody monday was pretty interesting if that counts as a seinen
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Where are you reading your Gantz manga? I know onemanga's got shut down... the other ones I've checked don't have 304 out yet..
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Mangavolume is usually where I read it, the author's hiatus just ended so the first chapter of the end should be up anytime now. Somehow I get the feeling that I'm going to be sad.
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Read both.
They're both definitely in my top 10.
You should also check out the following:
Claymore
Vinland Saga
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NeverGG
United Kingdom5399 Posts
I think I'll read the Gantz manga in the future. The ending of the anime made me throw things at the screen though.
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almost looks like you enjoy semen
just sayin brah
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On October 02 2009 15:30 NeverGG wrote:
I think I'll read the Gantz manga in the future. The ending of the anime made me throw things at the screen though.
The anime was kind of off... the animations and everything was pretty good but yeah the ending...........
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I second Vinland Saga. It's just too awesome to pass up.
Vagabond is pretty good as well.
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On October 02 2009 15:30 NeverGG wrote:
I think I'll read the Gantz manga in the future. The ending of the anime made me throw things at the screen though.
THE ANIME IS GOD AWEFUL
Manga is one of my favs, just a bit too much fan service sometimes imo...
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I'll like to say that Berserk has some very interesting arcs and also kickass art and im sure most of you all will enjoy it. The story gets weirder and weirder by the chapters and reached the climax at chapter 306. But while readers are easily engrossed while reading, I feel that overall plot isn't that good.
Gatz has a Hollywood blockbusters feel to it. Though some chapters are boring, there are many more awesome ones.
Though recommendations will be thrown around freely in this thread, please please check out Vagabond, which has god-like artwork. And though not manga, Sandman, which is written by Neil Gaiman and co, is pretty awesome too.
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Berserk has an awesome plot in my opinion. Very character-driven, with many interesting subplots, but still following one great theme from the very beginning : the conflict between two former friends.
And yeah, the art is amazing, and the character development very engaging.
The only downside to Berserk is that the first 2 volumes are kinda hard to get into imo, but once you get to the third volume, you're hooked and not looking back before you run out of volumes.
Vagabond is quite an amazing read as well. It chronicles a fictionalized version of the life of
Miyamoto Musashi, one of the more famous historical samurai. Like magicbullet said, don't pass this one up just because so many titles get thrown around here.
Gantz has some very nice chapters, but in my opinion it's just a mediocre manga when looked at as a whole. Its use of fan service is ridiculous btw. 
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i've been wanting to read the manga for berserk after finishing the anime, because the way it ends is so abrupt that i needed to know more.
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Berserk is not the best manga ever written, its pretty good, but not near the best, its a must read and the art work is top class, noone draws better than Miura, but again only the HXH artist takes longer to release chapters, but I dont like the direction it headed after the holy tower arc, it became too light and rpgish to enjoy and lost most of its previous apocalyptic appeal that is even stronger than the one presented in "The Road" by McCarthy.
Gantz is pretty good, I used to read it weekly till 200 something then I stopped reading and never picked it up, seeing that its complete now I might pick it up again and finish it.
Oh and btw:
On October 02 2009 14:54 SagaZ wrote:
So, what is seinen manga? Well, I don't have an exact or tecnical definition, for me it's a style that shows situations in a rather crude way, using alot of themes like blood and death.
This is wrong, Seinen manga just means a manga that targets mature teenagers/men as its audience and not Blood and Death which are mature, Josei is mature/women, Shounen is teenage/boy,Shoujou is teenage/girl, these are the manga demographics. Most of the good seinen manga doesnt have violence at all, just deals with mature themes.
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On October 02 2009 19:36 samachking wrote:
Gantz is pretty good, I used to read it weekly till 200 something then I stopped reading and never picked it up, seeing that its complete now I might pick it up again and finish it.
Not to discourage you from reading it (since I think it's a really good manga), but it isn't complete yet. It just picked up again after a break.
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I've yet to read Berserk. I generally hesitant to start a manga, but usually once I do, I'll tear through it in a day or two. But all of my exposure to Berserk has been great, and the manga is on my to do list. I played the DC game whenever it came out (2000-1?) and loved it. Then I eventually picked up the anime, and thought it was great, though the cliff hanger ending (and lack of a continuation) peeved me a bit.
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I've read Berserk and it's good but like most long manga it goes downhill eventually. And Gantz is for those who like shoot 'em up gorefests fighting (boring to me).
Go read Blade of the Immortal ... my fav artwork of all the mangas and a nice storyline too:
Also Path of the Assassin is great for those who like the classic manga Wolf and Cub.
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I agree with samachking and lac about berserk. After the holy tower arc, the atmosphere is never as intense again.
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Well the newest chapter preview says that they will FINALLY reach the elf island, so I'm holding out some small amounts of hope that things will get going :| (and hopefully not be randomly waylaid by pirates  )
Planetes, Jiraishin/Ice Blade, and Koroshiya Ichi/Ichi the Killer are also good reads for seinen manga. I've also recently read Onani Master Kurosawa which was pretty good...for a manga about a guy jacking off in the girls' bathroom :U
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Berserk is definately my favorite manga of all time. I wouldn't really say it's still on going. The last chapter that was released was months ago. And each subsequent chapter is taking longer and longer. Probably will just quit all together.
I've actually got quite a few friends into Manga and Anime using Berserk.
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Bleach, a friend of mine gave me three CDs full of the first two hundred chapters or so in HS, since that day I'm still reading that manga XD
I tried Naruto, but I didn't make it past the first dozen chapters or so...
edit: omg im a queen rofl
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bleach and naruto aren't seinen mangas
berserks flash back is the best storyline i've read in a manga
gantz is very good too
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Technically speaking, Seinen Manga just means manga that's targeted at young men. It's not directly associated with death, blood, gore and somber stories. Those are just things young men find cool and interesting.
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