SEINEN/SHOUNEN:
Homunculus - definitely a lonely, depressed savant living in the margins of society (becomes homeless). In terms of "deformity," he has trepanation performed upon him and acquires a hole in his skull... Pretty weird, huh?
Ichi the Killer - a quiet, psychopathic killer living at the margins of society. Not physically deformed but SO mentally deformed that he's definitely a Phantom type.
Leviathan - deformed Frankenstein-type guy with a depressed, laconic sense of humor tries to save the world from the margins.
Nijigahara Holograph - filled with alienated, Phantom-style characters.
Eternal Sabbath - the telepathic subject of a government experiment escapes and finds redemptive love with a researcher. He doesn't have to live "at the margins" because he can manipulate people's minds into thinking that he belongs, but he is acutely aware that he
doesn't belong, because he's never accepted for who he is, just for the illusions he develops in people's minds.
MPD Psycho - I believe the title tells you enough about why this guy is ostracized! Haha. Well, there are lots of crazed Phantom-style deviants in this manga, many of them ostracized by society because society
knows that they're serial killers and disturbed psychos.
Goth - two ostracized, murder-obsessed young people find salvation of sorts by solving crimes.
Alive! - features an ostracized serial killer on death row, who is offered a chance at freedom...
Bradherley's Coach - even features opera! A mysterious aristocrat repeatedly adopts young girls and trains them for the opera, but what is the
real fate that awaits these girls? Obviously, the aristocrat isn't ostracized because of his social rank, but he's pretty damn weird...
Halcyon Lunch - by the same artist as the previous manga. A homeless and disenfranchised guy meets a strange girl...
Monster - features all manner of ostracized characters, including the lead, who is originally an upstanding surgeon and a member of society, but becomes ostracized after being falsely accused of murder...
YAOI/BL:
Boys Next Door - has elements of romance as well. Plus, the weirdo-at-the-margins is actually kind of crazy... It's interesting because he isn't
technically ostracized, but feels like he is (crazy, remember?). And then, of course, he does something that really does earn him ostracization...
Detective Bluecat - the character of the Glass Bat fits the Phantom to a tee: he's a masked villain ostracized by society, that abducts the object of his affection (in this case, a young boy-genius) and twists that tender mind around his finger so that the boy grows up to be a detective completely obsessed with capturing the Glass Bat. No one's living in "bad conditions," though; they're all aristocrats.
Wild Adapter - a young man is physically deformed as the result of an experimental drug, and is thus relegated to the margins of society, where (thankfully) another marginalized weirdo picks him up and takes care of him. There's a theme of redemption, definitely, as well as implied romance.
Concrete Garden - read the angel story. A crazy, cannibalistic, murderous and physically scarred angel falls in love with a boy who becomes the angel's quest for redemption... Interestingly enough, the angel is scarred/deformed in almost exactly the same way as the Phantom of the Opera. o_0; I never realized that until you posted this thread!
Acid Flower - not physically deformed, but a haunted incubus-style vampire priest lives for centuries trying to find redemption as well as the right companion. He's got a regular job so he isn't ostracized on the surface, but he IS being hunted by the church/government and so is ostracized by anyone that actually knows what he is... He finally finds a companion after ravishing untold numbers of young men, but will he kill this boy just like he did the last person he fell in love with? Very dark (and very smutty).
Animal X - a young man that's actually a shape-changing dinosaur (hey, sounds crazy, but it
works) is being hunted by the government; he and his kind are forced to live at the margins of society (for obvious reasons; if they lose their tempers they can EAT PEOPLE). Like the Phantom, he captures a hapless young doctor as his "mate" and takes him back to the dinosaur village on the outskirts of society... Where the poor doctor (originally a male) begins to undergo a transformation that turns him into a hermaphrodite, thus making him closer to an actual Christine than you might have first imagined.
The Ice-Cold Demon's Tale - a murderous demon is exiled to a distant cave to die, but then a human with a heart of gold arrives as his salvation...
SHOUJO/JOSEI:
Hana no Namae - SO FREAKING BEAUTIFUL, I love this manga! A haunted and depressed and completely antisocial author finds salvation in the form of a young girl (very Christine-like!) who comes to live with him... It's such a tender, subtle romance, but still tortured by the dark secrets that the author harbors.
Stigma I - very visually arresting story about a man with no memories and an ostracized, abused child forming an unlikely and ultimately redemptive friendship.
Crimson Cross - a Phantom-style depressed vampire sees his only redemption in the man that tries to kill him... And even goes so far as to destroy everything that man cares about, just to assure his place of hatred in the vampire hunter's heart. Kind of gay, in terms of subtext and all.
Fetish - a whole bunch of strange, disenfranchised psychos and their romantic quests for redemption...
Pet Shop of Horrors - the Phantom here would be the strange owner of the pet shop, who may or may not be human and who may or may not be a criminal... But then would that make the foul-mouthed LA cop Christine? Lol...
Hana to Akuma - very sweet, childlike and shoujo-ish story of an immortal demon who finally begins to redeem himself by loving and taking care of a human girl... He's got the whole haunted Phantom thing going on, and the girl is definitely the epitome of innocence - well, she'd
have to be, to save him.
Earl and Fairy - ostracized master criminal (doesn't seem to be ostracized at first, but trust me, he IS) finds salvation in the hands of a pure-hearted fairy doctor. Sounds ridiculous, but is actually a lovely story...
Hotarubi no Mori E - a masked fox demon is lonely because he can't touch anyone; if he does, he'll die. But then a human girl falls in love with him...
LOOKING FOR:
Um, there's this seinen manga I'd love to recommend but I can't recall the name... It's about this prisoner who is made part of this experimental reform program and allowed to work as a janitor/gardener at this school, where he is terribly ostracized and finds redemption in a lovely young teacher that he falls in love with... I think he was falsely accused of his crime, though - I don't know, does this ring a bell with anyone? If it does, please name this manga for me. Thanks.
Last edited by tartufo at 12:25 am, Oct 15 2009
(For lazy people 
read it after you recced it to me ^_^ Not what i was looking for, but i enjoyed it.
