Firstly, allow me to thank you for your generosity of taking the time in viewing my thread and providing with possible feedback regarding the request.

Due to the limitation on the genre-filter/forum search engine (which I already attempted), I've came upon the third option of creating a thread for my search criteria. I'll try detailed inputs without resulting in an unnecessary wall-of-text so forgive me if I "phailed" XD.

What I'm looking for...
Simply put any Seinen/Shounen read with an intriguing story accompany by well-mannered character development with great or less Romance actively present among the protagonist(s) that does not focus too much on Action. In fact, I favored Psychological and Drama as the theme more than the common Action base since it hasn't been long on my transition from Anime to Manga. Still need to get used to putting action sequence in running motion smoothly without confusing myself...not to trigger any suspicion of mental retardation Sports as the main focus could work too if it's not too "plain and dry". Same goes with Comedy except the ones with overused gag and childish punch-line.

Having Mature and Adult as the sub-genre is a plus but not a must...just that it seems a bit less enjoyable for me dealing with the restrictions of Mature contents (not in a sexual way..heh). Mystery is always nice to have in the mix...I mean what's there not to like?

The year of the manga can range from 90s-Present so long as the art is clean and detailed in a moderate and above standard. It would be nice if the length of the manga/manwha is above 40 chapters having at least 30 scanlated in English. As you can see I'm craving for a "long grind"

Please exclude the following...
One-Shot (obviously XD), Genres: School Life -_- (with the exception of not being one of the focus), Shounen/Shoujo-AI(s) Yuri/Yao, Josei, Shoujo, Hentai, Slice of Life, Ecchi (can be included as long as it's not absurdly placed), Historical, Gender Blender, and Mecha (I'm fine with it if it's not in "Gundam Mode", no offense ie: Code Geass, RahXephon, Eureka Seven)

Manga I've Read And Enjoyed...
World Embryo
Mirai Nikki
Zetman
Eternal Sabbath
Until Death Do Us Part
Alive
Akumetsu
Dogs: Bullets & Carnage
Eden
And basically all title that has been adopted into Anime from 90s-Present.

For those that went through all those texts and reach this section, you have my gratitude. If you manage to provide suggestions that fit in to my search boundary with such strictness...*I bow down before you*

Last edited by tt147 at 10:18 am, Oct 23 2009

20th Century Boys
Eternal Sabbath
Homunculus*
Jiraishin*
Parasyte

*these might not have enough romance

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Avatar by tassyn.livejournal.com

Reading: Kingdom, Sangokushi, Historie

Thanks for the recommendations. A small hint is enough. Just notice I missed a few on viewed list, updated.

I personally am a fan of Sahara Mizu's works. You might want to try out her Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan (says slice of life, but it's very good) and Hoshi no Koe in particular.

You're basically asking for Gunslinger Girl.

Stuff that I think you should check:
Chrno Crusade same mangaka of World Embryo. Great read for what you asked. Maybe you already know it since it's an anime too but better safe then sorry.
Vampire Juujikai another good manga for what you want.
Basically all the most famous works of Urasawa Naoki. Great action, great psychological stuff, low romance though.

Other stuff that I think you can find worthy of checking:
Ookami to Koushinryou it's an unique manga and one of my fav, so I'm suggesting even if it's tagged as a slice of life (but it's not properly a slice of life imho since it's an adventure). It's quite slow, I hope you don't mind that. I know there is an anime, I never watched it so I don't know if it's the same.
Spiral this is my fav mistery manga. It's a good mix of action and comedy. There is an anime for this too, but it's not really famous so maybe you didn't watch it.
Ares almost no romance, but when you want a really good action shounen try this.
Shin Angyo Onshi This is tagged as historical but I wanted to suggest it anyway since it's a very good adventure. Low ecchi, great character development.
Elfen Lied Ecchi is really heavy here, but I liked the story a lot, so I'm suggesting it. I have to advise you, there is really a lot of violence, ecchi and gore in it. There is an anime for that too, I watched it and I didn't like it at all (just a FYI).

And this is almost OT, a very good anime with these criteria is Scrapped Princess (I'm saying it since you said you watched anime).

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What I like in Trivial Pursuit style. Pick your category:

Not sure if I've taken account of all the criteria, but Ibara no Ou seems to be an appropriate suggestion.

Thanks for the input but as I stated above majority of the manga to anime adoption has already been read and I agreed that those titles you mentioned are really a fine piece-of-work. Spice and Wolf is among the few Slice of Life that captivates me. As for Ares...I'm a bit skeptical when it comes down to the combination of aciton-adventure-shounen (the naruto/bleach/rave *ness*)hehe...however I'll give it a try. Shin Angyo Onshi, I gave it a sneak-peak once and wasn't very fond of the art style...its seem kinda *messy* and "too-dark" at times (for a manga-noob like myself I suppose)...maybe I'll come back to it later.

-As for all others your feedback are greatly appreciated. I've updated the viewed list (on this thread in real-time) as I came upon titles that matches my search boundary in hope to provide more clarity on the request and convenience for those of same interests.


Last edited by tt147 at 10:37 am, Oct 23 2009

Well, I can't speak for SAO art, since it's purely subjective. I hope you'll read it anyway a day, since it's too good to be missed.
But I can guarantee that Ares is really different from Naruto/Bleach/Rave, at least I don't like them and I love Ares. Also Ares is a manhwa (korean) and you shouldn't mind the shounen tag, in my experience manhwa are quite different and it's difficult to tag them in the standard japanese demography. It's more similar and even darker to Alive! than Naruto/Bleach/Rave.


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What I like in Trivial Pursuit style. Pick your category: