Hello manga people! So, yeah, new here.

Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone knows of any good surreal manga. The qualifier though is that I'd like it to have a sense of wonder (childlike, even). The frame of reference I'm thinking of is The Diary of Tortov Roddle, but I'm basically looking for any surreal series that's not super-disturbing (though dark moments are fine) and essentially just has a sense of the wondrous about it (I guess Alice In Wonderland is probably the most obvious literary example). Sorry if that's too vague.

Thanks!

Try Coo no Sekai?

Welcome to MU. ^_^

I have a couple of stories I would like to suggest for you~

Would tragedy be all right, or are you just looking for romance or a happy ending? If tragedy is all right, I would suggest Hotarubi no Mori e, Akaku Saku Koe or really most things by that author. I feel her work has a surreal feel to it. MIDORIKAWA Yuki, I believe it is. If you haven't yet seen Hayao Miyazaki's movies, I suggest you watch those. They tend to have a beautiful surreal feel to them as well. Hana to Akuma is a beautiful story as well, though perhaps not quite innocent.

EDIT:
Ah. And Heaven's Door (HONGOU Ranko) was another tragedy that struck me as dreamlike.
And I'll just add Sennen no Yuki, one of my favorites.

Last edited by distraughthallelujah at 8:15 pm, May 12 2013

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"Everything is okay in the end. If it's not ok, then it's not the end."

"I'm tired of all the nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What else do you want; an adorable pancreas?" - Jean Kerr

When I said 'death' before 'dishonor', I meant alphabetically.

Imagine what would happen if there were no more hypothetical situations.

Tragedy is fine. I definitely don't have any problem with dark or disturbing stuff, I'm just looking for stuff that has a sense of lightness or wonder to go along with it, y'know? Miyazaki's a good example, yeah, especially his weirder ones like Spirited Away. That folkloric feel is a good one, too. I'll definitely check out the recommendations so far, thanks.

Legal Drug is a great supernatural series with some really good surreal imagery. if you like that then xxxholic might be good for you as well. i feel like Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles has that wonder feeling to it, but i'm always hesitant to recommend it because of the WAT conclusion lol.

Kagen no Tsuki is a surreal-ish manga with some reality bending.
Magic has sci-fi romance stories with a touch of weirdness and wonder
Sakana no Yume is a good psychological story with more reality warping
Please save my Earth is a really good sci-fi story with a lot of great work put into the "alien" world that's introduced.

Fujiwara Kaoru often has a lot of wonder and weird realities in her stories, but beware, some of them are quite dark.

After School Nightmare has that alice in wonderland feeling to it, but it's quite dark so it probably won't qualify.

i don't know if you're okay with shounen-ai? if so, Hana no Saku Koro has a nicely built fantasy/sci-fi-ish world with a touch of wonder and whimsy

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;D

Feel free to recommend good dark stuff too! More light stuff might've been the reason I made this thread, and I still want to find as much of that stuff as I can, but I also like dark stuff. I'm perfectly okay with Shounen-ai as long as it's actually a component of the story and not just for fanservicey purposes (which is true of all romancey stuff and yadda yadda ).

Thanks for all the recommendations so far, I'll have a lot to go through tomorrow.

EDIT: I read Tsubasa many years ago. I don't remember the ending, really, but I remember being confused by it. xD I have read xxxHolic and enjoyed it.

Last edited by Gazoinks at 11:35 pm, May 12 2013

I'd recommend pretty much anything by IGARASHI Daisuke.

If you count psychedelic as surreal, then you should look into the works of KOIKE Keiichi as well.

Matsumoto Taiyou also tends towards the surreal, and captures a childlike sense of wonder as well as anyone out there. Some of his series can be a bit difficult to get into, so if you haven't read anything by him before, I'd recommend starting with Tekkonkinkreet, Takemitsu-Zamurai, or Hanaotoko (probably his lightest series).

Also, now that you're allowing dark series, you could try the following:
Journey to the End of the World
Milk Closet
Tropical Citron
Nijigahara Holograph

I've just started reading Majo and I'm enjoying it a lot, so I'm definitely gonna look at Igarashi Daisuke's other stuff. I love his art.

I've heard good things about Tekkonkinkreet and read a bit of Number Five (very Mobius-y art in that one), so I'll definitely check out Taiyou's stuff. And yeah, psychedelic can count too.

I actually read Journey To The End of The World earlier today. I liked bits of it, especially all the stuff up to the desert, but it left me a bit unsatisfied and meh for vaguely defined reasons.

Well, if you don't mind dark...

Cat Soup - anime
Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita - light novel/anime
Palepoli - black humor so this may be iffy

I read The Music of Marie and liked it a lot, so I'll definitely check out more from Furuya, although it seems like he doesn't have anything else in that style. Had no idea he was the Genkaku Picasso guy either, he seems pretty versatile as far as subject matter goes, which is cool.

Try Bathroom Guuwa by OKAZAKI Mari for a start. Most of her works emit a dreamlike aura, but some of her stories gave me the chills like the last one in Yawarakai Kara *shivers*

KITOH Mohiro's Owari to Hajimari no Miles emenates a sense of depth and wonder. Too bad the scanlators seem to have dropped it.

Chimoguri Ringo to Kingyobachi Otoko by ABE Youichi might count. The plot is absurd, yet serious enough to keep you hooked.

The third story from Boichi's Hotel, Subete wa Maguro no Tame datta, felt extremely surreal to me.

ASANO Inio's Oyasumi Punpun has a more desolate and realistic tone, but it still feels surreal when the protagonist looks like a bird who escaped a children's drawing although everyone and everything else is drawn beautifully naturalistic.

One collection of interlinked one-shots that I follow is not really surreal but... odd. There is simply no other way to describe it. See for yourself: Nickelodeon by DOUMAN Seiman.

I started reading Arakawa Under the Bridge by NAKAMURA Hikaru which seemed to be strange as well, but in a more comical sense.


Last edited by Tripitaka at 9:17 am, May 17 2014

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"Stories are what death thinks he puts an end to.
He can't understand that they end in him, but they don't end with him."
- Ursula K. Le Guin, Gifts

To be savoured:
- Blood Alone by TAKANO Masayuki
- Otoyomegatari by MORI Kaoru
- Gangsta. by Kohske
- Seishun Kouryakuhon by AKIZUKI Sorata

Read Miles and Nickelodeon today and liked them both a lot. Miles definitely had a nice feel of wonder to it, it's a shame that it hasn't been fully scanlated (is that the right word? >.>). Not sure if it was dropped, as I read that the author of the manga actually took a four month break from it, so it might just be frozen and behind. I'm only of story 7 of Nickelodeon, but I've been enjoying that one a lot so far. I like the weird semi-surreal tone and dark humor, and they're so short that reading them is kinda addictive. They're like potato chips!

I'll check out more recommendations tomorrow, thanks.

If you liked Nickelodeon, you should read his other work, The Voynich Hotel. It's pretty damn weird.

Some other stuff I would classify as similar:
Mysterious Girlfriend X
Witchcraft Works
Onepunch-man
Majime na Jikan