So I'm looking for manga about 1+ of the above topics - an example would be Kokou no Hito (which I'm not done reading, but it's gotten pretty awesome despite its initial issues, so I'm hoping for some similar stuff to read in future )

Seinen/josei/shoujo/shounen are all okay. Books are also good.

Stuff I don't want:

The story should be mainly based around one of the above themes, so I'm not looking for a shoujo in which the MC or MC + love interest fall off a cliff and get stranded for a few chapters.

Fantasy/supernatural like Eden no Ori. The characters' luck/skills can be slightly exaggerated but the setting should be realistic.

Webtoons, just can't get used to the format.

Manga that isn't complete.

Books about thru-hiking designated trails.

Stuff I do want:

Realistically drawn equipment

Complete manga.

I'm hoping that this genre is bigger than my own searches suggest. Thanks people!

Last edited by hkanz at 1:48 pm, Aug 31 2014

Have you read Little Forest? While to a certain extent it's more of a farming/cooking manga, it does include a fair amount of foraging in the mountain forest and plenty of equipment.

Difficult request. Have your looked through the Mountain Climbing category?

Off the top of my head, I only recall one manga that comes close to what you're looking for. It's a oneshot named Message (MONDEN Akiko), and it deals with the process of mourning through mountain climbing.

As for books, you may want to check out Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's novels about aviation and survival. His semi-autobiographical Wind, Sand and Stars ("Terre des Hommes") is particularly noteworthy. It's been almost a decade since I read it, but I still remember his description of dying of thirst vividly.

If you prefer a more contemporary writer, you could give Reinhold Messner's books a try. I haven't read them but I trust him to be fairly realistic considering that he used to be a ground-breaking extreme mountaineer.

Last but not least, there are the National Geographic travel memoirs you could read. The NG ADVENTURE magazine has also put a list of recommendations together, which you may find useful:

Extreme Classics: The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time.


Last edited by Tripitaka at 1:46 am, Aug 31 2014

________________
"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

Even though you said you don't want webtoons, you should definitely check out Peak (IM Gang-hyeok). It's nearly as good as Kokou no Hito.

I second Mizura's recommendtion. Peak is one of those stories you don't expect much of but that end up blowing your mind. I strongly recommend it, and if what you don't like in webtoons is the long strip format, just read it on mangahere or mangafox or one of those readers that don't support long strip

and, honestly, it's not as good as Koukou no Hito. It's better. But that's just my opinion

Hahhah - I have not, and it looks really interesting. Thanks for the recommendation.

Tripitaka - Yeah, I skimmed it. Sadly the series that look most promising, Ikarosu no Yama and Gaku, are not available in English. Kamigami no Itadaki might be okay, I would have to read the first few chapters in scanlation and see if I liked it enough to pay for the rest.

Thanks for all the book recommendations! Oh man @ Desert Solitaire earning #7 on a list of adventure stories, though. A man living in a trailer in Utah is not an adventure, regardless of how hard he tries to pretend it is.

Mizura - Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. It looks like the latest chapters aren't available in English yet though.

Andrez-ssi - Thanks for that tip about the webtoons! Yes, it is the long strips that annoy me, but I see how some are separated on some sites.

Last edited by hkanz at 10:44 pm, Aug 30 2014

hkanz: Peak is ongoing, but it is neatly divided into different arcs. So, just read by arc, and you should be okay.

I realized that you're also looking for Survival. I suggest checking out 7 Seeds too, then. It's more realistic than Eden no Ori (not entirely so but still quite enough), it has some of the best character development I've seen Anywhere (slow start, but the payoff later off is awesome), and it's slowly nearing its end (not ended yet but seems to be ending soon enough).

Ah I see, I'll definitely read it then. I'll give 7 Seeds a look as well.