Yep- action is cliched... but whether you like that or not, in the end, boils down to personal preference. I am a girl, and I really have an issue with how some people think that if you are a female, you should be a crazed romance-fan... I don't like romance or shounen-ai/ shoujo-ai for the same reason you don't fancy action...when those kinds of genre dominate the plot, there's no space for any meaningful character development or plot improvement...it all drags down into the same old cliches seen in every work of fiction- Japanese or otherwise.
But, I have a friend who says she reads love stories simply because of that reason. ("It's unrealistic and uncomplicated, so it's good break from real life!" she says.) I think the same principles apply to the action genre. Most people (boys in particular), just like watching/ reading endless fights; it doesn't matter to them if there's no plot, because that's not what they're looking for. To each their own, right?
I don't read Naruto (my liking for Kakashi and Hinata is simply not reason enough to make me read 60-something volumes), Inu Yasha (it's too draggy), One Piece (does that thing never end?) or any of those over-long shounen series (really, 25 volumes is about as much as I can bear of a manga/novel of any genre). But I do like FMA. Death Note got a little silly in the second half, but it's still better than the majority of other shounen out there (at least it has a plot).
I personally prefer seinen to shounen and josei to shoujo any day.
If you're looking for interesting seinen, I would recommend;
Mushishi
Liar Game
Akagi
Pluto
One Outs
Tanabata no Kuni
Gunslinger Girl

Shounen with actual plots that you might wanna try out;
Gambling Emperor Legend Zero
Genkaku Picasso
Tantei Gakuen Q
If you don't dislike supernatural/ horror types, you could also try Shiki
And for slice-of-life- try Yotsubato! - no one in their right mind could dislike it.

Last edited by calstine at 7:53 am, Jan 27 2010

You've just read a lot. The truth is that many stories have similar elements to them. There will always come a new generation that swallows it. Likewise there will come a new generation of author's who use it.

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I've got one for you!!! I just finished re-reading it so I'm still hot for it, it's beck
Ok it is shounen (more than enough panty shots, though I might be a bad juge since I'm a girl and it's not what I'm looking for in manga ) but it's also a music manga... BUT a SERIOUSLY GOOD one!!!!!!
I also really liked ping pong the drawings are amazing (seinen actually,sorry, but it's still nice)
Well maybe that might be it, instead of a shounen manga, you might start to look more for seinen genres?
I like calstine's selection too btw!

BTW Dragonball is overfull of action, but it didn't prevent me to find it hilarious, although I only read around the 10 first manga of the series...

Last edited by heehee11 at 6:56 pm, Feb 2 2010

Action has always been boring to me. What I look for is a good plot and character developement.

(And in my opinion, Death Note failed in both fields. I hate when people compare it to other manga like it's so great.)

(And yes, people in their right mind can dislike Yotsubato. There's better comedies, better slices of life, cuter children, and frankly it's pretty pointless. Don't put down people by saying if they don't like a manga you like they are somehow lower than you.)

20th Century Boys, it's by the same author as Monster and it is just fucking amazing.

Akira, it is a classic graphic novel with a great story, it's filled with interesting characters, action, and really cool motorbikes.

Gantz, a very interesting story-line with many plot twists. Loads of action and gore, the characters are interesting as well.

pokeslob, I know that feeling. I've noticed a lot of the series I used to read are less appealing to me now. I found plenty of replacements though, here's a few of my recommendations:

20th Century Boys - by Urasawa Naoki, the author of Monster. A multi-generational conspiracy story that will keep you guessing right up to the end. I found it took some time to get into the meat of the plot, but after the first couple of volumes I doubt you'll be able to put it down. Don't forget to check out the sequel, 21st Century Boys, after finishing this one.
Pluto - More awesome goodness from Urasawa Naoki. It's what you'd get if you mixed astro boy, Isaac Asimov, and Urasawa's trademark big fat conspiracy plot.
Planetes - A sci-fi story that pays close detail to what life in space might actually be like and has a heavy basis in reality. I have yet to see the anime, but I heard it's just as good.
Sanctuary - Combine an epic, bloody yakuza tale with deep political thriller. Amazing. I'm also a big fan of Ikegami Ryoichi's art. It's realism is a nice break from the Moe style predominant in manga and anime these days.
Uzumaki - Drawn and written by the master of horror manga, Itou Junji. This manga will freak the shit out of you. I had trouble sleeping for a month after reading this.

bonus: All the above series are completed and also completely scanlated. You won't have to worry about waiting to read the ending.

I don't read too many action manga, so it doesn't really bother me.

It's happens to me some year ago, that time I was only read the mainstream Shounen. And shounen is targeted for boys, so the plot is basically the same, cuz boys like this stuffs. When We get older, we start thinking more about teen/mature content.

So, start reading some Seinen instead of shounen. Everything is better, even the art (seinen is more "realist" than shounen, the details are more complex, etc... Even the eyes are smaller then shounen). And there aren't the "ridiculous/ironic/inocent" ecchi that is present on the shounen (like "Mikoto pants! OMG! *bleed/die*")

And there are a lot of Action/Pure-Fight with some average (even great) plot.

You can start reading HQ too.

Try to find seinen (or josei, with you like realist mature romance with plot) on MU =D, it's better if it is already completed, cuz wait for Wolf Guy is a pain in the brain... hahaha! With you want do a topic with suggestion for GOOD action manga. Naruto/Bleach aren't rly action.

no its simply the generic of action manga have gone to a point of obvious lack of creativity. Hey I'm not a mangaka but its you're job to make something fresh, then again as long as this is popular why change?
the reason why its boring/old is like bleach - Ichigo tooooo weak to kill the boss? he get a power up from his dad, and miraculously his dad has the ability like dragon ball hyper time chamber? talk about pulling shit from thin air?
THAT is the reason why we get bored, All in all its simply waiting bull shit from nothing falling into the protagonist hand and watching him throw the shit at the villain to end the "battle"
I rather like Holy Land. little 2 much explanation but atleast i can swallow that up and hey, guess what? its reasonable enough to believe. hidden potential who work hard for his ability defeat guy who never practice with a weapon and become god like until the next Villain.
the author fail if he succumb to forcing the reader to believe sooo much and no back bone. FAILURE. but rich. lawl

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There's plenty of shounen romance, but most of the plot is really the same (weakling doing either to find his girlfriend he never had before, or just confess his love to his childhood friend, but it didn't happen until the end. Another notice is that boy always end up with more than one girl). There's also many good shounen action manga that aren't mainstream. Not all shounen have the same plot, shounen is described only as a DEMOGRAPHIC and doesn't affect everything else.

Agree with a few posters - your taste is simply maturing. I loved DBZ for a time - then I realized it was nothing but cliffhanger after cliffhanger - with never ending battles, with reasons to destroy vast amounts of land and populated cities that were shallower than the grave I dug for my goldfish (whom I flushed down the toilet).

As a teen, I got into really moody and gothy animal with sexy drawings: Death Note, FMA, X/1999. Then, as a college student as well as a member of the USAF, I loved comedies and manga with older characters with more deeper plots and real world themes: Lucky Star (comedy), FMP (War and Mecha), Darker Than Black, Love Hina, Aoi Yori Aoshi.

Now, I don't read as much anymore as I prefer books on modern sciences / technology and biographies of famous people. I do occasionally sit down and read a chapter or two of may favorite manga from time to time - mainly do to nostalgia and forget about the problems of the world - on occasion I might look up a new manga scanslation on the latest craze (MSN being the latest). However, I think eventually I'll stop reading any of the new stuff and e-bay all but my favorite complete series.

I prefer action anime, and not really because its animated, but because they tend to focus.Maybe try birdy the mighty manga, if its like the anime, it's awesome. Not mind blowing but constructed so well.

One thing I like about action is the fantasy worlds though. Plus I like do like it fights, their usually a lot more thoughtful than the hero just deciding to win. That's the type that people remember more because its usually the climax but most of them are usually figuring out something.

The plot in Action series can actually be quite good. I remember reading someone that didn't get dragonball and saying that it's probably the fights. If you think about the fights themselves in dragonball aren't even the attraction, though it wouldn't work without them. And if you watch Kai, you can a way better feel for how good the plot is, it actually shifts quite a lot.

Of course I personally avoid the trinity. I'm more willing to try something like Dragon Quest Dai(and Hunter X Hunter), Fairy Tail, and Beelzebub.

actually, Id rather take any action manga such as Naruto, One Piece, even Bleach over the super-cliched weak male main tsundere female leads...let's be real

Fixed.

You can read action manga when the physically strong (not weak to strong) male lead who isn't stupid or whatever falls in love with the tsundere female lead and when the romance is as important as the action and the plot, filled with a little amount of fanservice.