I am looking for a unique story. I have read/watched enough manga/anime that I am getting bored with the usual tropes and stereotypes, especially those that rely on them for the plot. Examples of what I am looking for would be Princess Jellyfish or Steins;gate for anime. Mind you, I am not looking for series along the same plot lines as these, only their uniqueness to their corresponding genres. AKA, the stories that feel refreshing and new, even if there are tropes and stereotypes used.

I am pretty open to the wide variety of genres. Only that I prefer less violent stories, but if its necessary to the plot, all is good. If possible, some romance. I know, romance is hard to find in a unique way, but its still my favorite genre. Any recommendations of either manga or anime are welcome! That's about it. Thanks again for looking into my post. ^_^

Annarasumanara

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mahou shoujo madoka magica, but only watch the anime.

Also My Heart is Beating and it's by the same mangaka as Annarasumanara WHICH I wholeheartedly recommend btw.

ummmm also maybe Cheese in the Trap? It's pretty darn unique that's for sure

Seconding Mahou shoujo Madoka Magica.
You could also check the anime/manga list here out. Since they're deconstructions of classic tropes, you might be interested.

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Tower of God Totally what you are looking for.
Noblesse Free of 'shounen clitches'.
Fullmetal Alchemist



Your lists are not public and hence it is pretty difficult to suggest as you might say I have already read that or I am reading it.
So you should tell us which series you have already read/completed so that we can suggest you better.

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Nicoichi this is one of a kind too bad no one continue scanlating it
barakamon

it would help people to give more suggestion if u write list of manga/anime u already read/watch

sorry, I only read romance so here:
Bonnouji
Melo Holic
Usagi Drop
Densha Otoko

as for action/supernatural:
Yumekui Merry
Hoshi no Samidare

and Double Arts is pretty awesome

if you like childcare or cute kids:
Hanamaru Youchien
Love So Life

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in need of romance?
uncommon, sad, sweet

Ok, its hard to say every series as there has been a lot. I don't keep track of them on this site, so it is not easy to show you quickly. To start, I watched Madoka Magica recently actually. I read and watched all of the Fullmetal Alchemist titles. And yes, deconstructions would be a good choice in general although I am not a fan of all of them I have read about.

As for lists, here is as much as I can think of at the moment.
Currently reading:
[m]Watashi ni XX Shinasai[/m]
Skip Beat
Kimi ni Todoke
Otomen
Perfect Girl Evolution
[m]Maid Sama[/m]
Bride of the Water God
Gakuen Alice

Read:
Ouran High School Host Club - Loved
Lovely Complex - Cute
Special A
Cheeky Angel
Tokyo Crazy Paradise - Loved
Fruits Basket - Sweet
Love Hina
Dragon Half
High School Debut - Didn't like it much
Gentlemen's Alliance Cross
Suzuka - Not a fan
Peach Girl - Meh
Ayashi no Ceres
Fushigi Yuugi
Wild Ones
[m]Full Metal Panic[/m] - Liked it
Beauty Pop
Hot Gimmick - Not my thing
Hana Kimi
Cardcaptor Sakura - Liked it
Please Save My Earth - Hate/Love it
Crazy Girl Shin Bia - Ok
[m]Kobato[/m]
[m] Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle[/m]
XXXholic

Dropped:
Strawberry 100% - Didn't like the lead
Love Monster - Didn't like the overuse of smut
Boys over Flowers - Didn't like the characters
100% Perfect Girl - Hated the Violent Love

I have read more but they were mostly short series that are only a volume or two long or I simply cannot remember what they were.

With anime, I have watched a lot more. So I don't think I will begin to list those off as it has been over 150 titles. But I have watched almost all of the classics. Liked most of them, but found a few to be overrated, which one did fall under the deconstruction type trope. AKA, Evangelion. So maybe more modern deconstructions would be better recommendations as they seem more fresh to a modern viewer. Hope this helps.



This looks really interesting. Thanks so much!



I am not sure about My Heart is Beating, but Cheese in the Trap looks interesting. Thanks for the input.



For Tower of God, I am curious if you have anything else to say about it as the description is rather short. Or is that the point? I am curious though.

Noblesse sounds interesting. Thanks for the recommendation!



Usagi Drop I have seen the anime and loved it, but I was worried about the manga as I heard it gets into some questionable behaviors with the two leads. Is it all that bad? I have been curious though.

Bonnouji, Densha Otoko, and Double Arts look interesting. Is Melo Holic more violent? Just want to make sure first, as violent love is one of those things I really dislike. Hoshi no Samidare actually is really striking me for some reason. Looks very interesting. Not sure what to think of Yumekui Merry.

Last edited by lambchopsil at 12:36 am, Aug 23 2012

From Eroica With Love - easily one of the greatest shojo manga of all time, and it's completely unlike any shojo or BL manga, except for maybe Patalliro!. The 1st volume is lousy/different compared to the rest, so you can skip to the 2nd volume.

Moon Child - somewhat similar to Please Save My Earth, it's pretty insane as far as shojo manga goes

Ooku - another brilliant shojo manga by the best shojo manga author of this generation

Banana Fish - how many shojo manga have you seen feature stuff like this?

Flower of Life - not your typical high school shojo manga

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Hajimari no Niina
Koi dano Ai dano
Rasetsu no Hana

Tower of God :
Its really impossible to describe it without spoiling it. So I will be quoting the following from TOG wikia-


Orange Marmalade
Kimi wa Petto Starting is somewhat dull so bear with it.
Billionaire Girl

For the webcomics I will suggest you to either use scanlator's website or batoto.net as they offer one strip reader in HQ unlike other readers who offers it in dull quality.


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From Eroica with love sounds interesting, but at 35 volumes it might be a bit too long for me. Long series I cannot sit down and read within a few days, so I tend to get distracted and lose motivation, no matter how good the series may be. So I am not sure if I will go for this one. Moon Child even looks like Please save my earths artwork. I might have to give it a shot. Ooku sounds fantastic. Thanks so much for this recommendation. Now to find it on rightstuf. LOL Banana Fish looks interesting but how much violence is in it? Maybe a better word for it, how graphic is the violence? Flower of life looks interesting too. Thanks for the recommendations!



Ok, good to know about Tower of God. I figured it was a difficult series to describe since there wasn't much in the description on this site. Thank you for taking the time to give me a bit more about it. It definitely helped me to make a decision on it.
I will have to try Orange Marmalade simply for the artwork. Its all in color? I have yet to read a series like that. I actually forgot about Kimi wa Petto. I have read that one already. I agree its starts off slow but it actually quite a unique and engaging story. Billionaire Girl looks interesting too, but I think I will have to wait until more than 5 chapters have been released. Just not enough to read yet.

Last edited by Beav58 at 10:27 am, Aug 22 2012

Blood Alone A really nice slice-of-life take on the overused vampire genre. Very heartwarming.

Vampire Juujikai Yet another new take on the vampire genre. While it might seem like yet another vampire story at the beginning, it soon begins to take a completely different route than one would expect.

Spiral: Suiri no Kizuna A mystery manga that is not so much about finding the culprit than about solving the "mystery." There's a lot of great, unique ideas in here, and this manga, unlike other mangas with geniuses involved, never makes the readers feel as if they're stupid.

Zetsuen no Tempest By the same author of Spiral and Vampire Juujikai, Zetsuen no Tempest has the single most unique plot I have ever seen. There's a whole lot of interesting things going on, with the magicians using "civilization" as their means of magic and with plot twists that will always keep you guessing.

Are You Alice? A completely convoluted retelling of the Alice in Wonderland story. Is and will completely confuse you, but that's what's so great about it, really.

Aqua / Aria Definitely one of the best slice-of-life series out there. The atmosphere that Amano Kozue creates is incredible--it's simple and perfect and really makes me want to appreciate the small things in life.

Baby Steps This one takes the traditional trope of "genius sports player" and completely averts it. Baby Steps is really a manga designed to show that hard work and perseverance is what enables one to succeed, not talent. The tennis matches here are all completely real and believable too--no super powers in sight!

Zettai Karen Children For a manga that is labeled "harem," Zettai Karen Children is incredibly and consistently good. The kids also actually grow up without any timeskips, which truly makes this a tale of growth.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha - "Kono Watashi no Mono Tonare, Yuusha yo" "Kotowaru!" A hero goes to defeat a demon lord, and then agrees to join up with her instead?! Yeah, so it's basically a manga about economics, with an RPG-like setting.

O/A A manga about idols that actually turns out to have nice, likable characters and (somewhat) funny jokes. While not fantastic, per se, it is quite good, and well worth a read.

Carat! A magical girl parody that will have you literally laughing out loud. Don't expect a plot here because there isn't any. It is, however, consistently hilarious, which is what makes reading it definitely worth it.

Bokurano An existentialist-esque story about the feelings of people who are faced with death. Will tear your heart out and stomp on it, but in the best of ways, of course.

Tsunbaka Just. Read it. There's really no way to describe this oneshot other than as "a 2chan thread," and if you don't know what 2chan threads are like. Well. This manga will show you.

I just read it again, and for me it's completely fine... unusual but I wouldn't call it questionable... True that the chibi rin volumes are adorable, but even grown up, all the characters still have their charm.

Nope, he is a complete noob about romance dating and such, it's deep, hilarious, tragic, sweet, for me the best romance manga (well, it is a web comic...) that is currently out there.

Yeah, It is really awesome, great characters and plot, subtle romance, nice ending. This is what a manga of that genre should be like.

you should give Yumekui Merry a try. Characters, plot, abilities and art are pretty awesome.

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in need of romance?
uncommon, sad, sweet

Ah, I love these kinds of threads! It means finding good manga... Now, I don't really know what you like and you said you were pretty find with anything, so I'm going to give you anything.

Again!!- So far so good, seems pretty unique and there's still a lot to go so there's time to expand (which from what I've heard it does...)

Are you Alice?- One of a kind story, really something!

Issho ni Neyou yo- One of my favorite shoujo, it's just so cute! The romance in this is definitely supper sweet!

Love So Life- Another of my favorite shoujo, and the romance though slower is still utterly sweet.

Nabari no Ou- I LOVE this story! This manga has the best character relationships (not really any romance though...) I have EVER seen. READ!

Pandora Hearts- JUST READ IT! NOW! This, I can say without hesitation, is THE BEST manga I have EVER read! It's just... amazing...

Shoukoku no Altair- Ah, great historical/political manga! And beautiful too!

Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan- Sad. Sad. Sad. But beautiful.