I've been reading manga for quite some time, and with it comes the need to look for new manga.
My reading list now exceeds 200 and will probably increase even more.
For those of you who are having a harder time finding new exciting manga I'd like to share a few tips.
Most of them will be using the functions of this website but some are not.
Feel free to share any tips that you use yourself if I haven't mentioned them.
Wish list
Description: Found under "my lists". Not really a way to find manga, rather to make your manga searching more effective. After i started to use the wish list i've it a lot easier than before.
Pros: Don't be afraid to use your wish list. In fact, i recommend you to go wish-list-crazy! As soon as you see a manga that catches your attention even slightly or a manga with a high rating but you're unsure if you'd like it, put it on the wish list with a single click at the top of the manga info page.
This way you can easily recheck the manga later and you can always put them in "on hold" if you didn't like them.
That's another thing, never delete. If you don't like it, put it in "on hold". It isn't the first time I re-read a manga from my on hold list only to discover that I liked it.
Cons: If you have too many manga in your wish list you might have to re-check them again to remember what the manga was about. But it still much simpler than rechecking everything.
Search the web
Description: Use search engines like google and search for manga. Use different keywords like "top manga list" ect. You all know how to search on the web right?
Pros: You can usually find rewards for manga. People on different forum and sites might have done their own top list.
Cons: Unless you put a great amount of effort in it, you might not find many good manga. Depends on your ability to search the web. Other than different manga rewards, there isn't much you can search that mangaupdates don't have.
Series info
Description: The manga database in mangaupdates. Use the different functions like search for rating or genre.
You can also search for genre and sort the results by rating (recommended!).
Pros: A very effective way when starting to read manga and have figured out your "taste" in genre. Most of the popular manga are sure to pop up on your search result.
Cons: If you order by rating, only the manga that has enough votes will show. Thus it is possible that manga that you might like is missing.
Series stats
Description: This has recently been updated so it consist of 2 parts now, "activity stats" & "list stats".
Pick 6 and 3 months in activity to get an overview and the weekly for a more recent updates to the serie.
The list stats is great, now you can finally look at what's on most peoples reading list ect.
Pros: Unlike series info where the information is pretty much the same, the activity is constantly changing thus you can continue to go here for new manga. New manga tends to pop up on the weekly stats list.
The list/reading stats shows how popular a certain manga is. It's a great way to find good manga since people tends to read good stuff
.Cons: Just because it's popular doesn't necessary mean it's great. Although popular manga is usually a safe choice.
Reviews
Description: Like the title says, a place where people put up reviews of series they have read.
Pros: If someone has gone through the trouble of writing a review it usually means that the manga has left a deep impression in them. A good place to find some older manga that doesn't show up in activity. Great for picking up manga that you accidentally missed when you cruised the series info.
Cons: Doesn't cover the same amount of manga as the other sections. If you want to read through every single review it might take some time. Keep in mind that the review might not be entirely objective since it's usually written by someone who liked it.
The forum
Description: The forum in mangaupdates. Go to the different sections like shounen/seinen. They usually have a lot of recommendations for different genres.
Pros: Recommendations from people is usually better/easier/faster than searching through every single manga yourself. If different people recommend the same manga it's usually worth looking into.
Cons: Not every recommendation is good. People sometimes write the series in the text instead of a list, forcing you to read every single reply which can be time consuming.
Member list
Description: Click on a members name and if you're lucky he has made his reading/wish/completed list public.
Pros: This is great to do with the forum tips. If someone has made a reply in a genre forum that you like it can be worth to check his reading list. Because of the interest in the same genre he/she can have series that you have missed. It's even better if he/she has rated them too.
Cons: People usually doesn't just read a single genre, so if you're looking for a specific one you could find a lot of manga that you're not interested in. It could also take some time depending on the amount of manga currently in the lists.
Scanlation group
Description: The scanlation group is the people currently scanlating the manga. The info page on a manga shows what groups have scanlated the manga and the scanlation page shows the series the group has scanlated.
Pros: Because scanlation groups tends to focus on the same kind of manga, chances are that if you like a manga they scanlated you might like the others too.
Cons: If the scanlation group is very big and has done a lot of jobs it might be hard to find manga similar to the ones you're looking for.
Mangaka (author/artist)
Description: The people writing/drawing the manga. Same as with scanlation group, the links are in the manga info page and the mangaka info page.
Pros: This is basically the same as scanlation group but with the mangaka instead. They tend to write/draw the same kind of manga and if you liked one of their work you might like the other too.
Cons: The mangaka's to long and epic series usually haven't drawn anything else. They don't have time to draw more, simple as that. So looking for additional works from the mangaka's to big and popular series usually turns out to be fruitless. Or you'll just find some of their earlier and less polished work.
Bot list (Mirrors, Neverwhere)*
Description: If you don't know what i'm talking about, don't bother to ask. This is probably the final solution because even if you find more manga, there's no way to get them since they haven't been scanlated.
Pros: Everything is here. If it isn't here it isn't anywhere else. This is interesting, because you can actually find out the expectation of the serie/accuracy of the serie description from here.
Check under "gets". If the gets look something like this:
1216x
1091x
1042x
1015x
1014x
1012x
...you can be sure that the serie is what you can expect from the short summary/first impression.
If it however looks like this:
2172x
1130x
826x
806x
484x
...then maybe this wasn't the kind of manga you'd expect.
Start with the manga with the most gets and work you way down the list.
Cons: The list is loooooooong. Very long. And because there is no description you have to copy and paste for info on the manga. Manga with low gets could be hard to find because they blend in with the rest.
*Addendum: as of this writing the "bot list" tip does not apply any more.
Online-Readers
Description: The latest trend in manga reading, these websites gather scanlations from all over the place and offers them in a convenient "one-click, one-page" format. While controversial, there's no doubt that they fill a much needed niche since the fall of Lurk.
Pros: The fastest way to check out a manga. No other place offer such a quick way from finding a manga to reading it, the keyword here is convenience. Most importantly and usually overlooked however, is that they also act as a data base.
With scanlation groups coming and going, it has become increasingly hard to gain access to manga from groups that's closed down. When both site and irc is down, an OR is one of the few ways to still read it.
Cons: They're controversial since they often don't give the groups that did all the work credit. It also takes away much needed traffic to groups.
The overall enjoyment of reading on an OR is also diminished. They often have a lower picture quality compared to the original release, not to mention the waiting time between loading the pages. Ads can also distract from the reading experience.
Have any more tips? Feel free to post them and share it in the comments.
/RilleL
Last edited by RilleL at 1:41 am, Sep 4 2012
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