Hello there! I am an avid manga reader, and I happen to be very critic with whatever I read. One thing that I despise the most about mangas is the heavy usage of cliches. Sadly, that is a quite common practice among manga authors. Why I hate cliches? well, they are boring, unrealistic, unoriginal and predictable. And even more, author have tendency to write ad-hoc plots just to adjust to them. Shonen, shojos, there are many kind, you name it:

• The perfect-in-every-sense boy which happens to love the main protagonist, even though he could have virtually any girl in the work.
• The hottest girl in the school which becomes friendly with the main protagonist.
• The protagonists meets on the street a gorgeous stranger which happens to be the new transfer student - neighbour - whatever.
• The childhood friend.
• Love triangles - polygons - harems.
• The absolute good - evil division of the protagonist and the enemies.
• When anybody says "that is impossible!" you have 100% chances that will happen.
  ...

Basically I'm saying that I am tired of this crap and I want something different and original, I want unrequited loves, I want relationships that don't work out, I want tales where things are not divided in pure good and pure evil, hell even I would love a manga that takes the cliches and make fun of them.

Well that is my proposition, I hope somebody can recommend some fresh material 😀 .

gintama

well I din't read this yet (still got a few months until vacation) but some people reecommended nana to me, saying it's different from other mangas about love etc., and from the comments I gathered that things seem not really to work out for the MC so well, dunno perhabs it's the kind of story you are looking for...
well if you are looking for some comedy, Double Arts was kinda unpredictable for me, at least the jokes always caught me off guard

welll after thinking a bit, perhabs Melo Holic is what you are looking for, it really is a great work and attacks romance novels right on, just try it, it's really great, oh yeah I just checked you wish list: read bitter virgin!

in need of romance?
uncommon, sad, sweet

If you want intense manga where good and evil are ambiguous, I recommend Naoki Urasawa's works, like Pluto or Monster.

There's also Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaaki for something on the strange side.

For slice of life, I recommend Love Roma and Living Game.

Are you limited to only shounen and shoujo? Cliches abound in those two demographics, trust me. I suggest you explore more seinen titles for more "unconventional" storylines. Some seinen manga do have cliches, but they often take them to levels not found in your garden variety shounen and shoujo.

You want unrequited and a more mature (in the literal sense of the word) love? Check out Genshiken. Another work you might also want to check out is Ohikkoshi. These two were the first things I came up with, so feel free to check out my public lists for other titles.

And yes, I second margaretman2's suggestion, Love Roma.

Mirai Nikki all kinds of messed up
Hoshi no Samidare good vs evil? but who's good and who's evil?
Onani Master Kurosawa 🙂

I thought Fujimura-kun Meitsu poked a lot of fun at cliches.

If you want non-cliche manga you should check out the work of Endo Hiroki like Eden: It's an Endless World! . I finished reading this few days back and it has none of the cliches you listed.
I would recommend Ciguatera too. I see you have already read 20th century boys, so you should check out Urasawa's other works too as recommended by margaretman2.
Lets see........ what else?
solanin
Onani Master Kurosawa
Shin Angyo Onshi I know its not a slice of life or school setting manga but main protagonist is morally ambiguous which may satisfy one of your criteria.

edit: Its highly unlikely that you haven't heard of it but if not then you may read Full Metal Alchemist. This is one of the rare shounen I found devoid of cliche.

AIKI all the wayy, protag DEFINITELY doesn't fit. Girls are really unrealistic in proportions, and its very funny.... one of the only manga you could say the protag is probably more evil than the villains lol
kyou kara ore wa as well, girls look normal, and no one is 'perfect'... other than mitsuhashi(just nod and agree if u value our lives TTT-TTT)
angel densetsu has a little more romance, protag looks like a drugged out psychopath but is insanely nice, girls look like japanese girls and have personalities.

Few favs
Comedy:
Kyou kara ore wa!!, Mx0, Angel Densetsu, Skip Beat, Ai Kora, The Devil King is Bored

Romance:
Hana to Akuma, No bra, Shinigami Trilogy, kindan no koi de ikou, Usagi Drop, Threads of Time, Girl Friends

Most under rated:
Kindan no koi de ikou, kyou kara ore wa!.
m0r l83r... maybe >_>

Medaka box, this is perfect if you don't mind it being over-the-top along with being unpredictable. 😀

Usotsuki Lily This kinda pokes fun at things; it's really not meant to be taken seriously lol. It's fun 🙂 they do have a good relationship though so it might not be to your tastes.
Cynical OrangeThe summary seems really cliche, but when I finished the story I found that their relationships were all messed up.
Torikagosou no Kyou mo Nemutai Juunintachi? deals with the characters' relationship with one another.
Kore wa Koi no Hanashi? I thought this was different.

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST IS FABULOUS!!!! Read it. now. Of atleast watch the anime, which is equally as fabulous. Beck is good too, not very common. Also suggest The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya anime and movie, which is really out there. The main character doesn't fi into the wacky genre, so he gives it a good dynamic.

"That day, all female officers will be required to wear TINY MINISKIRTS!!!!!"

[img]http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h332/VATZEVAT/tumblr_lfdxfb1piM1qg32eto1_400.gif[/img]

Nowhere Boy takes all the cliches in common manga genre and pokes fun at them in various ways. This is definetely the first one I reccomend. When you're tired of cliches, the best manga to read is one that takes all the cliches, twists them to something ridiculous (or takes it in a completely off-the-wall unexpected direction) , and make you laugh along the way. And Nowhere Buy does all that.

Also, Seigi no Mikata is pretty refreshing too.

The following are unusual because the story actually deals with serious issues that happen in real life. Also, the relationships between characters are more complicated and rich then the typical shoujo.

Mars
Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan
Deep Love - Ayu no Monogatari
School Days (I recommend the anime) kinda fits. Granted the first 5 episodes seem like it's headed in the cliche high school romance but there's a twist around the 6th episode. And from there, things get interesting.

Flat (AOGIRI Natsu) -a simple slice-of-life that is charming and refreshing
Golden Days -time travel and an unrequited love (light shounen-ai)
Doubutsu no Oishasan -a bit of an older one but extremely original
Gangsta -a more mature one but really good

“All the kids have always known,
that the emperor wears no clothes,
but to bow down to him anyway,
is better than to be alone.â€

-Arcade Fire

Level E kinda turns cliches on their side.
Arigatou yes, I love recommending this story. It's just so not what you'd expect to happen in this kind of story. It starts off as terrible as can be and then gets better....maybe? just read it. You'll probably like it in the end.
Murder Princess

and on the off chance Megatokyo. It's not manga per se, but it does alot of what you're looking for. After Chapter 0 it does, atleast. It averts and subverts anime and manga cliches left, right, and center. read it free at http://megatokyo.com/

Sarcasm just doesn't work over the internet.

Wow, so many replies, thank you for your suggestions.

Now a few comments:

@Sherryl: Abount Gintama and the like: currently my policy is only to read completed mangas. Why? well, I don't have the patience to follow an ongoing manga.

@Lorska: A friend recommended Nana to me a long time ago, so it is on my wishlist, although not right now. I have read Gokinjo Monogatari and it was kind of interesting, on how the protagonist prioritize her career to her love. Ashita no Ousama does a deeper development on the career-before-love concept, i really liked it.

Double Arts, I think I have read it (my list is not comlpeted yet). That was an shonen jump axed manga? well, I didnt its premise particularly interesting.

@margaretman2: I have read 20 century boys and it was really interesting. I like how the two parallel storylines (childhood and adulthood) develop together. Monster is definitely in my list.

@auriga: I am open to absolutely every kind of manga. In fact I happen to like more seinen mangas (BTW I am 26 years old!), but sometimes you also enjoy a simpleminded action story. I have read Genshiken and its definitely one of the funniest mangas I have ever read, and the relationship between characters is very well drawn. The only problem that I have with it starts off as a pretty heavy otaku culture manga (is pretty hard to get all the references), but in the second part of the manga this feature is put aside in favor of the characters relationships. I think that is a little waste.

@mwk: I have seen Fullmetal Alchemist anime, but not yet the manga. That one, alongside Death Note, are good examples of anti-cliche mangas for my taste. One thing that I like about Fullmetal Alchemist is that the main protagonists are not hardcore badasses who save the world, but just a couple of regular alchemist who want to get by. The only shame is that the anime end is so messed up.

@SAimNE: Angel Densetsu, I have read it, and it was hilarious. A really good example of an anti-cliche protagonist, you just wonder how many misunderstandings can he produce. The good thing about that one is that it ended before it actually become boring, so it leaves a good taste.

@crumpets_and_tea: Seems that Nowhere Boy definitely fits what I am looking for, I will check it out. Thank you!

@silent killer: Oh my, Megatokyo, a friend of mine used to read it when we were studying at the university. It is still going on? I had on mind check it out, but it is so long that I get tired just thinking about it 😛 .

Definitely a lot of recommendations, I will check them out and add some of them to my wishlist. Again thank you all!.

Now my personal recommendation: Planetes, an sci-fi slice of life manga. Ever wondered how daily life would be in 60 years? not the life of heroes, not the life of adventurers or pirates, but the life of debris collectors, probably the lower tier of space jobs. This works does a pretty original approach to the sci-fi genre depicting a very realistic and plausible future, and doing a very deep and rich psychological development of the characters.