I went exploring in MangaPlus and found some pretty neat stuff
Shueisha has released a free manga-reading site/app called MangaPlus. It simul-publishes chapters and generally gives people outside of Japan more access to manga. It’s designed to combat pirating and personally, I’m willing to wait for a day after the pirate sites for better scans with better translations from an official source.
One of the big advantages of MangaPlus is that it also gives the world access to super-new, internet-only SJ manga--the kind of stuff that doesn’t get translated officially until later in its run and sometimes never even gets popular outside of Japan at all. Some of it...frankly isn’t good enough to sell very well in print and may well get cancelled. But other things are worth sharing and trying to hype up with other English speakers! So, having roamed the app a bit, here are my recommendations so far:
Spy x Family
Spy x Family is exactly what it says on the tin—a masterful combination of the spy fiction genre with found family tropes—and yet so much more. Tatsuya Endo’s manga about a spy and a contract killer agreeing to get fake-married and co-parent a psychic child has a premise bursting with potential, and it delivers. It’s listed as an action/comedy, and so far it’s delivered on both counts, balancing a deliciously absurd premise with well-rendered fight scenes. The characters are extremely likable, the dialogue is hilarious, and the comedy is seasoned with a few excellent, well-rendered moments of drama. The art is pretty excellent too—there’s been one or two panels with minor issues, but the facial expressions and use of shading more than make up for them. Really, the problem with this manga is that it’s really hard to express how wonderful it is without spoiling nearly all the good bits. So just trust me, ok? This thing deserves years of serialization, a U.S. print release, and an anime, at the very least.
Heart Gear
This is the newest offering from Takaki Tsuyoshi (known for Black Torch, a very excellent but very cancelled shounen action series that was seriously popular in some circles). Heart Gear is post-apocalyptic sci-fi about a girl who lives surrounded by droids, some friendly and some literally out of control. Takaki’s art is always beautiful, even if the girls really don’t need to be sexualized like they are, but the plot is still taking shape. The characters are endearing, if perhaps not as developed as they could be. I will say that I look forward to seeing Ru get angry or frustrated at some point. Mostly, I’m still here because there’s been seriously interesting hints of worldbuilding regarding the nature of droid consciousness. Regardless, it’s worth checking out for the post-apocalyptic landscapes and intricate robots rendered in delicate, sketchy ink.
The Sign of Abyss
Drawn by Takamura Maya, this manga is set in an intricate fantasy world. The main character, a prince whose magic destroyed an entire city when he was a child, spends his days researching a way to restore the city, until he finds his life disrupted by a magic-user with rare abilities who broke into his house. The worldbuilding is fantastic, the series just keeps throwing ethical questions at you, and the magic system is splendidly inventive. The art is reminiscent of classic shoujo manga—the clean yet flowing lines (and the soft inking on color pages) really made me think of Takemiya Keiko, but the eyes and faces have a lot in common with other artists influenced by the Year 24 Group/Magnificent Forty-Niners who were working later on, even into the early 90s. It does unfortunately take some of its cues on attitudes toward gender from manga of those eras, defaulting to the shoujo trope of “princely” women rather than actually dealing with questions about gender identity. Still, it’s gorgeous, the plot is engaging, and the characters are extremely likable.
Two extra reasons to like this series: the main female character’s name is Meme (pronounced Meh-meh, but still), and the artist has an easy-to-find pixiv frull of bonus sketches.
Bonus: Dr. Stone
This is a bonus because it’s not available in full on MangaPlus—you’ve gotta buy the Shounen Jump app if you want to read something other than the first 3 chapters and the 3 most recent chapters. If you don’t want to or can’t, that’s fine, the anime’s coming out soon. If you’d like to board the hype train early, this is your invitation, because I’m 80% sure that after the first few episodes of the anime, Tumblr will be flooded in reaction gifs of the main character. Dr. Stone is another post-apocalyptic series, written by Inagaki Riichiro and drawn by Boichi (best known in the West for Sun-Ken Rock). What sets it apart is that it’s basically about one man’s quest to rebuild society from scratch by convincing everyone around him (and the reader) that science is basically a bunch of elaborate, stacked fetchquests interspersed with occasional skill-grinding. The fun part is that it works. To, like, a ridiculous degree. It’s like reading the comic version of MacGyver but Senkuu is much weirder and proud of that fact. At the same time, though, there’s a nice central conflict between him and a character who’s got very specific ideas about who should and shouldn’t get to survive the apocalypse. In the end, the fact that Senkuu’s eccentricity is founded on an honest love of discovery and a firm belief that science is meant to help people is what carries the narrative. The art is lovely, though frankly Boichi didn’t have to draw the women like that and he must know it. I will warn you that it takes a few chapters to find its footing, but if you can get through those chapters, you won’t regret reading it.
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IX: The First Death
I’ve told you all the Kingdom woes
History led to grand us shows
This time was Trystin leanring off on isle
Himself in peasant exhile
Learning all he could in doctor trade
While the world itself unmade
In Eastward place while the peoples met
The Kingdom distant set
When letters hailed from distant shores
He burnt them iin the fire lores
Not to listen to the ocean cries
Of the three peoples lives
It seems that the confluence fail
To bring the Kansen truth and tale
No food they cried, our land runs clean
Nor our problem would it seem
The Kansen say, or ignore as best they do
Who care what lower peoples do?
“We should go back,” Arosha beg
The wiser still, though ixaj take
“I feel their hearts, the death unfold
“We can’t, it’s not our place, our home.”
“They’re dying still, our oath not sweared?
“It was to keep life, no matter fared.”
The selfish prince knew not the weight
As islands still he stayed in wait
Wwhat transgressed in time was somethign new
The Twin princes stood, war frull on threw
A new venture costing moneys same
In the end, they’re not but names.
Called south by Jaya in Bright the way
He tended to wounds as long as they’d let him stay
A broken leg, a dead born fly
Nothing seemed left he could not undue
When travels went to distanct palce
And Arosha say the child’s face
This seeming paradise, one to need
To save her first, they did indeed
No life, nor energy in paled face
Though jaya live so short, her shortened trace
“I don’t know this,” he said, like not before
“It’s like the fate’s left her on remam, on darkest door
He knows the risks, we knew them all
But still he sits quiet hands
Arosha culred around sunkedn shape
The young jaya could not even keep wake
The pair in stead walked hand on hand
To trace her spirit, fate in hand
The child did not wake as they explaind
That he biggest ill was food unremained
The doctor made his fatal flaw
And knowing her tooth and claw
So when they had no food for her to eat
And Kansen magic failed him deep
He cried in horror and Arosha cringed
Their magic had never been gone they winged
Where had the power of the Kansen
And the jaya smiled the saddened kind
To tell him of the sacrifice the ixaj made
On every sunrise, more blood is spilt
In hopes one day Third Kingdom built
Trysitn wept that night for corpse unknown
Knowing soon they’d have flown
That in the Third Kingdom wall and breadth
Everywhere lay bodies death
A protest worse than any before
So maybe Kansen magic woud lose this war
The doctor treated child in strongest stead
But only she withered on terrible bed
Worse and worse she finally crue
As elders gathered, friends, and family too
“I’ve tried everything,” he tasps in breathless ache
“This is so beyond us,” his aid does take
A week goes back with all his mind
Until in fevered, ugly dream ahd moved on to find
This child gave up life at last
And Trystin wept and held on to last
When elders game to the child’s end
Their faces stone with all resound
They went out to the place and bury her
A death Trystin could not count as his hand
When the child fell to jayan plan
Enough to spur the doctor on
Take on City of Enldess bells
They might return to take up their shells
So Third Born son makes way back home
The land was born and made his own
He did this odd by pirate’s way
A mistrustful, tough group, they think him fine
The captain tough, and hard as nails
The First mate a ritgeous tender same
A ship not strictly legal piece
We dock and trade spreading to east
Often they stole, with Sandborn’s name
No one made any note of beauty tame
In city still it might be safe
To take out rats and pigs and ham and friends
I’m writing here losing mt mind
What thought Tristn had to start to play - penny arcades
Heaven is your own best things, not the others
A little lik know them best
When trystin moved to city scape
No short of work for him to take
A ptient had in broken days
With not much money to reay
His client child, like one before
Malnutrition soon aborad
She slept so long until fould could be rbought
Though I rekc she not be saved till is done
Everyday her pain worsened still
From headaches to enflammed knee
The pair tried every rememdy
As magic starved while ixaj died
And no full appeal was truly made
The groan of grew in recent years
Not to trade a gift in greet but could we be thought
Everyday did Trystin see
This girl years on balcony
He let her sit on patio back
And I thought she might smoke the entire pack
“I’m slipping,” Kallen calls under lovely sheet
“Please don’t go,” Trystin say
Though bedside manner practiced lay
His words were practice bitter dust
For those
who made it, as they always must
With Kallen slip, he knew not the words
All sounded worst outside like birds
“I can’t die, i had such to do,” he pleased
“At leas tyou have a life left of coog days.”
The pale in eyes could not erase
A skill set sallow, yellwed abked
Thie the story of the first death of anti-vaxx riots?
It was another naive mom who couldn't know
It’s this kind ignorance that fuels war
The kind that saw the doo unfoor
When it looked so strong like Klalen win
The vitamin drop him wholly him
The eyes sank back and voice did have
His parents still stood ‘round living grace
Could not be said they didn’t try
Like every middle income fmaily
Energy wavered with failing words
“You’ve done all you can,” he smils kind
But the food fails and so does my mnid
“I’ve never lost one in my care,”
Argues stubborn Eelion say
But worried not for following day
As time progressed, it was not pale
For he got heaven mighty trail
And hurt in rage could not repent
Such pain did Kallen find
The skin just peeling off to expose muscle within
“It hurts so fierce, doctor,” he moans
No drugs left to give this one
As the boils rise to surface break
And painful sores in final wake
No beauty death it would not stand
Till Kallen beg for death’s mighty hand
And Eelion watched in wretched horror
Unable to do what he was trained for
As Kallen passed from this life
Trystin nearly took his own sacred life
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