Help Me Fall in Love with Anime and Manga

[Brucek]

Ok, so Wednesday is one of the highlights of my week. Its the day I go check out what new comics are out!

I want to find a similar love for Anime and Manga...but I have yet to find any series that I can sink my teeth in to. I love good coloring in comics and I love strong hero characters in the vein of Batman, Braveheart, etc.

Please help me fall in love with Manga. Even a good Samurai honor story would do the trick. Coyboy bee-what? Uh uh, not for me.

Thanks!

[EricDent]

Probably what you are looking for is not a manga, since most of them are black & white (no color, sorry).

There is a Batman manga if I remember right. Use the power of the internet to maybe look it up.

As far as strong characters go, most Action manga have pretty strong characters. Yes there are quite a few Samurai type manga as well.

Here is a question for you, have you seen any particular anime show that you like? If so chances are that it was based on a manga, so if you enjoyed the show, then you probably would like the manga.

Oh by the way, Cowboy Bebop is really cool. First you have the main characters: Spike Speigal is a former syndicate (mob) hitman who knows Jeet Kun Do (Bruce Lee's fighting style), then you have former cop Jet Black, Feme Fatal (and deep in debt) Faye Vallentine, child genius hacker Edward, and Ein the dog. All of them team up to catch criminals (they are bounty hunters) in the future. Set in space, they go places like Mars, Jupiter, and even Earth (which is pretty much a dump). The anime features great action, cool characters, awesome music, and the mangas (there are 2) are not the same as the show at all.

[Juggernaut6]

Rurouni Kenshin, Bleach, Naruto, InuYasha

[Brucek]

Awesome! Hopefully the Batman will be good. That is one of the best characters and he is rarely written well. I will check out the others and report back!

[EricDent]

BTW there is a Batman "Anime" coming soon, it is done similarly to the Matrix spin-off anime show which was called The Animatrix (IMO it's better than the 2 sequels to the original movie). The anime is called Batman: Gotham Knight, and it looks awesome!

[TheSkipper]

I agree on Inuyasha, but not Bleach and Naruto. It's all a matter of individual tastes. I like Cowboy Be-Bop, also Tri-gun, and some older ones, like Samurai Jack, very stylized and a trip to follow. Other anime is now, always has been, and always will be crap, like Pokemon and <shudder> The slide show more than animated, DBZ. Look for the newer one The Avatar, interesting story line and well made for today.

[EricDent]

Um, just to clarify Avatar & Samurai Jack are not really Anime, they just look like anime. Avatar is a Nikelodeon show, and Samurai Jack was a Cartoon Network show (being shown in re-runs on occasion during the Toonami block).

Here is a good way to get into anime.

1: Go to your local video store.
2: Ask if they have an anime section (maybe in the Kids section or in special interest).
3: Check out a couple of movies. Pretty much any Studio Ghibli (Miyazaki) film is a good start. They are as follows: Lupin the Thrid in Castle of Cagliostro, Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirted Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, & Porco Rosso.
4: Then pick up any other show/movie that looks interesting to you.
5: Rinse & Repeat until you have watched all the video store has to offer, then go to the next nearest video store (and so-on). If you ever run out of videos to watch (or don't have a video store nearby) you could then join Netflix.

[TheSkipper]

Where they appeared is not the measure. Both are Japanese made.
Naruto is on C N, so I guess it's NOT anime, either?

[EricDent]

OK I guess so, just trying not to confuse the issue at hand. He is trying to get into Japanese anime. Not American made "psudo-anime" (even if they were animated in Japan, they are American made shows).