Ok, so what manga novels are good reading for 12-14 year olds? Manga discussion time

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It depends what genres you like. What interests you? Supernatural? Action? Romance? School life? Crime? Sci-fi?

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Ooo ooo ooo! Suggestions! Pick me!!




Rozen Maiden is my favorite series. I love both the anime and the manga, although I haven't finished either of them yet. It's about a boy named Jun who has trapped himself in his own house, but then magical dolls show up. It varies from dark and emotional to light-hearted and hilarious.

Availability: Unfortunately, the manga is no longer in print, and only the first series was ever printed in English... But you can buy used copies fairly cheaply. The anime is fully available on DVD though!




Fruits Basket is another one of my favs. It centers around a girl named Tohru who is weird but really nice. She meets the Sohma family, who all turn into animals from the Chinese Zodiac every time they're hugged by someone of the opposite gender. It's a shojo, so it's sort of "girly," I guess, although that's not really a bad thing for me personally. I haven't gotten too far into it yet, but I love it so far.

Availability: The entire manga was published in English, but it's also out of print, although you can easily get it used. (especially since it was published in English twice by two different companies, Tokyopop and Chuang Yi.) But the anime is still in print -- a pattern!




Full Moon o Sagashite is the other shojo series I'm enthusiastic about. This series is strange in that it is about very dark subject matters, but it's also light-hearted most of the time! I got to see the author, Arina Tanemura, in person, which makes it special for me. It's about a girl who is visited by two goofy not-so-grim-reapers. It's hard to talk about without spoiling anything! Again, I haven't finished it yet.

Availability: The manga *drum roll* ... IS in print!! But... the anime isn't, lol. But I've never watched any of the anime, so I can only recommend the manga anyway. It's a nice and short -- only seven volumes.




Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: Since you're a Ghibli fan, you pretty much have to check this one out, lol. Miyazaki continued writing the manga well after the movie came out, and he was apparently grappling with the subjects of it during that time; so you could say it's the more "complete" Nausicaa experience! But again... I haven't finished it... What is it with me, why haven't I finished any of my series?!

Availability: Fully in print. You can get it in individual volumes, as I did, or you can get it in two giant, heavy, beautiful-looking hardbacks.


(all images from Crunchyroll)

Fruits Basket isn't in print anymore? Oh, must get the last couple of volumes I'm missing... I would second your recommendation of it. The anime and manga were about the very first I watched and read. I'm extremely fond of them.

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Haven't had an opportunity to read the manga, but I have seen the anime twice and I liked it... Fruits Basket...

I, My, Me Strawberry Eggs...
Azumanga Daioh...
Toradora
Chobits
Saber Marionette J
Love Hina
Kare Kano
Trainman

I totally enjoyed all of these...

Just a start...

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A lot of shoujo mangas are good for that age group I guess. Lovely Complex and Kare Kano are good ones, alongside the usuals like Slam Dunk, or even .hack/Twilight which I own too.

Personally, genre taste matter more than age.

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quote:

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Originally posted by fenkashi
Screw your opinions, they are not relevant ^^.

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Full Moon o Sagashite had a huge impact on me at 13, as my grandfather had just passed away. You can read most manga at that age depending on your tastes. A lot of what I read someone that young probably shouldn't have. haha

Tsubasa Chronicles is pretty good around that age group. I started watching the anime for that when I was 12. Anything CLAMP is generally age appropriate (with the exception of Legal Drug. My mother was wary of xxxHolic but that's fine too).

Thankyou ALL for your tips and suggestions, I will be looking into the manga you mentioned

Also I love drawing manga, and have begun to think about making an amateur manga short story (REALLY AMATEUR) it just seems like a fun thing to do....

I'm open to your suggestions-within reasons-no horror, adult themes and not heaps of romance.

I have a bubbly, bright adventure story, think Totoro....

Origatoooo I will give you some more updates in future (hopefully) if I don't make it soon, I will still have the story in keeping for later!

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An excellent idea. Here's my main piece of advice: For each page, make a number of small sketches of the page layout. (Where the panels are, what shape they are, where the characters are going to be, where the dialog balloons will be, etc.) Keep re-drawing it until you're really satisfied; then draw the actual page. I've found that it really pays off to do this.

Arigato for that advice potatotarzan, now has anyone got ideas for the story...you can't know what to draw without a story! This will be a story written by the community, I'll start a new thread!

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