Sticky: Recommend a Manga (Read the first post!)

[The Phantoms Alchemist]

Title: D.N.Angel

Author: Yukiru Sugisaki

Publisher: Tokyo Pop

Language: English, Japanese

Number of Volumes: 12, but vol. 13 is supposed to come out in December 2009.

Rating: Teen (13+)

Genre: Action, fantasy, romance

Basic Premise/Basic Plot: Daisuke Niwa is a 14-year-old boy who has a special genetic ability: whenever he sees or thinks about his crush, Risa Harada, he turns into the infamous phantom thief Dark. Satoshi Hiwatari is a student at the same school as Daisuke and the Harada twins, as well as the Commander of the police force who is heading the investigation on Dark. He is also member of the Hikari family, a clan of artists which has opposed the Niwa family of thieves for centuries.

Your Rating for the Artwork: A (98%)

Your Opinion/Review of the Art: Very good. Incredibly detailed. The style tends to change somewhat from volume to volume, but in a good way. I'm looking at the most recent volume and volume one right now, and they're SO different.

Your Rating for the Story: A (94%)

Your Opinion/Review of the Story: It can get very clichéd at times. However, those times are usually very brief and there aren't quite as many as them in the later volumes. The first volume in and of itself was bad, though. Just serving a warning. It gets much better from then on. And for everyone who watched the anime, don't worry, Mio isn't in the series at all (thank god!).

[HearshotMonSTAR_]

Title: Doubt
Artist/Author: Tonogai Yoshiki
Rating: C+
Chapters: 20
Completed: Yes

Genre: Horror, Psychological
Basic Premise/Basic Plot: Bonded by a popular cell phone game called "Rabbit Doubt", a group of teenagers find themselves in the exact same situation as the premise of the game. A colony of rabbits, and one among them is a wolf hidden in a rabbit's disguise killing one by one off in every round. The group must figure out who the wolf is before it's too late.

Your Rating for the Artwork: B
Your Opinion/Review of the Art: Much like something out of a shoujo manga, the art could very easily mislead you in to thinking it is one. Not the best art, but not that awful either.

Your Rating for the Story: B-
Your Opinion/Review of the Story: Pretty predictable, but nonetheless fairly scary, and interesting enough to make you want to keep reading.

Suggested for people who like: reminiscent of the saw movies and that other movie called like cube or something where these people are trapped in this cube full of deadly traps?

[Manakete Selena]

Title:Gothic Sports

Rating:5 out of 5

Genre: Drama/Comdey
Basic Premise/Basic Plot: [no spoilers, please]
Anya gets excepted to a big time school known for sports and is rejected from the soccer team and sets off to start her own her friend makes gothic outfits to attract attention

Your Rating for the Artwork: [A through F]
A
Your Opinion/Review of the Art:
It's really nice art work and I like the way she draws hair

Your Rating for the Story: [A through F]
A
Your Opinion/Review of the Story:
It's a good story and lesson don't give up.

Suggested for people who like: Comdey and a good story

[ambercrystal]

Title: Fruits Basket
Rating:A+
Genre: Comedy, romance, fantasy, drama
Basic Premise/Basic Plot: Tohru Honda is a simple girl who comes across the secret of the Sohma family. She spends the next three years struggling to keep their secret, pass high school like her mother wanted, work part time, and deal with the feelings she develops for one of the members of the Sohma family.
Your Rating for the Artwork: A
Your Opinion/Review of the Art:I quite like the art. The detail is unbelievable, and the characters eyes convey so much emotion, it is incredible!
Your Rating for the Story: A
Your Opinion/Review of the Story: I loved the story. Considering it was my second manga it really made an impression on me. The story plot is relativiely easy to follow if you have been reading it from the beginning, and the characterisation is so believable.

Suggested for people who like: Romance is a huge theme, so you should not be adverse to that if you wish to read Fruits Basket. Also, it starts out quite goofy and lighthearted, but it gets quite serious. So, you will need to be OK with a mix of comedy and tragedy.

[-ichigo_ringo-]

Title: Skip-Beat!
Rating: 10/10
Genre: Drama, comedy, romance
Basic Premise/Basic Plot: (copy/pasted from Wikipedia...) Skip-Beat! is about Kyoko Mogami, a wistful yet cheery sixteen year-old girl who loves her childhood friend, Shotaro, but is cruelly betrayed and thus seeks revenge against him. She used to spend a lot of time at Shotaro's parents' inn and learned a lot about housekeeping, hostelry, and other jobs (sewing, cooking, serving tea traditionally, etc.). Shotaro, not wishing to take over his parents' inn, becomes bored of living in Kyoto and decides to move to Tokyo to pursue a career in music. Sho, as he is called by his fans, asks Kyoko to leave high school in Kyoto Prefecture and her life behind to help him. Upon arrival in Tokyo, Kyoko lives an unreasonably frugal life, spending nothing on herself and doing whatever she can for the freeloading Sho, who eventually becomes ranked seventh in the top twenty most popular entertainers of Japan. One day, however, as Kyoko brings Sho his lunch at a company building, she overhears Shotaro complaining about her to his manager, saying that she is a boring and plain girl with no sex appeal that he'd like to cast away. He then proceeds to sweet-talk and flirt with his manager, in stark contrast to the cold and demanding attitude he usually exhibits towards Kyoko. Unlike other heroines in the same situation, Kyoko doesn't shed many tears when she learns that Sho thinks she's only good for housekeeping. Instead, her "Pandora's box" opens and she vows vengeance on Sho. Enraged, Kyoko attempts to attack Sho, but is instantly carried off by security. Sho mockingly tells her that if she wants revenge, she had better become a bigger star than him. And so, Kyoko, vowing revenge, changes her appearance and enters the entertainment business, facing many challenges along the way. Skip Beat! follows Kyoko's journey to climb the showbiz ladder as she meets interesting people, in the hopes of getting revenge on Shotaro, but also in order to get back her sense of compassion that she had lost when her heart was broken by Sho. However, she later discovers that she is acting because she wants to, not on revenge for Sho.

Your Rating for the Artwork: B-
Your Opinion/Review of the Art: I'm not a huge fan of the artwork...but I really think that the author does a fantastic job of drawing the emotions for the characters. The actual artwork in itself isn't fabulous, but don't let that put you down. The plot is amazing.

Your Rating for the Story: A
Your Opinion/Review of the Story: I really loved the plot. At first the series is revolved around Kyoko's revenge against Sho, but then it evolves into a romance between Kyoko and Ren, and then I think a love triangle is formed too...? Anyway, I really really like Kyoko because she isn't pathetic and wimpy (ok, maybe she USED to be pathetic when she liked Sho...but that only lasted for the first few pages) and her inner demons are HILARIOUS.

Suggested for people who like: Revenge, romance (but not flat-out romance because Kyoko is such a ridiculously naiive character; she so obviously cannot tell when a guy likes her...), comedy.