this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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I assume it's similar how I can't get in to manga, but I can enjoy a novel or animated stuff. Just can't seem to enjoy those black and white squares with questionable art in them. Just doesn't speak to me.
Have you tried any that are criticallyhighly regarded? I certainly wouldn't describe the art in Akira or any of Otomo's books as "questionable". Obviously there's cheaper stuff out there but there is extremely high quality Manga.
Also a lot of the more big name manga are shonen which can run the range of of "questionable" which makes it harder for westerners to get into. While seinen for example generally doesn't have as much fan service overall but its often times not as much or it is recontextualized as bad, for example that horse in Bezerk.
I'm not a huge manga fan myself, so I'll share the only one that's managed to make enough of an impression for me to read multiple works, and that's horror author Junji Ito.
He's usually got some disturbing, but unique and fairly talented art. Some of his stuff veers more towards ghost story, some dreamishly weird, and some straight up Cronenberg shit. His magnum opus "Uzumaki" is all three.
If you feel like giving it a chance, here's The Enigma of Amigara Fault, a shorter, tamer work that's a fairly common intro to his stuff.
Literally was going to recommend Ito... Shit is so good.
The recent manga versions of H.P. Lovecraft's work have been cool too (with amazing cover art).
Also someone who generally doesn't enjoy anime/manga, but there's some out there that I like.
Not to mention they'll finally understand all those "THIS IS MY HOLE" references!
There's almost certainly manga you'd enjoy out there, but if you're not willing to dig through all the crap that's understandable. And because it's more niche it'll take more effort to discover the things you'd like.
I’m more for novels but for me it’s because a translated manga will cost similar to a light novel but takes a fraction of the time to read. Less value for my money