Blade of the Immortal (無限の住人) by Samura Hiroaki
I think this was the first
seinen title I ever read. I got into it mainly on the recommendation of a friend and instantly fell in love with it's art style. The plot is very appealing. Even with it's dark storyline, Samura manages to slip a few bits of humor into it. All the characters are engaging from Makie, the female assassin to Shira, the woman-hating sociopath. Love them or hate them, they're all interesting. Rin manages to be a good female lead without being too annoying. And, as I mentioned before, the art style is breath-taking. It floats somewhere between being very realistic to almost traditionally mangaish. Given Samura's penchant show depicting brutal and graphic mutilations, I wasn't entirely surprised to hear that some of his work has appeared in
eroguro magazines.
Links:
Discussion |
Wikipedia |
Dark Horse Manga
Lone Wolf & Cub (子連れ狼) by Koike Kazuo & Kojima Goseki
What appealed to me the most about this series was how, well "old school" and "traditional" it seemed. The art style is realistic and somewhat resembles
ukiyo or ink paintings. Whereas the storyline seems like something from a Kurosawa samurai film. Even though each chapter is a new mission for Itto it's still interesting and I can't wait to see how everything turns out. Especially in the chapters in which Itto, a very honorable man, accepts a mission of questionable honor (one would expect him to turn down) and somehow manages to complete his mission, yet also strike back at his employers. The chapters that show a mission through Daigoro's eyes are also especially interesting.
Links:
Wikipedia |
Dark Horse Manga