#omg jenna this was so long and as usual i went on a tangent hgjfjfj

[kikuism]

hi mariam!! 💝💖💗 omg i'm so tempted to read your favorite scenes from monster post since you spoke of it so highly, but i don't want to spoil it for myself in case i read it someday. so instead!! what are some of your top favorite manga? :'0 and do you have any on your tbr list??

hi jenna!! 🤍🤍🤍 omg yes, monster is amazing and i highly recommend it to everyone! it really does feel like a classic novel in manga form....i can't praise it enough, urasawa is a master storyteller. i can't wait for you to read it!!

you know it's funny bc i don't really consider myself a manga reader, nine times out of ten i always prefer watching the anime over reading the manga, bc color and sound really enhances the experience for me. when it comes to shounen manga i definitely prefer the anime to the manga since it's just easier for me to understand what's going on since they're so loud and explosive. same with sports anime....i could never read the haikyuu manga since reading those matches isn't the same thing as watching them. the medium of anime is perfect for those kinds of flashy fast paced stories. but in manga i just tend to get lost and i don't feel the full effect. the only exception to this is chainsaw man bc....well i read it before there was the anime adaptation announcement, and i’ve already read it twice and am planning to read it one more time....it's just that good.

but i’ve noticed that darker / more mature / somber / coming-of-age stories benefit from the monotony of black and white manga ... like monster, like vinland saga, like blue period. even fujimoto’s one shot. the ... shall we say, restrictions, of the medium add to the ambience of those stories that i feel like color and sound could sometimes take away. confession....i am really excited for the blue period anime but i feel like it wouldn't be as good as the manga. while there's obviously the fact that we'll finally get to see the beautiful artworks in the manga in full color, a lot of blue period is ruminating over the creative process, a lot of reflection and introspection that gives it a weightier feel and which the stark black and white colors and panels really enhance. not to say that anime adaptations of these kinds of stories can't be good....shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu is one of my all time favorites; i haven't read the manga for it but the anime did an amazing job with the overall somber tone of the series. but in general i just feel like they are best experienced in the manga format. like....here are two examples that just hit me in the gut, and i can't imagine how, animated, they could give me the same feeling.

from monster by naoki urasawa

from look back by tatsuki fujimoto

this probably makes me sound like i’m an avid manga reader but i really actually haven't read all that many .... so to finally answer your question hghdhfhf here are my faves. they're only three but they’ve really left an impact on me: blue period, monster, chainsaw man. while reading these three i got this feeling that i’m reading something really special, and timeless, and that i’m definitely going to re-read them in the future.

as for my tbr, i’m really only thinking of witch hat atelier at the moment. the art looks lovely and the story seems really wholesome. after reading monster i wanted to read a bunch of other classics ... vagabond and berserk got my attention but they're both so long....and both incomplete....so let's see. i’m leaning more towards berserk though. i might just read another urasawa manga though gjfjfhjf