What makes me sure that I am still interested in manga…

… is the fact that there is so damn many good stuff in french. 3 years ago, I felt I lost interest in manga – there just wasn’t anything good coming out… until I discovered scanlations and saw that there is so much that didn’t come out in Germany yet. Now, in the last few months, I’m feeling rather bored by scanlations as well – there’s lots of yaoi, sugary shôjo and action shônen. Except for Kotonoha (who unfortunately does nothing but Kilico right now), there aren’t many active seinen scanlators (Omanga and MangaScreener have become *rather* slow…). It’s no big surprise that despite all the manga coming out, there isn’t much that could be interesting for me.

But! Yesterday I browsed through manga-news.com and let’s see what I found.

Manga that I know as scanlation already
Bokura ga Ita, Moonlight Mile, Reset (it’s only one volume, scanlated by … and Omanga – and it looks so promising *arrr*), Shiritsu! Bijinzaka Joshi Koukou, Galism (by the same author, who also did Chiki Chiki Banana *hoho*), Hôkage Hokenshitsu (finished in 5 volumes!), Hyakkiyakô Shô, Angel (hopefully with the beautiful japanese cover), Darling wa Namamono ni Tsuki (finally I know that it has 8 volumes in total), Ichigo Mashimaro (with the lovely name “Les petites fraises” and Yotsubato!

You will see that these titles (just as most of the titles that come out as scanlation) are still relatively mainstream…

Manga by authors I know already
– Strawberry Shortcakes and Water by Kiriko Nananan. I was incredibly disappointed by “Blue”, but I still love her short stories… so *_*
– Adieu Midori by Minami Q-ta. There’s nothing to say about that, I absolutely loved “Jeux d’enfants”, so this one wouldn’t be *too* bad.
– Les mystères de Taisho by Kei Toume. In fact, french people love Kei Toume… they have basically everything by her…
– Manhole by Tsutsui Tetsuya, the author of “Reset”. Since Reset was so interesting, I guess this one would be too… the story sounds as dark and mysterious as Reset.
– Alien 9 by Tomizawa Hitoshi in a box… arrr *___* I find Milk Closet very weird, but I still like it.
– In the clothes named fat by Moyoco Anno. What an intriguing cover! Moyoco Anno is a hit or miss for me (older women’s problems are either very interesting or totally crap)… but this cover just looks too good *___*
– Diamonds by Erica Sakurazawa. Same for Moyoco Anno… most of the better known josei artists are either very good or totally uninteresting for me. That’s why I never dare to buy anything from her…
– M by Katsura Masakazu. In fact, I have read a scanlation of M… but it was a short story, not one that spans the whole volume… that story was *verrry* perverted and I’m still interested in it *g* (The cover’s gorgeous, by the way)
– Encyclopédie des animaux préhistoriques by Jiro Taniguchi. Goddamn this is so great! It’s a story about prehistoric animals, and drawn by Jiro Taniguchi, it must look extremely good…
– Emerging by Hokazono Masaya. This is the guy from Girlfriend, but I believe this manga has nothing to do with Girlfriend… It’s some apocalyptic-like story with a virus that spread out. It has only 2 volumes and does sound interesting…

Manhua that will come out in France!
Of course I have no idea how these manhua are like… but somehow, they look so different to me than other manhua that you see in scanlations (which are mostly from Hongkong or Taiwan and either shônen with overly muscular characters or horribly stupid shôjo)
– My street and Diu Diu by Jun Nie. Diu Diu is apparently some weird story about a desperate mangaka stumbling over a hyperactive fox and other weird but funny creatures. My Street is just as weird as Diu Diu, but is about an asian immigrant in Europe, between the mafia and prostitution… if you look at the cover, it is not necessarily a dark story, just a little bit absurd maybe *g*
– Jenni. The story about a young chinese girl in London… trying to find her happiness or something?
– Wild Animal. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but this really is a story that takes place in the cultural revolution (which is exactly the time my parents were at that age! O.o) It’s the adaptation from a novel though… I wonder how good it is.
– Un monde idéal. The story about a guy who’s too short and works as a forklift operator until one day he just escapes his life.

Manga and Manhwa that I have never heard of yet
– Comic Cue magazine. This was my biggest surprise… I mean, wow! How come this kind of magazine gets published outside of Japan?
– Intermezzo. Really expensive, but it looks so funny! *hehe* It definitely looks more french than japanese – and absolutely lovely *g*
– Nekojiru Udon. Another manga that doesn’t look like a manga. Somehow this cat looks familiar, oh well. A funny and absurd series…
– Voyage à Uroshima. An Urashima Taro rip-off… apparently some guy having weird and highly sexual dreams…
– Edison Fantasy Service. The first manga on this list that doesn’t look *too* weird, a story about a girl who invents basically everything…
– L’amour est une protéine (Love is protein). A collection of short stories (there is also a continuation of the first story in another volume that’ll come out in France) of the dark and ironic kind. I should be loving this kind of stuff *g*
– God save the queen and Le labyrinthe de Morphée. Both are by the same mangaka… apparently some science-fiction/mystery stories. God save the queen is about people in the 22th century suddenly discovering a city in the middle of the desert which is totally different from what they have known yet. Architecture, morals, way of thinking – it’s all different. Le labyrinthe de Morphée is about 2 brothers who are trying to find metaphysical truths and suddenly find themselves the be the main suspects of a murder case… Both appear to be philosophical stories.
– Baptism. This is by the mangaka of Drifting Classroom… but oh well, I liked the cover O.o
– Lotto Blues. A short story collection. In fact this is the first manhwa I have ever seen that contains short stories… And apparently, these “urban stories” are all a little bit humoristic.
– La bicyclette rouge. I have seen this title earlier already… it appears to be some slice of life manhwa similar to Taniguchi’s works. (It is amazing that this site refers to Taniguchi! As if they expect a lot of people know Taniguchi and would buy a manga because it’s similar…)
– Les anneaux de l’alliance. Now to the josei titles! The cover reminds me a little bit of Erica Sakurazawa, just that it has a softer atmosphere… I know nothing about this manga other than that, but I think these kinds of covers and the title are saying a lot already.
– All my darling daughters. By the author of several yaoi manga so I’m not sure whether I would like this. But I have the impression that a lot of yaoi authors draw very, very good josei (Mizushiro Setona for instance).

Now isn’t this a scarily huge list?