5 Manga You Will Be Dying To Know What Happens Next
Some manga we enjoy and can read casually. Others have stories so compelling that every page is turned with extreme anticipation of what is to come. Finish one volume and your hand is already on the next. Here are some of those stories.
5. 僕はビートルズ (I Am The Beatles)
Difficulty: ☆☆
You love the Beatles, but that isn’t enough. You form a Beatles cover band, but that isn’t enough. So you time travel with your cover band back to the Beatles era, and release their music before they get the chance to. Bingo!
4 loyal Beatles fans who end up in the past decide that they want to release the Beatles music first, right before the Beatles get a chance to. Their logic is that if they release the music first, the Beatles will be forced to create even more new and innovative music that never existed before.
But the cover group is in Japan in the 1960s. Can 4 Japanese musicians re-create the same impact and fervor on the world that the original Beatles did? What happens if their plan actually succeeds and the Beatles instead decide to quit music altogether?
I’m in no way a Beatles fan (I actually don’t really know much about them at all), but I enjoyed this immensely. I would assume Beatles fans would enjoy it that much more.
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4. 僕だけがいない街 (The Town That Only I’m not In)
Difficulty: ☆☆
When bad things happen, you wish you could’ve done something to prevent it. Satori has that ability. Before something terrible happens, like an accident or crime, he has the opportunity to experience it once in his mind before it actually happens.
He uses his visions to help those around him until someone very close to him is murdered. He was unable to use his visions to save them, and now he is being framed for the crime. His power suddenly evolves and he is able to travel back in time to his youth and work to unravel the horrendous serial kidnapping in his past that somehow has made a connection with his present.
Will he figure out who is responsible? Will he be able to save who was murdered in the present?
This is an incredible page-turner mystery, is heart warming, and has an amazing Sci-Fi grounding. Everything is tense. Your heart will be pounding, and you will be in tears. You never know what will happen next. And the cliffhangers are amazing. You want to read this. This is probably one of the most powerful manga I’ve read in a long time (currently it is on volume 4).
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3. ガン ブレイズ ウエスト (Gun Blaze West)
Difficulty: ☆☆☆
Ever thought about a Japanese manga that would be set entirely in the U.S., combining fiction and history, and be like Ruroni Kenshin except with guns instead of swords?
From the creator of Ruroni Kenshin comes this exciting tale of cowboys and gunfighters in the 1800s.
Viu had a dream. He wanted to reach Gun Blaze West, a legendary place where outlaws came together to test their skills and seek out adventure. To get there, Viu must learn to shoot, he must get together a team, and he must face the fierce and lawless U.S. West. This series is quite unique, and it is so much fun to read the manga fiction take on this era of America (just like the manga fiction era of Meiji Japan for Kenshin).
The story is new and unpredictable and you never know the direction (except west). Sadly, you will be kept wondering what happens next, eternally. The series was cancelled after 3 volumes. The U.S. based story just wasn’t popular enough to sustain a full series.
However it’s an exciting ride for the 3 volumes, and it does have a somewhat proper ending.
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2. アイアムアヒーロー (I Am A Hero)
Difficulty: ☆☆☆
Zombie outbreak! In Japan! No way! Part comedy, part horror, this is unlike any zombie movie/TV show you’ve ever see.
A zombie outbreak begins and the extremely unlikely Otaku, who happens to own a sport shooting rifle (very rare in Japan), must navigate his way through it. After having to kill his zombie girlfriend, he seeks shelter from the horde of zombies that are attacking everyone.
Escape to Mount Fuji! It must be safe there.
“Excuse me, can you stop biting me? Please stop biting me.”
Japanese politeness still prevails.
“Hikkikomori (shut-ins) unite! We will outlast this plague on 2-chan!”
There is such a modern and realistic edge that it feels like what would actually happen. Yes, Hideo wears ear protection when he fires his shotgun. Guns are loud.
Original twists and plot elements everywhere. Baby zombies. Half zombies. Somewhat able to talk zombies. If you like zombies, this will be fresh. If you don’t like zombies, this won’t feel like your typical zombies.
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1. ホーリーランド (Holyland)
Difficulty: ☆☆
Kamishiro is constantly bullied and is desperate to find his place in life. His space where he can be him. His Holyland.
To fight away the pain, he practices boxing in his bedroom. Not because he wants to be a boxer. Not even because he wants to defend himself. But because he tries out the basic one-two punch after reading it in book, and finds that it allows him to forget everything else in the world.
So he practices the one-two over and over again. Thousands of times a day. For months and months.
One day, at a game center at night, he starts to be bullied by some delinquents (“Yankees”). After all of his boxing training, he instinctively fights back. After doing nothing but this unintentional training for a few years, he is strong. Real strong. And easily takes down his enemy.
And so his reputation begins as the “Yankee Hunter.” He starts being targeted by other Yankees everywhere. Stronger Yankees. Those that have various fighting styles like karate, judo, wrestling, and kendo.
Kamishiro must get stronger. He must face tougher opponents. He will not give up his Holyland. He will remain.
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Any other manga where you were dying to know what happened next?
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
Everyone one of these sounds amazing 0.0 I don’t know which to read first.
They are all really fun. Though my favorite is 僕だけがいない街。The only problem with this one is that it is new, so you have to wait, painstakingly, for the next chapters.
I just got done reading the first volume of it and the suspense is killing me! Now I regret only ordering the first three volumes… Gonna have to wait another two weeks to get the rest.
It’s a wild ride with massive cliffhangers. Enjoy!
I just told myself I would stop going to BookOff for a while since I’ve already bought so many manga. And now you’ve just tempted me with a few of these. Not good!
BOOK OFF is AMAZING!!! when I was in Japan I had to ship my things back home because I bought to much manga lol is kinda sad.
As the saying goes, the more manga, the better.
I ended up buying the first volume of 僕だけがいない街 and enjoyed it so I have purchased the 2nd volume and will be reading that soon. It strangely took me a while to get into the 1st volume as something was throwing me off and I couldn’t figure it out. The Japanese wasn’t particularly difficult but I couldn’t settle in. Then I started reading it out loud and realized it was the pacing of the main character’s internal monologue. Once I realized that, it changed everything and I was able to continue on at a rapid pace.
Glad the pace picked up for you! One thing to be careful for is try not to leave too much time in between volumes, as it becomes a somewhat involved story and it can become easy to forget the details.
This was my issue since I had to wait a few months for every new volume to come out!
Okay, I have now bought (and already read) the first volume of アイアムアヒーロー and I can’t wait to read more. The art is fantastic and I love the non-clean, this-is-real-life dialogue. But seriously, this manga buying needs to stop. I now have way too many series!
アイアムアヒーロー (on volume 2/16)
僕だけがいない街 (on volume 3/5)
進撃の巨人 (on volume 5/16)
ホイッスル (on volume 12/24)
暗殺教室 (on volume 4/13)
自殺島 (on volume 2/12)
美少女戦士セーラームーン (on volume 3/12)
And that’s not counting the three series I had to leave behind in the US unfinished.
俺たちのフィールド (on volume 15/33)
魔法先生ネギま!(on volume 16/38)
エンジェルハート (on volume 4/33)
And it’s not like I’m not furiously trying to read through them! (And it is quite quite enjoyable. Almost like it’s not a problem at all. *ahem* No, it’s a problem!)
Manga like 僕だけがいない街 are the reason I refuse to begin any series that hasn’t reached its conclusion.
True, being kept in such suspense can be annoying at times, but reading current manga makes you feel like you are keeping up with Japanese culture, and is a great way to keep track of your progress (http://japaneselevelup.com/grow-together-anime/).
I started reading Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi but dropped it after a first few pages because I thought the art was crappy, and it was a bit boring.
I just finished the first episode….HOLY CAT! The last 15 seconds just blew my mind.
There are only 3 episodes released??? I highly regret watching this show. The suspense is killing me. I don’t wanna read the manga…I guess I’ll have to wait for a few days, or read ネタバレ.
マンガ読めよ!
Im with you on this one; I watch a lot of currently airing anime so I’m used to the wait, but god damn this one is just killing me, the anime is SO well made, it’s crazy! Because of that though I refuse to read the manga, since even the manga isnt totally finished yet (although it will finish at the same time as the anime).
I seem to be missing something with this series. As in, everyone on the internet seems to be all “wow that was amazing I didn’t see that coming this is the best series ever!!!!” and I’m just “meh, that ‘cliffhanger’ sounds about right”. I just am not feeling the excitement on this one.
I actually think it’s less about ‘oh my god, what will happen next’ and more about the excellent characterization and the absolutely gorgeous art and animation. At least, that’s why I’m so in love with it.
For the manga, the art is the only think keeping me going because I really like it. That and the fact that the series is still on the short side. I don’t think I’d continue if it had 30 volumes still to read. I’ve never seen the anime as I don’t watch anime.