So I've been reading EVEN MORE manga these last few months - I'm under a crapton of stress trying to find us a place to live before I get kicked out on September first (would you believe I've got 11 grand in the bank, more money than I've ever had, and STILL can't find a home to rent that will take cats?) and manga's been one of the rare escapes.
Little Witch's Collier is great. The backstory is, I think, that witches (psychics, really) were persecuted along with Jews/Romani/homosexuals during WW2, but because there were so much fewer of them they were almost extinguished - so one of the last ones, a 6-8 year old girl, is kept for her own safety in a giant French castle, wearing a collar to suppress her power. A male teacher comes in from America, and she starts to feel less trapped... It's a nice 3-volume bundle, not long at all.
Shokugeki no Souma: Aside from the ridiculous premise that this is a high school (it honestly feels more like a highly specialized college!) it's awesome. I never would have thought that cooking battles in a school would be so engrossing, but the characters are so genuinely enjoyable, and the ecchi moments right after eating food are somehow hilarious.
Nurse Hitomi's Monster Infirmary: At first I thought, "Oh golly gee, another monster girl manga, how boorish..." but if the unstated message of Interviews with Monster Girls is "It's okay to be different," then Monster Infirmary's message is "Let your freak flag fly! Be as different as possible!" In this world, everyone mutates into some sort of monster when they hit puberty, and that allows some good gags as well as good moments that feel genuine - we all remember that awkward moment when our bodies started changing, now imagine that you suddenly grew a 12-foot tongue or extra pair of arms?
Dr Slump was Akira Toriyama's breakout thing, and man... I actually don't like it much. I think I laughed once a volume in a genuine fashion, which ain't good for a gag manga. I prefer Dragonball, at least that meshed gags with an ongoing story.
Dance in the Vampire Bund frustrated me intensely. Not because it was bad - quite the opposite! - but because the main storyline ENDED WITHOUT FULL RESOLUTION. It doesn't shy away from nudity and the classic trope vampires are sexual beings while being asexual - most of chapter 2 involved a nearly-naked loli vampire tearing apart humans in hand to hand - but the story was good enough that it kept me reading. Sigh, i need to find the later volumes.
Just finished up to volume 6 of Ancient Magus' Bride. A little girl that can see and attract spirits is purchased by a half-human, half-fae wizard as an apprentice and wife? So much good folklore in here. One great touch is how normally proportioned the human women are, whereas the fae women are... well... as exaggerated as any normal anime woman.
My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is tear-jerking. It's strange, usually I hate the kind of self-pity manga, but the fact that she combines it with rough-edged semi-chibi art is just a perfect contrast. Plus, lesbians. Note: some chapters have nudity and one has sex, but really... it's kind of not what it's about.
I got bored of One Piece around volume... 16, I think? When they pick up Chopper? I think the only reason I kept reading was for the little one-page stories of the other characters that were at the start of most chapters. I was honestly skimming past the fights, and it seemed as though more and more fighting was coming up.
Ditto that for another classic, Yu Yu Hakusho. When the main character was a ghost, waiting to get back to his body, and there was a healthy bit of horror/mystery with the gags, conflicting with his "meathead punch harder!" personality? Great. When they started to climb some tower of baddies and had to fight them one by one - and a former bad guy was suddenly their friend? Boorrrrrriiiing.
The One Punch Man manga, on the other hand, was really, really good. I think I liked it better than the anime because I could easily move past the fighting scenes which bored me. But that spot in Volume 7 where there were literally 12 double pages of a single punch was... just... glorious.
I think... I think I'm starting to become bored of shonen punchypunchy, that last example aside. I'm not sure when it happened, but I can remember the clearest example of it starting: When I was watching the Danmachi anime and I literally skipped past the minotaur fight the MC fought just before he ranked up. I mean, he wins, yes, that's nice, now let me see what happens after. I think that's my problem with Gunnm Last Order. I want Gally's backstory and to see more of how the solar system functions, not punchypunchy big tournament crap.
Next on my docket: My Hero Academia, Sacred Blacksmith, and rereading Marmalade Boy.