Finally decided to give manga a chance. Recommend some Dark Fantasy & Historical Fiction ones.

[ninja666]

Hey! It's me again, with yet another request. I have to ask you again because, quite ironically, you're way better at recommending anime and manga-related stuff than any anime community I've seen.

A few years ago I was asking around here for Dark Fantasy anime. Nothing of note could really be found, however, and someone said that one day I'm gonna cave in (sic) and just read Berserk to scratch my dark fantasy itch. This is the "cave in" moment. Maybe not specifically Berserk-related, but generally manga-related. I'm at a point where I'm frustrated with how terrible anime's writing generally is, so I decided to change my ways and finally give manga a chance, since apparently, manga has way more to offer and all the good stuff never gets adapted. So yeah, throw the good stuff at me.

I'm looking for either a Dark Fantasy or a Historical Fiction (preferably the former) manga that meets these criteria:

- Well-written, complex story, that's truly dark and mature and not just edgy, truly depressing and not just angsty, and truly dramatic and not just melodramatic. Bonus points if parts of it touch upon taboo themes.
- Characters with rich, flawed personalities (no Mary Sue/Gary Stu characters) and rich, preferably tragic, backstories.
- Gray morality. Nobody is clearly good or clearly evil, but rather everybody is just realising their own goals, no matter the means.
- Morbid, melancholic atmosphere.
- Good art with more realistic character proportions. At least on par with Berserk or Hokuto no Ken. Images for reference:

Spoiler: Example of art in Berserk

Spoiler: Example of art in Hokuto no Ken

- Good balance between action and story bits.
- Finished.
- Fully translated to English.

My favourite, non-manga/anime Dark Fantasy & Historical Fiction works:

- Demon's Souls
- Dark Souls
- Nier Gestalt
- A Song of Ice and Fire
- Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Before asking here, I was asking around in other places as well, and so far I've gathered three titles:

- Feng Shen Ji
- Shin Angyo Onshi
- Wolfsmund

I'd like to pick up a few more, though, to have something to read for a longer while.

I don't have the means to read manga comfortably (can't afford a tablet or an ebook reader, so I'll be reading them on a monitor), so please recommend only stuff that fits what I'm looking for more or less perfectly, in order to make fucking up my eyesight reading all that worth it. Also, it's entirely optional, but if you'd be so kind as to include a page from each of your recommendations you'd say is representative of the manga's overall art style/quality, that'd be great.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Spice and Wolf

It tries to encapsulate medieval economics and trade customs, talks about the nature of the religious fabric of the world (the 'Church' being a metaphor for the supranationalism that Catholicism has always had) and the slow retreat of paganism, and deals with various clever plots and intrigues, coupled with a light romance tale between the two protagonists as they travel across the continent.

The manga is pretty good, I prefer the light novels but the manga is still good.

The stories aren't action orientated. Action and violence are actually th exception rather than the rule. The grand bulk of the tension comes from real world problems. Such as facing imminent bankruptcy, embargoes, political intrigues, religious piety and old fashioned greed.

It emphasises the idea of bottom-up storytelling that typically tells a story of how one merchant and essentially a pagan goddess find ways to profit, to stay afloat, or just simply survive what is in essence a far larger network of systems and people seeking to crush them .... and if they can make a few coins and credited trades in the process of all these people trying to cheat you, all the better.

The plots are surprisingly deep and the intrigues surprisingly complex for any manga I have ever personally touched, and typically I do not like Japanese pop culture. Much prefer Western comics and animation, and Spice and Wolf is kind of like Planetes to me ... the exception.

 

[ninja666]

@Addendum_Forthcoming

Not quite what I'm looking for. It's a bit too... peaceful I guess. I'll consider it cause the story might be interesting regardless, but I'll wait for other suggestions for now. Thanks anyway.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

LONE WOLF AND FUCKIN CUB!!!

Let Samurai Jack set the mood for what this manga is (and mind you the actual Manga is way more bloody and brutal than what Samurai Jack shows)

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

@Addendum_Forthcoming

Not quite what I'm looking for. It's a bit too... peaceful I guess. I'll consider it cause the story might be interesting regardless, but I'll wait for other suggestions for now. Thanks anyway.

Ahhh ... no worries, I thought you'd dig it.

No Mary Sues, morally ambiguous, mature without being 'edgy', realistic looking characters, and characters with flawed personalities.

Give the first couple of chapters a read anyways if you're on the fence if you have time.

 

[ninja666]

LONE WOLF AND FUCKIN CUB!!!

Great suggestion! Definitely something right up my alley. Thank you.

Ahhh ... no worries, I thought you'd dig it.

No Mary Sues, morally ambiguous, mature without being 'edgy', realistic looking characters, and characters with flawed personalities.

Give the first couple a read anyways if you're on the fence.

As I said, I'll consider it. From your description it definitely fits what I'm looking for, but now might not be the best time for me to read it because I may not fully appreciate it for what it is, since I'm in a mood for something darker, more violent, and generally more Berserk-like right now.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, you already have Berserk -- that's all I got. Now go read that beautiful shit, and horror at its decline after volume 22.

 

[ninja666]

Well, you already have Berserk -- that's all I got. Now go read that beautiful shit, and horror at its decline after volume 22.

I'm gonna wait till Miura dies and one of his assistants finishes the story for him first

 

[PapaGreg096]

Vinland Saga is pretty good but its still ongoing, however it has most of what you want in a Historical fiction manga

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, you already have Berserk -- that's all I got. Now go read that beautiful shit, and horror at its decline after volume 22.

I'm gonna wait till Miura dies and one of his assistants finishes the story first

I'd advise making some tea while you wait.

Like, a lot.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Vinland Saga is pretty good but its still ongoing, however it has most of what you want in a Historical fiction manga

Even though its from a completely different culture, this piece of music is fiting for that image:


The Lyrics to those that don't understand Russian:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_the_Volga_Boatmen#Lyrics

 

[ninja666]

Vinland Saga is pretty good but its still ongoing, however it has most of what you want in a Historical fiction manga.

I had my eye on it because I really like the Dark Ages period, as well as the Vikings (I mean, who doesn't? Vikings are fucking cool as hell!), so I was kind of sad when I learned that it's ongoing. I don't want to start an ongoing manga because I'd like to read it at my own pace, without having to wait for new chapters, as well as without any worrying about whether or not it's even going to be finished.

 

[RaikuFA]

It's not fantasy but The Drifting Classroom is one dark as Hell series.

 

[ninja666]

@RaikuFA

Not what I'm looking for right now, but its premise sounds incredibly interesting. I'll add it to my list to read some other time. Thanks.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I've never been much into manga. I've only read the first 2 arcs of Yugioh, to see how it differed from the animes and Ranma 1/2 for the no good tease of an ending and other non animated stories. What the heck was with Rumiko Takahashi's obsession with those horrific giant lipped people in the later stories?

 

[Kotaro]

Spice and Wolf

Good shit, though I would definitely second the recommendation for the novels over the manga.
On top of the stuff mentioned above, I will add that it has one of the better slow-burn, actually believable romances that I've read. The characters are excellent.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I'd like to recommend Dorohedoro, but it's more on the side of urban fantasy, and still unfinished.

Fuck it! I'll say read Dorohedoro anyway.

On your actual criteria I've got Shigurui. It's a historical fiction manga about two rivaling samurai. It more than meets your standard of morbidity and gray morality. It's a harsh depiction of samurai culture in old Japan, and its violence is honestly even more grueling than Berserk because it's depicted in such realistic, explicit and anatomically correct detail. Its two main characters are brilliantly realized opposites of each other: one you admire and respect, the other you actually like. The story itself is nothing that special, but the artwork is simply orgasmic.

Spoiler: Some examples

I would honestly pay money to have some of the splash pages in it coloured and framed on my wall. It's fairly short with only 11 volumes and incredibly minimalist dialogue especially by manga standards, so you can read it in a day or two. In all honesty, you could probably read the manga completely in Japanese and still get the gist of it. You can only find it translated on sites like mangafox, since it's never had an official English release.

 

[blue heartless]

2001 Nights (Nisen'ichi Ya Monogatari) ~ Yukinobu Hoshino

Sure, isn't specifically "dark fantasy", but it definitely takes on fantastical elements in it story, with many harrowing but meaningful developments.

In my layman's opinion, it's like if you take "1001 Nights" (AKA Arabian Nights), mix it with "Lucifer Rising" (which is a neat movie, check it out), and throw in a generous helping of "Lost in Space" (also a film, but also a niche space TV soap opera).

 

[stroopwafel]

Biomega. It's my favorite manga of all-time. It's about a lone dude(or rather, android) on a motorcycle sent by this corporation to search for a girl that is resistent to a virus that turned all people into zombies. The atmosphere and the vast expanse of the infrastructure that makes no architectural sense is second to none. The second half is a genre twist into eccentric fantasy which I don't like as much as the moody cyberpunk of the first half but well, it's simply so insanely good that I would recommend the manga for the first half alone.

 

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