Manga

Yusaku Godai is about to move out from Ikkoku, the apartment building filled with most peculiar characters, when the new manager, Kyoko Otanashi enters the building and Yusaku falls in love instantaneously.

This is my all-time favorite manga, the only one that I have bought the whole series. I fell in love with the story of Yusaku trying to achieve the love of the Manager Otanashi, despite of all the other tenants whose favorite hobby is making fun or taking advantage of Yusaku.

In a world that is ruined after wars, the only law is that of violence. Ken is the Fist of the North Star, the master of secret martial arts. He is searching for Julia, his girlfriend, who is being held by his evil half brother with equally good fighting skills.

There is so much violence in this series that it saturates the reader, and you just can't take it seriously. Instead you end up laughing at Ken's enemies, enjoying how they are beaten to pulp. The abundance of muscular men makes it almost homoerotic. The fight scenes must be difficult to draw with still pictures, I'd like to see how they are presented in the animated series.

Genma Saotome, Ranma's father, has decided with his friend Soun Tendo that Ranma will marry Tendo's daughter Akane, to eventually take over Tendo's Anything Goes Martial Arts dojo. But Ranma is not quite a normal boy: Because of an unfortunate training accident in China, every time Ranma touches cold water, he becomes a girl! His father didn't do well either, cold water turns him into a panda. Hot water turns them back into their normal form. Sounds difficult enough? Oh no, that's not all. Ranma and Akane don't get along too well, and in their past Ranma and Soun have made a lot of enemies who want revenge. Not to forget the grand master of Anything Goes Martial Arts, Happosai, who specializes in collecting girls' panties. There is no dull day at the Tendo dojo.

When I first read Ranma 1/2, I didn't like it much, probably because I read it right after finishing Maison Ikkoku and I wasn't used to all the magic and superhuman martial arts. Later, I saw the anime series and liked it, and after that the manga felt better than on the first reading.