Thread: Recommendation please

I'm on my summer holidays and I have nothing better to do, so I'm in need of some good manga recommendations. I'm haven't actually read much mangas, comparatively to many people on here. So you can recommend me almost anything and chances are I haven't read it.

I like action with a humor and/or with fantasy elements. The ones I've read and enjoyed (those that I can remember atm):
Bleach
Black Cat
Claymore
D.Gray-Man
Fairy Tail
FMA
HXH
Kekkaishi
Tales of Destiny
Tales of Symphonia
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles

As for action, I don't like the really violent ones, like Berserk... yes I know its a great manga, but a too rough for my liking. (My friend often wondered whats wrong with me, as she worships Berserk like the bible.)

I also would like some recommendations on mangas with a competitive nature (I have no idea how to classify them, competitive is the best term I can come up with), I enjoy those with competition/tournaments, something like:

Hikaru no Go
HxH
Yakitate!! Japan

for action:
vagabond
shin angyo onshi
battle angel alita
shamo
gantz
zetman

for competition:
slam dunk
flame of recca

Of the above, vagabond, shamo and gantz may be too violent for your liking. Not sure about the rest. In any case, let's start off with the sports competition manga...

This time, I'm going to mention H2 right off the bat. H2 tells the story of Hiro and Hideo, best friends and baseball teammates in middle school. Hiro is an ace pitcher while Hideo is a star batter. When Hiro injures his arm, the doctor orders him to stop baseball, and Hiro brokenheartedly enters Senkawa High School, where no baseball team exists. Hideo, on the other hand, enters Meiwa High School, which has one of the best baseball teams in the country. However, Hiro soon finds out that the doctor was a quack, and then goes all out to try and form Senkawa's first baseball team, with the help of Haruka, a lively but clumsy girl. His goal: to challenge Hideo on the field at Koshien Stadium, where the inter-high baseball tournament finals are played. And to make things even spicier, Hideo's girlfriend Hikari was Hiro's childhood friend... and secret love. The series follows the journey of the two best friends and rivals on the road to their final showdown... in baseball, and in love.

Eyeshield 21 is a great example of a manga which meets all three of your requirements. Kobayakawa Sena is a weakling shrimp who only has one strength - being able to run really really fast (because of all the years of running errands for bullies). When his speed is spotted, he is forcibly recruited into Deimon High School's American Football club, run by an extremely chubby lineman Kurita and the devilish, violent trickster quarterback Hiruma. Their goal - to play at the Tokyo Bowl, at the finals of the American Football High School National Tournament. Of course, the road to the Tokyo Bowl is extremely difficult, but one-by-one Deimon High assembles a team of weird misfits and crazy characters who somehow come together to form one of the most powerful offensive teams in all of Japan. Even then, they face long and hard battles ahead on the football field.

Hajime no Ippo is an extremely long (81 volumes and still-running) manga series about Makonouchi Ippo, a weak fisherman's son who gets bullied in high school, and wants to learn what it means to be strong. A chance encounter with a passing boxer leads him to a boxing gym, where he starts training to become a professional boxer. Along the way, he meets friends, rivals and champions and students in the ring... on a road that leads him through several years to become Japanese champion, and onto the world stage.

Other than that... hmmm...

Rurouni Kenshin is a gem of a manga that every action fan should read. Himura Kenshin was once known as Battousai, the feared and legendary assassin during the Bakumatsu wars in shogunate era of Japan's history. Now living in the new Meiji era that he helped to create, Kenshin is a wanderer, hoping to atone for his past sins which left a cross-shaped scar on his cheek. When he meets Kamiya Kaoru, the young heiress to a kendo dojo, he decides to settle down for a while and help her restore her family's business. But enemies of the past continue to haunt him, and soon Kenshin would have to take up his blade again - to protect his new way of life and make right the wrongs of the past.

I'm surprised Naruto isn't on your list (though I presume you've just forgotten it). In any case, read the manga rather than the anime. The anime tends to be slow and flashback-heavy, whereas the manga is much quicker-paced. I won't bother with a description - Naruto is famous (or infamous, as the case may be).

-Dizzy-

Thanks for the recommendations guys, I check it out once I have time.

dizzcity - I've already watched Naruto and Rurouni Kenshin ages ago on anime, but I gave up Naruto, because it just got boring for me. Apparently its really good again... but I'm not sure if I can be bothered to pick it up again, its a bit too long for my liking. I'm not sure about Kenshin... is the manga similar to the anime? I loved the anime, its a classic.

Contrary to my limited exposer to mangas, I've actually watch quite a few anime series. When I was in high school, my anime obsessed friends supplies me with a wide range of anime. But now since we are in different universities, I don't have access to much anime as before, and since I can not afford to buy nor have enough download limit to download it. So yeah recently I've been looking at manga instead.

What I'm most surprised of is that One Piece isnt on your list

One Piece and Naruto fit perfectly in your list. Especially One Piece since you like Fairy Tail (which is made by the student of the One Piece Mangaka and due to that both mangas are very similar in many perspectives)
in fact I've never seen a list like yours without them. maybe you forgot to mention them.

The Naruto anime went into seasons of filler episodes -- thus the quality.

Lets see, for Mangas I'd recommend YuYu Haksusho (Same mangaka as Hunter_X_Hunter)

Inuyasha (its a bit long)

Dragonball (classic adventure series)

Naruto Pick it up at the beginning of the sound 4 arc, cant remember the chapter though...

Im not sure other then those, I dont read too much shounen, I'd recommend 20th Centruy Boys, not so much action but its a really gripping story, I didnt think i would like it at first but i was flipping pages while sitting on the edge of my seat after no time at all.

for action:
Tenjou Tenge
for competition:
Air Gear

P.S: Both of this mangas are work of Oh!great, meaning there is some fan service

This must be an augmented sense of the word "some" that I was previously unaware of.

Originally Posted by kazo

I'm not sure about Kenshin... is the manga similar to the anime? I loved the anime, its a classic.

The manga is the original story, so it's a lot tighter and more closed. The anime parallels the manga up to the end of the Tokyo-Shishio arc. Then the anime goes on for several seasons and different filler arcs, while the manga immediately heads for its second and final arc - the Tomoe & Enishi story, which is covered in slightly lesser depth in the anime OVAs.

-Dizzy-