For the 30+ yr old Manga readers...

Hullo!

Feels like a confessional...lol

I am a mid thirties closet manga fan-hugely rabid as far as my collection goes but no one at work nor my family even know I read the stuff. Only guys I've dated know and that's only after I feel comfortable enough to tell them about it. Considering so many men like comics though, they are usually quite accepting.

I swap manga online and have made quite a few of friends that are my age and older that love their manga and yaoi-two of them are in their 50's, and I know there's more of us out there!

So it's support group time-lol, how old are you (you don't have to be specific if you're not comfortable with that-just ballpark), how big is your collection and what are your fav manga's?

I currently have five bookshelves full-six shelves each, one of which is double stacked and one which is nothing but yaoi...

Top five fav's are:

Sailor Moon-(it was my first series...)
I Hate You More Than Anyone
Fruits Basket
Boys Over Flowers
You're So Cool

Would love to hear from others who are similar to me! Let's come out of the closet! (But not too far out...heh)

Hi there! I am also a 30 + (more on the plus) manga lover :-) It's so nice to know there are more of us.

My family is aware of my obsession although they really don't understand it LOL! Even my 18 y.o. son thinks I'm kind of strange, although that could be for more reasons than just the manga.

My manga is pretty much scattered between two rooms but I think if I put it all together I could probably fill a book case (including a shelf of yaoi). I also take a lot out from the library.

I'd say of everything I've read so far my favorites would be:

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle
Her Majesty's Dog
Fake
Legal Drug (wish they'd finish the series!)

I'm still pretty much a new comer to the genre and have only been reading it for the last couple years. It is certainly a very addictive medium! The newest series I've been trying out and really enjoying are Totally Captivated and The Wallflower.

Luvdarain - do you have the same name on Mangatude? If so, I think we may have traded in the past :-)

Yup, thats me-Luvdarain5 -i have met sooo many ppl my age and older on Mangatude, and i was reading some of the other manga posts here and i saw some comments from older ppl who seem to feel ashamed that they like manga. So i want them to know there're more of us out here than they think!

As for your favs-all four series are good, especially Her Majesty's Dog-but the new series-Bound Beauty...not so much! :(

BTW, how long have you been 'using'? I've been collecting manga for about six years now...

I haven't read Bound Beauty although it is on my list of manga to try. I'd also like to get the second volume of A Wise Man Sleeps. I took the first out from the library but they don't have the second volume, grrr!

Of the ones you've mentioned I've only read a couple volumes of Fruits Basket. I had watched the anime and wanted to pick up the manga where it left off. I'll have to see if the library carries the others you've mentioned.

I'm only a couple years in collecting but have spent sooo much money in those two years!! I've had to back way off of my book/manga buying lately but I'm hoping things get better soon!

I saw the Anime and there is a lot thats different than the manga, especially the ending! I would highly suggest the manga over the anime, but of course the series is very long, so maybe try scanlations or something.

Yup, my collection has cost me a small fortune over the years, i've tried to find ways to cut back. Trading saves me money but new releases of my favs are harder to come by and i still wind up buying those firsthand. I do get them from Justmanga tho and it saves me a lot! Five books for 40 books and free shipping. Plus the more you order you can get 5.00 books (only one per order/only select books) to fill in the holes in your series...

I'm a mid-30+ manga fan, too, though I started over 10 years ago. My comic book dealer tried to get me interested in some of the titles, but it was the start of MixxZine with Ice Blade, Magic Knight Rayearth, Parasyte and Sailor Moon that clinched it. This was back in the days when they all came out in comic book format first.

Gotta go, but I'll be back tomorrow.

I'm half a century. I am starting Nodame Cantabile. Long running series I'm following include Hikaru no Go and Prince of Tennis.

I don't know how big my collection is, several book cases worth, I suspect.

I don't have favorites, but some of the titles I re-read frequently include Uriyuudou Yumebanashi, Le cortège des cent démons, and Ze, in addition to the ones named earlier.

I'm about to turn 33 and I've been reading/collecting for over ten years. I have more than 900 volumes. They're not all cataloged yet, though, so I don't know the exact number. I have four more boxes of them in the library closet that I don't have room for yet. My family knows about what I read but doesn't care, and I don't see why they should. My husband and I both read it, and and we regularly cross genres--he likes a few series aimed at girls and I read plenty of boys' stuff. I have too many favorites to list, but some of the series I'm most interested in right now are Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei, Junjo Romantica, Dogs, Nabari no Ou, Zombie Loan, Spiral, xxxholic, Vampire Knight, and of course, Naruto.

Upper-30s here. My manga collection has spilled over the shelves and is now in various piles in various rooms. Right now some of my favorites are:

xxxHOLIC
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service
Kare Kano
Fruits Basket
Hayate X Blade
Black Lagoon
and lately I've been getting into Hikaru no Go too - surprisingly addictive.

>10 enheduanna: Nabari no Ou is really high up on my wishlist despite not wanting to start new series. It is good to see someone has enjoyed it!

I've never hidden my reading habits from my friends and family, though I'm a little more discreet around strangers (I occasionally feel a little awkward reading books obviously marketed toward children).

I have around 1800 or so manga/manhwa novels, a few hundred individual comic books and a few hundred anthology magazines including MixxZine, Smile, Super Manga Blast, Shonen Jump, Shojo Beat and Yen Plus.

I find it hard to pick a favorite (they say the memory starts to go at some age... ;)

One that I really like for its story telling is From Far Away by Kyoko Hikawa. It is a fairly short series (only 14 volumes) that tells one story and stays focused without a lot of silliness and side stories. And it's in my favorite genre: fantasy with a touch of romance.

I love Skip Beat for all of the little spirit Kyokos. I'm not sure I'd enjoy it as much without that visual cue of her inner turmoils and determination.

>12 Jenson_AKA_DL: I tried really hard to resist it, too, because I've just got too many series going but eventually I couldn't ignore it anymore. I admit that at first it's rather derivative and not exactly enthralling, but a couple of books in it starts to become much more compelling and interesting in its own right. I didn't love it like crazy at first, but I do now. ^_^

I am a 50++ Manga fan and have about 400 Manga and Manhwa books. Mostly samurai, horror and sci-fi, but also the occasional shonen like Nana or Cromartie High School.
I have to admit they are only a small portion of the rest of my comic books.
@Luvdarain5: Why don't you catalog your books, so we can recommend other interesting books?

I'll be 30 soon enough (comfortably in my late 20's), but I already know of the issues presenting your hobby to family, friends, and strangers. I've been at this for about 9 years with imports, but I also started with Mixxzine in the late 90's.

My family doesn't say much about it, surprisingly. Not even when faced with 3200+ books when they come visit me. When I last lived with them, it was more like a few dozen books. I kinda wished they would say SOMETHING. ^_^;; My husband is mostly amused (and happy it keeps me busy? lol), builds me custom bookshelves, and took me on the occasional trip to some import stores.

I've always been able to spin the hobby positively while focusing on how I like to read them in Japanese, even if they are just "comic books." People seem to focus in on that aspect. It took me a while to spill my hobby to my last group of coworkers, but they were amused at my hidden language ability and liked seeing my library. You just need to know the time, place, and people to talk about it with. Never on a "first date." :)

I'm worried about if my new coworkers will offer to help me move in. Very kind, yes, but then I'll have to explain the 3200+ books right away. At least the interview is over and the contract signed, ha!

As for favorites.. I have a lot. Tokyo Babylon and Silver Diamond are probably on top. I basically like BL and fantasy.

I wish I could read Japanese! Unfortunately I have never had any language ability whatsoever. I even failed out of Spanish in high school.

I did think for a while that watching the subbed animes would at least help me understand the spoken language but after a couple years of it I can still only pick out about 5 words.

Wow, I got busy and wasn't able to check this site for a few days but now I'm back and I am loving this! It's really great to hear that there are so many of us are out there. And that we have such excellent taste in books, I might add.

Shinkeikaku-I know the feeling when you mentioned about having ppl help you move and how to explain the boxes of manga should they be opened...I just went through that myself recently, and let me tell you I was panicking about my yaoi, esp with my parents helping out! ;p Basically I just told them that I was picky about my book collection and preferred to pack and unpack it myself as I had a 'system'.

Papiervisje-I should catalog my manga and used to keep it up pretty regularly in an Excel spreadsheet but now it's just a monster I cannot control...(sigh).

For those of you who have been at this awhile (I think I guessed wrong for myself, it has to have been longer than 6 years that i've been collecting-times have flown by) I think we can remember how scarce pickings where when manga first started becoming popular. I picked up anything and everything i could get my hands on-read a lot of junk unfortunately. Now there's so many choices it's hard to keep up with it all. As much as I own, I have a LOT of holes in my collection as well.

And as for those early collectors-how about Sailor Moon becoming such a hot ticket item??? I will not sell my set but when I see it go for 5/600 a pop on eBay I do occasionally feel tempted to...

I'm a 30+ manga fan as well. I read mostly shojo/josei and my favorite series are Nana, Happy Mania and Absolute Boyfriend. Used to subscribe to Shojo Beat and disappointed at their demise; wouldn't call myself rabid or particularly knowledgeable but I do enjoy the stuff and read/buy when I can.

And as for those early collectors-how about Sailor Moon becoming such a hot ticket item??? I will not sell my set but when I see it go for 5/600 a pop on eBay I do occasionally feel tempted to...

Oh my. What nostalgia does to people. Years ago I would check out Wizard's comic selling guides and noticed that Sailor Moon was one of the only* manga series that was maintaining or increasing its value, but I haven't paid attention recently and am not interested in selling.

In some ways it was nicer in the past to have so few choices because I paid a little more attention to everything. Now I "auto-filter" out a lot of things that I'm fairly sure are derivative or not-my-thing and rely good reviews to direct my attention to what I've missed. I'm still overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff to read.

*Not that they listed many manga or independent comics.

I'm 27 and fairly new to manga. I've been swapping them online and am amassing quite a collection. My 30 year old sister always likes to see what I'm reading because even though she's mainly a non-fiction reader she enjoys the stories. I'll win her over someday! Usually I don't mention my reading habits to others as I get strange looks from people who think I'm reading children's books and therefore, kind of slow. But I adore children's books as well so who cares!

I've got quite a few titles that I just love and want to continue in the series. A few of them are

Sand Chronicles
Vampire Knight
Godchild
Dramacon

You know its funny, when i used to manga in the store i was hesitant because lot of the buyers were so much younger than i. Then it started taking off and i noticed a few older buyers. I remember one time there was a woman in the manga section, mid 20's, smarty dressed-she was looking at the manga, the teenage books were looking at her! lol

Now i buy most of my manga on line and get them through trades but if i do go into the store to buy the occasional manga, i either have gotten used to the sideways glances and dont notice them or i've stopped getting so many anymore-not sure which it is. Likely 7 or 8 years of stepping over the kids in the floor reading the stuff and just blithely grabbing what i want with an air on non chalance has not invited questions, just shrugs. I'm ok with that. ;P

BTW, where does everyone get thier manga? I swap on Mangatude and buy from Justmanga.com

I buy most of my manga from RightStuf.com. If you wait for the studio sales, you can get a lot of titles for 33% off (plus an extra 10% off if you join their savings club). Their regular price for most manga titles isn't bad either - 25% off (plus another 10% for club members) on most labels (though they charge full retail for a couple of the smaller companies' titles), and free shipping in US for orders of $49 or more.

Luvdarain5: does Mangatude work well?

I also trade through Mangatude and it has worked well so far. I primarily get my manga through Amazon and at Borders (always with one of their coupons). And yes, I've also had the experience of stepping over teens in pursuit of my manga :)

Off on another subject, my 9 y.o. just finished reading his first manga yesterday, I'm so excited! He read The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Volume 1 and has asked me to request volume 2 from the library. My oldest (just turned 18) son refuses every suggestion I've made about manga, but he's contentedly re-reading the Harry Potter series right now so I guess that's okay too!

Well, I have 240 sucessful swaps off Mangatude, so I like it pretty well. Thats not to say I havent been burnt a time or two, and learned a few lessons along the way. For the most part tho, I thoroughly enjoy it and highly recomend it. Just beware, it gets to be addicting!

Justmanga is an EXCELLENT site for manga, they have early releases, low prices-(usually about 7.79 for most of thier regular books), free shipping over 40 bucks and a 5.00 buyers reward club-(limit one 5.00 book per order). I usually get 6 books for around 45 bucks.

I have heard of Right Stuff and checked it out-their prices seem very good and looks like they have early releases...my only concern tho, if I understand it correctly is that you have to be home to sign for your packages or else get it delivered to your work addy. Is that right...?

>25 beginagain: Not that I know of - might depend on how you get it shipped; you can choose UPS or USPS, but free shipping goes USPS Media Mail (nee Book Rate) - Media Mail is insured & has delivery confirmation (though the USPS's delivery confirmation for MM can be hit-or-miss). RightStuf's located near a major USPS hub, so MM can arrive faster than you might expect.

At any rate - when I've had packages from RightStuf delivered using USPS, they haven't required a signature that I can remember; if you go the UPS route, though, they might (this seems to vary depending on your particular UPS driver and/or station's philosophy).

And this is all assuming you're in the USA; if you're outside the US, the rules might be different.

EDIT: There's also a FAQ for RightStuf over at the AnimeonDVD forums at that can be helpful.

Besides Mangatude and Justmanga, another place i find that's a great resource for manga is Paperbackswap-i've gotten some new releases and early releases too! Only problem is you have to be really dilligent-on the other hand Bookmooch is hugely popular with manga lovers, however i hate that site-its first come first serve and the ppl are like sharks!

Anyone know of other great places to get manga that i havent heard of or tried?

I'm 36, and I've just started reading manga. I've always turned my nose up at it, graphic novels and comic books as not "real" reading, but I started circling the manga pool about a year ago. Whenever I'd go to the bookstore, I'd look at their rather small section and feel overwhelmed, not knowing where one would even start. I finally read my first real manga a coupl weeks ago, Fruits Basket, and I'm now in the third book of it. I read them with my 10yo daughter.

Yesterday, I got Ranma 1/2, volume 1 in mail yesterday, and she tried to run off with it. I threatened not to share my Fruits Baskets with her anymore if she didn't bring it back. There's something wrong with that picture, lol.

So far I've only read Fruits Basket volumes 1 & 2, and Vampire Kisses: Blood Relatives, volume 2 (does it really count as manga? it's Tokyopop, but not right-to-left), but I've got Psychic Academy, volume 1, Naruto, volume 1, Death Note, volume 1, Cowboy Bebop: Shooting Star, volume 1, as well as the Ranma book and volumes 4 & 5 of FB. On its way to me in the mail are Vampire Knight, volume 1 and Cowboy Bebop, volume 1.

Very eclectic tastes!

I love Ranma myself, and despite all the hype, i like Inuyasha as well! Very funny, especially with Ranma, lots of laugh out loud moments. Just an FYI to you as a mom tho, there is a bit of nudity-mostly Ranma when he becomes a girl, and not a lot of it-but just a heads up to you.

Fruits Basket is also one of my favs-i envy you just starting out reading manga-there are so many great series to start! I'm a big romance reader so i like lots of shojo series-but i think my absolute fav is a very simplistic series called 'Baby and Me' -it's positively adictive!

lol... I have to laugh, Luvdarain5, at your saying I have eclectic tastes. I've just picked a variety of what seems to be popular, since I have no idea what I'll like. I expect to hate some of it with a passion, but I know it won't be FB or Ranma :-)

Thanks for the heads up on Ranma, btw. As I've seen some of the anime, I was aware of the occasional female nudity on Ranma's part. At least with FB, who's characters tranform back in the nude, the scene is shown from behind and to show Tohru's reaction, usually (or Kyo's when Kagura transformed back... lol. We had a good, hearty laugh at that for a few minutes).

I love the FB series and you're lucky it's finished now that you're just starting to read it, becuase i've been collecting from the start and waiting every 4 months or so for a release drove me NUTS! lol

Also, a bit of warning on collecting series, beware of Tokyopop (the publisher) books. It's easy to get sucked into thier series but they tend not to finish a lot of them, which can be annoying. (Sereis like Nosatsu Junkie, Never Give Up, possibly VB Rose). Viz has some great series and they are comitted to thier volumes-so far, so good anyways. :)

Some cute shojo series (yes, some are Tokyopop i know...) are Bird Kiss, Dramacon, Boys Over Flowers-long but SOO good!, Hana Kimi, Pallette of 12 Secret Colors, V.B. Rose, I Hate You More Than Anyone, Tears of a Lamb, Wallflower, You're so Cool

Any magical girl series you and your daughter will both enjoy! Like Kamichama Karin or Cardcaptor Sakura, Pretear-Tokyo Mew Mew is a bit young but still a cute read.

Some that are geared more towards adults-Cant Lose You, 100% Perfect Girl, Tramps Like Us, Wild Act

And of course, eventually the yaoi-but thats something you have to ease into and it's not for everyone. ;p

Sorry for the information overload, i just thought about a lot things i wish i had known when i started collecting. And of course all my stuff is either shojo or yaoi so if you like action/adventure (like Bleach or Full Metal) there is a lot of that out there too!

The last couple times I've tried to log into Mangatude the site hasn't worked. Has anyone else noticed this?

Looks like it's down now. Try using this website to confirm yourself if you're ever wondering

http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/Mangatude.com

Thanks for the info! I'll have to check that out.

I'm turning 20 this coming week and I have been reading manga for 5 or 6 years now.

here are some good titles (the ones with the stars are the ones I recommend the most)

Dramacon
*Tail of the moon
Fusigi Yugi
*Mars (my favorite)
Psychic Academy
*Paradise Kiss (cute and short)
Forbidden dance
Cardcaptor Sakura
Girl got game (this is a funny series, it's a bit like the movie She's the man)
Angelic layer
Land of the Blindfolded
Princess Ai
Millennium snow
*Fruits basket
D.N.Angel
*Emma
Platnum Garden
*Kenshin (samurai series)
*Crimson Hero
Crescent moon
Steady beat
Cardcaptor Sakura: master of the clow
*The tarot café
*Demon diary (very funny/light)
Whistle
Angel Cup
*Ghost Hunt
Battle Royal (R)
The queen's knight
Basilisk (R)
Nana

Wow, novelandmangacrazy, i think you do have some great ones and i agree with all that you have starred as the best, except i havent read Kenshin, and i actually didnt like Mars, though i seem to be the only one of that opinion. I did love Paradise Kiss, of course Fruits Basket, Tarot Cafe was GREAT and Crimson Hero doesnt get enough recognition as a shojo!

Am trying to get complete collections of Aishitezru Baby and Ultra Cute so i can read those, and working on Empty Empire, and Basara so i'll have some stuff to read this winter when it gets chillly! :)

i'm on the edge at 29, but posting anyway. i don't usually talk about manga with other people, unless (1) i've known the people for a while, (2) i know they read manga, (3) they're not rabid.. haha. i don't go out of my way to hide it, either. as with english novels, i carry it to work when i'm reading it, read it on the bus, and place it on my desk in the office... unless it happens to have any kind of smut/nsfw material. lol. manga is almost part of the whole 'fact of life' deal anways. :) some people will come by my desk, ask me "what is this?" or "you can read this?", and flip through the pages... a lot of the time, i might shrug, tell them it's a comic book, i like it, and, yes, i can read it. it only gets amusing when some of them try to quiz me in japanese, by asking, "can you read this?" (pointing to a sentence) or "what does this mean?" whenever somebody 'new' comes by my apartment, my friends like to say, "you should check out her books!" my shelves of manga are some kind of a tourist attraction or something, lol.

for my shelf stats: i have some 1200+ manga in japanese, around 20 graphic novels, and 11 korean manhwa. (i also have about 500 manga 'phonebooks', but we don't have to count that? XD) i can't read korean, but i liked the series and i wanted to get it in its original format. fortunately, i can read japanese...

i'd say that about 95% of what i read are straight-up shoujo.

i re-read a lot of what i have quite a bit, lol... the following is a list of what i re-read every year... and i'm very conscious of it because they run over 20 volumes. XD;

karekano
sekai de ichiban daikirai (i hate you most in the world)
psme
mars
itazura na kiss
basara

there are a lot of other stories i re-read a lot, mostly the ones by fave authors.

>37 lilasia: It's funny people will flip through your books.. no one will touch mine! I'm not even glaring at them protectively, but they don't seem to want to close the gap. It's all innocent looking stuff too. :) My husband is the only one that will touch them and he'd sooner grab a volume of Tokyo Babylon to run around the house to tease me than actually crack it open! Although being in Japanese, I guess he couldn't read it anyway? I keep thinking I'd be curious if I were them, but I guess not. ^_^;;

>37 lilasia:
what is manga 'phonebooks'?

Mars is soooo good :D

I keep my manga in my room and in the basement, so no one ever really sees it. And I don't generally take what I own out of the house. I do take out a lot of manga from the library, so all of the people there know I read it. I don't care if people see what I read as long as it not supper "kidish" or mature.

> 38
do you ever talk to your husband about what you're reading? mine really isn't that interested in my manga but has to put up with random summarizing from me, just because i don't know very many people who read them... then again, he does read a couple of titles.

> 39
they're the manga magazines. i'm not sure how to explain every well... they're like serial anthologies. there are phonebooks that come out once a week, some once every two weeks, some once a month, some every two months... each of these will feature a chapter from a few - if not all - currently running series, as well as a few one-shots.

if you remember shoujo beat in the u.s., i think shoujo beat was set up to be like that.

mars is.. addicting once started. (even the drama is addicting.. and i didn't think the acting was that good. XD)

I've got about 800 or 900 manga in Japanese that are relegated to custom shelves in the bedroom and don't get to hang out with the novels on the bookshelves in the living room because other people can't read them. I'm not fluent by any means, but I can make my way. I learned by reading a lot.

I used to have a subscription to Ribon magazine for several years and I just don't know what to do with them as far as shelving them because they are so large. They (and my other random magazines) are boxed up downstairs for now.

I also have a few of my favorite titles in their English versions and have been slipping them to my 13 year old sister. She's currently reading Kare Kano and Ouran Host Club. My own personal favorites are Fruits Basket, Full Metal Alchemist, and Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne.

When I started reading, way back in high school in the 90s, it took dedication to get your fix. The internet was still a baby. But because I live in NYC I eventually found out where BookOff, the Japanese used bookstore, was hiding and that sealed my fate.

> 40
My husband doesn't talk specifically with me about what I'm reading because he's not terribly interested in the content (all the fluffy shoujo or BL manga probably doesn't help, although something like Naruto or Tenjou Tenge is good). He's paying attention though.. like he knows to grab Tokyo Babylon over others and a couple other favorites of mine. He builds me custom bookshelves, has taken me on a few trips to Book-Off (he even half proudly presented me a copy of Nekrateholic which was hilarious), and listens to my hunts for rare books. So I'd say high level of tolerance for the hobby and mountains of books, less for the content. ^_^;; So I have to turn to the internet to find others who read lots of manga.

Wow, for those who have been collecting awhile, i'm curious-do any of you own what are now hard to find books?

I've noticed especially with the yaoi (Finder series) and certain volumes of shojo series (Like Basara 19/20) that it doesnt take much to make ppl greedy and asking outlandish amounts for them!

So what hard to find books do you own and put on the top shelf? As i said before, i've got the Sailor Moon series. I now own Basara 20 but still need 19 to finish up the series so i can read it-wont pay 438.00 tho! I finally have Target in the Finder-(but now the price has dropped so i paid too much), but still long for the other two volumes.

There is a lot of good yaoi that is out of print, especially Drama Queen titles that we will never see again-i'm curious if anyone has aquired any of those series-like 8mm or The Summitt?

Ooh.. stumbled onto the anime of xxxHolic the other day, and now I'm dying for the manga of it. I've started on the 5th book of the FB series, and I'm trying to go a little slower, because it may be a while to get books 8-12 on the swap sites.

> 43

I don't know if I can answer the answer properly because I'm not sure how "hard to find" is defined for everyone. XD I own some japanese manga that are hard to find, just because of sheer age, lack of blockbuster popularity, and/or complete lack of a used bookstore to scrounge around from. For graphic novels in English, I think I have a couple of Sailor Moon novels from the old Mixi TPB.

For Basara 19, perhaps there would be a used bookstore near you that would have it in stock? $438 sounds like extortion. Almost as much as the lowest price for an Infinity artbook I've ever seen. ~____~

Yeah, rare is a little hard to grasp. I guess my CLAMP Shoten books and old, out of print (and terribly unpopular lol) Tousuisha volumes are rare? Some I'd certainly be hard-pressed to replace.. so that would be rare I guess. :)

Well i guess i use Amazon.com as my 'rare' indicator. If i cant get it at all or have to pay a lot, i consider it a rare book. OOP isnt always a factor but tends to be. As Shinkeikaku says, her books are oop but no one wants them. (Except those with exceptional taste ;p)

>40 lilasia:
What do you mean by "mars is.. addicting once started. (even the drama is addicting.. and i didn't think the acting was that good. XD)"

Mars is an anime series???

>44 thekoolaidmom:
if you like xxxHolic, check out Tsubasa (the story's are related)

>45 lilasia:
I just check to see if my local book store was selling any used copies of Basara 19. It says that they have 1 copy and it's being sold for $5,682.23! (Canadian)

mars was turned into a live-action taiwanese drama: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/mars
as far as i can remember, it was never turned into an anime.

Yeah, i was bummed about Basara 19, becuase it was the only one i needed to finish up the series. At one point the price had dropped to 50 bucks and i kept waiting thinking surely it would drop lower (the going rate before that had been $180) but that backfired on me and now the price is exorbitant. Luckily a fellow Mangatude swapper found it for me for five bucks and swapped it to me-she didnt even extort more books for it! Just a one for one deal, which is why i love that site so much!

I also got ahold of and have the series 'Dance Till Tomorrow' on its way to me and i cant wait to read that, but now i am wanting to get 'Cheeky Angel', i've heard it's pretty funny. Gah! There are too many series i want!!

Heyo!

(ack! sowwy. this turned out a wee bit longer than originally planned. Dissecting the self was fun and educative, though.)

I'm an upper-30's manga addict.
I can trace the origins of my 'use' to mid 2002.
I had already become a heavy user of anime fansubs a year earlier.
From first discovering entertainingly fulfilling shows like Fruits Basket, GTO, Love Hina, Kare Kano, Kodocha, Chobits, Gatekeepers, Marmalade Boy, Samurai Girl, Mahoromatic, Ai Yori Aoshi, etc, etc., the gateway was opened to the wide world of manga.

I started initially with scanlations of then unlicensed (or just to become licensed) series like Kare Kano, Kodocha, Marmalade Boy, Hana Kimi, Fruits Basket, Hana yori Dango. At the time, the available scanlations of GTO were far to be found and of abysmal quality. I attempted to start reading the Love Hina scanlations as well, but the quality once again limited my ability to enjoy Akamtsu's art and the flow of the story, to the point of only advancing a few initial chapters, so....

Soon after Christmas 2002, I found myself at my local comic shop special ordering all the available volumes of GTO and Love Hina. By the third week of January 2003, the 15 volumes available came into my possession.
Result: I devoured them. As much as I enjoyed anime, I found myself liking this format a whole lot more.
Subsequent result: that same week, I pre-ordered the new volumes, and added Kare Kano to the list.
In the coming April, I came across amongst the new release boxes waiting to be received at the comic shop, a copy of Ranma 1/2 volume 1, which had just been re-issued. The blurb on the back got me to throw it on the pile of comics and few manga volumes I was to purchase that day.
Result: that evening, I laughed my guts out as hard as I've ever done
Fact: I was now hooked.
Within a year, loads of great series that I was introduced earlier via anime or pre-licensed scans had began to flood out. What previously was budgeted to NA produced comics, shifted soon after towards towering piles of Tokyopop and Viz, soon followed by that initial ADV manga release spurt, etc, etc.

Move on to: my previous (and first) librarything located post in the 'Manga and Anime Addicts' group describing my current purchasing:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/71482#1921843

My english manga library definitely is a 4 digit monster.
My japanese manga book collection (significantly more serial magazines than manga volumes at the moment) at this point, as well, is a 4 digit matter (and goshdarnit! up to 4 years worth of some of those monthly magazines take a HECK of a lot of room I can tell you. I imagine lilasia and macsbrains know the situation well enough.)

Oh yeah. Somewhere along the way I got the cockamaney idea to teach myself japanese, and somehow I succeeded. Looking back, as much as I don't regret it, I have to say that that has become one heck of an expensive choice, as now not being limited by what's available in the North American market, there is no longer a ceiling to what amount of manga one has the capacity to devour.

Hello again.
I, am a manga addict.
Or alternatively, I am a very satisfied consumer of Japanese 2D sequential art.
Whichever description, I find myself happily drowned in books.

Currently, the following series seem to float my boat the highest:

xxxHolic
Skip Beat!
Moyashimon
Gentleman's Alliance Cross (Final volume!)
Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei
Yotsuba&!
Maria Holic
Ah! My Goddess
Orfina
Devil and her Love Song
Umi no Misaki (from Ai Yori Aoshi mangaka)
Hoshi wa Utau (from Fruits Basket mangaka)
Pumpkin Scissors
Hayate the Combat Butler
Excel Saga
Sgt. Frog
Vampire Knight
Negima
Prunus Girl
...
I like most everything, shoujo/josei/shounen/seinen (within the constraints of my art preferences and various other factors), 'cept for titles falling on the more violent side, and as can be construed by what has been initially plonked into my library, it's most definitely yuri instead of yaoi that makes my heart go a-flutter.

On the familial tip, I've succeeded in hooking my niece on Fruits Basket and Vampire Knight. (alas, on the other hand, my nephew is not a book worm like her sister and "can't read that backwards s**t". ... Though, I have found him to be receptive to various Korean Tokyopop titles that personally were a wee bit too violent for my tastes (aka didn't buy beyond the first volumes). Not sure if that should make me happy or sad though... :-\

!

Egad! Too much screen time! Back to the books!
>>>end of transmission

>51 Akashic_Librarian: My japanese manga book collection (significantly more serial magazines than manga volumes at the moment) at this point, as well, is a 4 digit matter (and goshdarnit! up to 4 years worth of some of those monthly magazines take a HECK of a lot of room I can tell you. I imagine lilasia and macsbrains know the situation well enough.)

Yes, yes I know the situation quite well indeed! I was only reading the magazines regularly for a couple of years, but I had two monthly subscriptions during that time, and I have dozens of comic book longboxes full of manga magazines. (There is a bit of a problem locating them amongst the bf's 15,000 comic books... erg.)

I really don't have the room, but I still can't bring myself to part with any of them yet :)

> 51+52
same here. one group of phonebooks in my apartment is the same size as the back of my couch... one group takes up a chunk of room in my kitchen closet *cough* there might be some more in my mom's storage. i kinda went crazy in the early part of this decade... especially with subscriptions to hana to yume, lala, and margaret. it got so expensive (and life expenses were rising) that i tried to cut out all manga purchases for about 3-5 years. now i'm pretty much back on the wagon... and it is a very dangerous wagon.

i'm having a hard time parting with them as well, but i will probably eventually take the phonebooks apart (blasphemous, i know), keep the color inserts in a file, keep the one-shots i like and have not been compiled into a tankoubon as far as i know, and i probably already have the tanks to the rest of the series that i liked in the phonebooks.

i also started reading manga in the mid-to-late 90s, but not in large quantities until i had a job and i knew where to get them from.

i'm a little curious about what kind of space you all have to deal with for storage... ie, living with 2000 books and 2000 phonebooks in a 2000 sq ft 1-level place

>53 lilasia: i'm a little curious about what kind of space you all have to deal with for storage... ie, living with 2000 books and 2000 phonebooks in a 2000 sq ft 1-level place

Well, I'm from Brooklyn, and if it's one thing anyone in NYC knows how to do it's how to bend space-time to fit everything you own in an apartment the size of a linen closet. While I thankfully have moved up a bit from a linen closet (1 large room, 1 small room, and a dingy basement) it's still a struggle. My 13 bookshelves (though 2 are for My Little Ponies, 2 are for action figures, 1 for board games, and 1 for dvds, video games and media) are ALWAYS full to the brim, and I am regularly rearranging them to somehow manage to get even more books on them. There is no logical or physical explanation for how this can happen - it's just part of that space-time manipulation superpower.

The manga magazines and the bf's ridiculous number (15K) of comic books are stacked in the basement for now until we can fix up the small room and cover it with bookshelves too. He stopped collecting floppies a couple of years ago - I can only imagine what the house would be like if we were both still getting monthlies.

Due to unfortunate circumstances I'm going to be moving soon. My son has asked me a couple times if I'm going to get rid of any of my books/manga and I can say out of the 900+ I have left (I did do a major clean out of books (not manga) a few weeks ago I'm not willing to even think about getting rid of more than maybe 10 more books.

They are coming with me!

I would appreciate some advice on Manga for my son who is, unfortunately, in prison. He is 31 years old and loves to read. Fantasy and manga are of interest to him. I have looked on Amaz.com but what I find looks really "high schoolish."
Is that how all of it is or am I not finding the right stuff. Thanks for any help and suggestions!!!

Hi, I am new here and therefore very late with my reply. I am a 40-year old woman, but not reading all the girly stuff. Probably you could suggest following titles to your son, they are fun readings:
- Claymore
- Attack on Titan (shingeki no kyojin)
- Gantz
- Death Note
Good luck!

I just turned 32 a few days ago. I don't have a lot of manga yet just around 100 or so but my collection keeps growing. It's great to see that there are people my age that are addicted! I have been reading manga for 5 years+
Some of my favorite titles are
* Strawberry Panic
* The Tarot Cafe
* Demon Diary
* The GetBackers

Hiya! I'm 44 y.o female. I'm just getting into manga (and playing Pokemon lol). My kids were never into anime or manga (ages 23 and 19). I'm so glad I found this thread. I pulled a lot of suggestions from the posts. The only ones I know of are Kuroshitsuji and FullMetal Alchemist. But want to read others. Fruits Basket and The Tarot Cafe are ones I've decided to start with from the lists. I'm going to use mangreader. net. I know this is an old thread but if anyone sees it and has any other suggestions for me that'd be great. I'm going to refer to it often for ideas on what to read.

I'm 27 (shortly turning 28) so ye I guess I'm not 30 just yet but not far off) I have a wife, a mortgage, two children just a normal family man. My vice......manga. Got tons of it. Love the stuff. Not so big on anime just depends what it is. My wife knows about it obviously (carnt miss the bookcases of it in our bedroom) and she's ok with but that's probably because she has no interest in it haha I have no friends who like it so I keep it to myself most of the time.

EDIT: favorite manga include Death Note (who doesn't love it) and Bakuman (find it really interesting) but I also like old favourites like Initial D. I like anything really even some shojo stuff but depends on the nature of it. I just like really good stories more than anything.

Hello Everyone,
I too am over 30. Although I rarely meet anyone around my age in real life that openly admits to liking manga. I am kinda the type of person that doesn't really care if anyone (in real life) thinks I am weird or not. I have about 129 manga listed on here, some are yaoi, but mainly shoujo type manga. I also have a few trades on Mangatude.

Ha! This is exactly what i was looking for tonight!!! Thanks for starting this thread.

Im 39 and i have been reading Manga for the last five years or so. I get teased quite a bit but it doesnt sway me. It makes me happy so they can go suck it some where else. My Blythe hobby lead me to the Manga hobby.

Though I look back to my young years and i was a big fan of Anime cartoons such as
Bell and Sebastian and
Monchhichis

both a bit different from todays mainstream anime.

My collection is not vast...
Vampire Knight
Soulless
Inuyasha
Yotsuba
-------------------------
I also like
Avatar the last Air Bender
Full metal Alchemist
Soul Eater

still trying to figure out what i want to read next

Anyone else get a little frustrated they are such quick reads...dont get me wrong i still enjoy them but it goes so fast. And if your like me and love to own everything you read the $$$ add up quickly.

Hi, I'm 36 and I've been inte manga since 2003 or 2004. I'll soon have a collection of 4000 volumes, not all added to librarything yet I've got to add a bunch of other books first. They fill four bookshelves in double rows and several cardboard boxes.
My favorites are:
*Monster Musume
*Knights of Sidonia
*Blame!
*Chobits
*Omamori Himari

Wow, I sort of feel at home here...40+ years old, can't hide manga from my family (especially my teenager)...
I'm still a beginning collector....
Darker Than Black is my first official manga buy
I'd love to get my hands on Death Note and a few others.
Sadly, my computer crashed, and I don't have access to my manga/anime read list. :-/

40+, paranormal romance seems to be a thing, and slice of life. But I'm sure you can tell by looking at my library. Wolf Children, Kamisama Kiss (the whole series), Inuyasha (3 more VizBig editions to go!), xxxHolic (the whole series), I'm still working on Barakamon and The Ancient Magus' Bride. I need to pick up and complete Bride of the Water God (an excellent manwha - NOT manga! - from a wonderful Korean artist), but I haven't got any issues yet. ALAS!

No kids, but a lovely bunch of elders (the old folks type, not the religious type) I live with and try to care for, in spite of my own health situation. They find anything different from their own preferences to be suspicious and creepy. So from time to time I'll leave out a copy of The Ancient Magus' Bride. Nobody reads it, but they get their weekly excitement, in any case.

I doubt anyone will see this thread anyway, as the group seems to have stopped existing over a year ago. I'm sad now.

hi everyone im new year hehe...
honesty i just had a thought today to wright this on the the internet " im 33 years old addicted reading manga is that weird?"hahah so i pass here check whats happening. its really great to hear that im not the only one in the world loves manga and addicted reading it,

its been 7 years now since im starting reading manga it was so much fun, i didn't think that i was way to effected emotional (crying, laughing, sad, all this emotion just by reading it. i never felt so..... not alone..

my girlfriend and i broke up last 4 years long time ago..? hehehe until now im just happy being single and im content with my life just by reading this manga stuff.

its my 1st time posting this kind of stuff publicly, heheh....
no one never really knew im reading manga im a boring person that was they always tell me...

but im happy i can post here now confession and all of this stuff...

nice to meet you all

i am happy to hear that there is someone like me love to read manga who understand us... its really nice to see and read this post... thank you for this enlightenment... hehehe

Im late to the party myself. I'd love to connect with older people who love manga. I actually hide it from my family and read online mostly. Ing embarrassed but I cant help myself.

This is an old thread. I'd like to throw in with my confession, anyway.

Yes, I'm in my 30s and read manga. I started around the time that my child was born, when I was too exhausted and distracted to read prose novels. Now I read books from online, the library, or copies I buy when gift money comes my way.

Hello. I'm in my 40s and have been reading manga, and lots of yaoi, since my teens. Seeing this post makes me realize I really need to add all the comics I've read. Favorite authors: Fumi Yoshinaga Ôoku: The Inner Chambers, Youka Nitta, Riyoko Ikeda,and Inouesatoh. Still looking for comics/manga with characters (now) over 30+ and slice-of-life plots.

A bit late on this thread, but I have just started collecting my manga again in my thirties. I started in middle school with Sailor Moon, INVU, Paradise Kiss, Tenchi Muyu! but it was so hard to find manga where I lived back then. My current favorite series to collect include Jujutsu Kaisen, Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku, The King's Beast, Prince Freya, Case Study of Vanitas, Demon Prince of Momochi House, Phantom Tales of the Night, Rosen Blood, the Water Dragon's Bride, Ancient Magus Bride etc.... I can't decide if I should invest in longer series that I love like Seraph of the End, Noragami, Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun, Yona of the Dawn, Black Butler, and Kamisama Kiss... I need to prioritize my space on my bookshelf and not go broke lol. How do you guys decide which ones to get physical copies of?

>71 RebReads: Other than checking into finances, maybe my first question: How many times will I likely reread or reference the manga? Will that be easier with a paper copy? If I expect to pick up a book only for cleaning the shelves and moving homes, I certainly don't want it taking up physical space.

Next: Do I live close to a public library that has the complete series? (Probably not.) Do I expect to live close to a library that does a few years from now? Will I be able to access the series again in ten or so years if I don't buy it now? And, how would I feel if I couldn't buy the manga later because publishing or political trends shifted? Even popular works can quickly be hard to find after someone in power decides they aren't good enough for distribution anymore.

>72 aspirit: Some really good ideas to consider when buying, thanks! Have you purchased any digitally?

>74 aspirit: Some when my kid was little. SuBLime makes high quality ebooks. So does Shojo Beat. I'm guessing Viz Media is reliable across its imprints.

I also have Kodansha digital manga.

I bought my copies in Amazon's mobi format, back when Comixology was my only option, I recommend instead buying epub/pdf combos where available. Amazon is too restrictive.

Books from Digital Manga (the company) were disappointing, because the pages were blurry and badly formatted. I think their digital quality has improved drastically over the years, though.

edited, because I have more variety in my variety than I'd remembered