Please welcome guest poster for today, author Sadie Forsythe. Sadie has written The Weeping Empress, which is her only work thus far. I asked her if she would do a post here, and I now know what this post will be about. I'll let her say the rest.
I don't have a lot of time
recently. Who does, right? But one of the things I do in my scarce free time is
read a ridiculous amount of manga (and the occasional manwha). I'm especially
drawn to those dark, twisted tales that make me shutter to think what might
actually go bump in the night. While I've never been the type to easily real
off titles and mangakas, after a little thought and a quick glance at the
electronic shelves to remind myself who drew what, I've come up with a list of
my twenty favourite dark mangas.
But before we get on with the
morbid goodness, a few caveats. This list is obviously restricted to those
mangas that I happen to have come across. There are no doubt tons of good
titles out there that belong on this list, but aren't there because I haven't
read them yet. Additionally, it is also limited to the ones that I happen to
recall at this precise moment in time. It is almost a certainty that tomorrow
I'll think of one I loved and wish I had added. Too bad you'll never know, but
I will. Lastly there are a few fabulous and unquestionably dark mangas that top
every such list--I'm thinking Gantz*, Death Note, maybe even Claymore--I'm excluding them. We all
know they're fabulous. Why say it again? This leaves more room for other less
know stories.
So, here they are in no
particular order. (Honestly, picking out 20 favourites was hard enough. Asking
me to rank them among themselves would be beyond hellish.)
So there they are, my top
twenty. The list probably tells you more about me than an afternoon full of
conversation. While the stories cross the genres, each is dark in its own way,
the art is relatively similar - there are no wide-eyed Shougo heroines here. On
that front I suppose I could easily have simply said "anything by Mihara
Mitukazu, Ktobuki Tarako, or Mizushiro Setona," and have had just as
honest a list. But if, like me, you find the darker side of man appealing check
these out first.
What do you think - disagree,
something not quite dark enough for you, have something to add? I'd love to
hear about it. I'm always on the lookout for the next best read.
*I'm
linking to Baka-Updates simply for the ease and convenience of having all of
the synopses in one place. If you like what you see there (and are able) you
should of course buy the book and support the artist.
Until next time,
R. M.
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