Favorite manga

This is a list of manga that I'm particularly fond of. You'll have to figure out a way to read them yourself.

Anime VS manga

Many/all of these series have been adapted into an anime version. Generally speaking my opinion is that anime is worse than it's manga counterpart. That's not true for all anime universally, some anime is very well done and popular series tend to get a higher production budget and more skilled animation studios, some anime get produced by animators who have more passion towards the series which shows in the end result, but in the majority of cases:

• The anime has less detailed plot and dialogue
• The art is less detailed and lower quality, which especially stands out if the animation is low quality because all the movement is awkward
• The weird Japanese taste in character design colors feel more weird and distracting in the anime
• The story in the anime is less light hearted and taken more seriously, usually to it's detriment, sometimes ruining the whole story outright because it replaces fun with unironic edginess. For example:
  • The main character in Maou Gakuin is exaggeratedly flashy and confident in his abilities, he has detailed dialogue and inner monologue regarding magic and what is going on, and there's some humorous parts in the story. He's depicted as a very charismatic and extremely reliable guy whose skills and knowledge is far above everyone else. In the anime he's a stoic tough guy with infinite power level.
  • The main character of Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life in the manga has funny reactions to things, seems as if he's cluelessly stumbling from one thing to another without understanding the scale of his actions or what other people mean by their words, he's depicted as a kind of clueless and almost autistic guy who ends up traversing a heroic path by chance. The story is mostly light hearted and the main character's past (as an office worker in a bad company) is referenced to in a humorous manner to contrast with current events. In the anime he seems confident and as if he's very skilled and knows exactly what he's doing and is just a cool guy who's hiding his powers from others, the story has a serious tone and the main character's office worker past is depicted as heavy and depressing.

Isekai / fantasy -like

Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime)

MC reincarnates as a slime and starts building a city for monsters.

The story starts with MC building a city instead of going on adventures, and the story follows the city's development and the new people who move in. The conflicts are much more complex than just "omg dungeon is leaking enemies" like what you have in a typical isekai, and there's an actual story behind everything.

I think this is one of, if not THE best isekai manga. Most isekai start out by dumping a bunch of tiresome tropes on you, and when the tropes run out the story becomes extremely boring. This story has remains interesting and has retained the "cool" factor for over 90 chapters. Most of the characters are memorable and likeable in some way.

Anime status: it's ok I guess, but I prefer the manga by a lot.

Honzuki no Gekokujou (Ascendance of a Bookworm)

A book loving girl gets reincarnated into a weak body in a poor family in a fantasy world where books are extremely expensive.

Although the story is completely different, this has some meta-similarities to the slime isekai. Many stories have some premise at the start, like some conflict or objective, which eventually gets solved and then the story starts doing something else and no longer retains the original premise. But that isn't the case in the slime isekai nor with this story. 60 chapters later the MC is still chasing the same original dream of being surrounded by books yet the story has managed to keep it interesting. She's slowly making progress towards that goal and learning more about the world and the sickness she has.

Anime status: good, I can't tell which one I'd recommend more.

My Blade Will Lead the Way!

Silly-serious manga about an very powerful swordsman with no sense of direction who gets lost in a labyrinth with a couple other people. It's has both extremes of silliness and heaviness.

I don't really care about the stuff that happens after the labyrinth stuff, it feels like an entirely different story begins, but it's great until then.

Anime status: none?

Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita (I was a Sword when I Reincarnated)

MC becomes a magical sword, and gets picked up by a cat girl. The main character duo in this is very unique, I mostly like this for that reason, and the art style too.

The story becomes pretty boring after chapter 27 or so and I haven't particularly cared since then. One of the things that I like(d) about this manga is that Fran (the girl) has a clear goal and the determination to reach it, and that the sword supports her in her goals instead of following his own. But it feels like the story is now just meandering without direction.

Anime status: bad, the art quality and storytelling is significantly worse.

Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha (The Misfit of Demon King Academy)

Speaking of main characters that I like... A demon lord reincarnates himself 1000 years into the future for the sake of a peaceful life. I think this manga was cancelled.

The MC is the primary reason to like this. He's overpowered and knows it, has a very deep level of knowledge about magic, and has an extremely confident and flashy personality. It's overly exaggerated in a good way.

Anime status: terrible, has none of the qualities that I like about the manga.

Isekai Ojisan (My Uncle in Another World)

Main character(?)'s uncle was transported into a fantasy world, and returns to earth. The manga is about the uncle retelling stories about his time there, while MC and his friends react to it. Mostly humor, the uncle has a weird geeky personality.

Anime status: I only watched 1 episode and it seemed meh.

Humor / fun

Aharen-san wa Hakarenai (Aharen-san is Unfathomable)

A humor / cute romance about a girl who's very quiet, and a guy who tries to interpret her actions. Both behave in silly ways, and the guy sometimes comes up with crazy theories about her behavior, which then turn out to be something simple and normal.

Anime status: I only watched 1 episode and didn't like it, there was something off about it like it's watered down and missing the punch that makes the manga appealing.

Maou-jou de Oyasumi (Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle)

A lazy princess gets kidnapped by demons, but she just wants to sleep. She's arguably more demonic than the demons, and the demons actually turn out to be quite kind.

Anime status: I only watched 1 episode, it seemed ok but didn't attract me to watch more.

Ueno-san wa Bukiyou (Ueno is Clumsy)

Girl makes strange inventions in an attempt allure an extremely dense boy.

Anime status: good. The anime is well acted and adds enough to it that it might be better than the manga. Both of them are very expressive though.

Romance

Ookami Shounen wa Kyou mo Uso o Kasaneru (The Boy Who Cried Wolf Also Told a Lie Today)

I'm not sure how to describe this without spoiling it, the male MC's crush is afraid of men, and he "accidentally" ends up crossdressing and hiding his identity from her while trying to help her overcome her fear. The crossdressing isn't a reason to like this.

The story concluded at chapter 32 which is quite early for this kind of manga, it actually ended when it needed to instead of being dragged to infinity just to milk money out of the series forever.

Anime status: there's no anime.

Otome Kaijuu Caramelize (Monster Maiden Caramelize)

A mostly humorous but occasionally serious shoujo romance about a girl who starts turning into godzilla (literally) when she gets flustered. I mostly like the idea, the art, and the MC's design. The story is passable, but became pretty uninteresting when MC's past/origin starts being explored.

Anime status: there's no anime.

Drama

Jumyou o Kaitotte Moratta (Three Days of Happiness)

A guy literally sells his lifespan for money and is left with a few months to live.

Anime status: there's no anime.

Other

Ajin-chan wa Kataritai (Interviews with Monster Girls)

MC is a teacher in a school with different fantasy races like dullahan and vampire, and deals with their unique problems. It's been a long time since I read this, but I recall liking how the different races are more than just flavor, instead it explores the unique qualities and problems that they have.

Anime status: I haven't watched it.

Hyakunichikan!! (100 Days!!)

A young guy has to take care of a relative's 5 year old daughter for 100 days. It's just a casual cute story where they learn to live together.

Anime status: there's no anime.

More

Here's some other manga that are/were fine that I can't be bothered to list properly.

• Dungeon People - Casual story about an assassin girl who's delving into dungeons and searching for his father, but she ends up working for the dungeon and exploring how it's operated.
• Hitman's Fav - Legendary hitman retires and becomes a devoted fan to an idol.
• Psychiatrist Yowai - Genius psychiatrist helps people with their issues.
• Hinamatsuri - An aloof alien girl appears and starts living with a Yakuza guy. She has some psychic powers and he's usually troubled, sometimes helped, by her actions.
• Ruri Dragon - Girl wakes up with horns, finds out she's half-dragon. The first couple chapters made this look like it's going to become a big-time favorite, but it turned out to be extremely mediocre and very annoying. Extreme disappointment, but I can't help but to imagine what it could have been.
• One Punch Man - Probably needs no introduction. MC is so powerful he can defeat all enemies in a single punch. The story mostly focuses on the people and factions around him, and does a lot of parody of superhero stories.
• VERSUS - Same creator(s) as One Punch Man. Multiple alternate versions of earth, each with their own extinction-level calamities, become merged together. While OPM isn't meant to be taken seriously at all, this is 100% serious mode. It's a disappointment because every world seems to devolve into "super strong beings who beat everyone up with fists and/or lasers", it's not hard to imagine something more creative and interesting.
• Bug Ego - 2 high school guys research strange real-life "cheat codes" that allow them to do supernatural but mostly useless things (like making any food taste good). It introduced an annoying mary sue character who kinda ruins the story at chapter 7 or so.
• The Eminence in Shadow - An isekai. MC has edgy delusions and somehow becomes an incredibly powerful secret cult leader of sorts. The world is 100% serious but MC is 0% serious, but unintentionally solves major problems in the world by roleplaying as a cool and mysterious guy.
• Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire - Very similar to the above except MC is some kind of noble in an unconventional high-tech fantasy world. He acts like an evil lord but ends up doing good deeds due to incompatibilities with worldviews and such (like hoarding/valuing gold which is useless in this world).
• A Simple Task Of Providing Support From The Shadows To Defeat The Demon Lord - Overworked overpowered priest (the videogame kind of priest) is given a misson to help a freshly summoned hero, but the hero rejects him. Nothing goes his way but he is determined to find a path to success.
• The One Within the Villainess - Pitiful girl dies and reincarnates into the body of the villainess of a story, gets mistreated and goes into coma(?), then the villainess (who was aware the whole time) regains control and starts revenge on the ones who mistreated the other girl.
• Old Man From the Countryside Becomes a Swords Saint - Old swordsmanship teacher who doesn't think he's anything special turns out to be pretty special.
• Kusuriya no Hitorigoto - Girl from a prostitute house(?) is very smart and eccentric, starts solving mysteries for some guy. It's the kind of story that's pretty good, but it's good enough that it doesn't feel the need to move the story anywhere.
• Kemono Jihen - Shounen about MC who is a near-immortal ghoul and joins a group of other non-humans. To be completely honest, the fox girl (Kon) is the only reason I still remember this, she's cute.
• Executed Sage is Reincarnated as a Lich and Starts an All-Out War - Sage (the wizard kind) is betrayed and killed, his spirit turns into a demon lord. I get the feeling that this was originally supposed to be more brutal (and good), but that kind of thing doesn't sell as well as a happy story so the author toned it down. I think the former version of this would have been good, the current version of it is meh.
• Konjiki no Moji Tsukai - Isekai about a stoic and "selfish" book nerd who can use Kanji (Japanese letters/words) as spells. It was alright for a while, but it's one of those manga that eventually becomes boring yet somehow still manages to keep going on and on forever, I guess it keeps selling or something so the author has no reason to end it or have any story development worth caring about.
• Villainess Level 99 - Isekai about a deadpan "gamer" girl who grinds levels in a dungeon and becomes unbeatable at a young age, and people start acting like she's the demon lord.
• Fun Territory Defense by something something - Boy with special crafting magic is special and is loved by everyone except the irrational angry ugly bad dudes yada yada. Anyway he builds a town. I guess I just like isekai-like stories where the MC does something besides beating up monsters with his SSS-rank level 9999 magic muscle power.

Things I don't remember the name of, but I'll put here untill I do:

• Isekai(?) where MC is a cat person, has the ability to use some kind of emptiness magic that basically allows him to make air slightly solid. The magic is seen as useless, but he practices and comes up with creative ways to make it useful.
• Isekai where a guy who loves magic gets transported into a world where magic is almost but not quite nonexistent. He starts researching for ways to make magic useful.
• Isekai where guy dies to an illness and becomes a spirit or something. He starts learning magic and teaching it to monsters, the world is deeply religious and treats monsters as evil and causes MC to evolve into some kind of demon lord.
• Shoujo about a girl in a fantasy world who finds a strategy guide to her own world. There's at least 2 manga I know of that fit this description, in the one I'm thinking of the MC has no special powers and thinks that using the strategy guide without a good reason is a bad thing. There's something very charming about the art style, and I was seduced by a glimpse of characted development (the arrogant prince who becomes flustered when the girl doesn't dance to his tune) which is a rare delicacy in both Japanese and Korean stories.

Here's some webtoons that might be okay:

• Night of Shadows - Girl who has weird prevognitive powers in a nightmare world filled with monsters. This one is definitely okay.
• Everyone Loves Her - Girl with unfortunate family situation learns the ability to teleport in a world where nobody else has supernatural powers.
• Eternal Club - Guy gains an ability to trade lifespan with other people, starts making money and amassing lifespan for himself. The cool thing about this is how it starts from humble beginnings but just keeps growing and growing up to crazy proportions over time.
• Mercenary Enrollment - Kid falls off a plane and goes missing, gets trained into a mercenary, returns to school many years later and beats the living hell out of anyone who threatens the people he cares about.
• Trash of the Count's Family - Lazy guy possesses the body of a trashy villainous bishounen from an ultra-rich family, gains various powers and cute pets and stuff.
• Cautious Mage - Guy gains spatial magic in real life, finds out there's a secret organization who's gatekeeping all knowledge of magic, runs away and hides while learning how to use his magic.
• Hiding Out in an Apocalypse - Guy builds a fallout bunker, then apocalypse involving monsters happens. He mostly sits around in his bunker, has experience with various things.
• The Apocalypse is Here - Bullied nerd decides not to kill himself and goes home, wakes up to zombie apocalypse, the school hottie appears and relies on him. Nothing particularly interesting has happened at the time of writing this, but I'm anticipating the nerd undergoing character development (i.e. stops being a bitch) due to the situation.
• I'm Really Not the Evil God's Lackey - Guy owns a book store in a fantasy world, he thinks it's a normal world and everyone is just cosplaying. Gives advice and books to all kinds of legendary people while being manipulated by a dark entity that warps his perception of reality, everyone around him thinks he's some kind of primordial being of unfathomable power. I have no idea wtf is going on in the world or story, but the MC's situation is pretty entertaining.
• Ultimate of All Ages - Funny story about a super Murim martial artist/alchemist who reincarnates and starts rebuilding his power. He's greedy and selfish but ultimately the people around him tend to benefit from his shenanigans.
• Myst Might Mayhem - Murim martial arts genius with dark and twisted personality, starts from nothing and slowly gains power. This is interesting because it seems like an origin story for a villainous "heavenly demon" -type character.
• Peerless Dad - Murim martial arts dad is stronger than he thinks he is and kicks ass and stuff.
• Legendary Youngest Son of the Marquis House - Super strong tortured psycho warrior dies and goes back in time, starts using his future knowledge to plan for a better future while being a shota.
• I'll Be the Matriarch In This Life - Shoujo about girl who goes back in time and uses adult/future knowledge to do business and stuff.
• For My Derelict Favorite - Shoujo about girl who reincarnates into a book or whatever and starts fawning over her favorite character; a hot dude with long silver hair who became suicidal after losing in a love triangle against the main character of the book.

I read a lot of shoujo webtoons and murim martial arts copypasta and isekai/banishment whatevers. There's some kind of base-level enjoyment that they have even if they're bad, but most of them become boring very quickly. I've read so many of all these that it's difficult to remember almost any of them, especially by name, even if they were decent. Even if I remember it, it usually turns into crap so I don't think of it as good enough to be worth mentioning even if it was good in the beginning.

My most hated stories are anything where the world acts like a videogame (status screen, system unlock, tutorial mode complete, the conditions have been met, you have unlocked X...), unfortunately these are impossible to tell apart from the fun kind of isekai junkfood so you just have to skim through the first chapter and look for a status popup screen. Dungeons are usually tiresome. Monster rampages make me roll my eyes. There's so much uncreativity that it boggles the mind. The Japanese videogame crap tends to be more alright than the Korean ones.

My favorite stories are roughly made with 2 components: character development, and research. I really like it when the main character changes through the story (gaining levelups and cheat skills does not count), which should be storywriting 101 but it's basically completely absent in both manga and webtoons. The second part, "research", I'm not sure how to summarize. I like stories where the MC learns some aspect of the world or some kind of power, and comes up with clever ways to make use of it. The whole concept of isekai is basically begging for this, but almost none of them actually have it, they prefer to unlock skills and do levelups and be granted power by gods.