Sorry if there's a thread like this, but I just felt the need to ramble.
I used to be a huge manga collector. HUGE. At its biggest, my collection easily topped four hundred volumes, though knowing me, it was probably closer to five hundred. I bought anything and everything I could get my hands on, and I easily spent a fortune on them. Plus, I wanted to support the industry and not read online scans.
About a year or so ago, I sold off about half of my collection because a) college student who needs money, b) college student who needs money, c) I needed the shelf space, and d) I hadn't read most of my collection in years, nor was I likely to return to them any time soon.
But what in the heck does any of that have to do with my title? Excellent question. When I was selling off all my lovelies, I noticed a pattern in what I was selling versus what I was keeping. While I did keep some fluffy titles, like
V.B. Rose or
Absolute Boyfriend, by and large, most of the manga I was keeping hit on serious topics like suicide, drug use, bullying, and/or depression. Hell, to this day,
Confidential Confessions is one of my favorite mangas ever, and it deals with nothing but horrible stuff like that.
And it's not just manga, either. My favorite animes are the ones where the protagonists have to earn their happy ending hard.
Madoka Magica, one of my more recent favorites, sort of exemplifies what I look for in my manga and anime. Dark at times, but not hopeless. Another good example would be
Haibane Renmei.
TL;DR: I like series that admit that adult situations exist, and treat them with respect that generally isn't found in animation half the time. Mindless fighting and bloodshed or moe puddles of nothing just aren't my thing.
Your thoughts?
EDIT: I should clarify that I am NOT talking genres. I'm talking more about tone. For example, a battle manga is more likely to be more style and less substance, but that's not always the case.
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