Manga Recommendations for New Teen

[Kent Allard]

My son is turning 13 soon and reads a fair bit - I am trying to think of some birthday presents he may like that are more thoughtful than just an Amazon gift card.

Recently, he has started reading some manga - it started after watching xxxHolicxx on the Funimation channel, which he enjoyed.  I think he had read all of the Holic books.

 

I am pretty much an old capes and cowls superhero fan and lack any expertise. 

 

 Anyone here willing to add some thoughts on titles or creators?

 

 Are CLAMP works generally okay for 13 year olds (they appear plenty moody enough to me to qualify)?

 

[Randy Jackson]

Bear in mind that what the Japanese think is age appropriate and what we think is age appropriate can be vastly different.

 

That being said, I can recommend a few things:

Yu Yu Hakusho - reasonably simple Shonen manga with some great battles and excellent characters

Dragonball/Dragonball Z - He may have outgrown this sort of thing, but it still stands up well.

Monster - I've raved about this manga before at the old board. It's about a doctor pursuing a serial killer. It may be more mature than you might like, but at the same time, it's a heck of a read. Not tremendously bloody, however.

I haven't read it, but I've heard many good things about One Piece.

The Baron could easily enlighten you on the charms of Cromartie High School. I recommend it as well.

Barefoot Gen: may be a little too advanced. It's about a pre and post bomb dropping Nagasaki child.

Inuyasha would likely have appeal.

I'm sure there's other things I could recommend, but those are the first things that come to mind.

[Randy Jackson]

A couple more...

 

 

Dr. Slump - Akira Toriyama's farcical look at a scientist who invents a robot teenage daughter.
Reborn - About a five year old hitman. Once again, not as violent as one might think.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

I've only read a little of One Piece, but I liked it, and I'm not a huge manga fan. It is the best-selling manga title world-wide; Naruto is the best selling in the U.S., so that's worth considering as well. I thought the first volume read like an Archie comic, so I'm probably not the target demographic.

[Philip Portelli]

I have no idea of your son's likes but I enjoyed the Yu-Gi-Oh collections I have. I heard good things about One Piece, too.

[Kent Allard]

This is great - thank you all for suggestions

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

Pluto - an updating of the Astro Boy concept was one of the best comics I read last year.  Really thought-provoking writing and fanastic art by the creator of Monster.

[Kent Allard]

Wanted to follow up on this - I decided to do a smorgasboard of selections and ended up giving him a stack of volumes almost half his height - he was done with them in about a week and a half.  Loved them all.

 

So again, thanks for the help on what turned out to be the best gift I gave