My First Manga/Anime

[Oceano11]

Ok im planing on making my Very First purchase of Manga/Anime. I Have decided to find 5 that look the most intresting to me,im still not sure if i should read the manga or watch the anime. So i need help as which one of the 5 to Choose.. I Want to have a good time reading my Very first Manga, i want it to be a good Experience. here are the 5 i have chosen:

5.Bleach
4.Death Note
3.Fullmetal Alchemist
2.Beserk
1. Dragon Ball (it looks immature to me..but ppl say its good)

I Apologize for being a Newb

Also What is better IN YOUR OPINION..Manga or Anime?

[jedinat]

Watch Trigun. If you must choose one of those five, make it Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (and skip the first episode). Do not watch English dubs. Anime and manga are equal.

[JRendell]

Originally Posted by jedinat

Do not watch English dubs. Anime and manga are equal.

Seconded. English Dubs completely ruin it for me.

Out of the five you posted, I would go with Fullmetal Alchemist.

[Scorch]

Those 5 are pretty drastically different. Bleach is a really long shounen fighting show. Dragon Ball is mostly comedy (assuming you're talking about Dragon Ball and not DBZ - DBZ is similar to Bleach but not as good). FMA is another shounen show, but it's far more focused and less stretched out. Well, at least the first timeline is. I haven't seen Brotherhood. Death Note is more about head games and sneaky tricks between two characters. Berserk is well, intense. It has a lot of violence and some even more disturbing things like rape and demons eating people. It's aimed for a much older audience than the others you've listed.

As far as manga vs anime: It usually depends on which came first. The first one is typically better. The worst situation is when the anime starts while the manga is still ongoing, and then the anime has to make up stuff when it runs out of manga material to animate. Quality usually declines around then. Of those you've listed, the Berserk manga is vastly better than the show.

I really don't recommend Berserk as a first anime or manga. It's a great story with a bunch of totally psychopathic characters and a hero/villain who is really charismatic and pretty much amoral. It pulls no punches.

As far as the dub vs sub debate - depends on the show. The typical sub is better than the typical dub, but sometimes there are exceptional dubs, like in Cowboy Bebop. If you aren't used to reading subtitles yet, there's definitely some value in being able to focus on watching the show rather than the words. On the other hand, once you become used to subtitles, you probably won't even realize what language they're speaking unless you stop to think about it. I mentally hear stuff in English even when the characters are speaking Japanese because I have my reading/listening wires crossed from watching a lot of dubs.

I'd say FMA is a good first anime. I haven't read its manga or seen FMA Brotherhood (alternate timeline), but the first FMA anime to come out was good.

[NoLongerSane]

Full Metal Alchemist is a very good manga to start out with. The first FMA is a really good anime to watch, and it shares some continuity with the manga but goes on it's own storyline half-way through. FMA Brotherhood does a good job on staying with what goes on in the manga.

[Kafriel]

Also What is better IN YOUR OPINION..Manga or Anime?

Best would be a well-made anime. Since this is the real world though, there's no such thing (although brotherhood comes really close!). So I spend most of my time reading manga rather than watching anime...you should start with anime though, manga can be heavy on the brains.

5.Bleach
4.Death Note
3.Fullmetal Alchemist
2.Beserk
1. Dragon Ball (it looks immature to me..but ppl say its good)

Don't watch DragonBall, it's twenty years behind you. Once you've built a general image of what shounen anime of today are, then you can watch DragonBall and see where they all got their ideas :P
Avoid Berserk for the reasons Scorch posted, but do start with Death Note. I think it's probably the best anime to watch, my cousins watched it and they both loved it, despite being inexperienced girls afraid of monsters. As for your second anime, Cowboy Bebop, hands down. Then watch FMA, keep bleach for whenever you're bored; not that it's bad, it's very good in the beginning actually, but it suffers a long period of fillers and currently the plot is suffering.
For your Very First Manga, I will suggest one of the below...
RAVE - powerful story with lots of action, comedy, romance and drama, an exemplary manga for me. 395 chapters, complete.
The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer - different from most action-oriented stories, each and every character counts and is thoroughly developed without any absolute good VS evil feelings around. The story starts out simple and ridiculous, but it becomes more complex and mature as it progresses. 49 chapters, ongoing.
GTO - It wasn't my first manga but it was my first Slice-of-life manga, and I enjoyed it a lot...although it's more school life with a generous amount of fantasy in it.

[Haladflire65]

Out of those, my favourite would be Fullmetal Alchemist, but I would recommend that you go with the recent remake, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It has better animated fights and a superb storyline. But since the first few episodes are a bit rushed and may be difficult to fully comprehend, I think it'll be a great idea to read the manga as you go along FMA is a very mature and exciting Shounen that's a must-read/watch..

[Nakas]

Originally Posted by JRendell

Seconded. English Dubs completely ruin it for me.

Out of the five you posted, I would go with Fullmetal Alchemist.

I agree with this to a certain degree.

DBZ was shown in my country with english dubs.
The japanese voices are really awful and i dont understand the japanese who made that serie dont see that for themself.

I would recommend DBZ if you want to watch DB. it is somewhat more mature and the fights and powers are interesting in the first couple sagas.

In the later sagas its just becomming more of the same.


But if you want your first impression to be good. Go for Death Note Anime, or FullMetal Alchemist (Brotherhood) Anime.

Im not really a manga reader so i wouldn't know about that.

Berserk is one of the best anime around (in my opinion) but is very violent and stops with a cliffhanger. it continues in manga though.



Hearing japanese voices might take some time to getting used to. But you will get used to it.

[StrawHatLuffy23]

Watch Dragonball then Z. Dragonball is awesome. Dragonball Z is good too, but not as good as Dragonball.

[tyranuus]

FMA would be my recommendation out of that list. The original US dub for it is quite good. Havent seen Brotherhood but that would be prettier to watch because its newer and widescreen.

Also consider Full Metal Panic, not as in depth as some but has something for a lot of anime fans, a bit of humour and is one of the most enjoyable mecha series I have seen, although unlike a lot of Mecha shows its not ultra focused on the mecha to the exclusion of the rest. 3 series to sink your teeth into as well.