Under-Rated Manga Series
Under-Rated Manga Series
With a major resurgence in anime and manga there is so much to enjoy that so many get lost in the shuffle. These are a few I have enjoyed over time that I feel like don’t get enough attention.
Sgt. Frog is like if you took Invader Zim, and made him a frog obsessed with gundam model kits. Taking the fish out of water and alien invasion story and giving them a comedic twist. Kerero is a sergeant of elite warriors that are sent to scout out and begin the invasion process of earth for their home planet of Pikopon. Unfortunately the platoon gets split up on their entry to earth and each frog ends up in different situations. Kerero gets “captured” by a human family that forces him to do their chores. As his time on earth continues he neglects his responsibilities on invading earth and spending his military budget and allowance on gundam kits.
While the anime started in 1999, english dubs started in 2009. One of the major changes made is in regards to pop culture references. Making some of the jokes more relevant to US audiences. The manga currently has 33 volumes and is still continuing in Japan.
With the popularity of My Hero Academia, and it’s inevitable ending soon. It’s spin off series My Hero Vigilantes is an excellent series to fill the void between volumes. The series follows three heroes who did not get accepted into hero schools but still want to use their powers to help people, and get famous.
It starts off a year or two before the main series, with main character Koichi Haimawari a All-Might fan boy using his powers of gliding to help people. However, due to the world’s laws in regards to quirks he falls under a vigilante category and his actions are illegal. Causing him to run into Eraser-Head and Fat Gum. Pop-Off, another hero who uses her powers to gather internet fame by doing pop up concerts around japan. After Pop-Off and Kochi have a run in with a local gang they meet Knucleduster, think of him like the Colonel from Kick Ass, an older hero with a secret. The three of them uncover a plot with a drug that makes heroes and villains' quirks unpredictable and violent. As an added bonus we get a backstory for an early My Hero villain, Stain.
Sleepy Princess in Demon Castle, is a fun twist on the kidnapped princess trope. Princess Syalis has grown tired of ruling and has had trouble sleeping in the royal castle. However once the Demon King kidnaps her to try to control the humans and take over the world. Syalis takes the opportunity as a vacation and get some rest. Despite his best attempt, the Demon King can’t keep her in her cell, as she cunningly breaks out to try to make herself comfortable and just get some sleep.
This series reminds me of another series that I’ll talk about later, but in order for Syalis to be comfortable she ends up using other demons for parts either for pillows, blankets or bedding. Even sometime being found in things that the demons consider torture devices. Its a fun light hearted series that can be relatable to anyone who can’t seem to get a good nights rest.
Dungeons and Dragons had one of it’s biggest years last year. If you are looking for similar ideas look no further than the series Delicious in Dungeon. If you have played D&D, you know sometime how a party can fail and lose everything in a dungeon. In this adventure not only do the adventurers lose all their gear and money, the left a team member behind.The party chooses to go back into the dungeon and rescue their party member. However, since everything was lost, they have no money to buy supplies or food. In order to survive the party must kill and cook the monsters in the dungeon.
I have talked about this series before and it still one of my favorites today. A nice thing about this series it that it uses monsters similar to creatures in D&D, that it could easily be translated to a campaign that you can play with your friends.
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