Manga is amazing.  

The Legendary Dragon Princess, one of the strongest figures in the history of the world and a member of the revered party that put an end to an invasion that threatened all of humanity.  (Sekai no Owari no Encore)

I don't know why but I find that so hilarous.  Main character is, of course, an average human (but probably not).

Poko, you're killing me with all these recommendations, I barely have time to keep up with all the mangas I got already :'( and now I have this and Fire Punch to read  too.

It's killing me too, haha. I need to set up a mini recommendation section and more just keep on getting added, haha. I'm interested in checking this one out too. That character def looks cute.

After Shadow8 mentioned a topic about talking about our favorite mangaka, I sat on this question for a little bit and came up with a few answers.

The 1st mangaka I came to admire was Nobuhiro Watsuki, the writer of Ruroni Kenshi. It was the 1st one I ever bought and owned, and I was interested in it since I saw the anime. I bought the 1st 2 volumes and instantly fell in love with it. I started buying a new volume as they came out every month. I fell in love with it all, the characters, the story, and the artwork. Watsuki became a sort of hero to me, hoping I can draw manga like he does, and re-reading Kenshin anytime I sat by my manga collection.

Though after that, he made Buso Renkin, which was okay, but not nearly as good, and also the western cowboy manga, which got canceled after 3 volumes I think..? And after that, he just sort of... disappeared. I still admire him, but wish he had made something on the level of Kenshin...


I also really admire Akira Toriya and Eiichiro Oda, the writers of Dragon Ball and One Piece. I know Toriyama mostly from Dragon Ball, but after I saw some of his other works from Dr. Slump and the Dragon Quest series, I really love his art style. It has this playful feel to it, like everything is done in a cartoonish style, from cars, buildings, people, robots, etc. It's like a mix of Japanese and western style to make this fun style he developed. It sort of gave me the idea of mixing different styles to try to make something unique and enjoyable for others to see. I get this feeling with Oda's One Piece style as well. I read the 1st few volumes and I got a similar feeling with his work. It has a fun, goofy feel to it that just makes me laugh and enjoy it. It's like the joy of drawing really reflects in their work when moments feel really silly and overall fun to read. That's the sort of stuff I really enjoy in manga.

Anyone else have favorite mangaka?

I just caught up on My Hero Academia such a GOAT series and its now nice to know that in a few weeks One Piece won't be the only on going manga i am caught up with.

I don't have a favourite but I do have a least favourite... Komi.

Is Berserk the manga with the character named Guts who fights with a giant sword? I hope I'm thinking about the right manga, haha...

One Piece and Naruto are also good answers. I may not like Naruto, but it was and still is a very popular and liked manga, so it's gotta be a good story. The style is pretty cool too with some good characters. I really liked Kakashi and Gaara. They were cooly designed characters.

Haha, Toriyama sort of suffered the problem Watsuki had. After DBZ, he just kind of... disappeared, making small manga that couldn't matched DBZ and they just keep using his work and style constantly. I think they're oversuing it to the point where it loses its charm. His older stuff is still pretty great though.

Yeah, seeing where the manga led up to, I don't really blame you. : S

I can't either!  I have five open tabs of manga right now.  I really should stop reading something new while I'm reading several other things.  Oh, and that wasn't really a recommendation, as I'm only on chapter 2 of that manga (looks good so far, though), I just thought that the mighty Dragon Princess being a tsundere was so silly that it cracked me up.

Berserk is really nothing like One Piece but, then again, it's one of the few works that can rival One Piece in terms of scope.  Both of them are just so incredibly epic.  That's why there have been so many anime adaptations, as each of them only capture a portion of the whole.  Also, Griffith is a truly great character, one of the most interesting non-protagonists I've ever come across, and the real driving force of the story.  He's intelligent, complex, he goes through as much hell as also anyone, and his ambition is everything to him.

If anyone wants to get into Berserk, though, just know that it's a long, long ride and that it pulls zero punches.

As for mangaka that I respect, I'm going to go with one for an odd reason.  Chihayafuru is a great manga with excellent characters and art.  It sells extremely well for Josei and is credited with single-handedly increasing the popularity of its subject matter, competitive Karuta.  However, the mangaka, Yuki Suetsugu, was once shamed because she was found to have plagiarised art from another work.  Kodansha pulled her previous series and cancelled the series she was working on at the time.  She had to issue a public apology and her career was put on hiatus.  Yes, what she did was bad but to come back from that with one of the most popular and critically acclaimed non-shounen manga going, that's impressive.

Also, it's impossible for me not to respect the works of Kiyohiko Azuma.  Azumanga Daioh and Yotsuba& are both so funny and original.  His manga makes me happy.

I have quite a few, but the ones that shine the most for me are:

Araki Hirohiko

I don't think it's any secret how much I love Jojo xD By far, the most unique manga I've ever read and I mean that in the best way possible. Each Part feels so different from one another and have their own distinct charm that reels you in. Also, you can tell how much Araki improves as a mangaka, with each Part becoming more creative than the last and also having a much more detailed and interesting plot as it goes on. The art is another thing that Araki improved in, while the first 3 parts were very Fist of The North Star inspired, Part 4 and on he made the art much more fabulous and really just made it his own. Part 7 and 8 have some of the most detailed art out there, that can even rival Berserk's art as well. He also made a manga before Jojo called BAOH, which was pretty enjoyable(and short) as well, but of course Jojo is in a league of it's own.

Kentarou Miura

As I mentioned above his art is absolutely gorgeous and one of the most detailed art I have ever seen. Berserk is such an epic story that can only truly be experienced through the manga,since there are a lot of stuff there that can never be shown on TV and also the two anime adaptations left out a lot of important details. Griffith is probably the only character that I can truly say that I hate, but love how well written his character is. You can tell really quickly that Miura took inspiration from Shakespeare's Hamlet because Berserk is one of the most tragic stories out there and that is especially true for Guts and anybody close to him.

Akira Toriyama

Not really much to add about him, Dragon Ball holds a special place in my heart as one of the things that I absolutely loved growing up. The original and Z were the ones that inspired so many of the current mainstream Shounen mangas the most. Dr. Slump was another manga he did before Dragon Ball which was so good, too bad not many people read that one in the west.His art is iconic, being able to tell it's his from just a glance in videogames like Chrono Trigger and the Dragon Quest games. Also on a side note, personally I like DB Super, since it's not trying to be it's own thing like GT tried and failed to do, instead it's expanding the lore of the DB universe and introducing a lot of interesting new characters like Black, the characters from Universe 6 and of course the King of Everything. Although I might be a little biased xD

Ishida Sui

This is more of a personal choice, since I love Tokyo Ghoul, but Ishida has really showcased how great of a writer he is. So many things are very symbolic and the story may not be Berserk level of tragedy, but is still extremely tragic.  How well the story unravels every week is always such a treat for me, since things just get more intense, especially the last few chapters(sweating). The art here is also really unique, although a little messy at times, but very nice most of the time. I can definetly see this being one of those mangas that will be remembered for a long time if it keeps this level of care going until the very end.