Alternatively if you have never bought a volume, what is first on your wishlist to kickstart your collection?
The blue, earless, mechanical cat - Doraemon
A Doraemon movie was actually my first anime movie that I had, on cassette, when I was a child.
Are you a big Doraemon fan or was it just by chance that you got that?
I had those too, on VHS. Loved it as a kid, but just an average fan now lol. I recently watched the movies on Netflix (Stand By Me) and saw some episodes randomly on YouTube, but didn’t really like them. I would still occasionally read manga though
Funnily enough, the first volume of Tour Lie in April was gifted to me and was my very first volume.
I’m more of a digital person, but I still have the volume.
I’m definitely a digital person too, I have never read a series physical first nor do I have a complete one. But I do like owning volumes, it kind of allows me to think I support the author regardless of how little money actually comes their way from my purchase jeje
Dragonball issue 5 and 34. Every other issue in my area was sold out. This was my first introduction to manga/anime, except maybe Pokemon anime I grew up with.
For me, technically it was green blood volume 1 which I received as a gift, I didn’t like it at all tbh, art was pretry but this kind of seinen wasn’t my style.
First one I bought myself was Jojo’s volume 4, battle tendency.
Shame you didn’t really like Green Blood, not an enormous fan of it, but I was always enjoyed reading it. I guess more accurately I’m just a sucker for the art style.
It was 25 years ago, so I don’t remember. Blade of the Immortal was one of the first, if not the very first, graphic novels I bought. Back then, graphic novels were only for back releases, and new releases were typically two or three chapters combined into a monthly Western style issue, so I’m sure I bought some of those before getting graphic novels.
I’m not sure but it was either Kingdom Hearts II Vol. 18 or Pandora Hearts Vol. 1
I found the second volume of the old Tokyopop Blame! release in some secondhand bookstore. I was DEEPLY confused after reading it.
I can definitely see why! It would have been really weird to read blame with 0 prior context.
Dragonball Z, I remember being given the volume with the arrival of Trunks by a friend of mine
Solid beginnings, I much prefer dragon ball over manga nowadays.
Agree. Although I much prefer Dragon Ball over Dragon Ball Z or Super. I think Toriyama shines the most when he goes with action comedy. I like Dr. Slump the most out of all his work.
Yep, Dragon Ball actually felt like an adventure. Also being inspired by journey to the west, at least in aesthetics and cast, is a huge plus for me.
Og Dragon Ball has so much charm, and it avoids the infinite scaling of power the series would later be known for
My friend’s sister gave me the whole Sailor Moon series and most of Inuyasha when she was getting ready to go to university. I eventually bought the rest of Inuyasha.
My first volume was one of those special printings done of the first volume of naruto back in the early 2000s.
For me it was Mahou Sensei Negima. I was also into Naruto at the same time so there was a lot of that mixed in.
Dr. Slump or Maison Ikkoku (can’t really remember which was first) in 1984.
I am watching the series of Dr. Slump and this is by far the best manga that I’ve seen until now :P
Probably one of the pokemon mangas.
The only physical manga I own is the berserk deluxe editions. I’m still missing two volumes. I would love to own the jojo series in hardcover as well.
Nice, that is my favorite volume release of all time, it should be more common to do releases of that size (the cover is also nice, but I really like how big they are)
The first manga I bought was volume 31 of Berserk, the scanlations I was using had a huge gap that started at that chapter so I said wtf why not.
My first full series purchase was the full box set of A Silent Voice, top 10 all time for me so I had to have it, sadly got ruined when my old home flooded but hey what can you do lol
E: Actually if you count issues of Shonen Jump as physicals then I’d been sporadically reading chapters off those when I was younger, they used to sell them in the local blockbuster I believe, though it was never consecutive so I couldn’t actually follow any stories lmao. I vividly remember reading chapter #504 of Naruto and being very, VERY confused lmao
