“Anime at Large” is a series I made of anime that I have watched or really need to watch, but I have a hard time (re)locating them. I post about individual series whenever I can’t see to find it or it came up on my mind. There are more anime that I need to start/finish watching–if only I could get my hands on it. I’m taking a break from anime for a moment, and focus my sights on Manga. There are a few manga that I’m looking for–some of them happen to have an anime adaption (don’t they all?). There’s a few to mention at the moment, since I’m pretty much caught up on current series, but one…

Gintama

Gintama is the first on my list of manga to read–and an anime of it to watch. I said that this was going to be a manga edition of the series (Anime at Large, the very post in the series you’re reading right now), but I had to bring this up. I was interested in the anime at first, but finding fansubs of the series is hard to find, unless I search for one of those free anime download sites. The English translation of the Gintama manga has been in the US for sometime now. Hopefully, someone will license the anime soon, especially since convention season will start soon…Anyway, Gintama is about bounty hunters in a feudal, futuristic Edo period Japan. The main character, Gin, likes to slack off and read manga and eat sweets. The first episode of the anime, which originally aired as an hour long two-part premier special, was really hilarious and starts the series off with a bang. Since I can’t seem to find the anime, I guess I’ll start the on manga for the time being.

Tenshi Ja Nai!: I’m no Angel!

This manga is a Shounen-ai title. Basically, it’s about a boy who dresses up as a girl so he could transfer to a school with the classes he needs. This manga screams “Kill Me, Kiss Me” (Manhwa) and “Hanazakari no Kimitachi he”–or better known as “Hana-Kimi”. It’s cute to see someone of the opposite sex get into trouble for being for (s)he’s not, then fall in-love (straight) with him/her. I took interest in this manga after reading a brief review in the now defunct NewType USA. It took me a while to find it, as it is not in the section with the other manga–it’s in the Romance section, along with Berserk and Battle Royale. They’re not Romance titles, but once you see them in the dimmed out section, wrapped in plastic, you’ll get the idea. I manage to find volume one a few months ago at Books-A-Million. They had a few copies out of the way from the first couple of volumes. The last time I went to Books-A-Million, a week ago, they had one copy left. Whew! Good thing I got the first volume it. Shounen-ai is [getting] that popular…

Chobits

Finally, there’s Chobits. A fan favorite. I read two–and a half–volumes of Chobits, before I suddenly lost interest. I should buy all of them so I can have it there when I’m ready to read it. I did this for Dragonball, when Waldenbooks when out of business…Well, Chobits is probably the first Moé-ish manga involving an artificial intelligence. I really love the story, but it’s a shame I couldn’t finish it. It’s just one of those bad habits I have for stopping something I started-hence “Anime Manga at Large”. Speaking of “at large”, I should save up on getting Geneon’s DVD boxset before someone else picks up the license for the series…