Manga for a 14 year old?


Hey beautiful people!

My nephew is turning 14 and he likes the style of anima and manga, but his uncool aunt here knows very little about it (my first choice was to buy him a Valhalla comic book.. if you can even get those anymore) so do you have any suggestions as to what would be a good starting point for a 14 year old just getting into manga? Any authors I should look into?
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simplykit19's avatar
ametotaiyou's avatar
basically any and all of the popular shounen:
ongoing mangas:
- my hero academia (imo pretty great; esp if he likes super heroes)
- one piece (super run longing series though, so you run into the risk of him wanting to get all volumes and blowing thousands of dollars away for more volumes xD)
- black clover (I heard the manga is quite good)
- dr. stone (especially if he's a science nerd too)
- hunter x hunter (I heard it's good)
- gintama (jokes are a little dirty though)
- detective conan (if he likes detective stuff)
- seven deadly sins (I heard it's good)
finished mangas:
- naruto (used to be super popular when airing. especially the beginning is worth checking out I think)
- bleach (also used to be super popular; personally not my cup of tea)
- fairy tail (also pretty popular; probably entertaining entry manga)
- fullmetal alchemist (amazing series!)
- dragon ball (a classic)
- yu yu hakusho (by same author who did hunter x hunter)
- slam dunk (a classic; if he likes basketball)
- kuroko no basket (also if he likes basketball)
- soul eater (pretty nice manga)
- katekyo hitman reborn! (I loved this when I was little, also pretty popular back in the day I believe)
- blue exorcist (personally not my cup of tea, but was popular)
- d gray man (also personally not my cup of tea, but was popular)
Chickadee-Writes's avatar
The Pokémon Adventures and Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure!! series should be good.

Not sure if they're available in Denmark or not, but as they've both been translated in various countries outside Japan, you could probably order a few volumes for him.
EnTaroChrist's avatar
Fullmetal Alchemist and the manga adaptation of Darren Shan 
Nenril-Tf's avatar
Shorts and already finished, not expansive or too complicated but still good:
-Full Metal Alchemist
-Soul Eater
-Death Note

when he turns 16 let him read Video Girl Ai
Badgercheese1994's avatar
When I was 13-14 I read the Shonen Jump magazines. This was in the 2000s I have no idea if they're still in circulation but I think they are. Back then I read mostly Naruto but there was Bleach, One Piece, Death Note. All fine for angsty teenage boys if you ask me!
IKrines's avatar
Such Magazines doesn't exist in Denmark, I have seen them in Germany.
seblev2790's avatar
I think some safe ones tend to be the Shonen Jump manga's - I saw you already got Naruto so I think I would also recommend Bleach like Hoppety suggested.
Also, for something not really in the main stream, try "The Girl From The Other Side"
IKrines's avatar
Full Metal Alcheminist.

I think you can get the ful Valhalla series as books, but not sure he would be happy for it.
I did find the Valhalla both as books and comic books - almost ordered a couple of them for my self Heart 

But yeah, I don't know how he would feel about getting them - maybe I should just get him to see the animated movie first :-)
IKrines's avatar
Or let him borrow the book.
Montgomery19's avatar
I'd recommend Revolutionary Girl Utena! Its a bit confusing but its very gorgeous 
Imperator-Xolo's avatar
One Punch Man manga
Hoppety's avatar
There's an entire genre of manga and anime that caters specifically to boys around the ages 12-16, it's called Shonen

Some popular manga and anime (the series I'm about to name have both manga and anime adaptations) are: Naruto, Dragon ball, One Piece, Bleach, Fairy Tail, HunterXHunter, Boku no Hero Academia and a lot of other lesser known series. The common factor in these series is that it focuses on a main (male) protagonist chasing his dream to become something or to find something in the world. They often have quite a varied supporting cast who all teach the protagonist some wise lesson which helps them grow. Common themes are Nakama (friends/allies), overcoming some sort of hardship and growing into the person you want to be, as well as some darker themes like revenge. 

For example in Boku No Hero Academia (the one I would probably recommend the most due to its shorter length), the protagonist lives in a world where 80% of the population has some kind of superpower, but he's in the unfortunate 20% that don't. This hits him especially hard because his big dream was to become a superhero. Several things happen and the protagonist ends up chasing his dream to become a hero anyway and makes it into a Highschool that specializes in educating heroes. 

Manga are sold in volumes, but there's also a weekly magazine called Shonen Jump which contains weekly chapters for several different Shonen series. 
Thank you so much for your detailed reply!

Boku No Hero Academia doesn't seem to be easily available in Denmark so I've ordered the first 3 volumes of Naruto for him :-)