Or is that more of a guide to the series? Anyone read it?

I also wasn’t as bothered by the dense dialogue because Death Note is all about strategy and planning, and you need plenty of dialogue to establish both.

I’ll add my voice to those suggesting Monster and Yotsuba. I’m also a huge fan of Battle Angel Alita (the original series). I’d recommend Genshiken too, but I’m not sure if you’ll appreciate it as much since you’re not a big anime/manga fan — Genshiken is essentially “Seinfeld” for otaku.

As far as manga is concerned, I’m going to second the recs for Yotsuba&! and Monster. Yotsuba is just a delight to read and Monster features some world-class suspense. I should note that Monster is a fairly long series–18 volumes, about 11 have been released in English.

And for a series that hasn’t already been brought up by the other commentators: Planetes. It’s a character-driven sci-fi series that is in turns both funny and deeply moving. All four volumes are available in English. I read it for the first time recently and it is probably one the best manga series I’ve ever read.

Luis – I’m not sure that Death Note does work as a morality play – I think that Kira always has a moral position that, if not completely supported by the text, is at least arguable and/or defensible.

I beg your pardon?

I mean, REALLY? Do you think so?

But I’m not a hundred. I always think of, like, Spenser’s the Faerie Queene, that kind of pure allegory where the heroes represent noble virtues (Calidore – The Knight of Courtesy) and the villains are named Faithlessness and Falsehood.

Best college class I ever had was on the Faerie Queene.

But Death Note always has some shades of grey than pure moral allegory, even if the text has pretty clearly chosen a side.

Luis – I’m not sure that Death Note does work as a morality play – I think that Kira always has a moral position that, if not completely supported by the text, is at least arguable and/or defensible.

This is a very tough call. If a morality play is supposed to come down clearly on one side of the aisle or another, than I would agree that this does not work as a morality play. If provoking thought and stimulating debate on what constitutes morality counts as a morality play, then I’d say it succeeded. I’m not exactly sure what the proper definition of a morality play is, though. (I had a similar debate about Bret Easton Ellis’s books just last week)

It never does get BAD. And even if it did it would still be worth reading for the ending.

Luis – I’m not sure that Death Note does work as a morality play – I think that Kira always has a moral position that, if not completely supported by the text, is at least arguable and/or defensible.

I put a hold on the first volume of Yotsuba at the library. I might be a little tough on it, though – Sounds like it’s hanging out in Lynda Barry territory, conceptually. And she’s my absolute favorite cartoonist ever. So it’ll be tough to compete.

I’d like to read more Manga. I was going to read Tezuka’s Buddha, but now I’m committed to reviewing a series that stupid Matt Brady didn’t do first. Any recommendations?

I’m far from an expert since I don’t read a whole lot of manga but I’d definitely recommend Blade Of The Immortal. The OldBoy manga was pretty good too and any serious comics reader should own Akira in my opinion. Domu (also by Katsuhiro Otomo) won’t disappoint either but I’m not sure if it’s still available.

As for other manga to check out, I would also recommend Monster or Nana or Drifting Classroom (but I’ve read and covered them already; I’ve only read the first two volumes of Monster though, so you could pass me up pretty quickly) or probably tons of others. There’s a hell of a lot of good manga out there; I really need to check out Yotsuba one of these days…