Version 2.0 of a post I started writing two hours ago, then lost, because it took me too long and I was logged off. -___-
I grew up with some anime, that ran on a German channel called RTL2 - Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece. All memorable to me either out of nostalgia or due to having been a kid.
I then mostly grew out of anime, except for stumbling during late evenings on Animax across a few episodes of Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, Blue Gender or the 25th episode from Death Note. Yes, that one.
My admiration for anime films, such as Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blue, the Miyazakis, is more reserved than the general fanbase, although I'm slowly recovering in how to critically regard them.
Transitioned to manga - sometimes out of quality issues, such as One Piece having gone to total shit - during the time of the Big Three, out of which I liked Naruto the least, I found Bleach most exciting at least until its hollowness (no pun intended) and half-assery became indefensible, and One Piece for me is pretty much like Radiohead - I can't find much demonstrably wrong with it.
Current / ongoing mangas I regularly read:
Tokyo Ghoul (ugh)
One Punch Man (fiddling with the tropes and subverting them so well, while being a thoroughly entertaining series)
Shingeki no Kyojin (though it dropped off my radar plenty times)
Robot x Laserbeam (beats me why lol).
=== HxH and Berserk can hardly be called regular, given their intermittencies, plus never even went back to re-read them in full. ===
=== Also open new chapters of Jagaan, despite it being pretty trashy and graphic... though that may well be why. ===
=== Also open new chapters of A Trail of Blood, despite done in a style I wouldn't even say I liked, but it's one quick clickread once or twice a month, so whatevs. ===
=== DDL suggested I pick Boku no Hero to fill in the gap left by Naruto and Bleach, but it didn't stick with me. ===
=== Clicked on some Gintama around its Utsuro arc, but no way in bloody hell am I rewinding 500 other chapters that seem to be far less about anything just as serious in tone and direction. ===
Concluded series:
/ picked Toriko from its 100-something chapter onwards - felt like a Dragonball ripoff at first, after which it got pretty good, after which apparently it was attempted to rival the Big Three, failed, and was trashcanned by Shonen in worst fashion that the treatment Bleach got - seemed set for a post-timeskip, mega-saga long adventure, and then it was over 100 chapters later, with a finale twist about as low bar as how the last Twilight movie ended.
/ indulged in Fairy Tail, despite its total lack of style and measure
/ some Junji Ito
/ speedread Battle Royale, after which I picked some other battleroyale-ish series as well, like Btooom!, without going anywhere far or deep with any of them
/ DDL mentioned Soul Eater and I read that; probably liked it more than him, though it really didn't deliver with its finale
/ Deadman Wonderland.
/ I also remember having read Claymore. That was... pretty dire.
/ I seem to have picked a fair share of teen martial arts comics, in which every character is crazy OP, the protagonist usually inherits a previous craziest-of-OPs character's power or legacy, the fights are long, plenty and often inconclusive and the rest of the story revolves around forgettable subjects. Stuff like The Breaker / The Breaker: New Waves, of which I couldn't make a lick of sense, or the short-lived, never-to-be-sequeled-apparently Veritas, which was more enjoyable, because boobs and crazy fights and boobs.
/ I find Dr. Stone interesting, because I recognized its author's style from another manga called Sun Ken Rock, a sort of yakuza-ish? in which every male character was also pretty much a michelangelic sculpture of muscles and power and every female character was ecchi drool, plus also having ridiculous martial fights cut from the same cloth as The Raid movies. The author also likes to mix serious tone with countless face faults. As for Dr. Stone, I find it pretty dumb, while also trying too much to squeeze its SCIENCE topic on a chapter-by-chapter basis.
I'd also add that, if I just so happen to come upon a chapter from a series that has a darker moment or peak in its story, a shocking twist / death, it has a better chance of drawing me in. Edgy / gory / graphic deaths can also help. It happened with Akame ga Kiru during its, uhm, "head-on-a-spike" moment, though afterwards I didn't enjoy much of it at all and it had the least relatable protagonists ever. I'd also nominate Wolf Guy Ookami no Monshou in its entirety, which arrived at a perfect time in my life for a total, purely cathartic and meaningless brainfuck.
