History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi: I remember when I first started this manga I really enjoyed it. For whatever reason I always enjoyed the training in fighting manga more than the fighting, and the beginning of the series was great at turning a wimpy kid into a strong kid. And hey, fan service! Yahoo! Now going over 400 chapters, I haven't read it in a couple of months and thought to myself "What happened?" The story has moved along and there's a huge cast of characters, but with each chapter being only 18 pages on average, NOTHING seems to happen each time a new one is released. I honestly wonder why I even bother. Pretty sure it's the boobs.
Mahou Sensei Negima! (aka Negima! Magister Negi Magi): This one just hurts to list. Love Hina was my favorite manga for most of my high school and college years, and even now holds a special place in my heart (top 5 favorite, for sure). When the series ended and I learned Ken Akamatsu (the mangaka) would be making a new series called Negima!, I was overjoyed! The first arc, which introduced Negi and his class of 30ish high school girls, was rife with comedy, fan service, and magic. The class trip to Kyoto was fun as well! And then... there was the class festival. And the magic world. And for the past several dozen chapters, the only thing that has been happening is a ton of fights. According to what I read online, Akamatsu wanted to make a fighting manga but his publishers were too afraid that it would turn off his fans. So he started in the exact same vein as Love Hina, with a harem romance, and then once it got a good following he slowly changed the formula to a fight manga. I still read it each month when a new issue is released, and I own 21 (!!!) volumes but gave up after I realized that 10 of them are just slow, boring and nothing happens. I can no longer really follow the story (although I read the scans, I don't buy the books anymore).
Just as a note, I really enjoyed the anime but would have rather had some fan service in it, and not have the abrupt (and shocking) events right near the end conjured out of nowhere.
Love in the Mask: Technically manhwa, not manga, but still. Every chapter is practically the same... the main character lives as a boy but is actually a girl, is in love with a boy (who thinks she's a boy but still loves her), but would be soooo much better off if she just said she's a girl... but she never does. Seriously, like 80 chapters follow this formula, where other characters come into the picture, then leave the picture, reinforcing the idea that the girl and boy are perfect together. I actually still enjoy this one, but I just want it to end at this point.
Nurarihyon no Mago: A supernatural fighting manga. At the beginning it held a fair bit of promise with the fun of a kid trying to live as a human while being the successor for the akuma of his clan (he's 1/4th demon). There was also a lot of fun in showing off the different types of Japanese monsters and how they all interact. That was quickly shuffled off to the side and the main action turned to being bigger and bigger fights. Currently in the small fodder gap between fighting arcs, but the next one should (hopefully) end the series. It's dead to me by now anyway.
Fairy Tail: Still keeps me interested, but it's gone on for a loooong time... I enjoyed it before, but again, continuous fight arcs are just so boring after a while. At least RAVE ended eventually.
So, anyone else in the same boat? I imagine followers of Bleach or Naruto would be...
Edited, Jan 21st 2011 3:00pm by LockeColeMA
