Manga (Anime) series info?

[goddess47]

I'm writing a story where my main character stops his friend, a dad to a 13-ish year old boy, from purchasing some anime manga books because the main character knows the book series is too adult (sex, violence, both) for a 13 year old. The main character then recommends a different series because the story line is more appropriate for the age of the teen.

The story is the relationship between the main character and the dad, so this is a small piece of the larger story. But I know absolutely nothing about anime (or manga, obviously!) and would appreciate some recommendations of titles that would fit those categories.

Thanks!


ETA: I'm looking for currently available titles and perhaps where they are best purchased (a bookstore, a comic book store, a specialty shop, online?)


ETA2: I'm looking US-centric here.

Comments

[lexicology]

Since it looks like other people have the "good suggestions" covered, here's my suggestion for the inappropriate title: Berserk, by Kentaro Miura. It's available in English, quite popular, obviously a fantasy series from the covers, and looks like it would appeal to a teenage boy...except for all the extreme violence and occasional rape inside. (Which, I suppose still appeal to older teens...)

[goddess47]

Ohhh... excellent! Having something problematic like that is useful! Yeah. My teen-age boy isn't (theoretically) the type to go looking for rape stories... so this is good... thanks for stopping by! I appreciate the help!

[full_metal_ox]

How about Mob/crime dramas? A good inappropriate one might be Black Lagoon; that’s the one where, among other things, a couple of the assassins are twincestuous sadistic killers who believe themselves to be vampires, swap genders and identities back and forth (in what seems to be a case of joint Dissociative Identity Disorder) and were brought up being forced to commit snuff porn. Oh, and they look to be around middle-school age.

[goddess47]

That certainly fits the inappropriate category! I knew there was porn and violence but I should have realized there would be even more kinky works out there.

Thank you !!

[full_metal_ox]

The really disturbing part is that Hansel and Gretel’s origin story was inspired by real-world atrocities under the Ceaușescu regime (1974-1989) in Romania.

[winterbird]

Seconding Berserk! It's recently had a bunch of fancy re-releases and they are not at all easy to tell the content from the cover (since the covers are more stylised, you can find them on Amazon yourself and see what I mean). However the manga is GORY, is filled with many many intense themes (even for adults it can be a hard read!!), and plenty of teenagers do end up reading it because of like Guts (main character who goes around with a larger than life sword).

I'm assuming the 13 year old is probably more naive than the average 13 year old (or that the adult in question is particularly strict about age restrictions), in the sense that many 13 yos these days have been exposed to so much stuff through the internet that something like Berserk isn't likely to bother them in the same way that it might have to 13 yos in the 80s/90s (and plenty of them read Berserk then too).

But yeah, Berserk is a 100% realistic thing someone might pick up for a 13 yo that another more knowledgeable adult might go 'ahhhhhhh no this is not My Hero Academia this is a bit much.'

[goddess47]

Perfect. Yes, the teen has been semi-protected but he's smart, so he knows this sort of thing is out there. But dad has tried to protect him from some of that... The main character will know more about this... And dad will also be semi-naive himself, and have a chance to go "WTF?" when he realizes what he's looking at in the store.

Thank you!