Any good space opera mangas?

[Kid Kyoto]

Are there any good space opera (think Star Wars) type manga around? Space ships, fighters, funky aliens, exotic worlds you know the drill. Anything like that in print?

[Kid Kyoto]

guess not.

[Buzz Dixon]

Patience, patience...

Leiji Matsumoto is the undisputed king of the genre:
SPACE CRUISER YAMATO (a.k.a. STARBLAZERS)
CAPTAIN HARLOCK
ESMERALDAS
GALAXY EXPRESS 999

I have not read PLANETES but have heard good things about it.

2001 NIGHTS is a spin-off of the movie; much more metaphysical than action packed but lotsa great illustrations.

MACROSS and GUNDAM in all their various iterations

SPACE COBRA by Monkey Punch is kinda like an outer space version of LUPIN III (which is also by Monkey Punch)

[T51R]

Try:

-Captain Herlock
-Stellvia
-Vandread
-Gene Shaft

[chojinlocke]

Patience, patience...

SPACE COBRA by Monkey Punch is kinda like an outer space version of LUPIN III (which is also by Monkey Punch)

All of these are excellent places to start. I HIGHLY recommend Crusher Joe, the anime and the manga. Many of these titles have been reviewed here at CBR in Calling Manga Island.

BTW Buzz, I didn't know about Space Cobra. I only know Buichi's Space Adventure Cobra. http://www.buichi.com/E/works/cobra/index_cobra.html
and that is pretty cool! If there is a space adventure by Monkey Punch, I need to find it!!

[Robotech Master]

There are novels, manga, and anime for Morioka's Seikai series. Has all of the elements of Space Opera, though there aren't technically any aliens, since the Abh are actually genetically altered humans.

Seikai no Monshou is available here as Crest of the Stars. Seikai no Senki I and II are available here as Banner of the Stars I and II. Seikai no Senki III hasn't been licensed yet. The first two novels of Crest of the Stars have been released in the US so far.

[jabrams007]

I keep hearing that Five Star Stories is an amazing space opera manga, but it doesn't look like much has been translated into English.

[Althalus]

Well, Two Faces of Tomorrow (http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-662) is more hard SF than space opera, but I thought I'd mention it.

Then of course there's all the Johji Manabe stuff from Dark Horse (I don't think he did anything but space opera): Outlanders, Drakuun and Caravan Kidd. Some will probably be OOP by now, though, since the last of those was published 6 years ago. Also Drakuun was never finished (and not even all published single issues were collected as TPs).

Aqua/Aria by Kozue Amano probably doesn't count as space opera or SF, but it plays on Mars and is a good read.

And then there's of course the generic answer: the Star Wars manga versions (http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=97-696). There are english editions of Ep.4-6 and 1.


~Althalus

[Kid Kyoto]

thanks, I'll check out some of them.

Not really looking for a mecha story like Macross and Gundam though, more galactic travel and strange alien worlds. Is Lensman available in the US?

Weird. I can't think of any manga with non-humanoid aliens (barring monsters). Can anyone?

[Buzz Dixon]

Manga, no, but the LENSMAN movie, while doing violence to the source material, was populated with non-humanoid beings.

[ChrisIII]

There's Tenchi Muyo (sort of) although it's more of a comedy series about this guy and the various alien women who live with him. It has an interesting space-faring civilization who build their spaceships out of wood. Or something like that. It mostly takes place in Japan, but ocassionally there are episodes where they go into space.



I wonder why there's no manga adaptations of Star Wars episodes II and III. Poor sales perhaps on I?


I second the Matsumuto stuff as well.

[Phana]

Can't think of any space opera manga, but as far as anime goes:
Irresponsible Captain Tylor - Hilarious and awesome space opera
Legend of Galactic Heroes - space epic, possibly the best anime I've ever seen, only available via fansubs

Planetes is a good manga set in space, but not an opera : /