#MagMell Shinkai Suizokukan

[unamplified]

[fishingfordreams]

manga recommendations pt. 3

memory, melancholy, and maturity

Totsukuni no Shoujo (The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún) by Nagabe

A harrowing and beautiful grim dark fairy tale set in a world populated with monstrous creatures that can curse people with a single touch. The story follows a young girl named Shiva and her otherworldly Teacher who live in a vacant village on the "outside." The story explores the dichotomy of light and darkness, good and evil, body and soul, and those who linger in the quiet spaces in between. Nagabe’s dreamy story book illustrations capture the fantastical and eerie world vividly, crafted together in fine lines and careful contrasts.

Dungeon Meshi (Dungeon in Delicious) by Ryoko Kui

A charming medieval fantasy story about, well, dungeons, dragons, and delicious food! The premise is simple: kill the magician of the dungeon and the golden kingdom shall be yours, or so the former king declared before fading to dust. And so, we follow a group of adventurers as they traverse the dungeon and, after losing their supplies and friend to a red-scaled dragon, meet a dwarf who teaches them how to prepare and cook monster ingredients. The story delights in monster designs and their anatomies and ecosystems, and boasts a diverse cast of characters that are as equally complex and well-developed.

MagMell Shinkai Suizokukan (Deep Sea Aquarium MagMell) by Kiyomi Sugishita

A gorgeously illustrated story following Koutarou Tenjou, a janitor and assistant keeper at a deep sea aquarium in Tokyo. The story quietly opens up a hidden, dreamlike world filled with strange and wonderful creatures that dwell in the dark depths of the sea. Sugishita beautifully captures the fleeting, tender moment of fondness and rumination that people experience while watching the majesty of the ocean and her inhabitants.

BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad by Harold Sakuishi

An absolute classic! A soul-stirring, coming of age story about music, brotherhood, and the angst of adolescence. It features a group of colorful teenagers who come together to form a rock band and the story focuses on their love, trials, and tribulations as they struggle to fame. The protagonist, Yukio “Koyuki” Tanaka, embodies the raw, honest, confronting, and liberating feeling of self-discovery and self-expression that young people often go through. His growth is slow and subtle, but so genuine and measured, and he becomes the force that eventually pulls the groups’ sound together.

Medalist by Tsurumaikada

A heartfelt story that explores the familial, social, and economical pressures of competitive sports, specifically figure skating. We follow Inori Yuitsuka, a fifth grader who is desperate to become a skater but has been constantly criticized by those around her and told that she’s too old to begin training competitively. All except for down-on-his-luck former figure skater Tsukasa Akeuraji who sees her potential and decides to coach her with the promise of winning a medal. Despite the somber premise, this is an incredibly uplifting story about building confidence, realizing your self-worth, and pursuing your dreams regardless of when you decide to start. The athleticism and elegance of figure skating is also portrayed beautifully through dynamic and expressive artwork and paneling.

Holyland by Kouji Mori

An intense, character-driven story following high school student Yuu Kamishiro who, after being driven to isolation by the abuse of his peers and with no place in society, ventures out into the night in search of his "holyland." He finds acceptance through violence and solace in the lawless brutality of the streets. The author meditates on human nature and explores the nature of one's emotions, particularly grief and hatred, and how they define us. Make no mistakes though, this is also very much a martial arts story and Mori balances both the technical and impassionate aspects of combat seamlessly.

(Includes depictions of self-harm, depression, bullying, violence).

[kame56u]

giant weta trio and splendid alfonsino trio!!

[helmetjellyfish]

magmell character birthday art 2024 (ft. flower language)

this year, sugishita has been posting celebratory artwork on the birthdays of the main cast! so far we’ve got Haru (3/5), Ran (4/11), Shinya (5/17), and Shizuka (7/3) featuring various flowers in the background.

since we’re a little over halfway through the year, the only characters who have not received illustrations yet are Minato (10/30), Asahi (12/26), and Koutarou (2/19)*. once those are posted, i’ll update this post to include them!

(*Koutarou’s birthday announcement this year featured a preview of Ch. 48 in place of an an original illustration.)

flower meaning interpretations for each character are under the cut! none of the flowers have been explicitly identified or named, so this post is liable to change if i find a more fitting one later on.

Haruno Izuho (Lily)

starting off with haru’s flower, which is rather straightforward! assuming that the lily depicted is intended to be white, its meaning in hanakotoba is “purity”.

Dougashima Ran (Kalanchoe)

ran’s i am a little uncertain about, mainly because the leaves aren’t drawn and kalanchoe can look very different depending on the species, but the shape of the flowers and the way they cluster together seem similar enough.

kalanchoe can represent several things, such as “a declaration of happiness”, “many small memories”, “protection”, and “a generous heart”.

(it’s interesting to note that his flower was changed from the one he was depicted with on the vol. 9 cast page [a rose].)

Shirahama Shinya (Edelweiss)

next we have shinya’s! a distinct-looking flower, the hanakotoba meaning of edelweiss is “courage” and “important memories”.

Nagaizumi Shizuka (Statice)

the first character in this list to not appear on the vol. 9 cast pages, shizuka’s flower appears to be statice! this flower’s meanings are “an unchanging heart” and “everlasting memories”. combined with the starry backdrop, i think it’s safe to say who this is alluding to…

that’s all for now! please look forward to the rest of the illustrations in the upcoming months, and let me know if you think there’s a better match for any of the flowers above ^_^

[the-musings-of-a-manga-reader]

MagMell Shinkai Suizokukan

MagMell Shinkai Suizokukan is an ongoing series about a boy who works at a deep sea aquarium. Each chapter focuses on a deep sea creature, providing facts about them throughout the chapter, while also including a little page at the end that gives more information.

(On the left is an example of the info page at the end of the chapters)

I absolutely love this series!!!!! It has quickly become one of my favorites and is one I’ll definitely be suggesting to english publishers in hopes it gets licensed for print. I’ve even been going around and sharing this series with friends in hopes of convincing more people to read it.

The art is absolutely gorgeous and I can not say that enough. The way the sea creatures are drawn pulls me in and by the end of the chapter I’m looking up real photos of these creatures because I’m so curious. This manga does a great job in getting people interested in the deep sea and is a fun way to learn some real facts.

If you’re someone who is interested in aquatic life, the deep sea and/or just love pretty art and fascinating creatures this series is for you!

But honestly, I recommend that everyone checks this series out. You won’t regret it!

Ps. While I used the art from the Japanese version, there is an english fan translation available. (That’s what I used to read it)

Also merch for this series is available for pre-order on AmiAmi.

[magmells]

aaron siskind / susan sontag / lone wolf by jodi picoult

[monokkuro]

[shortdalee]

[This isn't in my usual manga rec format because, frankly, I'm tired and drained as fuck, but nonetheless:]

I highly recommend Magmell Shinkai Suizokukan (MangaDex). It's an interesting slice of life manga centered on deep-sea creatures. The protagonist's a young-ish boy who loves deep-sea creatures and gets a job working at an aquarium (Magmell) that enables its visitors go into the deep to see these animals in their natural habitat (while being respectful of the actual environment and the animals living in it).

It's been tagged as Mystery, but I wouldn't say it's hinged on mysteries and solving them. It's more that there's some unanswered questions, the main one being the protag's father who's apparently friends with Magmell's director, but for the most part, they're not the driving factor. Basically, speaking as someone who filters out Mystery stories, don't let the tag chase you away.

As the manga progresses, it starts including more and more stories from its side characters, both existing and new. I don't remember all of them because it's been a while, but recently, there's an arc that I think is doing a really great job of telling the story about a trans side character. I really like how before the most recent chapter where the author explicitly refers to the character as trans in-text (which is important) by having the character come out to his mom (which I don't personally think is necessary in general but was good in that we have a character definitively identifying as trans), they both explicitly and implicitly hint at it.

Spoiler for mom's reaction under the cut in case you need to know before you read it (which. understandable). BUT! Two of his coworkers already know that he's trans, and one of them's the director who hired him and let him "live as a man" while working there.

His mom, though, doesn't react well. She just dismisses it as him following a trend or whatever and doesn't take him seriously.

[sliceofdyke]

if you enjoy marine biology (especially deep sea creatures) and like to read comics/manga, i highly recommend deep sea aquarium magmell (or magmell shinkai suizokukan in japanese)!! it’s an ongoing slice of life manga by kiyomi sugishita about a guy who loves aquatic life and works at an undersea aquarium. the art style and illustrations of the fish are absolutely breathtaking, and the characters are really well done in my opinion. it’s such a refreshing read and also super informative about different deep sea creatures!! if you end up liking it please let me know because now i need people to talk about it with :)

[lilbugprincess]

Today's manga browsing find is "MagMell Shinkai Suizokukan", about a young man who works as a janitor at a deep sea aquarium bc of his love of the creatures that live there.

[miserye]

Me liking MagMell Shinkai Suizokukan is the least surprising most on brand thing I’ve ever done

[raini-day]

I started keeping a reading log this month! For better or worse I ended up reading a lot more than usual but I manged to keep track of most of it 🌟These are ordered roughly by how much I enjoyed reading them at the time of reading

Some reccs from this month:

Or Something Like it

Kinaho lived alone until one day, her boyfriend Akito brought with him two young relatives: a pair of brothers who had just lost their parents. All at once, Kinaho finds herself living under one roof with not just Akito, but serious-to-a-fault eighth grader Toma and innocent five-year-old Haruhi. As the days pass in confusion, this group starts to forge a new relationship: a family… or something like it.

I always enjoy series that deal with people processing death + unusual family dynamics. I'm already enjoying the characters just from reading volume 1 and am looking forward to seeing more how their relationships develop!

2. Magmell Shinkai Suizokukan

A tale about a modern deep-sea aquarium employee in Tokyo! What's living in the overwhelming darkness deep within the sea? Take a glimpse into this strange world about a boy working at a deep sea aquarium.

This series has suuuuch lovely art, if you enjoy deep sea fish you'll enjoy this. I've only read volume 1 so far, and there's not been a whole ton of character exploration but it does seem to be setting up some interesting plot threads for the future.

3. Ari no Manma no Anata

Kaede, a young woman, has given herself a much more masculine haircut. Despite her insistence that it was merely out of her own preference, she still receives some hassle for it. On her way home from work, frustrated, she stumbles upon Yoshino, a battered young woman - and one that seems to have had problems with men….

wow, lesbians <3 cute oneshot about women standing up for each other + super cute butch protagonist, love to see it. It's the subtle things that have put this one so high on my list.

4. The Duke's Daughter Drops Her Engagement and Facade

After being publicly dumped by her fiancé, the Crown Prince Lombard, the duke's daughter Christiana appears unshaken. Despite being educated to be a refined noblewoman and the perfect queen, she has always harbored a different dream—to become Lombard's knight. Now, with the engagement off, she finally has the chance to pursue her true calling.

One for the villainess enjoyers! Setting aside the extreme trans guy vibes Chris gives off, I like this series because Chris's attitude towards her ex-fiance is pretty unique among series of this genre. It's very 'you gave up on me, but won't give up on you. you're still a good friend who I care about'. Considering that and their past relationship I'm curious to see what happened to change it so much!

5. Correspondence from the End of the Universe

Russian recent college graduate Marko is looking forward to traveling the world with his lover. However, he is abducted by a mysterious being to the end of the universe, ruining his plans. That mysterious being assigns Marko a ten-year mission. All Marko can do is give his all to the mission and befriend his alien coworkers. This is the peculiar story depicting life in a place far removed from Earth.

I'm a big fan of this kind of extremely whimsical sci-fi, so far my favorite aliens are the ones that eat the emotions of people eating. I really like the art and designs too, looking forward to seeing where this series goes!

6. Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko!

Soft and bubbly office lady Ayaka is madly in love with her senior at work, Hiroko! Two lovestruck coworkers who both think the other is straight totally crush on each other…

Unstoppable force (lesbian who will pull out all stops to flirt with her crush) x immovable object (lesbian who thinks 'wow straight women are so affectionate towards their friends nowadays') It's a pretty simple classic premise, which lets the characters and their troubles shine through all the better.

[kame56u]

haru-san with cute things, mainly plushies

[helmetjellyfish]

it’s still june somewhere if you squint… but happy (late) pride month to ryou chibata! may you find happiness living as your true self.

[amogoiaba]

"the sea farther than space"

posting for funsies right before my econ ap exam. the art in this manga is so gorgeous!

[allthefujoshiunite]

MagMell Shinkai Suizokukan by Sugishita Kiyomi #seinenmanga

MAGMELL SHINKAI SUIZOKUKAN by Sugishita Kiyomi // Shinchosha (2017)