I'm sorry, but I hate manga so much.

I can't help it. I really hate manga. I live in Japan and see people every day on the trains reading Japanese comic books (manga) obsessively. They also stand in convenience stores reading the comics that are for sale there for hours.(Here's a long aside about that: for some reason, the store owners in Japan don't kick them out. Huge groups of guys here in Japan stand inside convenience stores in front of the manga and magazine racks just reading entire comic books from cover to cover. Hours. with. no. purchase. If I stood in 7-11 back home reading every magazine on the shelf for over an hour, I would almost definitely be asked to purchase the magazines or leave the store... but I guess it's like how back home, you can stay and read books for hours inside big chain bookstores like Chapters. Anyway, it's a way to kill time for free if you read Japanese.)I feel like if I liked reading manga, I could start with the kind with furigana (hiragana written all tiny above kanji, for people too young to read the kanji) and improve my Japanese vocabulary. Some people I know here used to read comics when they were younger and now they're really good at Japanese because they learned so many expressions from manga. I feel like if I started reading even translated popular manga I might learn something interesting about Japan. But it's so annoying! I don't like the art style of most typical Japanese manga, either. The Sailor Moon style drawings where every character looks exactly the same. I asked my friend to recommend a popular Japanese comic book to me and she gave me this manga called Nana that is extremely popular here. I tried to read it but the plot is like "The Parent Trap" for teenage girls. Two girls both named Nana, one is a quiet, boring girl and the other is this wild Nana in a punk band, they meet....alteregos, etc etc so boring. But it was so popular here that they made it into a movie. The thing that bothers me is that I don't hate comic books. I am not against graphic novels completely, so I could potentially like manga if I ever found a decent series. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is an amazing graphic novel that I have re-read many times in both French and English. It is smart, funny, sad, exciting. I can relate to the main character and it taught me some interesting things about life in Iran after the cultural revolution. That's the kind of comic book I like. Something wonderful that teaches me and entertains me at the same time.I heard that Persepolis was recently made into a film. I haven't seen it, but I'd be interested. Have any of you guys seen it? Anyway, one person who knows my tastes recommended that I read Doraemon comics. He bought me that English/Japanese version of the first Doraemon and even translated all the Kanji into furigana for me, which probably took ages. Anyway, it was adorable. This is a children's comic book but I liked it a lot. It was very charming, imaginative and sweet, about a very average boy who has a giant magical blue cat as his best friend. This children's comic is the only manga I have ever even vaguely enjoyed in Japan. In fact, that goes for movies, too. The only anime I like is made for children. I only like Totoro and Hayao Miyazaki animations.People here must read some kinds of smart, interesting comic books. Decent Japanese manga must exist. Can you recommend anything?

Also, I posted this last year, but now I have more people reading and commenting on this site so I will show it to you guys again. I made an online mix tape of all sorts of Japanese music I like. The theme was Japan, so most of the music is Japanese indie music. But the rules were that every song has to be either be by a completely Japanese band, sung in Japanese, about Japan, or the band must have at least one Japanese person in it. If you're interested in hearing some new / interesting Japanese independent music, here you go.

Also, I am moving to Kansai this month.