looking for recommendations

Hey there manga fans, I'm looking for recommendations for sophisticated, "adult" manga in any genre. Some of my favorite authors:

Erica Sakurazawa (but not Angel)
Katsuhiro Otomo
Junji Ito
Kiriko Nananan (soooo hard to find her works in the U.S.)
Hiroaki Samura
and of course the grandmaster, Osamu Tezuka

I also love the following collections, and most things Pulp magazine used to publish:

Comics Underground Japan
Sake Jock
Secret Comics Japan

Thanks in advance!

Adult manga?
Look for Monster, 20th Century Boy´s, Eden, Rose Hip Rose, Strain or more hentai Mouse by Satoru Akahori.
The question is what did you call adult?
You know there are people out there who call all anime and manga kids stuff and even some weirdos who call all manga and anime "The work of the devil" ;)

I think you're looking for what is usually called the seinen genre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinen

Some of my favorites:
Tsutomu Nihei! Anything by him, though you might want to start with Blame!.
Kei Toume's Lament of the Lamb. This is the most realistic fictional treatment of vampires I've ever seen (it's also much better than the anime adaptation).
Hideo Yamamoto's Homunculus.
Makoto Yukimura's Planetes. (The very best hard SF manga has to offer IMO.)
Mohiro Kitoh's Naru Taru. It features schoolchildren but deals with adult themes. I found the last book kind of disappointing though.

I would´nt call Naru Taru/Shadow Star adult, it´s more teen.
Oh and thanks for mentioning Planetes, I´ve forgot -shame on me-.

prezzey, you hit the nail on the head. I think I also sometimes enjoy manga in that age range "for women," at least the ones with interesting characters, good art, and non-formulaic storylines. I believe it's called josei?

Thanks for the recommendation. Can I get a second opinion on Strain, and the other series drawn by Ikegami Ryoichi--Sanctuary and Crying Freeman?

I've been thinking of checking out Planetes for a while. Tell me it isn't similar to Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface, which was such a colossal letdown that I stopped reading it after 50 pages! I hope that's not what you mean by "hard sf" (scantily-clad female characters babbling on and on about gyro-plasmoid-silicate-connector-infinity-helix nonsense)

Anybody read The Voices of a Distant Star? Anybody read Voyeur or Voyeurs, Inc. by Hideo Yamamoto? How about Lady Snowblood?

The Voices of a Distant Star is rather sketchy in it both characterization and plot, which I don't care for. It reads like it's assuming the reader already knows the characters and story, in the same way that anime is sometimes really eye candy for existing fans and not meant to present a unified whole.

No, it's completely different from GitS2. Here you have realistically clothed people with baseline human curvature doing realistic things (collecting space debris!).

And yup, the similar female category would be josei.

metatext -- if you like Blade of the Immortal, I think you'll like Lady Snowblood. Classic revenge drama (and IIRC, the movie version was one of Quentin Tarentino's big inspirations for Kill Bill).

I'd also highly recommend Planetes. One of my favorite manga titles overall. I'd compare it to Patlabor -- it's a sci-fi title, but the story's really about the characters and how they develop and interact with each other and the world they're in. They do make an effort to keep the science plausible, but it's still very entertaining; Planetes doesn't fall into the sci-fi trap of launching into five pages of polysyllabic explanation of a concept (some of the volume do have appendixes with more info for those who wish it).

Thanks, MadLudwig. I bought all four volumes of Lady Snowblood recently, I'm looking forward to read it. I also bought volume one of Planetes and liked it a lot so I'm going to get the other four.

On a side note, what do people think of the Planetes anime? As good as the manga?

The Planetes Animes is as good as the Manga. You can say that out loud, definitly!!! ^_____^

I also really liked both, but I saw the series more than a year before I found the manga... so there was no direct comparison I felt compelled to make.

Sanctuary by Sho Fumimura was a great manga, I really tore through it in high school - but don't let that make it seem like it was kiddie stuff. I loved the politics of it, and the history.

I'm also a really big fan of Eagle, which I think did a good job of explaining American politics even though it's Japanese in origin.

Buddha by Osamu Tezuka is a must read for all manga fan. Don't worried if you're not a religious person because this book wont' convert you or is one of those preachy type book..., however it will tell a fantastic story of kindness and understanding.

Oh yeah, the plantes anime isn't as good as manga. Trust me, they change a lot of the story and character's personality. The anime is still good nevetheless, but the manga is endearing once you finish volume 3. =P

Try "Path of The Assassin", it's a witty well-written manga for adults.

Since you like Junji Ito, you may also want to check out Hideshi Hino. Red Snake is one of the best horror manga I've ever read (and is only one volume), but most of his stuff is good. I'm always torn between who I like better, Junji Ito or Hideshi Hino.

Kazuo Umezu is also good, and often considered the master of horror manga. I like him a lot, but I think I prefer Ito and Hino personally. Viz is currently publishing one of his most famous series, Drifting Classroom 1, and that one is pretty insane.

Besides the ones already mentioned, some of my favorites:
Hiroki Endo: Eden (Sci Fi)
Kazuo Koike: Lone Wolf & Cub; Samurai Executioner; Path of the Assassin. (All classic samurai manga). Also the artist for Crying Freeman and Lady Snowblood
Shirow Masamune: Ghost in the Shell (Sci-fi, before the film, there was the Manga)
Keiji Nakazawa: Barefoot Gen (About the author's experience as a young boy in Hiroshima when the bomb fell). 8 parts, 4 published so far, the others this year.
Tsugumi Ohba: Deathnote (Fantasy, hugely popular among the kids)
Eiji Otsuka: The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (about a group who help spirits go to the afterlife).
Hiroaki Samura: Blade of the Immortal (Samurai manga)
Syuho Sato: Say Hello to Black Jack (about a young doctor in a hospital, dealing with lots of ethical questions)
Kazumasa Takayama: Chronowar (Sci-Fi)
Keiko Takemiya: To Terra (Sci-Fi)
Jiro Taniguchi: The Walking Man; The Magic Mountain; The Times of Botchan (Literature)
Yoshihiro Tatsumi: The Push Man; Abandon the Old (Stories)
Garon Tsuchiya: Old Boy (thriller)

You may also want to check out
Paul Gravett: Manga, 60 years of Japanese Comics
Various: Secret comics of Japan
The Comics Journal Special on Manga (Fantagraphics)