Recently I entered the world of dip pens and got a set from Deleter: Dip pen holder, G-nibs, and the Black 4 Ink. The G-nib is the most common nib used in manga drawing. It needs some pressure to do its work, but it’s flexible enough to do thin and thick strokes.

They aren’t hugely expensive items - the nibs can be bought in large packs for a few dollars at stationary stores, and are made to last for a few months of heavy use each. The ink is a little more expensive. It’s the kind of thing where the results are better in that you can get some really sharp lines by using viscous ink that would clog anything else, but also, you’d only use it if you’re deep into working with ink and aren’t satisfied with felt fineliners. It’s just logistically harder to deal with keeping an ink pot secure on the desk, dipping the pen, cleaning the nib, putting everything away. Fountain pens are way more popular with collectors, but dip pens are workhorses and there’s almost nothing to troubleshoot, just “how do I keep ink from blobbing on it” (scrub off the protective factory coating with mild detergents or just using the ink itself) and “how do I clean it” (rinse with water).

The other tool of that type is the kolinsky sable brush - sable hair is more springy than synthetics. I am on the fence about actually getting one of those, my rubberized-felt brush pens do a decent job of getting the elements of brushes that I want, and cleaning brushes is more annoying.