-
-
High school student Tsukushi has got the look of a thug, but he has one pressing issue: he's a weakling through and through. Sure, he has the earnestness to learn, but that can only take a person so far. Warabi, on the other hand, is a crazy strong elementary school student, but doesn't have anyone she considers a friend. A chance encounter with a lion escaping from a zoo brings the two together, where they realize, despite their myriad of differences, they have plenty in common too. If anyone can be a student in the pursuit of strength, can anyone also be a teacher? With art inspired by 80s shonen manga, this is a vegetable you'll not only want to enjoy first but all the way till the last bite! (Source: Manga Mavericks Books)
“F \[I Am John Cantlie\] imagines Fukushima as a kind of Syria in the fallout of the 3.11 disaster, and follows a British journalist’s infiltration of the region while brutal foreign forces strike into the heart of the remnants of northern Japan.” The tsunami and nuclear meltdowns of 2011 seem like yesterday. Wreckage still litters Japan’s coastline. Fukushima’s fields are piled high with contaminated soil. Tohoku, northern Japan, furious about how they have been treated by Tokyo, has seceded from the union. The rebels, known as the Nihonmatsu Front, are battling the more heavily armed Japanese government along the southern border of Fukushima. Meanwhile, they are being overwhelmed internally by a faction who call themselves the State of F. Composed of radicalized Tohoku natives and foreign guerrillas, the black-clad F knows only absolute obedience and cutthroat terror. Though virtually unknown in its home country, Imai Arata’s F is the edgiest work of manga made in the wake of the 2011 disasters. Crossing splintery drawings of the devastations wrought by the tsunami and meltdowns with images sourced from Islamic State propaganda from the Middle East, F trespasses upon many taboos regarding political expression and etiquette in Japan. Originally self-published and sold at avant-garde art exhibitions, Imai’s F is truly underground. It deserves to become a classic. (Source: Glacier Bay Books) *Note: This was originally published as a doujin work but was licensed and sold digitally in 2024.*
Singer-songwriter Tano Sayoko disappears on social media, and the lives of those around her gradually change. A fleeting yet beautiful story drawn by an up-and-coming manga artist. (Source: Michikusa Comics, translated)
The first "motionless" manga by Quick Obake, an artist who has pioneered the genre of "GIF manga" in which characters move within the panels. A nostalgic collection of short stories that captures the small lights and shocking darkness that exist in ordinary everyday life... those emotions you feel at random moments. (Source: Michikusa, translated)
Exploration slice of life about a young man and his ghost dog taking slow walks through the city.
In the land where Michel lives alone after losing his parents to illness, it starts raining Saturday night. On Sunday morning, the rain turns into fallen angels. Michel finds an egg where fallen angel corpses lay scattered, and Bubu was born. This is a story of love and bonding between a boy with a deep emotional wound and an innocent fallen angel. (Source: Two Virgins, translated)
In the present day, people coexist with "youkai," or spirits. Tokino Higawa (16) lives her life with a sense of vague disquiet. One day her childhood friend is attacked by a runaway youkai, until a strange girl steps in to save them. This is a youkai fantasy that depicts the bonds between family and friends in a world swirling with supernatural forces. (Source: Michikusa Comics, translated)
Not so long ago, Seika dormitory did indeed exist. People from various countries lived there to avoid conflicts, but the building burned down. Imai, an ordinary young man living a lazy life, is asked by an old homeless man named Korai to live in the Seika dormitory building. What he sees there is life itself. Mr. Korai calls it their "hometown," a place where people are born and raised. However, it doesn't necessarily have to be the place where one was actually born and raised. The contemporary artist, Arata Imai, depicts "memories of life" that existed there, using the housing complex that once existed but was destroyed by fire as the central motif. (Source: Michikusa, translated) *Note: This was originally published as a doujin work but was licensed and sold digitally in 2024.*