Osamu Tezuka unleashes several creepy suspenseful short stories in this anthology of speculative fiction spanning the years of 1968 thru 1973. When a Nazi lieutenant is sentenced to death for war crimes, he expects to escape with his life, but hubris is his downfall. A female android marries for love but is soon lost, and she must deal with the consequences. After a married man finds out his city is being experimented on, he tries to save the people while struggling with adulterous thoughts. On a dark and lonely road, a cabby picks up a shady man who threatens him, but little does his passenger know the cabby is not as he seems. An educated man falls in love with an elusive woman who has a life altering secret. American school kids learn the cruelty of war. A revolutionary fails his revolution, and an interstellar peace conference does not yield the hoped for results when space hippies defy peace conventions. These eerie stories will leave one wandering the depths of despair and hope against all odds. (Source: DMG)
From science fiction, historical fiction, to contemporary drama, Under the Air includes a variety of tales that depict the duality of man—good and evil; loving and violent. An injured white-supremacist struggles with the fact that he was brought back to life by a black organ donor; a young man in the wild west seeks revenge for his father’s murder; an escaped convict holds a family hostage in a cave that causes hallucinations; the only two survivors of a nuclear apocalypse dare to explore the outside world—Tezuka’s characters are put to the test when the delicate balance of their minds are disrupted, discovering something dark hidden deep within themselves. Don’t miss this uncommon, unheard, unusual, out-of-the-ordinary collection of short stories by the late, great Osamu Tezuka. (Source: DMP)
When Nanakorobi Nene, a cybernetically-enhanced girl-next-door, heads to the island metropolis of Cenancle to live with her aunt, she has no way of knowing what’s in store for her. A chance meeting intertwines her fate with that of the super-rich inventor, Uzal Delilah, and her adorable and grumpy companion, Clarion, who happens to be a cyborg just like Nene. Nene is thrilled to make a friend, but there’s more to Uzal and Clarion – and the island of Cenancle itself – than meets the eye. When a super-powered terrorist threatens Cenancle, Uzal claims that the only way to avert disaster is for Nene to team up with Clarion and use their combined powers – abilities Nene never even knew she had! (Source: Seven Seas Entertainment) *Note: Includes 26 extra chapters.*
The main plot revolves around the Yamata Empire's plan to destroy all the galaxy's negative karma using a massive technological reactor called the Nāga Generator. Unfortunately, negative karma cannot simply be destroyed, it must be atoned for. However the leader of the powerful mystic Buddhist Fuze Clan plans to stop the destruction of the negative karma which will end up creating the nine-headed Nāga and destroy the world if not the whole universe. To help in stopping the creation of the Nāga, the clan summons a Shinto god known as Susano, the Warrior God of Destruction. The powerful, arrogant, and homicidal god faces challenges. These include the Empire and the clan leader's own daughter, the bratty sorceress Seska, who is possessed by the power of the negative Karma and a powerful magic formula. (Source: Wikipedia)
Once a famous athlete, now an infamous villain, James Block seeks revenge against all things “beautiful.” After he’s arrested and convicted for assaulting his girlfriend who insulted his appearance, he meets a mad scientist in prison who tells him of the ‘F Laser’ he invented that can turn any carbon based organism invisible. When James finishes his prison term, he finds the ‘F Laser’ and points it on himself, however the imperfect laser beam leaves him disfigured with only his skin invisible. On a vicious revenge spree, he takes the nom de guerre of Alabaster and is joined by Ami, the granddaughter of the scientist who experimented on his pregnant daughter and left Ami fully invisible. Together they pull off several heists, but Ami’s innocence may cause Alabaster’s downfall… (Source: DMP)
1. **Peter Kyulten no Kiroku** (The Record of Peter Kyulten) Peter Kürten, a former prisoner-of-war, forms an idealistic couple with his wife and is a devoted unionist at meetings. In actuality he is a sexually perverted serial killer nicknamed the Vampire of Düsseldorf who taunts the police with escalating murders. After one of the murders, the police force a fake confession from another man, causing Peter to angrily reveal the truth to his wife, who gives him up to the police. At trial it is revealed that Peter is actually a criminal with a history of incest, bestiality, arson, and murder. When his lawyer tries to defend him by claiming madness, Peter angrily exclaims that his actions are revenge against the bourgeois. Peter is executed by guillotine. (Tezuka based the story on the work of Shunsuke Tsurumi) 2. **Monouge na Yoru** (Sensual Nights) A wealthy Japanese playboy visits Vietnam to seduce a woman who has supposedly stopped aging while waiting for her sweetheart who was taken away by soldiers. As he is in the middle of preparing to have sex with her, his contact tells him that the woman's man was taken away by the Japanese army during the Pacific War, causing a deep hatred of Japanese people in her. He panics, but recovers when the woman reacts by offering him her body. When she fights back against his attempts at intimacy, he tells her that her lover is likely dead and forces himself on her. The man then sees a sight of a wrinkled old woman that startles him so much he jumps out of the window. The woman he had seduced was actually the daughter of the unaging woman and her sweetheart, and his contact was her fiancé. 3. **Mogami-dono Shimatsu** (Lord Iechika Mogami) Piipii, a meager farmer, dreams of being a samurai so he can support his wife and their four children. One day he is employed by a lord to be his double, and Piipii's family is secretly killed. Piipii trains to be a lord, grooming and dressing himself to be the spitting image of the lord. As a test, the lord tells him to give the order to open the castle gates. Piipii rides back to visit his family, only to learn about their deaths. On the lord's wedding day, his double is supposed to replace him during the wedding ceremony to protect him from any attempts on his life. During the switch, Piipii murders the lord and consummates the marriage with the lady Sasa instead. When she learns of his identity, the lady has an affair with a syphilitic beggar, and kills herself. The disease spreads to Piipii and Sasa gets her revenge. 4. **Rhine no Yakata nite** (The Lay of the Rhine) A Japanese woman accompanies her husband on a business trip to Düsseldorf. She catches him having an affair, and when she confronts him, he leaves her. As she desperately searches for him in the streets, the woman is hit by a car and is hospitalized for a month. When she recovers, she visits her benefactor Lady Rathwood, the owner of a castle they had visited earlier. As she lives with Lady Rathwood, the woman learns of her hatred for men and her hatred for her husband is kindled. One day she discovers that the car she was hit with belongs to Lady Rathwood and she witnesses Lady Rathwood taking off the disguise of the woman who seduced her husband. Lady Rathwood calls her husband to the castle and gives the woman a knife, telling her to take her revenge. The woman refuses and goes back to her husband. 5. **Hi no Yama** (Fire Mountain/The Thief Inoue Akikazu) Time is during the Second World War. The roughing Inoue Showa went to the Sobetsu village in Hokkaido, became an assistant of Mr. Masao Mimatsu, an observer of Showa Shinzan, which rapidly generated. The description that Mikami lived for the observation and protection of Showa Shinzan was based on a true story. (Sources: Wikipedia & osamutezuka.net, edited)
Readers are thrown into the life of Imari Daisaku, a filmmaker whose fanciful creations have fallen of favor in a society dominated by scientific triumphs. However, his life changes forever when he encounters a peculiar group led by Count Alucard, and he receives an extraordinary gift; I.L, a mysterious mannequin with the power of shapeshifting. Together, Daisaku and I.L utilize the phenomenal transformative abilities to help those in need and are propelled into an array of thrilling and haphazard adventures. (Source: Titan Manga)
Hida Kizuna possesses the HHG (Heart Hybrid Gear) ability, but it is not strong enough to make him particularly important. His older sister calls him to transfer to a strategic defense school, where many of the students (many of which are large-breasted girls) use their HHG abilities to fight invaders from another world while wearing extremely skimpy pilot outfits. Kizuna's fighting ability doesn't measure up, but his sister has another plan—apparently having erotic experiences with Kizuna will allow the girls to replenish their energy or power-up. It looks like his new school life is going to be full of embarrassment. *Note: Includes 2 extra chapters.*
In an imperial research facility, a calamity-class enhanced monster awakens after 200 years. Inside it is the soul of the former soldier Eunos. In despair by his own monstrous appearance, he thinks "At this rate, they’ll just try to kill me!", and resolves to find a way to coexist with humans. Wasting no time, he uses his incredible physical abilities of enhanced vision and invisibility to defeat vicious monsters and save humans! But as he can only growl, he ends up a target of the military! (Source: Manga Mirai)
Stunning, hotheaded Asuka Langley Soryu has been friends with Shinji Ikari since they were little. And she always sort of assumed they'd stay together-until the day the beautiful, brilliant Rei Ayanami showed up in class! When Shinji starts to get curious about Rei, Asuka needs to figure out if she wants to be just friends with Shinji, or something more. But why are so many people keeping an eye on these relationships-people like homeroom teacher Misato, school nurse Ritsuko, and Shinji's mother-NERV's chief scientist, Yui Ikari...? (Source: Dark Horse)
When Dan Takuya’s sister marries into the mob, he is also automatically thrown into the dark underworld of organized crime. While unknowingly breaking the mob’s code of silence, Dan is brutally tortured, arms severed and left for dead as punishment. He somehow manages to survive, and through rehab and with the help of an eccentric doctor, he is provided with new prosthetic metal arms. But there is a catch! He must tap into his psychic powers to move his new limbs. Through the use of telekinesis, or KP, he trains to make use of his new arms through sheer will and vows revenge to those who did him wrong. But as soon as he’s out for the hunt, there is a wake of death that’s left behind which he has no knowledge of. Does Dan truly have full control of his new metal weapons? (Source: DMG) Also includes other short stories by Osamu Tezuka: 2) **White Phantom** A woman is haunted by a shadow of her dead lover. 3) **Revolution** A man's finds that after his wife wakes up from giving birth that she no longer remember's him.
IMMORTALITY, AT WHAT COST? In the Glass Mansion, a family has been frozen in cryosleep for 20 years under the orders of their patriarch. When the oldest son Ichirou awakes, he struggles to accept the reality that he has slept away 20 years of his life. Ichirou plans to exact revenge on those in his family that stole his life from him. As Shirou, the youngest brother, attempts to stop Ichirou, he becomes aware of the dangerous side effect of cryosleep that led to its national ban years ago. How far will Ichirou fall, and will Shirou be able to stop him? In Record of the Glass Castle, Osamu Tezuka tackles the great quandary of immortality at the cost of humanity, in a different, much darker light than he often does in his better-known masterpieces like Phoenix. In this tale, the search for humanity seems more hopeless than ever, tangled in hatred, greed, and lust. This one volume series is a must-read for the fans of Tezuka’s dark side, as well as those who can appreciate a story that won’t spell out all the answers. (Source: DMG)

