This new line of Edu-Manga* features Astro Boy, one of Japan's most popular icons among children who journeys alongside the reader. He provides for kids not only a history lesson but also a richer understanding of the life lessons these historical figures share with us. Fukuzawa Yukichi, founder of Keio University and one of the first experts on the West in modern Japan, is generally looked on positively as having played an important role in the modernization of late 19th-century Japan. *Note: Edu-Manga is a term coined in Japan which means Educational Manga.
This new line of Edu-Manga* features Astro Boy, one of Japan's most popular icons among children, who journeys alongside the reader. He provides for kids not only a history lesson but also a richer understanding of the life lessons these historical figures share with us. Florence Nightingale is most remembered as a pioneer of nursing and a reformer of hospital sanitation methods. For most of her ninety years, Nightingale pushed for reform of the British military health-care system, and with that, the profession of nursing started to gain the respect it deserved. Unknown to many, however, was her use of new techniques of statistical analysis, such as when, during the Crimean War, she plotted the incidence of preventable deaths in the military. She developed the "polar-area diagram" to dramatize the needless deaths caused by unsanitary conditions and the need for reform. With her analysis, Florence Nightingale revolutionized the idea that social phenomena could be objectively measured and subjected to mathematical analysis. She was an innovator in the collection, tabulation, interpretation, and graphical display of descriptive statistics. *Note: Edu-Manga is a term coined in Japan which means Educational Manga.
Shunta Sekiguchi, 14 years old, is a junior-high boy in Hakodate with a yearning to ride a racing bike. However, he grew up without a father, and Shunta, who lives in poverty with his mother, is treated as an "outcast" when he tries to join a practice ride on a kid's bike. Then he meets Iwakuma, an old man who runs a bicycle shop, and with help from the warm-hearted Iwakuma, Shunta's summer has a goal: the "Tour de Hakodate." A boy reaching for his dream, and an old man trying to get his dream back, together in a bike shop. A story of "miraculous summer." (Source: MangaCross, translated)
Collection of supernatural horror stories by Kuroda Minoru. "Ushiro no Onna" is from Pandora May of '89
Collection of Kuroda Minoru's older manga from the 50s-70s. According to the afterword, except for "The House that Calls Stone," the collection is made up of older works. The works are from a wide range of eras, from obviously old-fashioned works ("From the Two-Way Mirror…") to works that seem to have been published in girls' manga magazines ("Hair Mairi" and "Wax Doll"), to works that are too chaotic ("I Saw It!!"). A family is spending a week's vacation at a gorgeous villa. However, after the second daughter Aya climbs onto a rock in the backyard, things start to seem strange, and the eldest daughter Yumi sees a ghostly face in the high window. Furthermore, that night there is a mysterious power outage and strange voices echo from the electrified rock. The next day, they ask Junichi, the son of the real estate agent, to check on the electrical system and, just to be safe, they decide to have him stay with them during their stay at the villa. Junichi takes Yumi out to the backyard and explains the reason for the strange phenomenon. The trip was the work of a spirit that is attached to the rock, and her father and Aya have already been possessed. Taking advantage of the spirit's fear of electricity, Junichi creates a device and entrusts the switch to Yumi, but... 1. The House that Calls Stone… 石の呼ぶ家 2. From the Two-way Mirror... 合わせ鏡の中から 3. Golden Eyes… 金色のひとみ 4. Hair Mairi… 髪まいり 5. Wax Doll… ろう人形 6. A Study of the Invisible World: I Saw It!!... 見えない世界勉強会 わたしは見た!! 1-3
Yoko Matsumiya, a third-year junior high school student, is depressed before her high school entrance exam. As she gazes out at the sea from the top of a high hill, she sees many hands swaying in the waves. Looking closely, she sees girls in school swimsuits in the foreground, and girls in monpe pants and air raid hoods appearing from the sea behind them. After this incident, Yoko falls ill with a fever and goes to bed. The next day, she announces that she will not go to her hometown but to the faraway Hachimonji High School, leaving her mother and best friend dumbfounded and then... According to the afterword of the Touen Shobo version, "The night I learned of a tragic accident in which some junior high school girls who were enjoying a swim in the sea had been swept away by high waves, I had a creepy dream in vivid color in which an old junior high school building emerged from the sea," and the tragedy of the Pacific War was superimposed on it, and the work was written in one go as a book.
This is a rare work whose existence was confirmed only a few years ago. The protagonist, after witnessing a strange phenomenon at the beach, suddenly says that he will take the entrance exam for a high school far away! He is followed by a ghost in a school swimsuit! What is the causal relationship?! The strange happenings, such as a ghost in a school swimsuit riding a bus, are so ridiculous that they are rather entertaining. This book is famous among some as a rare book that only a few people know about. It is no.15 in Minori Shobou's original comics series (previously thought to only have 14 manga). Information is sparse, actual release date is unkown also but 1976 is the most likely. The cover mentions a bicycle giveaway, but the magazine where the announcement comes from is unknown but The Occult Age is most likely.