A decaying, old satellite is headed straight for Tokyo, and the city is three citizens shy of total evacuation. Hard-boiled detective Watanabe remains in the... more>> abandoned gotham, searching for a gaunt, desperate Machida, who is wanted for attempted murder; and Chiaki, a stubborn housewife who doesn't believe the burning rubble will hit Tokyo, also remains behind. But Chiaki is wrong. And when the satellite does hit, the three find the city is less abandoned than before. Someone was riding that satellite down from orbit, and that someone wasn't born on earth! <<less

As detective Musubi Susono investigates a series of child kidnappings, her own partner is viciously murdered. But when the investigation takes a brutal turn, she is suddenly confronted by the killer--and his vicious Silicon Creature...... more>>

Also includes Blame, one-shot prototype for Blame! <<less

The story takes place in a world that resembles 19th century Europe. When a carnival comes to town one day, Ray, the son of a bar owner, meets a girl with wings. The girl's name is Vendemiaire. She was given life by her Creator and tells Ray that she is not human.... more>>

This is a series of short stories showing the kindness and cruelty of mankind. You can enjoy pictures drawn with a fine touch alongside the philosophic dialogue of the characters.

This 2-volume series is the debut work of Kitoh. Hints for his next work, Narutaru can also be found in this story. <<less

Nanako Kobayashi, a 17-year-old teenager, has an ugly face who seems to not have a care for the world. One day, she got a call, only to be given two choices to answer a question. A devil suddenly appears, taking the form of her teddy bear. The devil is willing to grant her three wishes; each based on two options; What wishes will Nanako choose?... more>>

"Once upon a time I dreamed I was a butterfly,

fluttering hither and thither,

to all intents and purposes a butterfly.

I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly,

and was unconscious of my individuality as a man.

Suddenly I woke, and there I lay, myself again.

Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,

or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man."

(Zhuang Zhou Meng Die (庄周梦蝶 )) <<less

Poppoya: Satou Otomatsu is a lonely station master of a small station in Hokkaido, situated at the end of the line in a small village with an aging population. The station is due to close in the coming spring, and he will retire with it. One night in his last winter manning the station, an encounter with a young girl marks the beginning of the events that will see him reflect on his working life - performing his duty as a railroad man, whilst enduring the pain of its cost to his personal life.... more>>

Love Letter: Goro just got out from jail, but a police officer wants to talk to him right away. He announces to him that Goro's wife is dead and that he has to go to Chiba and take her body. Goro has no recollection of having a wife, but then he remembers he married a Chinese woman a long time ago. He married her for her money, and she married him because she needed a Japanese visa to work. In fact, she's a prostitute who came to Japan hoping to find better life.

At first, Goro can't be bothered by this situation, but he goes to Chiba just because he can earn a lot of money. Later on, during his trip, Goro finds a letter she wrote him and through it he discovers the pure person that lies beneath this common prostitute. She is a woman of such kindness and love that Goro is moved to learn something about the woman he married. With those few words of love and tenderness, he understands her fears, her goals, and her hopes for the future -- a future that he knows will never come. <<less

This collection is an amalgamation of work reflecting Hiroki Endo's philosophy and his outstanding ability to draw and to tell stories.... more>>

Volume 1:

"The Crows, the Girl, and the Yakuza"(カラスと少女とヤクザ)

A long, heavily philosophical piece about a homeless girl who lives among the crows in an empty warehouse and a wounded yakuza who hides from his enemies with her (86 pages long)

"Because You're Definitely a Cute Girl" (きっとかわいい女の子だから)

This short story is about a girl who is into Jungian psychology, and she regrets the loss of her mother and elder sister as well as her invalid grandfather.

"For Those of Us Who Don't Believe in God" (神様なんて信じていない僕らのために)

A story about a group of college students putting on a play about a serial murderer in prison who holds a discussion with the sister of one of his victims. This story is heavy on philosophy and existential dialogue interspersed with bits of humor (Endo's typical short-story formula). This is a long story, weighing in at about 90 pages.

Volume 2:

"Hang"

A young girl asks her boyfriend to "take her to the end of the world." Here especially are overtones of EDEN--reality hangs on a silken thread.

"High School Girl 2000" (女子高生2000)

This is about Master Endo himself. He shares his midlife-crisis at 30 with us, and the situations in an artist's life back at the beginning of his mangaka career...

"Platform"

The two-parter Platform tells of Takaguki, son of a powerful yakuza clan, who hates nothing more than his father's overwhelming power and his heritage...

"Boys Don't Cry"

This one-shot talks about sexuality issues. <<less

A collection of eggplant-related stories focusing on a returning series of characters, such as Takama, a farmer, and a young girl named Aya Takashi, who... more>> begins the series abandoned by her father and residing in Tokyo with her two younger siblings, and as the manga progresses to its second volume, leaves the city to reside in the countryside with her relatives, near Takama's farm. Apart from the chapters concerning Takama and Aya, other stories are also featured, such as one telling the chronicles of samurai in the Edo period hunting forbidden eggplant, another set atop a futuristic Mount Fuji, another tale concerning a truck driver, and also Summer in Andalusia, the story concerning the professional Spanish bicyclist Pepe Benengeli, from which the film was adapted. <<less

Fumiki Shimazaki has only one dream: to become a poet. Spending more time in his poems than in the preparation of it his studies, he faces dissaproval from his professors and his best friend Mika... To escape from the harsh reality, he seeks refuge in an abandoned factory.... more>>

There, he stumbles upon a mysterious dog, who saves his life from an attacking monsterous feline. Their friendship is immediately created thereafter.

Questions arise then. From which does this gifted dog come from capacities paranormaux and overflowing of thirst for knowledge? How can it speak? What does the number 23 on its ear stand for? The Appearance and arrival of this dog causes an increaingly number of extraordinary events all revolving around the number 23... <<less

The smugglers in our tale--guys who have to clean up the bodies after mob assassinations in which heads get ripped off--are a cold-hearted silent veteran, an old man, and a young guy forced to do dirty work to pay back money he owes the mob. ... more>>

When the young smuggler makes a mistake by allowing a captured rival to escape, the price he must pay for his error gets horrifically high... <<less

A collection of short stories:... more>>

- My Teacher and I

A teenage girl learns lessons about life, love, political intrigue, and galactic trade.

Extracurricular Lessons

A dead girl’s ghost returns to her school to haunt a female teacher… <<less

Published by Kodansha in 2002 and awarded the prestigious Tezuka Cultural Prize, Fumiko Takano’s The Yellow Book is one of those rare works which you enjoy reading in order to feel the tender familiarity that arises between the protagonists and yourself. This collected volume was named after the longest of the four stories that it contains: a drama about an adolescent girl who falls in love with Roger Martin du Gard’s saga, Les Thibault. The remaining stories capture various fragments of everyday life with tenderness and humor. Through the kaleidoscope of its feminine views, The Yellow Book touches the readers heart by attending to what, in sum, makes up life—the little things of our every... more>> day.

Note: Won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Grand Prize in 2003. <<less

There is an online fantasy computer game known as "BOARD". The creators of BOARD, a certain software company, set up the basic world and rules.... more>> But the people who actually run each BOARD are the various contracted administrators (GMs) who have a free hand at controlling the game. <<less

Imprisoned for a thousand years, eighty-eight fabled beasts seek resurrection from their world so that they can unleash their wrath upon present-day Japan. And a... more>> band of young warriors would love nothing more than to let loose these beasts so that they can feast upon the human world. The only thing preventing civilization's annihilation is the Girl of Water, who is lost in the human world--without any memory of who she is! As the elemental warriors continue their search for her, they cross paths with another of their kind: Ishigami, the Man of Earth. However, Ishigami is one who wants to stop the dreaded resurrection... <<less

This is a biography of the famous Buddhist monk Ikkyu from the late Hisashi Sakaguchi. Set in 15th century Japan, Ikkyu must learn to live and excel as a monk, despite the fact that his father is the emperor. ... more>>

His intelligence and purity help him succeed, but he continues to get the short end of the stick in life.

Can Ikkyu perservere in his quest for spirituality in spite of everything that is set against him? <<less

Yoh is the only human being living in a strange town that exists somewhere between this world and the Twilight World. Residing in this town... more>> are spiritual manifestations of real world objects that were forgotten or thrown away by men. Yoh is the owner of a lifelike doll named Ian, who has the special ability to take photos of other beings' memories. With her help, he is running a photo studio called "Fuguruma." The manga revolves around those specters who seek the studio's service and the stories they have to tell. <<less

Contains 12 chapters: 9 short stories, and 3 Miss China stories.... more>>

1. The Universe is so Vast and Wonderful!

2. Leaving One Night by the Light of the Full Moon

3. To Invoke the Stars

4. Little Melancholy

5. The Young Scientists' Club

6. See You Later, God Willing

7. Marsy in the Land of Time

8. Natsuko

9. The Young Scientist Club on Mars

10. The Melancholy of China

11. China's Wish

12. China Strikes Back

The Japanese edition collects all 12 chapters in one volume. The Spanish edition from Glénat released the full series in 3 volumes. The English edition from Dark Horse published only the Miss China chapters, first in comic format, then in one trade paperback. <<less

Shindou just became a new investigator for Tokki: The Special Mobile Investigation Force. On the day of his graduation, he finally saw the half-naked girl... more>> that he had always saw in his dream in real life and finds out that she's part of Tokko: The Special Public Safety Task Force. Shindou ends up joining Tokko to avenge his parents' deaths, whose bodies were ripped into pieces... <<less

Shirou's ordinary life as a poor construction worker gets turned upside down when he comes across a naked girl, Lucy, who's fallen out of the sky! Her strange and unique personality entices him and he introduces her to his apartment buddies. ... more>>

But after leaving for just a few minutes, he returns to the apartment to find Lucy gone, all his friends slaughtered and an ogre-like stranger standing amidst the carnage.

The big man suddenly pulls Shirou out of the apartment building just before it explodes! Shirou gets pushed down into the sewage system of the city and is saved by a mysterious man... <<less

This is the story of Alpha Hasseno, an Alpha 7 M2 series robot. Left by her owner, she appears and acts fully human while running a small coffee shop named Cafe Alpha. It is a light-hearted story about the people Alpha comes into contact with behind the backdrop of a futuristic country-side in Japan. As we meet Alpha, she makes a shopping trip to Yokohama.... more>>

Note: Won the 2007 Seiun Award for Best Manga. <<less

Fukano-kun, a middle school student, has trouble remembering things; however, there is one thing that he can really remember...

To what distance would you go for your one true love?... more>>

In a future filled with a boundless potential for interstellar peace and prosperity, Mikako joins a research team to explore the recent contact between humans and alien races. She ventures out into space, leaving behind Noboru, the one young man she loves. As she travels deeper into this new frontier, her only connection with her boyfriend is through cell-phone text messages. But the years pass, and Mikako barely ages in the timelessness of space--while Noboru grows older and considers moving on with his life.

In this timeless romance between star-crossed lovers in the most tragic of settings, there are some places man may not be ready to go. <<less

Koyuki has the power to see the future, but she can only see the unfortunate things that happen to people. Until the day she meets... more>> Umehachi, a high school senior... Fanservice, mayhem, and hilarity ensues. <<less

Chihiro has been cursed with bad luck all his life, but all that changes when he wins a mysterious lottery that earns him a spot... more>> at the prestigious Rikkyoin High School, a strange place where everything is decided by chance - even who gets appointed to the student council. Although Chihiro has drawn the winning ticket, this is no ordinary honor. Each day the student-council members must risk their lives to save the school from various forces of evil. <<less

These stories are told with the same bold, kinetic art style and brilliantly paced storytelling that Samura's Blade of the Immortal epic is famous for.... more>> The main offering, "Ohikkoshi," follows the turbulent paths of several twenty-something art students as they fall in love, fall in lust, play in rock bands, ride motorbikes, eat, sleep (together), and try to avoid making life decisions while drunk. This romantic comedy is a "Japanese art school confidential" packed with absurd humor, obscure death metal references, and some expertly placed, dramatic revelations. "Luncheon of Tears Diary" is a vibrant, genre-busting tale that also peppers its humor with sharp, dramatic moments. Natsumi Funabashi, a virgin, is an aspiring manga creator on a quest for love and a fulfilling career. Along the way, she has to cope with overzealous men, gang warfare, a mahjong addiction, and a lascivious manga editor. This collection is rounded off by Samura's hilarious "Kyoto Super Barhopping Journal: Bloodbath at Midorogaike," a rare, autobiographical travel piece. <<less

A girl finds a strange tiny man riding a bee.