Two young men vow to transform the destiny of Japan, by any means. As children, they survived the horrors of the Cambodian killing fields together. Now, can they topple the leaders of both the Japanese Parliament and the yakuza crime syndicate?... more>>

Although cold and calculating when need be, Hojo and Asami exemplify the traits their colleagues lack: loyalty to friends, compassion for the downtrodden...and an irresistible way with women.

Deputy Police Chief Ishihara sets out to expose their ingenious machinations, but instead falls helplessly in love with Hojo...

Note:

While this was originally 12 volumes in Japanese, when translated into English by Viz it was printed three ways: first in comic book form (each issue had 2 chapters), second in a 5-part 14-vol compilation of the comic books, and finally in a 9 volume manga series. Because the translation is so early, the books were flipped to English left-to-right orientation.

The nine English volumes correspond to these compilation parts, floppy issues, and original chapters:

V1: Part 1, Issues 1-4, Chapters 01-12

V2: Part 1, Issues 5-9, Chapters 13-27

V3: Part 2, Issues 1-5, Chapters 01-13

V4: Part 2, Issues 5-9, Chapters 14-26

V5: Part 3, Issues 1-7, Chapters 01-13

V6: Part 3, Issues 7-8, Chapters 14-16; Part 4, Issues 1-5, Chapters 01-09

V7: Part 4, Issues 5-7, Chapters 10-14; Part 5, Issues 1-3, Chapters 01-05

V8: Part 5, Issues 3-8, Chapters 06-15

V9: Part 5, Issues 8-13, Chapters 16-22 <<less

In the 1950s, an old woman was brutally murdered on the face of a clock tower by her adopted daughter. Two years later, the clock... more>> tower is known as the 'ghost tower' and it is supposedly haunted. Through an unusual series of events, a young NEET man named Amano Taichi is attacked by someone or something in the same clock tower, and finds himself bound to the clock face to be killed in the same way as the old woman. Luckily for Amano, he doesn't meet the same fate. He's rescued by a mysterious person who claims his name is Tetsuo. He is searching for a treasure that is connected with the ghost tower, and he wants Taichi to be his partner. Taichi, whose life has mostly consisted of poverty, loneliness, and pornography, is enticed by the idea of gaining extreme wealth. He's further convinced when a house fire leaves him without a home and depends on Tetsuo's charity. The adventure is going to be very dangerous, since the same 'enemies' who attacked Taichi before seem certain to try something again! Not to mention, Taichi really knows very little about his new partner. <<less

Dr. Katou is an ambitious woman who seeks to revolutionize the corrupt and inefficient Japanese medical system from within by becoming a professor in a teaching hospital. She enlists a maverick surgeon, Dr. Asada Ryuutarou, to help her with research that would catapult her to a professorship should they succeed and publish. However, Asada's refusal to conform to the system soon threatens to destroy not only her plans but her entire career. Katou is prepared to do anything, including going along with the system, in order to achieve her end goal, but she begins to question whether she has gone too far as Asada's actions bring many of the system's shortcomings to light.... more>>

Note: Won the 50th Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga in 2005. <<less

Souta, a penniless, phoneless, destitute middle schooler, met a high school girl with a stray cat underneath a bridge. The girl laughed at his minuscule... more>> remaining change, and made a surprising proposal with "For this 24 yen of yours, I'll let you buy me," and then? <<less

Kamijou is the envy of all of his coworkers. At the office, he can solve any problem. Outside, he is chased by every girl under... more>> the sun. Kamijou, however, only has eyes for one girl: Xianglan, a Chinese immigrant who works as a waitress in the local Chinese restaurant. She can't see him as anything other than a customer, and her lack of fluency in Japanese prevents her from understanding him. Will Kamijou manage to woo Xianglan, or is he forever fated to fail? <<less

A murderous intent without form attacks the yakuza!... more>>

In the declining yakuza society, the elites bridge the barriers between their organizations and hold a meeting to decide how they will survive as yakuza. In the midst of their excitement, the footsteps of an invisible pair draw closer, bringing the stench of violence with them... <<less

Living in poor neighborhoods of Osaka, Kumada watch over his wife and two young children. He is huge and riddled with scars and he works... more>> hard, smokes and drinks of sake as if it were mere water, gruff and scary, he talks little. But Kumada deeply loves his family and will protect it at the peril of his life when members of a yakuza clan set on fire to his house to facilitate a real estate transaction. Jailed for the murder of those who failed to burn his people alive, Kumada was released fifteen years later and found his family. He will have to face the distrust of his children who know nothing of their father except that he had abandoned them. But he is determined to regain control of their education, starting with his son, a urchin abused by the tough guys of the district. <<less

An abused girl, Miyazaki, tries to find the meaning to her life through her teacher and her boyfriend.... more>>

Included in one-shots collection. <<less

3 January 2011. ER doctor Matsuoka Tsuyoshi examines a patient presenting influenza symptoms. The next day, the patient dies from multiple-organ failure, followed by others... more>> who had shown the same symptoms. As the death toll rises, even the high-tech Japanese are at a loss over how to check the further spread of the deadly virus <<less

Satoru spends his days listlessly in a factory town. The old man Segawa, a former Yakuza, lives in the room next to his cheap apartment.... more>> One day, Segawa tells Satoru, "I'll give you 5 million yen to put me out of my misery." Satoru hesitates, and Segawa sees through to the madness eating away inside him and begins to have a change of heart, and yet...!? A story of the filth of society and the dark path that Satoru takes -- on the edge of sanity -- with a gun and 5 million yen. <<less

A short, coming-of-age story of a middle school student named Yu. From the mangaka of .

This is the story of Yuria, a woman with the power to foresee the future, and destined to re-unite and rule over a war-plagued land.... more>>

Along with the her companion Kenshiro, she struggles to comprehend the depth of her power, and to defy fate to save the ones she loves. <<less

A surreal story about an author drawing manga on his daily two-hour commute to work via subway.... more>>

The mangaka Zajirogh and the salaryman Takahashi live in two different worlds, despite being the same person. <<less