Interest Stacks

This graphic-format biography of Osamu Tezuka--Japan's "God of Manga"--looks at one of the twentieth century's great creative artists (Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Black Jack). It is also an anecdotal study of the evolution of Japan's early manga and anime business and its heroes. A never-before-seen popular culture history of postwar Japan, it is sure to fascinate fans and anyone interested in manga, anime, and the potential of the graphic storytelling medium. (Source: Stone Bridge Press)

On October 10, 2016, Ryousuke Nanasaki married the love of his life, Ryousuke. But the time leading up to this day was anything but easy. Feelings of self-hatred, heart-wrenching breakups, and coming out to his family—it was all an uphill battle. Based on the autobiographical web essay of the same title, Boku ga Otto ni Deau made follows Nanasaki's life and his journey to discover a happy ending together with his husband. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Mizuki takes another chapter from his life to create Nonnonbaa, a story about a boy in the 1930s who is introduced to the world of Japanese folklore by a old neighbor woman. (Source: ANN)

Akiko Hayashi has soaring but strangely specific dreams: to make a successful manga debut while still in school, have her favorite actor star in its adaptation, and end up marrying him. However, she is far from having the motivation or skills to realize these hopes. When a friend introduces her to an unorthodox, backstreet art class taught by the strong-armed Kenzou Hidaka, called simply as "sensei," Akiko decides to enroll, expecting an easy ride and an automatic improvement in her art skills. To her chagrin, what she gets is something else entirely—a tough, demanding, and uncompromising teacher with absolutely no interest in manga. But when Akiko takes up Sensei's challenge of an intense schedule, she comes to recognize how much he cares about his students and forms a close bond with him. With Sensei's guidance, Akiko learns what is necessary to become a successful mangaka as well as what it means to be an adult. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

After her life takes a turn for worse shortly after dropping out of college, Kabi Nagata becomes depressed and develops an eating disorder. She feels immense pressure from her family to be a "normal" and productive person, along with an acute desire to belong to a community. Despite attempts to solve these problems, she struggles to resolve her pain, and her situation worsens. At 28 years old, Kabi contacts a lesbian escort service. She imagines this event as a rite of passage into adulthood she has been avoiding for so long. And while this experience does not turn out to be exactly what she was expecting, it proves critical to Kabi's reimagining of her life. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Jealous of other people successfully moving forward in life and constantly eaten away by her insecurities, Kabi Nagata finally musters the courage to leave her parents and move into a new apartment alone. Unfortunately, she struggles to adapt to this new lifestyle and begins to contemplate her newfound feelings of loneliness, including her estranged relationship with her mother and what it means to love and be loved. As the psychological pressure mounts, her resolve waivers. From her family to love, Nagata attempts to overcome her tumultuous past and heal the wounds that afflict her. No matter how broken she may be, she does her best to move forward. [Written by MAL Rewrite] Included one-shot: Volume 2: Chika-chan no Yuuutsu

Over four decades ago, Yoshihiro Tatsumi expanded the horizons of comics storytelling by using the visual language of manga to tell gritty, literary stories about the private lives of everyday people. He has been called "the grandfather of Japanese alternative comics" and has influenced generations of cartoonists around the world. Now the visionary creator of "The Push Man and Other Stories" and "Good-bye" has turned his incisive, unflinching gaze upon himself. Over ten years in the making, "A Drifting Life" is Tatsumis' most ambitious, personal, and heart felt work: an autobiographical bildungsroman in comics form. Using his life long obsession with comics as a frame work, Tatsumi weaves a complex story that encompasses family dynamics, Japanese culture and history, first love, the intricacies of the manga industry, and most importantly, what it means to be an artist. Alternately humorous, enlightening, and haunting, this is the masterful summartion of a fascinating life and a historic career. (Source: Drawn & Quarterly)

A historical story using Ghosts to explain the life times of the reign of Emperor Hirohito. Comic Showa-shi describes an era of upheaval and impoverishment in Japanese history, beginning with the Tokyo Earthquake in 1923, and covering the financial panic, the Great Depression, the March 15th Incident, and other events up until the Manchurian Incident in 1931. (Source: Volume 1 cover)

Mariko Kikuchi tells the painful story of her father's alcoholism and her own journey through guilt to understanding her father's illness. She rejects the common belief that family members can and should be forgiven for anything they do, no matter how much harm they cause. This powerful, self-contained autobiographical manga began as a web series that went viral, and inspired a critically acclaimed 2019 film in Japan. (Source: Seven Seas Entertainment)

Kabi Nagata's downward spiral is getting out of control, and she can't stop drinking to soothe the ache of reality. After suffering from unbearable stomach pains, she goes to a clinic, where she is diagnosed with pancreatitis—and is immediately hospitalized. A new chapter unfolds in Kabi Nagata's life as she struggles to find her way back to reality and manga creation in the wake of her breakdown. (Source: Seven Seas Entertainment)

Souin Gyokusai seyo! is a "semi-autobiographical account of the desperate final weeks of a Japanese infantry unit at the end of World War II." Mizuki drew from his own experiences as a soldier in that war to depict the horrors of battle. On an island at the end of 1943, Japanese soldiers are obliged to commit suicide in order to save the honor of their country. (Source: ANN, bdangouleme.com)

The last thing that 38-year-old erotic manga artist Hilnama expects is to be diagnosed with terminal stage IV colon cancer. Although her health seemed fine at first, a bad bout of what seems like period cramps convinces her to visit the hospital, where the doctors discover a mass obstructing her colon. With almost no time to process the news, Hilnama undergoes surgery and subsequently begins chemotherapy. Despite facing such adversity, she never loses hope and manages to maintain a cool head in the face of her grim diagnosis. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hideo Azuma was born 6th February 1950 in Hokkaido. He moved to Tokyo where he was assistant to Rentaro Itai and debuted in manga in 1969. Throughout the 70´s and 80´s he produced a large body of work in many genres including the comedies FUTARI TO GONIN (Two People and Five) and YAKEKUSO TENSHI (Desperate Angel), the Science Fiction Seiun (Japanese Hugo) Award winning FUJOURI NIKKI (Absurd Diary) and is also known as the father of Lolicon manga. But the pressures told and, in 1989, he ran away from his responsibilities and went homeless. After this experience and his eventual return to normal life, he then repeated the cycle in 1992, this time becoming a gas pipe layer in another town. Later, in 1998, his alcoholism was so bad that he was forced into rehab. This book is his expression of those three periods of his life told, not in a deep or depressed way but, as befits his nature, in a buoyant and cheerful cartoon art and is a welcome addition to the "personal manga" genre. In 2005, SHISSOU NIKKI (Disappearance Diary) was awarded the Grand Prize from the 9th Japan Media Arts Festival Manga Division and the Excellence Price at the 34th Japan Cartoonists Association Awards. (Source: ANN)

Porn actress Nazuna Nonohara looks back on the tragic life that has led her to where she is today. She discusses the hardships she has faced in her domestic life—specifically the sexual assault she faced at a young age at the hands of her stepfather, and the time her older brother raped her. The impact of these horrific events has left Nazuna androphobic—terrified of men. Dansei Kyoufushou Datta Watashi ga AV Joyuu ni Naru made no Hanashi is a true story based on the experiences of the mangaka, who shares a name with the main character. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

The experiences of author, Tatsuta Kazuto, a former laborer at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Based on Manabu Miyazaki's autobiographical novel Toppamono about his life in Japan's underworld.

Danzi, 31, has been living alone now for around 10 months when a sudden call from her mother brings back memories of why she moved out in the first place. In her eponymous comic, Danzi uses her personal diaries to recount her experience growing up with two brothers and emotionally abusive parents. An instant hit in South Korea, this comic confronts issues such as sexism and domestic violence in a way that's inviting, albeit heartbreaking. (Source: Lezhin Comics)

Boat Life stars novelist Kenta Tsuda, a lightly veiled stand-in for the artist, Tadao Tsuge, himself, as he pursues a life of reprieve and reverie on a small, makeshift house boat on a river outside of Tokyo. Based loosely on the artist's own daily life, this charming story follows the hapless protagonist on a series of magical absurdist quests, featuring a panoply of personable characters, including a drunkard fisherman, a pervy monk, a talking corpse, a senile hermit, and a half-supportive, half-doubtful wife and adult son. Most of the scenes take place on the Tonegawa River in Chiba, a favorite fishing spot of Tsuge's. Others occur at the artist's home or at Joker, a jeans and apparel shop the Tsuges opened in 1977. (Source: Floating World Comics)

A manga diary by the legendary Tetsuya Chiba about his current life and how his family escaped from China back to Japan post-World War II. (Source: Manga Machinations)

It is the year 1966. Hamaguchi, a young man comes to Kyoto, where he finds work in a small textile company.In his free time, he goes to the local Zoo to draw animals. His peaceful life is one day disturbed by the company owner's daughter. Because of that, when his friend tells him of a certain job offer in Tokyo, Hamaguchi decides to go at once. In the capital he gets to learn the way of a manga artist.

Though they were assigned female at birth, manga artist Poppy Pesuyama feels like anything but a girl. Struggling to come to terms with who they are in a binary world, Poppy finds themself becoming an assistant for the famous manga artist X. Not only is Poppy nervous working with such an influential industry figure, but also X's less-than-appropriate behavior exacerbates their gender dysphoria, leading to something much worse. Years later, the non-binary manga artist is still tortured by the abuse and ridicule they faced working under X, never receiving the closure they needed to move on. Angered by it all, Poppy recounts their experiences and life up to that point. Through their journey of self-acceptance, gender identity, and society, Poppy discovers what they have been desperately looking for. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

"Marriage"—when two who were once unrelated vow to love each other and wish for each other's happiness become "family." This marks the start of the married life of her dreams, or so she thought. Before she knew it, she became a shut-in!? What will the newlywed wife do!? This is the true story of a woman who became a shut-in as she was living the newlywed life! (Source: Kodansha, translated)

An essay that describes the process of becoming a female from male. The author, who had been diagnosed with GID (Gender Identity Disorder) had traveled to Thailand to receive a SRS (Sex Reassignment Surgery). But the path to womanhood is a lot more painful than imagined...