“Adolf is widely regarded as one of Osamu Tezuka’s finest works… Although Adolf is a work of fiction, it incorporates a great deal of well-known and not so well-known aspects of actual history. Adolf provides a perspective on World War II that is new, unusual and provocative.” English-language text.

Publisher: Cadence
Paperback: 263 pages
Illustrated

“An Exotic/Erotic tale of murder, sex, revenge… and tender love!” English-language text.

Publisher: Viz
Paperback: 443 pages
Illustrated

Suehiro Maruo is the decadent Georges Bataille of manga. Dragging the already sex-drenched and violent Japanese comic into the furthest depths of degradation and despair, Maruo has established himself as a cult artist who has transcended the trashy “ero-manga” into gallery shows, deluxe print editions and CD covers (for John Zorn no less). In a somber twilight nightmare realm, Maruo’s characters live through a thousand nights of Sodom, pictorially rendered in a brooding blend of German expressionism and 19th-century Japanese “atrocity woodblock” styles. Eyeballs explode, worms crawl, blood and shit spurt, and no orifice is left intact. Japanese-language text. SS

Publisher: RAM
Paperback: 176 pages
Illustrated

Since the 1984 publication of Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, manga has emerged as an odd barometer of Japanese society, an indulgence that gives away the obsessions of a people. This book, the sequel to Manga! Manga!, brings us up to speed on the current state of the Japanese popular mind by re-establishing manga’s greater cultural context, one that seems to get divorced from the work during export. Besides an in-depth introduction to the artists, the essays cover topics as obvious as the increasing role of women manga artists and the growing popularity of manga with female audiences, the heightened sex and violence in manga, the affective quality of the work versus its mimetic characterization of Japanese life, and the idea of the crossover of the artists from primarily pictorial storytellers to literary novelists in their advanced careers.
Some uniquely Japanese issues the book delves into include the emergence of an otaku class, young people “growing up with unprecedented affluence and freedom of choice in a media-glutted society [yet] still being put through a factory-style educational system designed to churn out docile citizens and obedient company employees for a mass-production, heavy-industry-oriented society that had ceased to exist…” The author asks, “with physical and spiritual horizons seemingly so limited, who could blame these children for turning inward to a fantasy alternative.”
Even more curious are the many sub-genres of manga. There’s one, for example, that presents a parallel view of history, a serial called Adolf set in World War II which has three central characters named Adolf—one a Japanese-German, the other a Jewish-German, and Adolf Hitler himself. Another popular sub-genre is manga whose storylines revolve around homoerotic male relationships, but whose target readership consists mainly of straight females. Perhaps the central area that the author is able to clarify in his book is the role of the individual in a society that has yet to firmly redefine itself. CP

Publisher: Weatherhill
Paperback: 296 pages
Illustrated

“Behold the awesome power of the fist of the North Star! In the tradition of Road Warrior, starring Mel Gibson, comes an action-packed epic adventure set on a savage, postapocalyptic Earth.” English-language text.

Publisher: Viz
Paperback: 347 pages
Illustrated

“An ordinary girl with extraordinary powers! Illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, whose gritty, realistic and erotic drawings grace the pages of Crying Freeman, Sanctuary and Samurai Crusader.” English-language text.

Publisher: Viz
Paperback: 345 pages
Illustrated

Launches you into the raw, brutal yet stylized unconscious of the Japanese mind-kiddie porn, samurai exam-crammers, Yakuza assassins, expressionistic axe-murder, and much more. Mangas are definitely “adult.” Eight color pages, numerous black-and-white illustrations, and 96 pages of sample comics in English. SS

Publisher: Kodansha
Paperback: 260 pages
Illustrated

“The erotically charged saga of political corruption, the yakuza crime syndicate and two handsome, ruthless young men continues! Akira Hojo and Chiaki Asami vow to transform the destiny of Japan, by any means. Together as children, they survived the horrors of Cambodian killing fields together. This is their quest to topple the leaders of both Japanese Parliament and the Yakuza. Sanctuary is drawn by the renowned manga artist Ryoichi Ikegami, whose gritty, realistic, and erotic artwork graces the pages of Crying Freeman, Samurai Crusader, and Mai, the Psychic Girl.” English-language text.

Publisher: Viz
Paperback: 344 pages
Illustrated

“The erotically charged saga of political corruption, the yakuza crime syndicate and two handsome, ruthless young men continues! Akira Hojo and Chiaki Asami vow to transform the destiny of Japan, by any means. Together as children, they survived the horrors of Cambodian killing fields together. This is their quest to topple the leaders of both Japanese Parliament and the Yakuza. Sanctuary is drawn by the renowned manga artist Ryoichi Ikegami, whose gritty, realistic, and erotic artwork graces the pages of Crying Freeman, Samurai Crusader, and Mai, the Psychic Girl.” English-language text.

Publisher: Viz
Paperback: 308 pages
Illustrated

“The erotically charged saga of political corruption, the yakuza crime syndicate and two handsome, ruthless young men continues! Akira Hojo and Chiaki Asami vow to transform the destiny of Japan, by any means. Together as children, they survived the horrors of Cambodian killing fields together. This is their quest to topple the leaders of both Japanese Parliament and the Yakuza. Sanctuary is drawn by the renowned manga artist Ryoichi Ikegami, whose gritty, realistic, and erotic artwork graces the pages of Crying Freeman, Samurai Crusader, and Mai, the Psychic Girl.” English-language text.

Publisher: Viz
Paperback: 324 pages
Illustrated