Book picks similar to
Tropic of the Sea by Satoshi Kon
manga
comics
graphic-novels
fantasy
Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist’s Journey Vol. 1
Akiko Higashimura - 2012
Looking for an easy fix, she signs up for an art class, thinking all her problems will soon be solved. She's in for a surprise: her new instructor is a bamboo sword-wielding taskmaster who doesn't care about manga one bit. But maybe this unconventional art teacher is just what she needs to realize her dreams!
All You Need Is Kill
Ryōsuke Takeuchi - 2014
Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to be reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On his fifth iteration, he gets a message from a mysterious ally—the female soldier known as the Full Metal Bitch. Is she the key to Keiji's escape or his final death?
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 1—Phantom Blood, Vol. 1
Hirohiko Araki - 2002
For some reason, Dio has a smoldering grudge against him and derives pleasure from seeing him suffer. But every man has his limits, as Dio finds out. This is the beginning of a long and hateful relationship!
Twin Spica, Volume: 01
Kou Yaginuma - 2002
And yet, every time she looks up to the stars there is a sense of melancholy in her heart. A sadness surrounds Asumi, as space exploration itself has profoundly impacted her life for as long as she can remember. But she is not alone...A young man wearing a lion's mask is always beside her. He speaks of the constellations and galaxies as if he they were like home. He knows what it is like to love the stars--slightly bitter and yet always so warm and inviting. Truth is he has gone through much of Asumi is just experiencing. And now in spirit he will forever be with Asumi guiding her on her path to space.
Planetes, Volume 1
Makoto Yukimura - 2001
His team consists of Hachimaki, a hot shot debris-man with a sailor's affinity for the orbital ocean; Fee, a tomboy beauty with an abrasive edge and a penchant for smoking; and Pops, a veteran orbital mechanic whose avuncular presence soothes the stress of the job. Planetes follows the lives of Yuri and his fellow debris-men as they work and ruminate at the edge of the great empyrean sea.
Deadman Wonderland, Vol. 1
Jinsei Kataoka - 2007
Ganta Igarashi, a middle school evacuee, has finally begun to live a normal life... that is, until the day 'Red Man' appears at his school and Ganta's fate is changed forever.
Death Note, Vol. 1: Boredom
Tsugumi Ohba - 2004
But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami, a death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal... or his life?BoredomLight tests the boundaries of the Death Note's powers as L and the police begin to close in. Luckily, Light's father is the head of the Japanese National Police Agency and leaves vital information about the case lying around the house. With access to his father's files, Light can keep one step ahead of the authorities. But who is the strange man following him, and how can Light guard against enemies whose names he doesn't know?
Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D, Volume 01
Saiko Takaki - 2007
From the darkness of fallout, mutants and a race of vampires known as the Nobility have spawned. They rule the weak with no remorse. Once bitten by a Nobility, one is cursed to become a member of the undead. Villagers cower in fear, hoping and praying for a savior to rid them of their undying nightmare. All they have to battle this danger is a different kind of danger -- a Vampire Hunter.
A Man and His Cat, Vol. 1
Umi Sakurai - 2018
Even as his price drops with each passing day, no one spares him a glance unless it's to call him names. Having practically given up on life, the kitty himself is most shocked of all when an older gentleman comes into the store and wants to take him home! Will the man and the cat find what they're looking for..in each other?
Attack on Titan, Vol. 1
Hajime Isayama - 2009
Little is known about where they came from or why they are bent on consuming humankind, but the sudden appearance of an enormous Titan is about to change everything...
Erased, Volume 1
Kei Sanbe - 2017
Amid his daily drudgery, he finds himself in the grip of an incredible, inexplicable, and uncontrollable phenomenon that rewinds time, a condition that seems to only make his drab life worse. But then, one day, everything changes. A terrible incident forever changes Satoru's life as he knows it...and with it, comes a "Revival" that sends Satoru eighteen years into the past! In the body of his boyhood self, Satoru encounters sights he never imagined he would see again--the smile of his mother, alive and well, his old friends, and Kayo Hinazuki, the girl who was kidnapped and murdered when he was a boy the first time around. To return to the present and prevent the tragedy that brought him back to his childhood in the first place, Satoru begins plotting a way to change Hinazuki's fate...But up against the clock and a faceless evil, does eleven-year-old Satoru even stand a chance?
Apollo's Song
Osamu Tezuka - 1970
Just ask the young cynic Shogo, who sinned against love. Electroshock therapy was only meant to bring him face to face with his own violent misdeeds, but instead landed him in the court of a stern goddess. If the encounter was a hallucination, then it's a hallucination that starts to encroach on reality in this unforgettable tale penned by manga-god Osamu Tezuka and inspired by Greek myths of divine unforgiving. Sharing with his longer work Phoenix the themes of recurrence and retribution as well as the spirit of high invention, Apollo's Song explores the meaning of love and the consequences of its absence. Shogo's mother is a bar hostess, his father could be any one of a dozen of her regular patrons. Growing up, he learns nothing of genuine love and tenderness, and when he witnesses his mother in the nearest approximation of which she's capable--lustful embrace--he receives a merciless beating soon afterwards. Shogo comes to hate the very notion of love. But goddesses, who are neither the Buddha nor Christ, do not excuse misfortunes of upbringing. Apollo's Song reaches Olympian heights of tragedy as the story proceeds from a boxcar bound for a Nazi concentration camp to a dystopian future where human beings are persecuted by an ascendant race of their own clones. Will Shogo ever attain redemption, or, like the human race itself, will he have to relearn the lessons of love forever? Is it better to have loved and lost if the heartbreak must recur eternally?Love, propagation, nature, war, death--Tezuka holds his trademark cornucopia of concerns together with striking characterizations, an unfailing sense of pacing, and of course, stunning imagery. Though marked by a salty pessimism, this unique masterpiece from Tezuka's transitional period is also unabashedly romantic--and, at times, profoundly erotic. Combining a classic tale of thwarted love with cognitive ambiguities reminiscent of the work of Philip K. Dick, Apollo's Song is guaranteed to plumb new depths of the human heart with each rereading.
Alice 19th, Vol. 1
Yuu Watase - 2001
She's a bit shy, she's got a crush on a boy named Kyô, and she's got an older sister who is more popular than she is...pretty normal stuff, until Alice has an encounter with a mysterious and magical rabbit girl that changes the course of her life, and Alice is introduced to the sublime power of the Lotis Words.Alice Seno is a seemingly shy and meek girl who always seems to be outshined by her older sister Mayura. One day, Alice has an encounter with a mysterious and magical rabbit girl, and her life is turned upside down. Alice discovers that certain words have power, and that she has the potential to be master of a set of sublimely powerful words called the Lotis Words. But power always comes with a price, and the price may turn out to be Alice's sister Mayura...
Girls' Last Tour, Vol. 1
Tsukumizu - 2014
So they hop aboard their beloved Kettenkrad motorbike and aimlessly wander the ruins of the world they once knew. Day after hopeless day, they look for their next meal and fuel for their ride. But as long as the two are together, even an existence as bleak as theirs has a ray or two of sunshine in it, whether they're sucking down their fill of soup or hunting for machine parts to tinker with. For two girls in a world full of nothing, the experiences and feelings the two share give them something to live for...
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 1
Hiromu Arakawa - 2002
Equipped with mechanical “auto-mail” limbs, Edward becomes a state alchemist, seeking the one thing that can restore his and his brother’s bodies...the legendary Philosopher’s Stone.Alchemy: the mystical power to alter the natural world; something between magic, art and science. When two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, dabbled in this power to grant their dearest wish, one of them lost an arm and a leg…and the other became nothing but a soul locked into a body of living steel. Now Edward is an agent of the government, a slave of the military-alchemical complex, using his unique powers to obey orders…even to kill. Except his powers aren't unique. The world has been ravaged by the abuse of alchemy. And in pursuit of the ultimate alchemical treasure, the Philosopher's Stone, their enemies are even more ruthless than they are…