As part of a ruthless program by the totalitarian government, ninth-grade students are taken to a small isolated island with a map, food, and various weapons. Forced to wear special collars that explode when they break a rule, they must fight each other for three days until only one "winner" remains. The elimination contest becomes the ultimate in must-see reality television. A Japanese pulp classic available in English for the first time, Battle Royale is a potent allegory of what it means to be young and survive in today's dog-eat-dog world. The first novel by small-town journalist Koushun Takami, it went on to become an even more notorious film by 70-year-old director Kinji Fukusaku.

    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...

    Yes, it's hard to believe in this day and age.... but really, isn't this the true age of monsters?Enter Hellsing, an agency, long in tooth, with the experience, know-how, and...er...equipment to handle the problems that arise when vampires, ghouls take on these dark forces. "What equipment?" you may say. How about another vampire, and a big pistol loaded with special silver bullets? That oughta do the trick.Hellsing the long-awaited manga is finally in America, thanks to Dark Horse Comics and the folks at Digital Manga, and you're gonna love it. Come get some smart-ass gore and action as only Japan seems to produce, in that crazy "non-Western" formats the kids seem to love. And nice and thick at over 200 pages!

    The pets sold here aren's your everyday variety and the Count prides himself on selling Love and Dreams in the form of magical creatures that come with an exclusive contract. But buyers beware. If the contract is broken the Count cannot be held accountable for whatever may happen. A fascinating and macabre look into the very soul of human nature. Contains the following stories: DREAM Young Angelique learns the tragic nature of breeding the rarest of birds in the Strelizia. DESPAIR Out-of-luck actor Robin Hendrix has always preferred the company of reptiles, so it's only natural that he would fall in love with a very special and dangerous one. DAUGHTER There is no love stronger than a mother's love for her daughter, but one mother is about to learn that love can be quite painful. DREIZEHN They say that a dog is a man's best friend but for the recently blinded Karen, the bond with her new seeing eye dog is even closer. Recommended for older teens, ages 16+.

    But on this particular Monday morning, the first person he meets at the school gate is no other than Yuzuru Shino, Seryou’s senpai at the archery club. On a whim, and well-aware of Seryou’s reputation, Shino asks Seryou to go out with him. Thinking that it will be treated as a joke, they’re both guys after all, imagine Shino’s surprise when Seryou takes him up on the offer! There is a catch, though. While Seryou does go out with the first girl who asks him out on a Monday morning, the other side of the coin is – by the end of the week, he will break up with that person. In essence, Seryou is a lover with a one-week expiration date. But will Shino prove to be the exception to that rule?

    Rei is the school delinquent. Kira is shy and studious. What they see in each other is a mystery to their friends. What they find in each other is a miracle to themselves. With a style that is artistic and chic, this tale of restless and confused high school love will appeal to young women everywhere.Kira and Rei might as well be from different planets. She's a shy art student, afraid of boys and hated by her classmates. He's a rebellious motorcycle racer with girls dropping left and right just to talk to him. Their lives become intertwined when Kira asks Rei to model for her and, to everyone's surprise, he agrees. As these two battle their personal demons and the pressures of their classmates, they learn not only to love each other, but themselves.

    However, soon her body, unable to withstand the burdens of surgery, begins to crumble, and along with it so does her mind, as she plummets towards a frightening and inevitable end.A story about a woman's vanity, greed, hatred and despair, by the author of River's Edge.

    Kouno examines the impact that WWII and the dropping of the atomic bomb had on the people of Japan through the eyes of an average woman living in 1955.

    But he’s casting her out now that he’s famous! Kyoko won’t suffer in silence—she’s going to get her sweet revenge by beating Sho in show biz!Kyoko knows she's not plain and uninteresting, no matter what Sho says. With the help of a little makeover, Kyoko's ready to exact her revenge. But first she needs to land an audition, and she sets her sights on the agency where Sho's lead rival works. Her persistence pays off, but her broken heart turns out to be a disadvantage. Kyoko has lost the will to love anybody, let alone fans she's never met. Can the agency see past this problem to Kyoko's true star potential?

    Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does.Ruka's dad and the other adults who work at the aquarium are only distantly aware of what the children are experiencing as they get caught up in the mystery of the worldwide disappearance of the oceans' fish.

    A dying man leaves bisexual gang leader Ash Lynx a strange drug, the key to something called "Banana Fish." The mysterious potion will lead Ash to a disturbed Vietnam vet who remembers a massacre – and into brutal battle with the mafia over control of the drug.Vice City: New York in the 80s... Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A child runaway brought up as the adopted heir, hatchet man, and sex toy of "Papa" Dino Golzine, the East Coast's Corsican crime lord, Ash is now at the rebellious age of seventeen – forsaking the kingdom of power and riches held out by the devil who raised him, preferring a code he can live with among a small but loyal gang of street thugs. But his "Papa" can't simply let him go – not when the hideous secret that drove Ash's older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into his insatiably ambitious hands.It's exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to arrive in NYC and make Ash Lynx's acquaintance... and fall with him into the bloody whirlpool of pride, greed, lust and wrath unleashed by the enigma code-named Banana Fish...

    1, contains a Japanese sound FX glossary plus special bonus commentary by series mecha designer Ikuto Yamashita, as well as the famous "confession letter" written by director Hideaki Anno in the months before the original TV series premiere that laid out his deeply personal motivations to make Evangelion.

    While he's away at work, mom Tomoko and her two beloved sons Hiroki and Yuri go about their everyday lives--going to school, making dinner, doing homework, etc. But now that Hiroki's in his first year of high school, his thoughts are turning ever so slightly to sex and romance...and his mom can't help but notice his slips of the tongue when he's talking about who he likes. Supportive Tomoko has an inkling Hiroki might be gay, but she's going to let him figure it out for himself. Unfortunately, Hiroki has little talent for keeping his "secret," so he might die of embarassment before all is said and done!

    Set against the backdrop of the Meiji Restoration, it tells the saga of Himura Kenshin, once an assassin of ferocious power, now a humble rurouni, a wandering swordsman fighting to protect the honor of those in need. A hundred and fifty years ago in Kyoto, amid the flames of revolution, there arose a warrior, an assassin of such ferocious power he was given the title Hitokiri: Manslayer. With his bloodstained blade, Hitokiri Battosai helped close the turbulent Bakumatsu period and end the reign of the shoguns, slashing open the way toward the progressive Meiji Era.  Then he vanished, and with the flow of years became legend. In the 11th year of Meiji, in the middle of Tokyo, the tale begins. Himura Kenshin, a humble rurouni, or wandering swordsman, comes to the aid of Kamiya Kaoru, a young woman struggling to defend her father's school of swordsmanship against attacks by the infamous Hitokiri Battosai. But neither Kenshin nor Battosai are quite what they seem...

    Not for the squeamish or the easily offended, Berserk asks for no quarter - and offers none! His name is Guts, the Black Swordsman, a feared warrior spoken of only in whispers. Bearer of a gigantic sword, an iron hand, and the scars of countless battles and tortures, his flesh is also indelibly marked with The Brand, an unholy symbol that draws the forces of darkness to him and dooms him as their sacrifice. But Guts won't take his fate lying down; he'll cut a crimson swath of carnage through the ranks of the damned - and anyone else foolish enough to oppose him! Accompanied by Puck the Elf, more an annoyance than a companion, Guts relentlessly follows a dark, bloodstained path that leads only to death...or vengeance.