The Garden of Words


Midori Motohashi - 2013
    Insults and rumors can derail a career; a bit of encouragement can give someone the strength to pursue their dreams. When a high school boy skipping class to sketch shoe designs and a taciturn woman drinking a morning beer meet in a Tokyo park, they say little, but the woman bids farewell with an ancient tanka poem. Will the boy figure out the poem's meaning-and its corresponding response-before it's too late?

5 Centimeters per Second


Makoto Shinkai - 2007
    Now life seems to move at the speed of light. Our memories are captured and shared with the world on social media platforms. And love, which is already capricious, can feel like it is moving at terminal velocity.In Makoto Shinkai’s defining work, the internationally renowned director and animator unfolds a love story that is as timeless as it is fleeting. Yukiko Seike’s rendition of this modern classic adds a new level of emotion and intimacy that is unique to its source material.

Death Note: Another Note - The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases


NisiOisiN - 2006
    For some reason the killer has been leaving a string of maddeningly arcane clues at each crime scene. Each of these clues, it seems, is an indecipherable roadmap to the next murder.Onto the scene comes L, the mysterious super-sleuth. Despite his peculiar working habits, he's never shown his face in public—but this time, he needs help.Enlisting the services of an FBI agent named Naomi Misora, L starts snooping around the City of Angels. It soon becomes apparent that the killing spree is a psychotic riddle designed to specifically engage L in a battle of wits. Stuck in the middle between killer and investigator, it's up to Misora to navigate both the dead bodies and the egos to solve the Los Angeles Murder Cases.

Death Note: L, Change the WorLd


M - 2007
    He has twenty-three days to bring a terrorist group to justice, or they will use a deadly new virus to change the world—by killing off most of humanity.

Lamu: Urusei Yatsura, 1


Rumiko Takahashi - 1989
    Ataru is confident he can win by grabbing her horns, but then finds out Lum can fly. The game lasts for 10 days, and Ataru can't seem to catch her. When things are looking grim for the humans, Shinobu (Ataru's girlfriend) promises to marry him if he wins, so Ataru figures out a how to steal Lum's top, thereby getting her to fly close enough for him to grab her horns.As he is celebrating his win, he shouts, "Now I can marry her!", Lum promptly takes this as a marriage proposal and moves into his bedroom closet, much to the annoyance of Shinobu.Thus starts one of the most popular manga series of all time, and the series which put Rumiko Takahashi firmly on the path to becoming the most popular and richest female manga artists in Japan.This is first volume of the "wide" edition, and contains the first 19 chapters (かけめぐる青春 (Kakemeguru Seishun) through 女になって出直せよ (Onna ni Natte Denaose yo)).

Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One, Vol. 1


Kumo Kagyu - 2018
    Five years later and now a novice adventurer, he is by chance reunited with his childhood friend, another survivor of the massacre. Despite his inexperience, crude battle gear, and low rank, the boy sets off alone on a mission to defeat a nest full of goblins-thus begins the origin story of how he came to be known as Goblin Slayer!

Vampire Hunter D


Hideyuki Kikuchi - 1983
    It is a dark time for the world. Humanity is just crawling out from under three hundred years of domination by the race of vampires known as the Nobility. The war against the vampires has taken its toll; cities lie in ruin, the countryside is fragmented into small villages and fiefdoms that still struggle against nightly raids by the fallen vampires-and the remnants of their genetically manufactured demons and werewolves.Every village wants a Hunter-one of the warriors who have pledged their laser guns and their swords to the eradication of the Nobility. But some Hunters are better than others, and some bring their own kind of danger with them...From creator Hideyuki Kikuchi, one of Japan's leading horror authors with illustrations by renowned Japanese artist, Yoshitaka Amano, best known for his illustrations in Neil Gaiman's Sandman: The Dream Hunters and the Final Fantasy games.

FLCL Volume 1


Gainax - 2008
    He lives with his eccentric father and grandfather in a city distinguished by a gigantic hand-iron shaped factory perched on a hill. His brother's ex-girlfriend makes passes at him. And to top it all off, an impish, playful alien has run him over with her Vespa and smacked him in the head with a bass guitar! Little does he know that this is only the beginning of his involvement in an interplanetary ideological war.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Vol. 1


Nagaru Tanigawa - 2006
    From the very first day of school, his classmate-the beautiful but eccentric Haruhi Suzumiya-makes it very clear that her only desire is to meet aliens, time travelers, and psychics! A chance conversation between the two inspires Haruhi to form the SOS Brigade, a school club created for the sole purpose of gathering together such supernatural beings. The initial members consist of the mute bookworm Yuki Nagato, the timid but voluptuous Miharu Asahina, and the polite and ever-smiling Itsuki Koizumi. By the end of this first volume, Kyon quickly finds out that these seemingly "helpless victims" of Haruhi's are actually members of secret organizations-both futuristic and alien-with the single aim of keeping watch over Haruhi Suzumiya as she is the pinnacle of some major calamity on the horizon...

Gatcha Gacha, Volume 1


Yutaka Tachibana - 2002
    Yuri has a crush on Yabe, but Yabe's decided the only girl he will even seriously date is Motoko. However, she wants nothing to do with him--or is she secretly harboring a crush on him, too? Rated for teens.

Hetalia: Axis Powers, Vol. 1


Hidekaz Himaruya - 2008
    During World War 1, gruff Germany finds Italy hiding in a wooden box of tomatoes. World War I quickly comes to an end, but World War II is right on its heels! This time, Italy tries his best to become friends with Germany.

All You Need Is Kill


Hiroshi Sakurazaka - 2004
    It’s coming back to do it again and again… When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On the 158th iteration though, he sees something different, something out of place: the female soldier known as the Bitch of War. Is the Bitch the key to Keiji’s escape, or to his final death?

Train Man


Hitori Nakano - 2004
    Now here’s the novel that started it all.Boy–bashful and not overly brave–defends girl from obnoxious drunk on a Tokyo train. Girl sends boy a thank-you pair of pricey Hermés teacups. Boy’s a geek and doesn’t know what to do next. End of story for most nerds–but this one turns to the world’s largest online message board and asks for help, so for him it’s just the beginning. This matchless love story is told through a series of Internet chat room threads.As Train Man, our hero charts his progress and unveils each new crisis–from making conversation to deciding what to wear on a date and beyond–in return, he receives advice, encouragement, warnings, and sympathy from the anonymous netizens. And Train Man discovers the secret to what makes the world go round–and proves we really do live in a universe where anything can happen.

Rosario+Vampire, Vol. 1


Akihisa Ikeda - 2004
    Best of all, the cutest girl on campus can't wait to fling her arms around his neck! Wait a sec'--are those her teeth around his neck too...? Tsukune's going to have one heck of a hickey when he gets home from Monster High! But does he have a chance in H-E-double-hockey-sticks of raising his grades at a school where the turf war isn't between the jocks and the nerds but the vampires and the werewolves?

Durarara!!, Vol. 1


Ryohgo Narita - 2004
    A boy longing for the extraordinary. A hotheaded punk. An airheaded pseudo stalker. An information broker who works for kicks. An underground doctor who specializes in truly desperate patients. A high school student infatuated with a monster. And a headless rider on a pitch-black motorcycle. Their story may not be a heartwarming one, but as it turns out, even weirdos like these sometimes fall in love.There's no shortage of bizarre characters in Ikebukuro--read the light novel series that started the anime and manga phenomenon!