Book picks similar to
Sandland by Akira Toriyama


manga
comics
graphic-novels
fantasy

.hack// Legend of the Twilight, Vol. 1


Tatsuya Hamazaki - 2003
    Twins Rena and Shugo are two middle-school students who enter 'The World' as level one game characters. When Shugo's character dies, he is transported to another level where he is entrusted to bear the Twilight Bracelet by the mysterious Aura. Shugo must find out who Aura is and why she gave him this powerful weapon to protect his sister from the peculiar characters in 'The World'.

Psyren, Vol. 1: Urban Legend


Toshiaki Iwashiro - 2008
    Now Ageha's on a quest to find her. He's convinced that the mythical Psyren Secret Society has something to do with the recent rash of disappearances. And now he seems to be caught up as a player in their very deadly game...

Shaman King, Vol. 1: A Shaman in Tokyo


Hiroyuki Takei - 1998
    When he takes a shortcut through a cemetery, Manta Oyamada meets a strange kid with headphones — surrounded by ghosts. The kid is the teenage shaman Yoh Asakura. Tapping the supernatural swordfighting powers of samurai ghost Admidamaru, Yoh fights Bokuto no Ryu, a sword-wielding gang member. But an even more dangerous opponent is stalking Yoh and Manta — a Chinese shaman who wants to possess Amidamaru.

Neon Genesis Evangelion, Vol. 1


Yoshiyuki Sadamoto - 1994
    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.

Chobits, Vol. 1


CLAMP - 2001
    She can't do word processing, she can't connect to the Internet, and she's incapable of networking with other persocoms. Even her sound card seems broken. No wonder Hideki found her tied up in a pile of trash. But when the 19-year-old technophobe takes her home, he finds that she may be more advanced than her childlike behavior lets on.Chapters 1-12

Trinity Blood, Vol. 1


Kiyo Kyujyo - 2004
    When she crosses paths with Abel Nightroad, a priest sent from the Vatican to combat the local order of vampires, the two form a holy alliance to battle the most evil of threats: Gyula, the leader of the vampires. In this gorgeous, gothic-action series--part of the super-popular Trinity Blood franchise--the very survival of the human race is at stake!

DRRR!! Durarara!! 1


Akiyo Satorigi - 2009
    A naive stalker girl. The strongest man in Ikebukuro. A shut-in doctor with questionable credentials. A hedonistic informant...and the "headless rider" astride a pitch-black motorcycle!? As their paths cross, this eccentric cast weaves a twisted, cracked love story...

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…

InuYasha: Turning Back Time


Rumiko Takahashi - 1997
    Transported back to Japan's feudal era, high school student Kagome accidentally releases the feral half-demon dog boy Inu-Yasha from his imprisonment for stealing the Jewel of Four Souls.

Buso Renkin, Vol. 1


Nobuhiro Watsuki - 2004
    monster sword fight! Buso Renkin is the story of teenager Kazuki Muto, who dies trying to save a girl who was being attacked by an eerie monster. The next morning, however, Kazuki is left wondering whether it was all a dream. Lo and behold, the girl, the monster, and his death are all real! The girl, Tokiko Tsumura, was actually trying to slay the homunculus (a beast that can take the form of humans, and whose main source of food is people), but Kazuki got in her way. To revive Kazuki, Tokiko replaces his heart with a "kakugane," an alchemic device that allows him to summon a lance with which to fight the monsters. It turns out that Tokiko is a member of the Alchemist Warriors, an organization sworn to protect the world from the diabolical creatures. Soon, Kazuki joins Tokiko in her quest to terminate the sinister being that creates and controls the homunculus.Talk about being at the wrong place at the wrong time! High school student Kazuki Muto had no clue what he was in for when he rescued damsel in distress Tokiko from a monster known as a "homunculus." Disguised as humans--who actually eat humans--homunculi are malevolent creatures that affix themselves to people's brains, and once fully grown, the only thing that can annihilate them is a weapon called Buso Renkin !Follow the adventures of Kazuki after he discovers that it was actually Tokiko who saved his life by implanting a kakugane--an alchemical device that transforms into a buso renkin--to replace his heart!

Trigun: Deep Space Planet Future Gun Action!! Vol. 1


Yasuhiro Nightow - 1995
    Created by Yasuhiro Nightow, this compound of genre-bending ingredients has turned the Trigun animation into a wildly popular series, and finally, the long-awaited manga comes to America.Somehow the past has placed a sixty billion double dollar bounty on Vash's head, and the gunslinging pacifist can't seem to get away from money grubbing, itchy-trigger-finger citizenry. Find out why Vash is worth so much money dead! Feel the clumsy worry of the unfortunate citizens of the pulverous planet! Follow the follies of an unlikely hero in a forbidding world! Join Vash the Stampede - with his troubled past and an uncanny ability to dodge a gazillion bullets - and a cavalcade of unlucky characters on a dusty, desert planet in the distant future.

Attack on Titan: Before the Fall, Vol. 1


Hajime Isayama - 2013
    A child of carnage.Cut alive from his mother's womb after she had been eaten by a rampaging Titan, Kuklo has spent his life in chains as a freakish curiosity and a feared abomination. Eventually the boy they call the "Titan's Son" finds himself sold to wealthy merchant Dario Inocencio as a plaything for his cruel and ambitious son, Xavi. Kuklo knows nothing but abuse and neglect, but help may come from the most unexpected place...

Akira, Vol. 1


Katsuhiro Otomo - 1984
    The science fiction tale set in 2019 in Tokyo after the city was destroyed by World War III, follows the lives of two teenage friends, Tetsuo and Kaneda, who have a consuming fear of a monstrous power known as Akira.

Cells at Work!, Vol. 1


Akane Shimizu - 2015
    Fortunately, she's not alone... she's got a whole human body's worth of cells ready to help out! The mysterious white blood cell, the buff and brash killer T cell, the nerdy neuron, even the cute little platelets -- everyone's got to come together if they want to keep you healthy!

Hellsing, Vol. 01


Kohta Hirano - 1998
    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!