MPD Psycho, Vol. 1


Eiji Otsuka - 1997
    Enjoy the 11-volume MPD-Psycho series for all of its absurd twists, sci-fi touches and inventive torture scenes, but you’ll also be mesmerized by the plethora of odd conspiracies and case files found in Otsuka and Tajima’s uncontrollable, urban horrorshow. In MPD-Psycho Volume 1, police detective Kobayashi Yousuke’s life is changed forever after a serial killer notices something "special" about him. That same killer mutilates Kobayashi’s wife and kick-starts a "multiple personality battle" within Kobayashi that pushes him into a complex tempest of interconnected deviants and evil forces. Earning praise for its consistently shocking plotlines and Tajima’s clean, arresting art style, MPD-Psycho is the manga event of the decade!

Battle Royale, Vol. 01


Koushun Takami - 2000
    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.

Ghost in the Shell


Masamune Shirow - 1989
    In the rapidly converging landscape of the 21st century Major Kusanagi is charged to track down the craftiest and most dangerous terrorists and cybercriminals, including ghost hackers When he track the trail of one hacker, her quest leads her to a world she could never have imagined.

Blade of the Immortal, Volume 1: Blood of a Thousand


Hiroaki Samura - 1994
    1- Blood of a Thousand by Samura,Hiroaki. [2010] Paperback

Blame!, Vol. 1


Tsutomu Nihei - 1998
    He wanders an endless labyrinth of cyberdungeons filled with concrete and steel, fighting off cyborgs and other bizarre silicate creatures. Everyone is searching for the Net Terminal Genes, but no one is quite certain what kind of power they contain. The answer may lie hidden among the scattered human settlements of this vast and desolate future world.

The Summit of the Gods Volume 1


Jirō Taniguchi - 2000
    In 1993, in a small Nepalese store, Makoto Fukamachi, photographer for a Japanese expedition to conquer Mount Everest, stumbles across an old camera - a Vest Pocket Autographic Kodak Special. Could it be Mallory's camera? Did it hold the secret of whether Mallory and Irvine made it to the summit almost three decades before Hillary? Taniguchi's realistic art and Baku's tireless script will take you to such heights that mountaineers only dream about.

Dorohedoro, Vol. 1


Q. Hayashida - 2002
    A sorcerer cursed him with a reptile head and left him with no memory of his life before the transformation. Adding to the mystery, there's a specter of a man living inside him. But Caiman has one key advantage: he's now completely immune to magic. Along with his best friend, Nikaido, Caiman is hunting down sorcerers in the Hole, searching for the one who can undo his curse and killing the rest. But when En, the head Sorcerer, of the sorcerers, gets word of a lizard-man slaughtering sorcerers, he sends a crew of "cleaners" into the Hole, igniting a war between two worlds.

Parasyte, Volume 1


Hitoshi Iwaaki - 1990
    They descend from the skies. They have a hunger for human flesh. They are everywhere. They are parasites, alien creatures who must invade - and take control of - a human host to survive. And once they have infected their victims, they can assume any deadly form they choose: monsters with giant teeth, winged demons, creatures with blades for hands. But most have chosen to conceal their lethal purpose behind ordinary human faces. So no one knows their secret - except an ordinary high school student. Shin is battling for control of his own body against an alien parasite, but can he find a way to warn humanity of the horrors to come?

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.

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.

Berserk, Vol. 1


Kentaro Miura - 1990
    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.

Gantz/1


Hiroya Oku - 2000
    What a waste! And yet somehow they're still . . . alive? Or semi-alive? Maybe it's reanimated . . . by some kind of alien orb with a nasty message . . . "Your lives are over. What you do with your new lives is up to me!" And what this orb called "Gantz" intends to do with their lives is make them play games of death, hunting all kinds of odd aliens, along with a bunch of other ordinary citizens who've recently met a tragic semi-end. The missions they embark upon are often dangerous. Many die-and die again.This dark and action-packed manga deals with the moral conflicts of violence, teenage sexual confusion and angst, and our fascination with death.Hang on to your gear and keep playing the game, whatever you do; Gantz is unrelenting.* Gantz has been one of the most popular adult anime in recent years with over 175,000 copies sold!* Dark Horse makes Gantz available in English for the first time with its U.S. debut.* Gantz has been running weekly in the Japanese magazine Young Jump, which has a circulation of over 1 million.Each volume comes shrink-wrapped and carries an 18+ content advisory.

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...

Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror, Vol. 1


Junji Ito - 1998
    Soon, the entire town is afflicted with a snail-like disease.

Mushishi, Vol. 1


Yuki Urushibara - 2000
    Some eat silence. Some thoughtlessly kill. Some simply drive men mad. Shortly after life emerged from the primordial ooze, these deadly creatures, mushi, came into terrifying being. And they still exist and wreak havoc in the world today. Ginko, a young man with a sardonic smile, has the knowledge and skill to save those plagued by mushi . . . perhaps.