Manga and anime inspire a wide range of creative activities for fans: blogging and contributing to databases, making elaborate cosplay costumes, producing dôjinshi (amateur) manga and scanlations, and engaging in fansubbing and DIY animation. Indeed, fans can no longer be considered passive consumers of popular culture easily duped by corporations and their industrial-capitalist ideologies. They are now more accurately described as users, in whose hands cultural commodities can pr...

'Witty, wise and thought-provoking' Cecelia Ahern'Crackles and pops with humour, empathy and intelligence' Lisa Owens, author of Not Working'So brilliantly written' Roxy Dunn, author of As Young as This'[Will] rattle your heart and brain' Dakota JohnsonIzumi needs to get a job.Haruka needs to stop talking about how she once had cancer.Katō needs to get through a shift at the convenience store wit...

“Now offered in translation for the first time, this collection featuring women navigating societal expectations (and their small rebellions) is a classic.” — Boston GlobeA spiky, edgy collection of five sly yet sensitive stories spotlighting clear-eyed and “difficult” women who are navigating their identities as workers and women in contemporary Japan—a feminist, anti-capitalist modern classic published outside Asia and in English for the first ti...

Bullet Train's hapless underworld operative and his handler are back in this thrilling new novel from internationally bestselling author Kotaro IsakaIn Bullet Train, Ladybug was tasked by Maria with retrieving a suitcase from a high-speed train in Japan. The job did not go according to plan, to the delight of millions of readers and movie fans around the world.Will the unluckiest assassin in the world will find things easier this time around?All he has to do is deli...

Minazuki is stuck. A mousy divorcée scraping by as a part-time translator and bento seller, she moves through life cautiously, haunted by past mistakes that shattered her marriage. She knows better than to make reckless choices for love again. Then she meets Itsuji - the charming celebrity author and walking red flag. When he sweeps her into his life as both his lover and assistant, Minazuki is well aware she's stepping onto dangerous ground. The mix of public scrutiny, tangled power dynam...

**"Accessible and convincing."—Sally Rooney"[A] well-reasoned and eye-opening treatise . . . [Kohei Saito makes] a provocative and visionary proposal."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Saito’s clarity of thought, plethora of evidence, and conversational, gentle, yet urgent tone . . . are sure to win over open-minded readers who understand the dire nature of our global situation . . . A cogently structured anti-capitalist approach to the climate cris...

A LUXURY HOTEL FULL OF KILLERS. FIND THE TRUTH. CHECK OUT ALIVE.Nanao, ‘the unluckiest assassin in the world’, has been hired to deliver a birthday present to a luxury Tokyo hotel. By the time he leaves the guest's room one man is dead and more will soon follow. As events spiral out of control as it becomes clear that several different killers are taking a stay in the hotel at the same time. And they're all looking for a young woman with a photographic memory, hidi...

Sunrise is a collection of interconnected stories continuing Erika Kobayashi's examination of the effects of nuclear power on generations of women. Connecting changes to everyday life to the development of the atomic bomb, Sunrise shows us how the discovery of radioactive power has shaped our history and continues to shape our future.In the opening, eponymous story "Sunrise," Yoko, born exactly two years and one day after Nagasaki was decimated, mirrors her life t...

**"Delicately weaves generations of women to the lasting wounds of nuclear destruction and the hubris of war. A unique and unforgettable novel." —Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of Woman of LightA literary thriller about the effects of nuclear power on the mind, body, and recorded history of three generations of Japanese women.**Nine years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, Japan is preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. An unnamed narrator wake...

The classic Japanese bestseller published in English for the very first time - a darkly funny and relatable book portraying the lives of five women'Witty, wise and thought-provoking' Cecelia Ahern'Crackles and pops with humour, empathy and intelligence' Lisa Owens, author of Not Working'So brilliantly written that I kept trying to memorise sentences in order to repeat them to people later' Roxy Dunn, author of As Young as...

For fans of Taro Gomi’s Everyone Poops and Matthew Van Fleet’s Tails, this cheeky, whimsical picture book for ages 3-7 inspires self-love and body positivity, plus a whole lot of laughter and fun!All bottoms are wonderful! Don’t you agree? Each animal in this adorable book has a different reason for loving their behind—from cute and round to fashionable and striped! Talented illustrator Maki Saito makes kids laugh out loud with playful illustratio...

IS HOPE ITSELF THE ONLY ANSWER?The renowned author of the Ring novels unravels a story of lovers wrestling with the darkness within themselves—be it selfishness, lust, or despair—in a deeply introspective romantic mystery that will tug at your mind as well as your heart.A seemingly amnesiac woman sits mutely before her psychiatrist. Unable, or perhaps unwilling, to speak, the only time she shows any hint of emotion is when she hums a song—and the s...