AKI

All-new horror anthology featuring cover art by international bestseller, Junji Ito! All-new horror anthology featuring cover art by international bestseller, Junji Ito! Manga creators from Japan and the US present an international showcase of horror. Collected for the first time in Betwixt: A Horror Manga Anthology, six short stories reveal the universal fear of the space between the known and unknown. Will anyone cross that border? Featuring stories from a range of award-winning and popular creators, as well as a foreword and exclusive cover art by global phenomenon, Junji Ito. Ryo Hanada (creator of Devil’s Line), Aki Shimizu (creator of the Suikoden III manga), and Shima Shinya (creator of Lost Lad London and cowriter of Star Wars: The High Republic, The Edge of Balance) each tell uniquely Japanese tales of ghosts and creatures who exist alongside us. American creative duo, Becky Cloonan and Michael Conrad (cowriters of Wonder Woman and Batgirls) along with duo Leslie Hung (cocreator of Snotgirl) and Sloane Leong (creator of A Map to the Sun) and up and coming creator Hua Hua Zhu round out the anthology with tales that would make anyone paranoid about who they may encounter.

Sometimes, when life is hard, you just need a "friend." Working at a game company, Rihito Otsuka (23), is a "normal" guy who is a steady presence on and off the job. Noa Saotome (27) is a "hard-core" woman who likes to go all out at everything she does. Two people who usually wouldn't get along become "friends" by chance...? The is the start of an workplace "friendship" comedy that's a little sweet but also a little heavy! (Source: Tonari no Young Jump, translated)

A cool new one-shot about ice hockey!

From on high, the gods make sport of the mortals who toil below them. None know the cruelty of these beings better than Ganymede, a beautiful prince who was torn away from his family by the gods' divine hands. Granted immortality, Ganymede now whiles away his days in an inescapable miniature garden for the amusement of the gods, particularly Apollo. But the gods themselves are no strangers to the boredom of eternal life, and as Ganymede quickly discovers, they will do anything to keep themselves entertained, both at his expense and at one another's...

In 1977, a then unknown Akira Toriyama participated in an annual competition for new mangaka, sponsored by Shueisha in Monthly Young Jump magazine with the work, Awawa World, a short oneshot that features a mashup of concepts from superheroes to samurai to kaiju and it's all topped with fast-paced absurdist humor and even features attempts to mix modern scenarios with the feudal setting. Though his work was nominated, it ultimately didn't win. Later on in 1983, this manga would be republished in two parts in "Bird Land Press", the official newsletter of Toriyama's fanclub. The original master materials of this and his second one-shot "Mysterious Rain Jack" would be put on display during a touring art exhibition centered solely around Akira Toriyama's work which sprouted up in the 1990s and this is where unfortunately disaster would strike for during this exhibition. The master materials of Awawa World and Mysterious Rain Jack were stolen, making an official rerelease as of right now impossible to achieve.

Published in 1997 in an issue of Weekly Shonen Jump for the "Jump Readers' Cup", this manga tells the story of two young demons named Bubul and Purupuru who venture outside of their village to the human world to make snowmen. During this activity, they hear an approaching car and quickly check it out which leads into hijnx. This manga won the award that year, marking the first time Toriyama won it since his 1981 one-shot "Pola & Roid" and its demon world notably has several concepts that would be reused in Cowa, one of his single-volume length tales.

[u][b]English:[/b][/u]While watching educational tv show Nao-kun and his family unveil a bizarre secret about their tongues. Now they set on the journey searching for the answers.[u][b]???????:[/b][/u]???????? ???????? ?? ?????????? ????? ?????? ?????? ? ????? ???-????, ? ?????, ????? ?????????? ?????? ?????, ??? ???????????? ?? ?????? ???????.

Published in Food Comix #1, October 1980

One year after the failure of his first manga, Awawa World, Toriyama once again tried his hand at manga creation for the Monthly Young Jump award and crafted Mysterious Rain Jack, a one-shot mystery comedy that features an unnamed detective and his bumbling inspector ally who try to crack the case of a string of mysterious thefts that revolve around various items such as sweets and Cola. The story notably features character designs and scenarios that would later find their way into his most popular work, Dr. Slump. In particular, the lead detective's design would eventually be reused for Kurikinton Soramame and there's an appearance by an ogre who would later become Thunder Ogre Goronbo. The work was unfortunately rejected which was in large part due to the usage of several designs lifted straight from the space opera film Star Wars. Despite this however, Kazuhiko Torishima, who would later become Toriyama's editor, contacted him with words of encouragement that kept him going until he eventually found success. Like Awawa World, this manga would be republished in two parts in the "Bird Land Press" fanclub newsletter and would have its master materials brought out for display during a roaming art exhibition in the 1990s that was dedicated entirely to Toriyama's work. Unfortunately it along with Awawa World had its master materials stolen and when coupled with the use of copyrighted designs? This means an official rerelease is highly unlikely.