Cast: Asano Inio

The sun’s rays enter the city of light, as various stories unfold:Bright, dark and harsh; a story filled with people from whom you’d want to avert your eyes. Yet, it’s close to reality; so maybe it’s true to humanity.Like an old bond between a boy and a girl, a friendship is born between girls who rarely speak to each other.A man who dirties his hands for money, and the girlfriend who waits for him to come home.

Suzuki is a troubled boy. He's lived with uncaring foster parents for most of his life, alienated from the other kids at his school, owner of a cynical, unhappy mentality. Komatsuzaki is a violent, unpredictable bully whose head trauma causes him to act in mysterious, inexplicable ways. Arakawa is a no-nonsense, normal girl who pines after Komatsuzaki but can never have him. A teacher with just one working eye. A mother who committed suicide. A daughter in an endless coma. Attempted rapes, murders, extortion, sexual deviance, and a freakish explosion in the butterfly population. All of these elements are whirled together in a story spanning 10 years, a tale of blackness, pain, and apocalypse. And maybe just a bit of hope and redemption. It's a spiritual cross between the misanthropic suburban malevolence of Kyoko Okazaki's Rivers Edge and the eerie mysticality of Donnie Darko.

Witness the titular Punpun - who is depicted as a tiny, caricatured bird in an otherwise normal human setting - as he copes with his dysfunctional family and friends, his love interest, his oncoming adolescence and his hyperactive mind.

Slice of life with a young couple, Inoue Meiko and Taneda Shigeo, and how everyday occurrences affect their lives. Meiko begins contemplating whether freedom without purpose is really the same thing as boredom. This is a retelling of a very common real life situation, perhaps enjoyable for an older fanbase. Art is different, there are no anime-esque deformations here. Nominated in 2009 for the Eisner Award Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Japan. Nominated for the 2009 Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material

Being his first series, What a Wonderful World remains Asano’s most representative and successful work to date.Composed of vignettes from the daily lives of a group of people inhabiting an ordinary neighborhood somewhere in Tokyo, the series is actually a comment about modern life itself and how we can survive in it despite all its rigors.Amusing, melancholic, funny, strange, thought-provoking—Asano effortlessly shifts from one mood to another, creating stories and characters that are profoundly human and thus always involving. It’s a shame that not everyone will find the subjects the author describes equally appealing since some of them are distinctly Japanese. But overall, it’s a great collection that any discerning manga reader should check out.

Being his first series, What a Wonderful World remains Asano’s most representative and successful work to date.

Composed of vignettes from the daily lives of a group of people inhabiting an ordinary neighborhood somewhere in Tokyo, the series is actually a comment about modern life itself and how we can survive in it despite all its rigors.

Amusing, melancholic, funny, strange, thought-provoking—Asano effortlessly shifts from one mood to another, creating stories and characters that are profoundly human and thus always involving. It’s a shame that not everyone will find the subjects the author describes equally appealing since some of them are distinctly Japanese. But overall, it’s a great collection that any discerning manga reader should check out.

Koume Sato and Keisuke Isobe are two teenagers living in a sleepy seaside town. After getting used and dumped by her crush the emotionally damaged Koume decides to start a sexual relationship with Keisuke, without any emotions involved. However, they both soon discover that sex with no strings attached does lead to unexpected complications, not just for themselves but also the people surrounding them.

Large mysterious alien ships have been looming above Japanese towns for three years, filling the sky Everything changed three years ago. And yet, nothing has changed. No weapon used against the invaders' ships had any success, beyond destroying part of japan and leaving its economy in shambles. JSDF is fighting a guerrilla battle against the aliens all over Japan. America is joining the 'war' effort with more aggressive tactics, dividing Japan over the pacifist principle laid out in Art9. of their constitution. But this may just be the mundane story of young middle schoolers. "No matter what happens, I won't back down. At least not until this world filled with lies and deceit crumbles away. (...) The real threat to humankind is not invaders, but me."