Naoki Urasawa Archives

Booklist Backlist: Japanese Graphic Horror [in Booklist]

29 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Lists, Short Stories, Translation, Young Adult Readers

I can’t watch scary movies, but I love graphic horror on the page. And really, fear-mongering via Japanese manga – both series and standalones – promises some of the most affecting fright-fests. As we approach that most haunting time of the year, here’s some chilling company. Death...

Asadora! (vol. 3) by Naoki Urasawa, translated by John Werry [in Booklist]

28 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

The third volume of Naoki Urasawa’s latest superb spectacle begins to distinguish individual story lines while overlapping various subplots. It’s 1964, five years since Japan’s deadliest typhoon. Asa is as righteously spunky as ever, determined to expose what happened the morning after she witnessed what couldn’t...

Asadora! (vol. 2) by Naoki Urasawa, translated by John Werry [in Booklist]

02 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

And so the intriguing layers – always characteristic of auteur Naoki Urasawa’s series – begin to multiply in volume 2 of his latest Stateside import, brought into English by frequent manga translator John Werry (who lent his talents to the first volume, and the continuity...

Asadora! (vol. 1) by Naoki Urasawa, translated by John Werry [in Booklist]

12 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Once upon a 1960s screentime, Japan’s NHK broadcast serial dramas in the mornings, a genre called “renzoku terebi shōsetsu,” literally “continuing TV novel,” shortened to “asadora,” meaning “morning drama.” Legendary Naoki Urasawa ingeniously riffs on the bygone genre, replacing “terebi” with “manga” to create Renzoku manga shōsetsu...

Sneeze by Naoki Urasawa, translated by John Werry [in Booklist]

06 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation

For Naoki Urasawa newbies, his latest collection (another satisfying English translation by popular manga-specialist John Werry) is a beckoning introductory primer. For aficionados, these eight stories (none titled “Sneeze”), originally published between 1995-2018, are an affirming reminder of his irrefutable genius. Urasawa’s most memorable stories feature...

Mujirushi: The Sign of Dreams by Naoki Urasawa, translated by John Werry [in Booklist]

13 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Kamoda can’t stop making detrimental decisions: dodging taxes results in losing the family’s sandals business, agreeing to mass-manufacture caricature masks of a U.S. presidential candidate (who looks surprisingly like Trump) takes everything else. Kamoda’s wife has already fled, leaving their daughter, Kasumi, as the only voice...

Five More to Go: Margaret Atwood and Reneé Nault’s The Handmaid’s Tale [in The Booklist Reader]

16 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, European, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Lists, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and Reneé Nault In the decades since its 1985 publication, Margaret Atwood’s dystopic classic has spawned audio, film, radio, theater, opera, ballet incarnations, and, most recently, the wildly popular television series (which veers significantly from the original, ahem). Given the evergreen...

Favorite Manga Series, Part 2: Bakuman through What Did You Eat Yesterday? [in The Booklist Reader]

01 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Lists, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Ready to get graphic? If you’re new to the genre, might I suggest you go directly to the godfather of manga, the late Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989). Astro Boy ring a bell? Speed Racer? Kimba the White Lion? “There’s a reason why the Japanese call [him] the God of Comics,”...

Favorite Manga Series, Part I: 20th Century Boys through Ultraman [in The Booklist Reader]

28 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Lists, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Favorite Manga Series, Part I: 20th Century Boys through Ultraman Graphic titles are big news. Even if you’re not a pop-culture connoisseur, you can’t have missed the graphic titles regularly popping up on bestseller lists—not to mention their various incarnations on film and even the stage! When...

14 Japanese Thrillers in Translation [in The Booklist Reader]

31 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Lists, Repost, Translation

Mysteries and thrillers make up a sizable portion of the Japanese literary market. Thanks to the international success of Keigo Higashino, Natsuo Kirino, and Miyuki Miyabe – and, just as importantly, their translators – contemporary Japanese crime fiction proliferates on Western shelves. Below is a list...

Master Keaton (vol. 5) by Naoki Urasawa, story by Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki, translated and adapted by John Werry

12 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, British Asian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

For those of us of a certain (old) age, we might remember an animated rabbit used to sell artificially colored, chemically flavored powder that altered milk into some sort of sweet goop: Quiky the Quik Bunny would quip "You can't drink it slow, if it's Quik."...

Master Keaton (vols. 3-4) by Naoki Urasawa, story by Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki, translated and adapted by John Werry

16 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, British, British Asian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Well, I've done it now – binge-read two volumes of my latest favorite manga obsession. I really was trying to space out the fabulous adventures of Taichi Hiraga Keaton, our British/Japanese hapa professor/insurance investigator (ha! of course, he's so much more than that!), but once begun...

Master Keaton (vol. 2) by Naoki Urasawa, story by Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki, translated and adapted by John Werry

03 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, British, British Asian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Okay, I admit it: Master Keaton is my favorite new series. Luckily, Naoki Urasawa’s manga tend to go lonnnggggg (24 volumes of 20th-into-21st Century Boys, 18 volumes of Monster, and the shortest, eight-volumes of Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka) so hopefully the good Master will keep me mightily satisfied for a...

Master Keaton (vol. 1) by Naoki Urasawa, story by Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki, translated and adapted by Pookie Rolf

02 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, British, British Asian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Goodbye to 2014. Whew! 2015 can only be better, thank you! What makes me so sure? Because among the many things to look forward to throughout the new year is a brand new Naoki Urasawa series-in-translation! How bereft was I when the 24-volume 20th-into-21st Century Boys ended almost two years ago. And...

21st Century Boys (vol. 02) by Naoki Urasawa, with the cooperation of Takashi Nagasaki, English adaptation by Akemi Wegmüller

26 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

So why is it that all good things are supposed to come to an end? I’d be perfectly happy with another 20 more volumes. Really, is that too much to ask? With an enormously huffy sigh of resignation, I moaningly offer a final post for Naoki...

21st Century Boys (vol. 01) by Naoki Urasawa, with the cooperation of Takashi Nagasaki, English adaptation by Akemi Wegmüller

16 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

First things first ...

20th Century Boys (vol. 22) by Naoki Urasawa, with the cooperation of Takashi Nagasaki, English adaptation by Akemi Wegmüller

28 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Confession first: even though I'm posting after the fact, reading this was a little birthday present to myself. The older I get, oh how I loooovvvvve the manga that much more! Must be an age-escapist thing! The Friend has shockingly confessed that he's the mastermind behind...

20th Century Boys (vol. 21) by Naoki Urasawa, with the cooperation of Takashi Nagasaki, English adaptation by Akemi Wegmüller

25 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

As this is the penultimate volume in the 22-part series, I suppose I should have savored it ...

20th Century Boys (vol. 20) by Naoki Urasawa, with the cooperation of Takashi Nagasaki, English adaptation by Akemi Wegmüller

11 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Manga addict though I am, I DO try to keep manga posts spaced out, so I don't look TOO panel-dependent (even though I am!). But right now, I can't contain my effusive excitement over the latest volume of 20th Century Boys – which hit shelves yesterday! –...

20th Century Boys (vol. 19) by Naoki Urasawa, with the cooperation of Takashi Nagasaki, English adaptation by Akemi Wegmüller

23 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Kanna, Otcho, and Manjome are all in the same room – you could say even on the same side. The final words from Manjome leave everyone speechless: "Please ...

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