The Mangasplaining and Fantagraphics publishing partnership yields more manga with the announcement of Atsushi Kaneko’s three-volume Search and Destroy (translated by Ben Applegate) and Akane Torikai’s Wandering Cat’s Cage (translated by Jocelyne Allen) coming to print in February 13 and Fall 2024, respectively. These print editions will release following Mangasplaining Extra’s digital serialisation of the titles starting August 2023, via the Mangasplaining Extra Substack.
Atsushi Kaneko’s Search and Destroy is an adaptation and reinterpretation of the classic Osamu Tezuka story Dororo, about a cursed child whose body parts were sold to demons by his father in exchange for wealth and favour. With the help of prostheses, the child goes on a quest to reclaim what was taken from him. The original Tezuka manga was serialised across a number of shonen manga magazines in the late 1960s and was set in Japan’s war-ridden Sengoku period (15th and 16th centuries). The Kaneko adaptation will be published in three softcover volumes starting January 2024.
The press release:
“Transplanting the vengeful action from feudal Japan into a dystopian future, where mercenary robots known as “creatures” serve the elites and oppress the desperate masses, Kaneko delivers a visually stunning and timely narrative. With a cast of scrappy heroes and chilling monsters set against a high-contrast backdrop, Search and Destroy confronts the timeless question of humanity’s essence. Combining Tezuka’s dark yet playful storytelling with Kaneko’s eclectic influences—from cartoonists like Daniel Clowes and Charles Burns to filmmakers like David Lynch—this sci-fi masterpiece promises a thrilling and visually rich experience.”
Wandering Cat’s Cage is a described as a “a thought-provoking graphic novel exploring a post-apocalyptic matriarchal society” – with its themes of dystopia, reproduction, and sexual freedom making it comparable to Margaret Atwood’s classic 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale. While originally published as two volumes in Japan, the Fantagraphics-published print edition will be a one volume hardcover omnibus, expected in Fall 2024.
According to the press release:
“In Wandering Cat’s Cage, daring manga creator Akane Torikai presents a thought-provoking exploration of dystopia, sexual freedom, and societal fealty. Torikai’s intricate storytelling weaves a series of interconnected stories set in a dystopian world dominated by women. In this society, the body of a man remains an enigma, and a lone man in the slums sells his nights to women for survival. When a runaway human trafficking victim seeks refuge with him, they unwittingly unravel the true nature of their society: the near-extinction of male births. As the matriarchal society grapples with preserving humanity, difficult choices regarding freedom and reproduction emerge. With elements reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale and a gorgeous naturalistic art style, Torikai’s work challenges the notions of forced-birth and control within a society led by women who fiercely resist such measures.”
Mangasplaining Extra is the publishing spinoff of the popular Mangasplaining podcast created by Deb Aoki, David Brothers, Christopher Butcher, and Chip Zdarsky. Mangasplaining Extra was created by Deb Aoki, Andrew Woodrow-Butcher and Christopher Woodrow-Butcher and announced in January 2022. It is a digital Substack magazine containing show-notes, original articles on manga and its history, plus the serialisation of manga never before translated into English. The earliest translation and serialisation projects were Susumu Higa’s Okinawa (translated by Jocelyne Allen) and Taiyo Matsumoto’s short one-shot These Days (Higoro) (translated by Michael Arias), a never before published precursor to Matsumoto’s current ongoing series Tokyo Higoro. The Fantagraphics print edition of Okinawa – the first of the Mangasplaining Extra partnership works – will release August 22, 2023.
