Two of the most acclaimed anime directors of all time, Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell), and Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue) came together to create a manga: Seraphim: 266613336 Wings. Written by Oshii and drawn by Kon, Seraphim is the story of a future Earth devastated by the "Angel Plague," a pandemic that induces apocalyptic visions in the afflicted, even as it ossifies their bodies into dead, seraphic forms. A cult-ridden, army-backed medical unit journeys into the heart of a dying Asian city accompanied by Sera, a mysterious girl linked to the phenomenon itself. Have they come here to kill or cure--and is the Angel Plague a withered branch on the tree of life, or somehow a new flowering of existence?

Brilliant anime director Satoshi Kon (Paprika, Paranoia Agent, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, Perfect Blue) died tragically young in 2010 at the age of forty-six. But before he became a director, he was a manga artist, and Dark Horse is honored to remember Kon with the release of Satoshi Kon’s OPUS, an omnibus collection of a two-volume manga from 1996, created by Kon on the eve of his first film. OPUS contains the mastery of both realism and surrealism that would make Kon famous in Perfect Blue, as a manga artist planning a shocking surprise ending to his story gets literally pulled into his own work—to face for himself what he had planned for his characters! * Satoshi Kon was a Time magazine 2010 Person of the Year. * Kon was eulogized by director Darren Aronofsky. * Kon was a chief assistant to Katsuhiro Otomo on the Akiramanga.

Director Satoshi Kon blazed a brilliant animation career before his tragic death in 2010 at age 46. Now Dark Horse is privileged to remember him and his works through The Art of Satoshi Kon, a beautiful book of Kon’s illustrations for his movies Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, Milennium Actress, Paprika and his televison series Paranoia Agent, plus his unfinished The Dreaming Machine, his manga, commercial art, and several little-known and incomplete projects by the creator! Includes a special message from Academy Award nominated director Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, Black Swan, Noah)

When the shepherds are invited to follow the star to visit the Christ child, a young boy is left behind to watch the flock until the Angel Gabriel returns for him so that he can be the first to witness a true Christmas miracle.

Yosuke's family has a strange tradition - once every sixty years they receive an egg from a mermaid. When the egg matures his family dutifully returns it to the sea, where the whole process is then repeated. In exchange for this favor, the mer-people bless his coastal town with bountiful catches of fish and calm seas. But as a commercial development encroach on the sleepy seaside village and Yosuke's father is lured away from tradition towards modern prosperity, and turns the egg into a tourist trap, what will happen to the promise their family made to the mermaids generations ago? Tropic of the Sea Satoshi Kon's first feature length manga, includes a dozen black and white art plates from his original release, along with a 5-page essay written by Kon in 1999 detailing his transition from the manga industry to the animation business.

This book, constructed from personal accounts of the lives he influenced and by those who knew him, reveals St Seraphim's profound insight into the soul.

The Lychee Light Club is considered Usamaru Furuya's breakthrough work. Originally designed as an experiemental project Lychee's themes of youthful rebellion and deus ex machina destruction, and attractive designs eventually won over a new generation of readers and critics, leading the way for Furuya to take on his many recent high profile properties. In an abandoned warehouse, a band of nine students have assembled to plot out a new future. Their "leader" Zera is determined to cleanse his community of the ugly and cowardly. Having taken command of a band of young men to build him a god-like machine capable of changing the world. This machine, named "Lychee," will give them what they've been searching for...a beauty of the finest quality. A surreal yet touching horror comedy Furuya's Lychee Light Club that mixes elements of French Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol and with modern day pop culture tropes and is set in modern day Tokyo. Shocking, sexy and innovative, the Lychee Light Club is at the pinnacle of modern day Japanese seinen manga (young adult comics).

Himari is starting to realize that she and Yori have two very different things in mind when they talk about being in love, and Yori can tell that things aren’t quite the same between them since she asked Himari out. But if they want to stay together, whether as friends or something more, they’ll have to hear each other out and see if they can get back in harmony. With band practice cutting into their time together and Himari making a new friend who tugs on Yori’s deepest insecurities, both girls start to wonder: how can one little word make everything so complicated?

Meet one of Japan's most popular characters of all time—Kitaro, the one-eyed monster boy Meet Kitaro. He’s just like any other boy, except for a few small differences: he only has one eye, his hair is an antenna that senses paranormal activity, his geta sandals are jet-powered, and he can blend into his surroundings like a chameleon. Oh, and he’s a yokai (spirit monster)! With all the offbeat humor of an Addams Family story, Kitaro is a lighthearted romp in which the bad guys always get what’s coming to them. Kitaro is bestselling manga-ka Shigeru Mizuki’s most famous creation. The Kitaro series was inspired by a kamishibai, or storycard theater, entitled Kitaro of the Graveyard. Mizuki began work on his interpretation of Kitaro in 1959. Originally the series was intended for boys, but once it was picked up by the influential Shonen magazine it quickly became a cultural landmark for young and old alike. Kitaro inspired half a dozen TV shows, plus numerous video games and films, and his cultural importance cannot be overstated. Presented to North American audiences for the first time in this lavish format, Mizuki’s photo-realist landscapes and cartoony characters blend the eerie with the comic. Translated from the Japanese by Jocelyne Allen.

"I lived in a haunted apartment." Zack Davisson opens this definitive work on Japan's ghosts, or yurei, with a personal tale about the spirit world. Eerie red marks on the apartment's ceiling kept Zack and his wife on edge. The landlord warned them not to open a door in the apartment that led to nowhere. "Our Japanese visitors had no problem putting a name to it . . . they would sense the vibes of the place, look around a bit and inevitably say 'Ahhh . . . yurei ga deteru.' There is a yurei here." Combining his lifelong interest in Japanese tradition and his personal experiences with these vengeful spirits, Davisson launches an investigation into the origin, popularization, and continued existence of yurei in Japan. Juxtaposing historical documents and legends against contemporary yurei-based horror films such as The Ring, Davisson explores the persistence of this paranormal phenomenon in modern day Japan and its continued spread throughout the West. Zack Davisson is a translator, writer, and scholar of Japanese folklore and ghosts. He is the translator of Mizuki Shigeru's Showa 1926–1939: A History of Japan and a translator and contributor to Kitaro. He also worked as a researcher and on-screen talent for National Geographic's TV special Japan: Lost Souls of Okinawa. He writes extensively about Japanese ghost stories at his website, hyakumonogatari.com.