In the distant future, humanity clusters in small villages, reduced to a medieval style of living, while monsters, demons, and vampires ro...

Naomi is a toxic love story, set in 1920s Japan, and one that is surprisingly relevant today. The novel is a classic of Japanese literature...

Since it’s Halloween season I decided to review a Japanese horror novel. Audition by the writer Ryu Murakami, is a story about a man findin...

 Shanghai between the world wars is a fascination of Westerns, the Chinese themselves, but also the Japanese. The zeitgeist of 1920s Shangha...

It's spooky season again, so that means horror, specifically, horror manga. Japanese comics have a long history of horror stories, but t...

The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura is a crime thriller set in modern-day Japan about an experienced pickpocket named Nishimura as he prowls the...

Between 1983 – 1985, the celebrated artist Osamu Tezuka created one of his most underpraised manga. Adolf , also known as Message to Adolf ...

  Before what we know as manga , there was kamishibai . Literally translated as “paper play ” ( 紙芝居 ) kamishibai was a popular form of ente...

Happy Chinese New Year! I’m indie WWII historical fiction author Alexa Kang , and it is my honor to begin the Year of the Ox as the Asian Bo...

The Silent Dead is a Japanese crime novel by Tetsuya Honda and the first installment of the Reiko Himekawa series. It offers a glimpse into...

The Russo-Japanese War is a fascinating conflict that, arguably, was one of the most important events in the 20th century. It contributed to...

November is the perfect time for noir aka Noirvember, and that means it’s the perfect time for mystery novels. In Japan, the mystery genre i...

Since it's spooky season, I wanted to highlight one of Japan's most famous horror manga artists/writers - Junji Ito. For those not i...

Golden Kamuy by Satoru Noda is a shonen manga series that covers a wide range of genres – adventure, war, political intrigue, comedy, an...

NH: I'm delighted to be interviewing Avery Fischer Udagawa , because I have a huge admiration for translators who focus on young readers...

It’s often said “history is written by the victors,” and this only half true. While the narrative of World War II is definitely constructe...

Ryuko is back to finish the story that began in Volume 1 , which fittingly, ends with a bang. The themes of pulp crime storytelling are ev...

Japanese Destroyer Captain is the postwar memoir of Tameichi Hara, a Japanese Navy officer who earned the nickname the “Miracle Captain.”...

In Indie Spotlight this month, Kazuko Nishimura tells us about her Goddesses of the World series. Historical fiction from Japan with a mythi...

All She Was Worth  is a 1992 noir mystery written by Miyuki Miyabe, one of Japan's most famous genre writers, including crime fictio...