Today, we at Kotonoha are thrilled to present you two new projects by two highly talented young authors: Kei Aoyama and Inio Asano. Both belong to a new generation of Japanese artists who bring a new quality to the manga medium and we are confident that you will hear a lot more of them in the future.

Kei Aoyama, the author of SWWEEET, made her debut in IKKI, a magazine that is usually known for its off-beat and original line-up. However, there’s no denying that the majority of works found in IKKI is rather cold and dry. SWWEEET, as its name suggests, is a bit different.

Aoyama’s love story starts off with a twist: The twin brothers Susumu and Tsutomu have been friends with the girl Sakura since they were kids. But when Tsutomu mysteriously disappears at the age of ten, Susumu and Sakura begin to drift apart. What Sakura doesn’t know: Tsutomu has returned, not as a person, but as the mirror image of Susumu. That is, whenever Susumu looks in a mirror, he sees his brother who talks to him. Thus begins a bizarre love triangle between Sakura, who torments the poor Susumu as much as she is tormented by her peers, Susumu, who keeps thinking he has to save Sakura because he likes her, and Tsutomu, who despite being stuck in a mirror pulls everyone’s strings.

Aoyama’s lively narrative and her beautifully rich artwork lend this strange story a surprisingly charming touch. Considering that SWWEEET is her first series, it’s amazing how well she did her job. From the paneling to the layout to the pacing, everything is excellently executed. If you like unusual and exotic youth love stories, you should definitely give SWWEEET a try.

Inio Asano, our second author, may still be a dark horse in the West, but since his debut in 2000, he has already gained a cult following in Japan, which is pretty damn impressive for someone at his young age. Before his career as a manga creator took off, Asano worked as an assistant for Shin Takahashi (Saikano, Kimi no kakera) and it was probably because of Takahashi’s affiliation with Shôgakukan that he ended up submitting his first works to the newcomer contests of Big Comic Spirits and Sunday GX (Takahashi has published works in both magazines). Needless to say, he won. From there, it was a short step to his first series, What a Wonderful World, whose first installment already attracted some favorable attention. Asano’s clean and expressive artwork, his subtle narrative that places a strong emphasis on the characters and his sober world view struck a chord with young readers, which eventually led to him publishing a series in Quick Japan, a trendy lifestyle magazine aimed at post-teenagers and twenty-somethings, only one year after What a Wonderful World started.

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 every discerning manga reader should check out.

To round off today’s release (and to bring this disgustingly long post of mine to an end), we’ve got two new chapters of our ass-kicking, head-severing, entrails-ripping, finger- breaking samurai epic Shigurui. Similar to Berserk, Shigurui begins in the present, only to switch back to the past to show us how the main characters turn out the way they are now. Expect lots of mind-boggling sword duels, crazy characters who don’t take shit and so much testosterone to make Angelina Jolie grow a full beard (luckily, all the female characters in this series have kept their feminine features, and what features! >_>). God, I’m tired.

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Volume 1 (End)

Happy New Year! To kick off 2007, we give you two sweet one-shots that should especially appeal to the SF fans out there. In TUDM, Tetsu Kasabe’s latest stroke of genius, we follow the story of two soldiers who are struggling through the jungle evading enemy bullets and missiles. One of them, however, is not what he seems to be…

The second short story is a special gift from zindryr, our awesome guest translator. Created by Boichi, a South Korean artist who publishes works both in Japan and his homeland, HOTEL is a fantastic sci-fi epic (yes, epic!) in the best tradition of Isaac Asimov. Big thanks to ickypop for his phenomenal lettering and retouching work and The Postindustrialist for a great copy-editing job! If everything works out, we may have another story by this author for you in the near future.