Blue Period and 5 other manga news not to be missed

Blue Period arrives in Italy, the manga that explores the world of art and which has won numerous prizes at home. Here are the other comics just landed from Japan that deserve to be discovered

Blue Period by Tsubasa Yamaguchi arrives in Italy (J-Pop, 7 volumes, 192 pp, 6.50 euros each): a comic dedicated to the world of art and artistic aspiration, which at home has won a series of important awards such as the Manga Taisho Award and the Kodansha Manga Award, as well as being nominated for the Osamu Tezuka 2020 cultural award.

Yatora è the classic guy smart enough not to have to commit to anything. Everything succeeds him easily, but nothing really thrills him. His life changes thanks to his encounter with painting, which opens up a world of commitment, satisfaction and an outlet for his hidden talent. He therefore abandoned the idea of ​​continuing his studies at the university to set himself a more ambitious and complex goal: to be admitted to a prestigious art academy. He will discover that talent and commitment are sometimes not enough. It takes perseverance and the ability to get back on the saddle after a failure.

Blue Period is just one of the manga recently released in Italy for which it is worth diving into the reading. Here are 5 more of the latest comics from Japan that are not to be missed by fans and more.

1. Magus of the Library, by Mitsu Izumi

From the author of 7h Garden Anohana, comes a new manga inspired by the romance Kafna of the Wind by Sophie Schwimm. Theo is a guy who loves books. Unfortunately, his pointed ears and living in the poor part of the village make him the subject of discrimination and mistreatment in the small village of Amun, and being able to visit the local library is just a dream.

At least until Theo encounters a caravan by Kafna, scholars headed to the large and fascinating Central Library, where they work by protecting, restoring, collecting and sharing the heritage of tomes collected there with the public. The meeting with Kafna Sedna, and reading a book forgotten by the caravan of scholars, convinces Theo that his destiny is elsewhere, in the capital, among shelves and parchments. A manga with brilliant drawings, centered on the charm of adventure and discovery, suitable for all little and big bibliophiles (Panini Comics, 232 pp, 7 euros).

2. Memories of a gentleman , by Moyoco Anno

The closed house Les Nuit des Oeufs is one of the most famous in nineteenth-century Paris. This is where high society clients go when they want to satisfy uncommon desires, and this is where Colette works, forced to sell her body to save the money she needs for a better future.

Madly in love of the charming Leon, Colette does not realize that the young man is an exploiter, violent and opportunist, and that it was he who pushed her in the direction he had taken, breaking the young woman's dreams of becoming an artist. Moyoco Anno, former author of Sakuran (story of a courtesan in Japan during the Edo era), returns once again to tell a dramatic story, not without its sensual implications and moments of eccentric joy (Dynit Manga, 256 pages, 18, 90 euros).

3. Kappa at work, by Imiri Sakabashira

Anne is a girl like any other. He dreams of finding a good job to be able to financially support his family and to be able to live in the comforts of the big city. His parents, however, are species of frogs, and the world he lives in is populated by spirits and strange creatures like the Kappa, fish-men who carry bowls of water on their heads.

One day, one of the interviews held by Anne will be successful: she will find work as a cook in a submarine crowded by a gang of Kappa pirates. Thus begins a journey through a delusional world yet responding to its own dream logic, between bizarre creatures and deformed landscapes. One of Sakabashira's most visionary manga, author considered as one of the greatest contemporary exponents of the gekiga genre, Japanese comics for an adult audience (Star Comics, 216 pp, 15 euros).

4. The monster. Frankenstein and other stories, by Junji Ito

Junji Ito, master of horror stories in manga format, is back among the protagonists of a recent edition of Lucca Comics & Games thanks to his growing success also with the Italian public. This new collection is half dedicated to a faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, whose gothic and macabre tones lend themselves surprisingly well to Ito's refined and decadent style.

In the rest of the volume we find once again the themes that made the author famous, between bodies that melt, transform or petrify; haunted ponds and crazy machinery; obsessions, dolls and little dogs. An unmissable collection for horror lovers, like Ito's other works (J-Pop, 368 pp, 15 euros).

5. Princess Maison vol. 1, by Aoi Ikebe

All students and off-site workers know what an adventure it can be to find their first home away from home. Sachi Numagoe is a thirty year old girl. He lives in Tokyo and has decided to gain some independence by buying a house. She wants to invest her precious savings as best she can, without being too hasty. Too bad that the imminent organization of the Olympic Games in the Japanese metropolis makes everything much more difficult.

Thus begins an interminable odyssey (or at least long enough to fill 6 volumes) between real estate agents, old shacks, beautiful apartments with unattainable prices, and everything in between, looking for a house perhaps not at the height of a princess, but worthy of the dreams of independence of a thirty-year-old ready to do anything to make it alone. A manga series highly appreciated in Japan, where it has already become a live action TV series (Bao Publishing, 216 pp, 7.90 euros).