(Rainbow Field, a location within the manga) is a heavy book. Its thick black cover and roughly 300-page girth are a sign of things to come: this is a black, bleak story, complicated and convoluted. It is a story that you can read again and again, and notice new things each time. It is a story that you need to read again and again to puzzle together. It is a story heavy with symbolism and maddeningly intricate. Suzuki is a troubled boy. He's lived with uncaring foster parents for most of his life, alienated from the other kids at his school, owner of a cynical, unhappy mentality. Komatsuzaki is a violent, unpredictable bully whose head trauma causes him to act in mysterious, inexplicable ways. Arakawa is a no-nonsense, normal girl who pines after Komatsuzaki but can never have him. A teacher with just one working eye. A mother who committed suicide. A daughter in an endless coma. Attempted rape, murder, extortion, sexual deviance, and a freakish explosion in the butterfly population. All of these elements are whirled together in a story spanning 10 years, a tale of blackness, pain and apocalypse. And maybe just a bit of hope and redemption. It's a spiritual cross between the misanthropic suburban malevolence of Kyoko Okazaki's Rivers Edge and the eerie mysticality of Donnie Darko. (taken from Mangascreener)

Large mysterious alien ships have been looming above Japanese towns for three years, filling the sky Everything changed three years ago. And yet, nothing has changed. No weapon used against the invaders' ships had any success, beyond destroying part of japan and leaving its economy in shambles. JSDF is fighting a guerrilla battle against the aliens all over Japan. America is joining the 'war' effort with more aggressive tactics, dividing Japan over the pacifist principle laid out in Art9. of their constitution. But this may just be the mundane story of young middle schoolers. "No matter what happens, I won't back down. At least not until this world filled with lies and deceit crumbles away. (...) The real threat to humankind is not invaders, but me."

The sun's rays enter the city of light, as various stories unfold:  Bright, dark and harsh; a story filled with people from whom you'd want to avert your eyes. Yet, it's close to reality; so maybe it's true to humanity.  Like an old bond between a boy and a girl, a friendship is born between girls who rarely speak to each other.  A man who dirties his hands for money, and the girlfriend who waits for him to come home.

The sun's rays enter the city of light, as various stories unfold:  Bright, dark and harsh; a story filled with people from whom you'd want to avert your eyes. Yet, it's close to reality; so maybe it's true to humanity.  Like an old bond between a boy and a girl, a friendship is born between girls who rarely speak to each other.  A man who dirties his hands for money, and the girlfriend who waits for him to come home.

The band of heroes banishes the Darkness and brings peace to the world, but...

Master magical realist mangaka Asano Inio takes the readers through the daily lives of several characters. We see the darkness that plagues them and their struggle to overcome it. What everyone really wants is for this to be a wonderful world.

Slice of life with a young couple, Inoue Meiko and Taneda Shigeo, and how everyday occurrences affect their lives. Meiko begins contemplating whether freedom without purpose is really the same thing as boredom. This is a retelling of a very common real life situation, perhaps enjoyable for an older fanbase. Art is different, there are no anime-esque deformations here. Nominated in 2009 for the Eisner Award Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Japan. Nominated for the 2009 Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material.

"An anthology of an adult puffing at blue smoke quietly" Various well-known mangaka look into the theme of cigarettes and smoking.

A gag comic about a salaryman, Ozanari-kun, and his boss, Yabusaka-san.

This story will show the drifting soul of a lone manga artist whose heart has been used up.

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Asano Inio's first official art-book. Contains two short stories: "Wish for spring" (はるよこい~solanin side story~) and "The sunflower" (ひまわり).

From Kotonoha: Koume Sato and Kosuke Isobe are two teenagers living in a sleepy seaside town. After getting used and dumped by her crush, the emotionally damaged Koume decides to start a sexual relationship with Kosuke, without any emotions involved. However, they both soon discover that sex with no strings attached do lead to unexpected complications, not just for themselves but also the people surrounding them.

Witness the titular Punpun - who is depicted as a tiny, caricatured bird in an otherwise normal human setting - as he copes with his dysfunctional family and friends, his love interest, his oncoming adolescence and his hyperactive mind.

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 any discerning manga reader should check out.