The first person in Book 9 to understand what Jason Asano has become is trying to kill him. Vol. 9 chooses mercy at the cost of the self it took nine books to build.
HWFWM Vol. 8: Consent Is Architecture | REVIEW
Two men stand on a lawn trying to name a building. Vol. 8 makes the door real estate, and then shows what the inside of it is for.
HWFWM Vol. 7: The Godless Prophet’s Country | REVIEW
A sword gets a new name in this book, and the name tells you who Jason Asano has become. Vol. 7 turns a sovereign into a prophet, and gives his country its first citizens.
HWFWM Vol. 6: To Save The World, Terms & Conditions May Apply To The Soul | REVIEW
Jason's Spirit Vault becomes a Spirit Domain, and the self becomes a place. Vol. 6 closes Saga 2 by turning selfhood into sovereignty: a polity with an end-user licence agreement, a floor that reads your soul, and a man who keeps flinching at what he has built.
HWFWM Vol. 5: To Love a World, Choose to Be Good | REVIEW
Vol. 5 brings Jason Asano home, and Shirtaloon uses the homecoming to ask a harder question than “how strong.” The cosmology is colonial all the way down, the body count is real, and the thesis lands in five words from a teenager: the opposite of good is easy.
In what I have failed to do | Obsession (2026) REVIEW
On consent, inaction, and the cabinet that won’t close. A review of Curry Barker’s Obsession (2026) and the indictment hiding in plain sight.
Behind the Scenes of Akane-banashi: Bringing Rakugo to the World | PRESS
Press roundtable with Akane-banashi manga editor Seisuke Araki-san and anime producer Kazuki Endo-san, conducted at Anime NYC 2025. Published April 4, 2026 on Manga Mavericks alongside Anime Herald and Anime Corner.
What Outlasts the Scroll: The World, or the Chemistry?
Ize Press’s Solo Leveling × ORV pop-up hits NYC this August, and Yen Press dropped 16 licenses at SDCC 2026. Every title, sorted by what it sells.
Todo lo que puedo cargar
Everything I carry, emptied onto the table and named one object at a time—a self-portrait that turns, across English, Spanish, and Japanese, toward my mother, my grandmother, and the lineage I’m learning to face.
Adolescence of Utena Hits U.S. Theaters June 21–22 | NEWS
GKIDS acquires North American rights to Kunihiko Ikuhara's Adolescence of Utena for a two-night U.S. theatrical release June 21–22. Tickets on sale now.