Kodansha beefed up its Fall 2026 catalog with a set of new license announcements at New York Comic Con that included an art book by Ghost in the Shell creator Shirow Masamune, a dumpster-themed Gachiakuta box set, and four new middle-grade manga.
Shirow Masamune: Artworks in the Shell is a 288-page hardcover collecting work from Masamune’s 40-year career, which encompasses not only Ghost in the Shell but Appleseed, Intron Depot, and more. The artbook was originally created as a companion piece to a career retrospective exhibit in Tokyo and includes many pieces that have never been collected before, as well as two double-folded gatefold pages. The collection is rated 18+.
Gachiakuta Dumpster Box Set collects the first 10 volumes of Kei Urana’s gritty action manga in a dumpster-shaped box with graffiti designed by Hideyoshi Andou and a cotton tote bag made from recycled material. The series has been on the BookScan best-seller list for the past three months (see “September 2025 BookScan”), boosted by the anime, which runs through December 2025 and ends with Vol. 10 of the manga. Kodansha will release Vol. 8 of the series on October 21, and Vol. 10 is slated for April 2026.
Kodansha also announced four new licenses of manga, in a variety of genres, rated for readers age 10 and up.
Cells at Work! Cat, with a story by Choco Aozora and art by Meku Kaire, extends the popular Cells at Workfranchise to cats, showing how feline bodies work from the inside out as well as from the perspective of the humans who love them. Kodansha first started publishing Cells at Work in 2016 (see “Kodansha Fall 2016 Manga Releases”) and they have already published numerous spinoffs, of which this is the latest.
YuM Cat is a super-cute, full color, mostly wordless manga based on a cat mascot created by artist Shirimoto that went viral on Twitter and stars in a series of anime shorts (available on YouTube under the Japanese title Nmeneko). The aptly named title character is a cat who is always on the lookout for something good to eat and is not above resorting to trickery, with the help of a trusty sidekick.
When a Dragon Calls is based on a fantasy novel by Sachiko Kashiwaba, with art by Renji Asai, and follows the adventures of a ten-year-old girl who escapes from her miserable hometown on the back of a dragon and is whisked away to the royal palace, where she must not only adjust to living in a magical world but also find a way to lift an ancient curse. Kashiwaba’s middle-grade novel The Village Beyond the Mist was released in English in May 2025 and also features a young girl who is transported to a magical world
Erin the Beast Player, based on a story by Nahoko Uehashi with art by Itoe Takemoto, is another fantasy tale, this one about a ten-year-old girl named Erin who lives in a world of magical beasts. Erin’s mother is the beasts’ doctor, but when the giant serpents she cares for all die suddenly, Erin is exiled to a distant land and has to build a new life for herself. The manga is based on a YA novel that was published in English in 2019, and was followed by a sequel, The Beast Warrior, in 2020. Kodansha has been publishing the manga digitally since 2024. The story has been adapted into an anime, but it does not seem to have been licensed for English-language audiences yet.
Kodansha also announced two romances, My Husband Is a Doomsday Weapon, by Uuki Amemiya and Yukinio Ichihara and You Might as Well Be the One, by Megumu Seto, and the boys-love romances A Love Too Captivating, by Mia Sorahana, and Comeback After Fate, by Anji Seina.
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Source: ICv2
