A Stunning Speculative Josei from the Mangaka Behind Sensei’s Pious Lie, Translated by Jocelyne Allen
Fantagraphics and MSX Team Up to Publish An Elegiac Manga about Gender, Community, Family, Control, Class, Love, and What Makes Life Worth Living At The End Of The World.
This week, Takumigraphics – Fantagraphics’ imprint specializing in the art and craft of East Asian comics – will publish Akane Torikai’s highly anticipated dystopian manga Wandering Cat’s Cage. Published in partnership between Takumigraphics and MSX: Mangasplaining Extra, this beautifully drawn work of science fiction, told through a gender-bent looking glass, is an unflinching examination of sexuality, gender dynamics, love, trauma, freedom, and control.
Master manga-ka Akane Torikai’s Wandering Cat’s Cage takes place in a near-future, where only a few women are still able to menstruate, and even fewer men will be born to them.Reproduction is limited to medical intervention controlled from on high, and the structures and lives of the past are only hinted at through scraps of a world that no longer exists. Life can be good, though, if you fall in line. The women of The City live bright, happy, tightly controlled lives. But complete obedience isn’t for everyone. For the women across the river, who live in a rundown shantytown, life is different. It is humble, and often dangerous, but it is free.
Sanada, a young acupuncturist, lives across the river with the mysterious Reiho, the only male she’s ever met who sells himself to the rich women who sneak across the river for something they’ve never experienced. The two form a small “family,” taking in other young women ousted from the city. But when Reiho is kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to the breeding program in The City, Sanada must join the other outcasts to rescue him and learn the difficult truths of love, self-actualization, society, safety, and humanity’s future.
“Akane Torikai’s Wandering Cat’s Cage is a perfect addition to the Takumigraphics line,” explains Fantagraphics’ Vice President and Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds. “Building on traditions of shojo manga and dystopian fiction pioneered by artists like Moto Hagio and Katsuhiro Otomo, Torikai advances both genres with her gorgeous artwork in the service of an urgent and fierce voice for our current time.”
Launched in 2026 with the release of Yudori’s Lovers of the Empire, Takumigraphics imprint encompasses comics from across East Asia, including Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, and Taiwan. Takumi comes from the Japanese kanji meaning “excellence,” skillfulness,” “ingeniousness,” as applied to a craftsperson. This character exemplifies the aesthetic caliber of the books that will comprise this imprint — works of mastery and vision. Our logo is inspired by the seals used by Japanese and Chinese craftspeople to mark their work.
Wandering Cat’s Cage is the latest manga to be published by Fantagaphics in partnership with MSX: Mangasplaining Extra, a publishing initiative run by Deb Aoki and Christopher and Andrew Woodrow-Butcher that spins out of the popular podcast Mangasplaining, which recommends great manga to folks who haven’t read much manga before. Fantagraphics and MSX have previously published Susumu Higa’s widely acclaimed Okinawa, which was nominated for the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in NonFiction by the American Library Association, and Search & Destroy, Atsushi Kaneko’s 3-volume cyberpunk reimagining of Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo.
“All of us at Mangasplaining are thrilled to help bring Akane Torikai’s Wandering Cat’s Cage to English readers, both through digital serialization via our Mangasplaining Extra newsletter and in a gorgeous 2-in-1 hardcover with our publishing partners at Fantagraphics.” says Deb Aoki. “Originally published in Da Vinci, a Japanese literary magazine, Wandering Cat’s Cage asks tough questions about how current events, cultural, economic, and political decisions might lead us to the world of haves and have-nots, the powerful and the powerless depicted in this story. Told from a feminine and Asian perspective, Wandering Cat’s Cage is a thought-provoking read that feels only a few steps away from the world we live in today, The contrast between Torikai’s elegant linework and the intense drama that unfolds in this story is just one reason why we think she’s an author who deserves to be seen and read by all kinds of readers.”
The 334 page hardcover Wandering Cat’s Cage is due out on October 27, 2026. The Takumigraphics imprint will continue to release groundbreaking East Asian comics in the winter with Kago’s The Ultra Power Mongol Invasion due out in in November and more breathtaking comics on the way.For updates, fans can follow Fantagraphics on X, Instagram, Facebook, Blue Sky, and YouTube.
About the Cartoonist:
Akane Torikai, born in Osaka in 1981, made her debut as a manga creator in 2004. Her works span the shojo, josei, and seinen categories, and include Sensei no Shiroi Uso, 2013–2017 (released by Kodansha USA in four volumes as Sensei’s Pious Lie in 2022), Jigoku no Girlfriend (Girlfriend from Hell), Romance Bofuiki, and Saturn Return. She is best known for naturalistically exploring issues such as sexual assault, depression, and trauma from a literary, feminist perspective.
About the Translator
Jocelyne Allen is a Japanese translator and interpreter who splits her time between Toronto and Tokyo.
Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher