Today, Fantagraphics announced that their hardcover release of Akane Torikai’s Wandering Cat’s Cage will be available tomorrow, October 27. The story will be released in a 2-in-1 omnibus hardcover in accordance with a partnership with Takumigraphics and MSX: Mangasplaining Extra.
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.
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