Urasawa's characters confront fantastical elements ranging from psychic powers, to alien visitors to planet Earth, to attacks by giant monsters. On the flip side, the author philosophizes about his real-world experiences with the wild and wacky international music scene.
 
Plus, a classic, funny animal tale, in Urasawa's inimitable style!
 
(Source: Viz Media)
 
1. DAMIYAN! 
2. Tsuki ni mukatte nagero! 
3. Oyaji Shu 
4. Henry and Charles 
5. It's a Beautiful Day 
6. Musica Nostra 
7. Kaiju Okoku 
8. Solo Mission

The one-shot opens with two slightly different members of a yakuza group talking together at a family restaurant. The yakuza group is in the middle of a dispute, and some members visit a young man named "Damiyan" who has a mysterious power.


Naoki Urasawa's Solo Mission follows an intimate conversation between a tokusatsu hero & his wife before a deadly intergalactic mission.

In a world where kaiju actually exist, French kaiju otaku Pierre travels to Tokyo hoping to see one in person. There he meets beautiful government scientist Misaki and together they learn why kaiju travel to and attack Tokyo every year since 1954, despite first appearing down in the southern islands.

The second story in this collection is about a journalist. As a child he met a fortune teller who predicted that he would win the famous Pulitzer Prize. The prophecy is very specific, he must have an apple in his pocket, go twice to the right instead of left and aim for the moon. A phrase that makes little sense to the young boy. It is only decades later, when he has become a poor journalist in charge of obituaries, that he sees that the medium of his childhood has announced his death in a few days. Curious, he goes to investigate and finds himself embroiled in a dark money deal. The strange indications of the psychic could well make sense...

The mouse Henry tries to stop his dimwitted lackey Charles from traveling all the way around the countertop to acquire cake, worried he will accidentally wake up the sleeping cat on the floor.

The one-shot tells a story about the late Kenji Endō, the real-life musician that was the inspiration for Kenji from 20th Century Boys!


Three two-page music-related stories. Urasawa muses about visiting a bar and trying to keep up playing guitar with an old guy who can play any folk song from the Shōwa era; attending a Paul McCartney concert alongside old guys who were singing along and crying tears of joy; and technical difficulties Bob Dylan faced during a concert that Urasawa attended.

Musica Nostra is a collaborative work where various mangaka draw and/ or write about music and bands that inspire them, published in the Grand Jump. 

It includes Urasawa's musings about guitarists and playing guitar; his traveling to Sunset Sound in Los Angeles to record a song with Mike Viola and Jim Keltner, the latter of which sends a picture of Urasawa's The Beatles manga to Ringo Starr, and why their performance is credited to "Monaka"; Urasawa seeing Neil Young and Paul McCartney perform at Desert Trip; his meeting with Jack Oliver and depicting how the English record executive started working at Apple Records.
 Note: this manga includes written chapters and drawn chapters, and never got a total volume release. This entry includes only the manga chapters.

Tags