Tropic of the Sea - by Satoshi Kon (Paperback)

About the Book

"Originally published in Japanese as Shinsouban Kaikisen by Kodansha, Ltd., 2011."

Book Synopsis

Yosuke's family has a strange tradition - once every sixty years they receive an egg from a mermaid. When the egg matures his family dutifully returns it to the sea, where the whole process is then repeated. In exchange for this favor, the mer-people bless his coastal town with bountiful catches of fish and calm seas.

But as a commercial development encroach on the sleepy seaside village and Yosuke's father is lured away from tradition towards modern prosperity, and turns the egg into a tourist trap, what will happen to the promise their family made to the mermaids generations ago?

Tropic of the Sea Satoshi Kon's first feature length manga, includes a dozen black and white art plates from his original release, along with a 5-page essay written by Kon in 1999 detailing his transition from the manga industry to the animation business.

About the Author

Satoshi Kon was born on October 12, 1963. While in college, at the Musashino Art University, Kon made his debut as a manga artist with the short manga Toriko (1984) and earned a runner-up spot in Kodansha's 10th Annual Tetsuya Chiba Awards. Afterward, he found work as Katsuhiro Otomo's assistant. Kon is credited by some, including TIME, magazine as one of the faces most responsible for bringing Japanese pop-culture to America. His feature length films, Perfect Blue, Paprika, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers, were all distributed in theaters across the States and saw critical acclaim worldwide earning a number of awards in the process.

Kon died on August 24, 2010 at the age of 46.