The Japanese publisher Shodensha announced, through the official X (formerly Twitter) profile of the Our Feel website, three major new manga for the coming months. The first, Tatsumaki, by award-winning author Tomoko Yamashita (of Ikoku Nikki), has been available since Sunday. Meanwhile, acclaimed author Robico (creator of My Little Monster) and artist Kinoshi Wata also have new works scheduled to debut in February and March of this year 2026, respectively. The titles of Wata’s and Robico’s works are still kept secret, with disclosure promised for a future date. Thus, the beginning of the year promises to shake up the Japanese comics scene with renowned names.
Tatsumaki tells the story of a novelist in such a deep creative crisis that he considers selling his own life and soul. The course of his existence changes upon meeting a mysterious man, with whom he discusses writing blocks, such as reality and established conventions. Thanks to this plot, a seamstress in an oppressive work environment, a frivolous man on a dating app, and a woman carrying a corpse will have their destinies intertwined in a chain of bizarre events. Scheduled for release still in the first quarter, fans of female-authored manga and psychological plots have much to follow.
Major Authors and Acclaimed Works
The arrival of the anime adaptation of Ikoku Nikki, another work by Tomoko Yamashita, for this January 2026, only increases the relevance of the announcement. The series has been airing in Japan since the 4th and is also available on Crunchyroll for the global audience, which should attract new readers to the author’s work. Yamashita, by the way, has an impressive resume: her manga Ikoku Nikki was completed in 2023, had 11 volumes, was nominated for the prestigious Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2024, and topped Da Vinci magazine’s annual best manga list in 2023. Therefore, the release of Tatsumaki represents the continuation of the career of one of the most important voices in the genre.
On the other hand, Robico is an author beloved by the young audience due to the huge success of My Little Monster (Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun). The work, published between 2008 and 2013, received an anime adaptation with 13 episodes in 2012 and even a live-action film in 2018, solidifying its popularity. Therefore, any new project by the author is eagerly awaited by her legion of fans, who have been waiting for news for over a decade since the end of her most famous series. The stage is set, therefore, for 2026 to be a landmark year for manga fans, with new chapters being written by some of the most talented female authors today.
