Nekojiru Udon

A cult classic of alternative manga that follows two cuddly-looking cat siblings as they embark on dreamlike, darkly comic adventures of casual cruelty and spiritual horror.

Beginning in 1990, Japanese readers of the legendary comics magazine Garo were treated to something entirely new: stories of humor, cruelty, and deep nihilism all told through a pair of smiling cartoon cat siblings, Nyaako and her little brother, Nyata.

Written and drawn by the self-taught artist Chiyomi Hashiguchi under the pseuodym Nekojiru, Nekojiru Udon is a dark delight. Newly translated by award-winning translator Alexa Frank, this edition collects all three volumes of the series in English for the first time.

Chiyomi Hashiguchi (1967-1998), also known by the pen name Nekojiru, was a self-taught manga artist who gained popularity in Japan’s 1990s alternative manga scene. She died by suicide in 1998.

Alexa Frank is an award-winning editor and translator of Japanese. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Fulbright program, she has translated over twenty volumes of manga, most recently Fumiko Takano’s Miss Ruki for New York Review Comics, Nazuna Saito’s Offshore Lightning (which won her the 2024 Sophie Castille Award and was nominated for the 2024 Ignatz Awards), and Kyoko Okazaki’s River’s Edge (nominated for the 2024 Eisner Awards). She lives in New York.

Joe Kessler is a cofounder of the UK comics publisher Breakdown Press and the author of several comics collections and graphic novels, including The Gull Yettin, published by New York Review Comics in 2023.