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  • Published: 15 September 2013
  • ISBN: 9781939130068
  • Imprint: Vertical Inc
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 236
  • RRP: $26.99

Tropic Of The Sea



In a rural Japanese fishing village, the locals have long been blessed by the legend of a mermaid. Now the masses have gotten word of this myth and they are moving in on this community hoping to cash in on this mythological wonder!

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.

  • Published: 15 September 2013
  • ISBN: 9781939130068
  • Imprint: Vertical Inc
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 236
  • RRP: $26.99

Praise for Tropic Of The Sea

"A filmmaker who relishes the opportunity to pull the rug out from under audiences and give them what they least expect, Satoshi Kon has stood as a skilled, highly original, and talented figure in a world overpopulated by giant mecha and menacing tentacled beasties. Kon's films are alternately haunting, thought-provoking, and oddly endearing, and are a must-see for anyone who has simply dismissed animation as child's play or fan-boy fodder." -New York Times