Chiisakobee Manga Coming in English From Kana in June 2026
Abrams ComicArts has listed Minetarō Mochizuki’s manga Chiisakobee for an English release on June 23, arriving under its Kana imprint.
The story follows Shigetsugu, a young heir and skilled carpenter whose world is upended when a fire destroys the family business and takes his parents’ lives. Holding on to his late father’s belief in compassion and dedication, he sets out to rebuild what was lost.
His path changes when Ritsu, a housemaid with no family of her own, turns up alongside a group of children from a welfare home who have nowhere else to go. What follows is a warm, dramatic tale of a shaggy bearded carpenter learning to care for others while putting his life back together.
The manga is Mochizuki’s reinterpretation of a classic historical novel of the same name by Shūgorō Yamamoto. He serialized it in Big Comic Spirits from 2012 until it ended in 2015 across four volumes.
Mochizuki is also known for his manga version of Wes Anderson’s film Isle of Dogs, which ran in Kodansha’s Morning magazine in 2018 and was later published in English by Dark Horse Comics.
My take: Quiet, humane stories about rebuilding after loss tend to stay with me, and this one sounds quietly powerful. It is wonderful that English readers will finally get to experience it.
