Search and Destroy 2

The second volume in manga creator Atsushi Kaneko’s cyberpunk retelling of the timeless, Eisner Award–winning Dororo by “God of Manga” Osamu Tezuka.

ALA's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table Outstanding Adult Comic Series, 2025

Hyaku has been betrayed. A fearsome killer, her body more machine than flesh, she has learned the truth: Her human body parts were bartered away when she was a baby, and what remained was left for dead. Filled with incandescent rage, Hyaku embarks on a vengeful rampage to dismantle the monsters who took her apart and violently reclaim what she has lost. But as she replaces her cybernetic implants with the flesh and blood she has been denied, a new emotion sets in: fear. Fear that her human body will be too weak to finish what she started ― and fear of what she might learn next about her own past. Will her anger and ruthlessness be enough to propel her to the final showdown? Or will revelations about the depravity of her world consume her, along with everyone around her?

Originally serialized from 2019–2021 in the Japanese manga monthly TezuComi, Search and Destroy is a brilliantly-crafted thriller about an outsider looking for meaning and vengeance in the unjust world that took everything away from her. In a stunning, high-contrast setting that blends the post–Cold War former Soviet Bloc with a gritty futuristic Tokyo, Kaneko populates his story with an unforgettable cast of scrappy heroes and skin-crawling machine-monsters on a nonstop ride full of action and suspense. The result is not only one of the best sci-fi manga of recent years but also one of the most visually rich and distinctive works of graphic storytelling in any genre or language.

Please note: This book is a traditional work of manga and reads back to front and right to left.

Black-and-white illustrations throughout

Atsushi Kaneko is a Japanese manga artist from Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture. His two books, Bambi and Her Pink Gun and Soil, have both been published in France. Bambi has also been published in English and Soil has been adapted into a television drama series.

Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator. His prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovations in genre storytelling earned him such titles as "the Father of Manga," "the Godfather of Manga," and "the God of Manga.”

Ben Applegate has been working in English-language manga since 2007 as a translator, editor, and publishing professional. In his capacity as director of publishing services at Penguin Random House Publisher Services, he has managed publishing and editorial work for the Kodansha print manga program since 2015. Prior to that, he was senior editor on the Kodansha Comics team. He lives in one of those “little New Jersey towns” across the Hudson River from New York City with his wife Winnie and two superb cats.