Yuugai Toshi

The year is 2019, and Japan is tightening its grip on the media. With the Tokyo Olympics fast approaching, the government has intensified its campaigns to police public content, and anything deemed obscene faces mounting barriers to publication—even in the world of manga. It is amid this climate of suppression that manga author Hibino Mikio receives an opportunity to bring his horror series, Dark Walker, to readers. The story he has crafted is as unsettling as it is gripping: a mysterious plague that transforms ordinary people into cannibals once night falls. As regulatory pressure bears down on publishers and artistic voices across the industry grow increasingly muffled, Mikio finds himself fighting to keep his work—and his creative freedom—alive. This is the tale of one author's struggle within a manga industry shaken to its core by a war against the freedom of expression.