Forget-me-not Volume 1

Illustrated by Kenji Tsuruta
Translated by Dana Lewis
Is lovely Mariel Imari the world’s greatest detective, or just the laziest? Don’t commit a crime in beautiful Venice…unless you want to find out!

Stroll along the banks of the canals in beautiful Venice, Italy, and you’ll see the slacker—a young woman noodling on her guitar, pecking a bit at her laptop, and maybe getting a little reading in. But watch your step in this ancient town, because some of the other people you might run into—the ragged derelict, the drunken streetwalker, even that clean-cut gondolier—they’re all her, too!

She’s Mariel Imari, of Italian and Japanese descent, whose skill at disguise comes from being part of a famous dynasty of detectives. She’s even done an internship at Scotland Yard, where she solved 18 murders in three months! So why is her office on the canal bank, and her residence a hovel full of stray cats? Why doesn’t she get to live in her family’s ancestral Venetian mansion…instead of getting kicked out of it every morning by her butler, once she’s finished breakfast?

It’s because Mariel hasn’t yet cracked the one case that would allow her to inherit her grandfather’s estate—Forget-me-not, the painting stolen from the mansion 22 years ago, which she needs to recover as a condition of his will. You see, Mariel is brilliant, but Mariel is also a bit lazy and slovenly and bored…and about to be a bit embarrassed, too when her sisters show up from Japan, under the impression that Mariel is rich!

Will Mariel ever catch the master thief standing between her and an aristocratic lifestyle…and does she really want to…?

Drawn in Kenji Tsuruta's (Emanon, Wandering Island, Captain Momo’s Secret Base) elegant black-and-white linework, this manga features foldout cover (French flaps) with wraparound painted cover art, 30 pages of interior art illustrated in beautiful watercolors, all in an oversized format. 

For mature audiences.
Praise for Kenji Tsuruta:

His work always glows with a sense of wonder and beauty. He observes his characters with keen affection, and they in turn observe the world around them, teeming with possibility. Over the years, Tsuruta’s lush illustrations have only grown lovelier.”—Shaenon Garrity, Otaku USA
Kenji Tsuruta is the creator of the Eisner-nominated manga Wandering Island as well as the series Emanon, Captain Momo’s Secret Base and Spirit of Wonder. Well known for his science fiction and fantasy book illustrations in Japan, including for Hiroshi Mori’s novel The Sky Crawlers (later adapted into an anime film by Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii),Tsuruta has won the Seiun Award (Japan’s equivalent of the Hugo) for Best Artist four times, most recently in 2023.


Dana Lewis was a co-founder of Studio Proteus, the 2025 inductee into the Manga Publishing Hall of Fame at the American Manga Awards for their pioneering work to develop the English-language manga industry. A former journalist and president of the Japan Society of Northern California, Dana Lewis has been renowned as a translator of Japanese science fiction and manga since the 1980s, her work appearing in Omni magazine, home also to the early short stories of William Gibson.  


Susie Lee was the letterer and retouch artist for Kenji Tsuruta’s previous titles Wandering Island, Emanon, and Captain Momo’s Secret Base. A veteran of Studio Proteus, her many contributions to manga adaptation include her work on Dark Horse’s longest-running manga series, Kosuke Fujishima’s Oh My Goddess! as well as Shin’ichi Sakamoto’s Innocent and Innocent Rouge, Wataru Nadatani’s Cat+Crazy, Kenichi Sonoda’s Gunsmith Cats, and Shirow Masamune’s Ghost in the Shell.

About

Is lovely Mariel Imari the world’s greatest detective, or just the laziest? Don’t commit a crime in beautiful Venice…unless you want to find out!

Stroll along the banks of the canals in beautiful Venice, Italy, and you’ll see the slacker—a young woman noodling on her guitar, pecking a bit at her laptop, and maybe getting a little reading in. But watch your step in this ancient town, because some of the other people you might run into—the ragged derelict, the drunken streetwalker, even that clean-cut gondolier—they’re all her, too!

She’s Mariel Imari, of Italian and Japanese descent, whose skill at disguise comes from being part of a famous dynasty of detectives. She’s even done an internship at Scotland Yard, where she solved 18 murders in three months! So why is her office on the canal bank, and her residence a hovel full of stray cats? Why doesn’t she get to live in her family’s ancestral Venetian mansion…instead of getting kicked out of it every morning by her butler, once she’s finished breakfast?

It’s because Mariel hasn’t yet cracked the one case that would allow her to inherit her grandfather’s estate—Forget-me-not, the painting stolen from the mansion 22 years ago, which she needs to recover as a condition of his will. You see, Mariel is brilliant, but Mariel is also a bit lazy and slovenly and bored…and about to be a bit embarrassed, too when her sisters show up from Japan, under the impression that Mariel is rich!

Will Mariel ever catch the master thief standing between her and an aristocratic lifestyle…and does she really want to…?

Drawn in Kenji Tsuruta's (Emanon, Wandering Island, Captain Momo’s Secret Base) elegant black-and-white linework, this manga features foldout cover (French flaps) with wraparound painted cover art, 30 pages of interior art illustrated in beautiful watercolors, all in an oversized format. 

For mature audiences.

Reviews

Praise for Kenji Tsuruta:

His work always glows with a sense of wonder and beauty. He observes his characters with keen affection, and they in turn observe the world around them, teeming with possibility. Over the years, Tsuruta’s lush illustrations have only grown lovelier.”—Shaenon Garrity, Otaku USA

Author

Kenji Tsuruta is the creator of the Eisner-nominated manga Wandering Island as well as the series Emanon, Captain Momo’s Secret Base and Spirit of Wonder. Well known for his science fiction and fantasy book illustrations in Japan, including for Hiroshi Mori’s novel The Sky Crawlers (later adapted into an anime film by Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii),Tsuruta has won the Seiun Award (Japan’s equivalent of the Hugo) for Best Artist four times, most recently in 2023.


Dana Lewis was a co-founder of Studio Proteus, the 2025 inductee into the Manga Publishing Hall of Fame at the American Manga Awards for their pioneering work to develop the English-language manga industry. A former journalist and president of the Japan Society of Northern California, Dana Lewis has been renowned as a translator of Japanese science fiction and manga since the 1980s, her work appearing in Omni magazine, home also to the early short stories of William Gibson.  


Susie Lee was the letterer and retouch artist for Kenji Tsuruta’s previous titles Wandering Island, Emanon, and Captain Momo’s Secret Base. A veteran of Studio Proteus, her many contributions to manga adaptation include her work on Dark Horse’s longest-running manga series, Kosuke Fujishima’s Oh My Goddess! as well as Shin’ichi Sakamoto’s Innocent and Innocent Rouge, Wataru Nadatani’s Cat+Crazy, Kenichi Sonoda’s Gunsmith Cats, and Shirow Masamune’s Ghost in the Shell.
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