10/30/2026
Hello everyone! Your resident manga fiend at Cosmic Monkey is here to tell you about some new and notable titles at the shop! This week, I want to recommend Dark Horse Comics' THE CREDITS ROLL INTO THE SEA!
Comics owe a lot to the visual medium of movies and television. I myself wanted to be a filmmaker / animator until I landed on comics in college. Visually, manga is very cinematic, which can make a punchy action scene in a shonen that much cooler, or an emotional moment that much more poignant.
The reason why I like romance and slice-of-life manga series so much is their ability to fill a more mundane experience with a sense of wonder. The way a film can use a myriad of techniques to convey emotion, so too can comics use a similar visual language. For example, a beautiful androgynous film student named Kai (meaning sea) washing up onto the shore of Umiko Chino, a 65 year old retiree widow. Through their strange, budding relationship, you witness Umiko being swept in by metaphorical waves, ankle-deep ocean water sweeping up her quiet life of grief and loneliness.
Umiko is not just taken in by Kai’s experience, but a renewed creative passion for film and filmmaking. Swept away by Kai’s animated student film, Umiko’s creativity begins to flow, and a generational bond for the love of movies sets her forth on a new path. This is a sweet and hopeful tale, and I’d recommend it to anyone who loves filmmaking and stories of unique friendships.
