Manga Mavericks Books Licenses Pipe Machine & Path From Tanuki Temple Manga

Manga Mavericks Books announced at its San Diego Comic Con 2025 panel that it has licensed two new manga series: Pipe Machine and Path From Tanuki Temple. Both titles are expected to be released in print and digital format in early 2026. 

The two new titles will also be made available early to paid subscribers of the Manga Mavericks Substack newsletter. Both manga are available for pre-order on the publisher’s main online store. 

Here are the details on the new licenses: 

Pipe Machine

Story and Art: Takuji Umihara

Release Date: March 2026

Pipe Machine is an ongoing sci-fi adventure indie manga series that currently has six tankobon volumes in Japan. It will be collected into five volumes at A5 (5.83” x 8.27”) size by Manga Mavericks Books.

Series creator Takuji Umihara provided the following message at the Comic Con International panel:

I drew this work both as a study and a means to relive what had excited me about Osamu Tezuka’s works as a child. It was at first a means to an end of becoming a pro mangaka, but now the story has grasped me and I can’t let it go. Now, Varun Gupta [Manga Mavericks CEO] and Manga Mavericks are going to produce an English version. I really can’t express anything but gratitude to them, and I hope that even just a little, American readers enjoy this work.

Synopsis: 

Saburo is a normal kid—or at least he tries to be, but the bizarre finds its way to him with alarming precision. First, a weirdo with a samurai haircut clad in just undies is hanging around his town, then his Grandfather builds an honest-to-god time machine that looks like a giant metal smoking pipe. A quick test of the pipe time machine flings the poor boy into the outer realms of space where robots, space captains, and a girl who looks very similar to a friend at home await him. Keep all limbs in the pipe and prepare for a funny, fast-paced, and very bizarre adventure in the Pipe Machine!

Path From Tanuki Temple

Story and Art: Shinkuro Koma

Release Date: April 2026

Path From Tanuki Temple is an ongoing full-color manga series, which currently has six tankobon volumes in Japan. It will be collected into three volumes at B5 (6.9” x 9.8”) size by Manga Mavericks Books.

Series creator Shinkuro Koma provided the following message at the Comic Con International panel: 

Greetings to you all attending Comic Con. I’m Shinkuro Koma. I can’t express in words how happy I am that Manga Mavericks is going to publish my work “Path From Tanuki Temple” in English. There aren’t many full-color hand-drawn manga out there, and I don’t know how it’ll compare to digital manga, as there might be some rough spots. However, I hope you’ll enjoy the strength and warmth that one can only get from drawing the old-fashioned way. I hope English readers will enjoy and come to love this series.

Synopsis: 

In Kinuta Village, it’s the princess who’s the hero! Tanuki are magical creatures that are able to take the shape of humans. In a hidden village of tanuki, tucked away from mankind, lives Princess Kikyo. Bored with her leisurely days in the lap of luxury, she takes her yearning for adventure on the road with a dancer named Yugao. However, the human world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, and Kikyo is going to need more than her wits and scrappiness to survive!

Sources: Email correspondence, press release