Fruit of the Underworld – Spring 2026 Manga Guide

Rebecca Silverman
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Knowing world mythology could save your life – or at least keep you from doing something monumentally stupid. Seiji would be the first to tell you that he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, and that’s possibly why he got himself into this position in the first place: after falling down a well into the underworld as a little boy, he picked up a pomegranate and brought it home with him. When, years later, emissaries of the gods appeared to take it back, his brilliant plan was to eat it. If you know your Greek mythology, you know that wasn’t a great idea; in fact, it manages to get his entire class killed in a bus accident, including his best friend Haru. Angry and determined, Seiji jumps right back down the well to go and save his friend and classmates…again, something that, mythologically speaking, doesn’t have a history of working out all that well.

It’s no surprise that this take on underworld myths comes from Aya Kanno, whose Requiem of the Rose King played fast and loose with both the War of the Roses and several of Shakespeare’s history plays. I really enjoyed that series, insane as it got, but Fruit of the Underworld is already even more entertaining. In large part, that comes down to how Kanno blends different world mythologies to create her story. The denizens of the underworld are both Japanese and Greek figures, and both talk to a singular “god,” implying that all afterlife myths are true – each just describes a different part of the story.

As Ms. Majo, Seiji’s definitely-not-human teacher tells him, both Greek and Japanese mythologies feature stories about people going into the underworld to retrieve loved ones: Orpheus for Eurydice and Izanagi for Izanami. In both cases, the voyagers fail, and this also ties in with the pomegranate, because Demeter’s quest to retrieve her daughter Persephone from Hades’ clutches doesn’t entirely work out because Persephone ate some pomegranate seeds. This opens the door for several ways Seiji’s quest could go wrong; because after all, he’s eaten far more than six measly seeds.

Kanno’s art has refined since both Otomen and Requiem of the Rose King, and her trademark style that defies strict demographic cataloguing is out in full force. This series runs in a shounen magazine, but there’s a lot of shoujo elements present as well, such as the relationship between Seiji and Haru, which fujoshi should have a blast with. The art is busy but dynamic, with a clear sense of movement and place. Special mention should also be made of the translation, which manages to sound like how teenagers actually talk rather than having a “hello, fellow kids” vibe.

Fruit of the Underworld is, obviously, very much my thing. But even if you’re not a mythology junkie, this is an excellent, fast-paced, and fraught story. I can’t wait to see Seiji punch BDSM Cerberus in his faces.

Caitlin Moore
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Between Collette Decides to Die and Lord Hades’ Ruthless Marriage, spins on the myth of Persephone seem to be having something of a moment in manga, don’t they? And look at that, acclaimed shoujo artist Aya Kanno, best known for her stories that interrogate the concept of gender, is on the scene with Fruit of the Underworld! Surely we’ll have some delightful shoujo shenanigans in the land of the dead with the gods, right?

Um. No.

So, a couple things. Despite the use of pomegranate imagery and a trio of buff men in puppy masks (more on that later), Fruit of the Underworld uses Greek mythological concepts rather sparingly and mish-mashed with all sorts of other cultural frameworks for the afterlife. We’ve got judgment, we’ve got heaven, we’ve got hell, we’ve got resentment toward the living. I generally don’t expect an accurate depiction of any belief system from your average manga, but Fruit of the Underworld goes wild with it. The tone comes out something like a cross between Angel Sanctuary and Chainsaw Man, but placed in a seinen action magazine.

Yeah, you heard me right. Seinen action. Aya Kanno, superstar of Hana to Yume, has crossed over to the other side. While I may never recover from this betrayal, she makes the transition to the bolder paneling and more masculine style of storytelling seamlessly. After finding a pomegranate deep in a well as a child, Seiji has been too busy dodging near-death experiences to enjoy life. When a bus full of his classmates, including his best friend, goes over the edge of a cliff, however, he is the lone survivor – and his sole friend Haru is among the casualties. His decade of survivorship has given him superhuman tenacity, however, and he descends into the underworld to get his friends back.

Kanno’s sensibilities have always been anything but conventional, and she brings that along with her for this new series. We’re only one volume in, and Seiji has already met a full rogue’s gallery of strange new friends and foes. Every page turn brought a new oddity, each more gorgeously drawn and framed than the last. There’s the squad of enforcers astride giant ants, the freshly-dead narcissistic pop singer, the judge wielding a giant hammer, the fact that everyone is named after subterranean creatures. It never gets old, either; when Cerberus transformed into the aforementioned men in pup masks, I had to stop and wheeze for a minute.

I don’t know if Fruit of the Underworld can keep up this heat; I have a hard time trusting battle-oriented action series, since they invariably seem to run out of steam. I do, however, trust Aya Kanno.

Erica Friedman
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Fruits of the Underworld, Volume 1 grabbed me from the very first page. I’m usually a fan of the stubborn hero who fights to protect something, and here, combined with a framework adapted from multiple mythological systems, I was 100% in.

Seiji is a likable punk whose misfortune is not his fault. His quest to rescue his friend is built on the scaffolding of other, older, visits to the underworld, but this underworld is not Greek, Japanese, nor is it Christian, although it is draped with elements of all three. Kanno’s underworld is unsettling and grotesque in wholly unique ways. Seiji is about to learn more about this underworld than any living soul should.

Seiji’s friendship with Haru is deep without a romantic element—at least in this volume. His dedication to saving not just his friend, but all the people who died because of him gives him a heroic flair that his natural pig-headedness might otherwise lack.
There’s at least one gag that I expect we’ll encounter again in future volumes, just to give us a lighter moment in a manga that is very much piling on the heaviest themes of life and death.

I don’t have any doubt that Seiji will be able to harrow the underworld and save his friend, but it’s going to be a very interesting journey, with strong characters and art. I think this is an excellent story and look forward to what other challenges this compelling and original underworld has to offer.

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