Kindergarten Wars #1

The premise announces itself perfectly on this opener from You Chiba: a sharp-eyed, red-haired young woman in a shirt and tie levels a pistol straight at the reader with a confident smirk, while spent brass casings and bullets swirl around her alongside a toy beach ball, a stuffed bear, and a child's novelty phone. Peeking out from the bottom corners are several wide-eyed little kids, making the absurd collision of spy-thriller tension and kindergarten innocence impossible to resist. Published by Ki-oon Shonen in 2024, Kindergarten Wars Vol. 1 sets up its delightfully contradictory world right there on the cover — and it's a combination that's genuinely hard to put down.