Hokuhokusei ni Kumo to Ike

Hokuhokusei ni Kumo to Ike, or North by Northwest, is a manga series written and illustrated by Aki Irie, serialized in Harta magazine beginning in 2017. Set in the expansive, rugged landscapes of Iceland, the narrative follows Kei Miyama, a seventeen-year-old Japanese teenager living with his grandfather. The series functions as both a meditative character study and a mystery, blending the atmospheric isolation of the Icelandic countryside with a complex, unfolding crime plot.

Aki Irie is widely celebrated for her delicate, painterly art style and her ability to evoke a profound sense of place. In this work, she shifts away from the urban environments of her previous series to focus on the sensory details of the North Atlantic, from the play of light on glaciers to the quiet intimacy of domestic life. The series has been received as a landmark of modern seinen manga, praised for its cinematic pacing and its sensitive, nuanced depiction of its protagonist's internal growth amidst a foreign, often unforgiving terrain.