Cocoon

A heart-wrenching chronicle of loss and resilience based on the true story of the Himeyuri corps of student nurses in WWII.

San and her best friend Mayu attend a boarding school for girls on Japan's Southern Island, but their studies are interrupted when they and the other students are recruited to help the war effort as assistant nurses. Sent to the front lines, the girls must deal with more than just the threat of enemy bombs overhead. Stuck working in the horrifying caves of a field hospital, San wishes she could wrap herself and her friends in a cocoon of protection. But invisible threads of affection are no match for the carnage that surrounds them, and more students perish day by day. Worn down by starvation and loss, what will San and her remaining friends do when they are told to find their way home through the fields of war?

Author: Machiko Kyo
Publisher: Viz Media
Published: 06/16/2026
Pages: 226
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.41lbs
ISBN13: 9781974716845
ISBN10: 1974716848
BISAC Categories:
- Comics & Graphic Novels | East Asian Style | Manga | General
- Comics & Graphic Novels | Historical Fiction | World War II & Holocaust
- Comics & Graphic Novels | Media Tie-In

About the Author
Machiko Kyo started her career in comics in 2004 when she began posting one-panel comics online. These were published in collected form in 2008 as Sennen Gaho (Millenium Pictorial). During the COVID-19 epidemic, she posted a comic diary of daily life on social media that was later published as Distance: My #stayhome Diary and Essential: My #stayhome Diary 2021-2022. Her manga cocoon has been adapted into a stage play and an animated film. Her latest works are Orizuru (origami crane), and Rusuban Neko Kinako (Kinako the Stay-at-Home Cat), which she is currently serializing. You can find Kyo online at instagram.com/kyomachiko.