Iwatobineko
Description
Iwatobineko is the pen name of Tanabe Gou, a manga creator born in 1975 in Tokyo. The artist made a professional debut in the early 2000s, receiving the Special Jury Award in the Afternoon Shiki-shō in 2001 for the work Sunakichi, followed by an honorable mention in the 4th Enterbrain Entame Taishō in 2002 for an adaptation of a story by Maxim Gorky.
The creator has demonstrated a sustained engagement with literary adaptation, notably beginning a long-term project of adapting the works of H. P. Lovecraft starting with Outsider in 2004, a series that has garnered significant international recognition. This body of work led to a solo exhibition of original drawings at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France in 2025.
In original serialized manga, Iwatobineko is known for two primary series. The Country Without Humans was serialized in Futabasha’s Monthly Action magazine from October 2019 to May 2023, with its five collected volumes released between April 2020 and August 2023. The series is licensed for English publication by Seven Seas Entertainment.
The creator’s most prominent work is The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife, which began as a webcomic published on Twitter in March 2021. The series was subsequently acquired by Futabasha for serialization on the Pixiv Comic website under the Web Action brand starting in September 2021. The manga is published in English by Seven Seas Entertainment, with the first volume released in February 2023. As of December 2025, the series has been collected into eight wideban volumes.
An anime television series adaptation of The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife was announced in November 2024. Produced by Project No.9 and directed by Mitsuho Seta, the anime premiered in January 2026. The creator expressed enthusiasm about the adaptation, noting it was an unexpected development made possible by reader support.
The creator’s artistic identity is characterized by works that blend supernatural or unusual character traits with everyday settings. The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife features a blind female protagonist and an invisible male detective, exploring a romance at a detective agency where the protagonist’s blindness uniquely allows her to perceive her invisible partner. Earlier works also demonstrate a focus on atmospheric settings, as seen in The Country Without Humans. The creator maintains an online presence under the doujin circle name Nekobaaba.
The creator has demonstrated a sustained engagement with literary adaptation, notably beginning a long-term project of adapting the works of H. P. Lovecraft starting with Outsider in 2004, a series that has garnered significant international recognition. This body of work led to a solo exhibition of original drawings at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France in 2025.
In original serialized manga, Iwatobineko is known for two primary series. The Country Without Humans was serialized in Futabasha’s Monthly Action magazine from October 2019 to May 2023, with its five collected volumes released between April 2020 and August 2023. The series is licensed for English publication by Seven Seas Entertainment.
The creator’s most prominent work is The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife, which began as a webcomic published on Twitter in March 2021. The series was subsequently acquired by Futabasha for serialization on the Pixiv Comic website under the Web Action brand starting in September 2021. The manga is published in English by Seven Seas Entertainment, with the first volume released in February 2023. As of December 2025, the series has been collected into eight wideban volumes.
An anime television series adaptation of The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife was announced in November 2024. Produced by Project No.9 and directed by Mitsuho Seta, the anime premiered in January 2026. The creator expressed enthusiasm about the adaptation, noting it was an unexpected development made possible by reader support.
The creator’s artistic identity is characterized by works that blend supernatural or unusual character traits with everyday settings. The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife features a blind female protagonist and an invisible male detective, exploring a romance at a detective agency where the protagonist’s blindness uniquely allows her to perceive her invisible partner. Earlier works also demonstrate a focus on atmospheric settings, as seen in The Country Without Humans. The creator maintains an online presence under the doujin circle name Nekobaaba.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview