The Fable

The Fable (ザ・ファブル) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsuhisa Minami. It was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Magazine from November 2014 to November 2019, with its chapters collected in 22 volumes. A sequel series, titled The Fable: The Second Contact, ran in Weekly Young Magazine from July 2021 to July 2023. A third series, titled The Fable: The Third Secret, began serialization in March 2025.

A live-action film adaptation premiered in Japan in June 2019 and a sequel premiered in June 2021. An anime television series adaptation produced by Tezuka Productions aired from April to September 2024. A second season has been announced.

By June 2024, the manga had over 25 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series. In 2017, The Fable won the 41st Kodansha Manga Award for the General category.

Plot

An exceptionally skilled professional killer known as "Fable" is feared by the Japanese underworld, politicians, mobsters, and public figures. One day, his sponsor orders him to put everything on hold and lead the life of an ordinary citizen with the assistance of a yakuza clan in Osaka. He is also banned from killing anyone for an entire year. Armed with his Nighthawk pistol and given the pseudonym of Akira Sato, Fable must adjust to normal life alongside his assistant, who is ordered to act as his sister and given the pseudonym of Yoko, all while dealing with criminal elements in Osaka that have their own suspicions about his past.

Characters

• Akira Sato (佐藤 明)
• [4]
• A quietly spoken but highly skilled hitman known only as "Fable". He has had a female assistant and driver for the past year and knows nothing about her or her name. They are ordered to lay low for a year and he is given the name and identity of Akira Sato and his assistant will act as his sister, Yoko.
• Yoko Sato (佐藤 洋子)
• [5]
• A woman with long brown hair and a photographic memory who acts as Fable's assistant and driver. She is ordered to lay low with him for a year, acting as his sister and given the name Yoko Sato.
• Boss (ボス)
• [5]
• The man who assigns Fable his jobs. He tells him to take a year off to lay low in Osaka with the Maguro Group.
• Misaki Shimizu (清水 岬)
• [5]
• A woman who lives alone in an apartment near where Fable and his assistant stay in Osaka. She works multiple jobs to repay her father's debts, but she is blackmailed into agreeing to become a call girl by Kojima when he learns of her former career as a gravure idol.
• Jackal Tomioka (ジャッカル 富岡)
• [6]
• A popular comedian who Fable thinks is really funny.
• Hiroshi Hamada (浜田 広志)
• [4]
• Chief in the Maguro Group who accepts the arrangement to shelter Fable and his assistant.
• Takeshi Ebihara (海老原 剛士)
• [5]
• Captain in the Maguro Group, Ebihara is unhappy about the arrangement to shelter Fable and his assistant. He is suspicious of Fable's motives, but after suffering a heart attack he involves Akira in his operations.
• Kenji Kojima (小島 賢治)
• [5]
• Middle-ranking member of the Maguro Group who has spent the last few years in prison. Upon his release, he decides to advance his career within the Maguro Group and encroaches on Sunagawa's territory.
• Shuichi Sunagawa (砂川 宗一)
• [5]
• Middle-ranking member of the Maguro Group who runs a call girl business and who sees Kojima as a threat. He secretly plans to move up in the Maguro Group.
• Ryo Kuroshio (黒塩 遼)
• [4]
• A lowly member of the Maguro Group who harbors ambitions of becoming an assassin. He is referred to as "Kuro" (クロ) by other members of the Maguro Group.
• Katsuya Takahashi (高橋 勝也)
• A lowly member of the Maguro Group who carries out tasks for Ebihara.
• Matsu (マツ)
• A middle-aged man whose left eye is always half-closed. He appears to be the owner of a snack bar, but he works in corpse disposal, smuggling, and is an information broker.
• Kenjiro Takoda (田高田 健二郎)
• [8]
• Misaki's boss and the manager of Octopus who initially gives Akira a temporary job as a delivery driver, but then hires him full-time.
• Etsuji Kainuma (貝沼 悦司)
• [4]
• A spoiled young man of a wealthy mother who is employed at Octopus and is secretly obsessed with Misaki.
• Master (マスター)
• A bartender who works at Bar Buffalo, a bar Yoko frequents.
• Yuki Kawai (河合 ユウキ)
• [6]
• A man Yoko meets at Bar Buffalo whom she like to drink with because he does not have her capacity for alcohol consumption.
• Rei Utsubo (宇津帆 玲)
• A man who uses the Taihei Detective Agency as a cover to commits fraud, blackmail, kidnapping, and murder for money. His real name is Koichi Kawahira (川平 浩一).
• Hinako Saba (佐羽 ヒナコ)
• She witnessed an assassination by Fable, and now uses a wheelchair after her legs were damaged in a car crash. Utsubo killed her parents and blamed Fable so he can keep her as a sex slave while promising to avenge her parents. She is commonly referred to as "Hina" (ヒナ).
• Hiroshi Suzuki (鈴木 ヒロシ)
• An assassin hired by Utsubo to assist in kidnapping Kainuma to extort money from his mother.
• Tsutomu Isaki (井崎 勤)
• An associate of Utsubo's who helps with his illegal schemes. He is a former member of the Maguro Group.

Media

Reception

By January 2021, the manga had eight million copies in circulation;[29] 15 million copies in circulation by March 2022;[51] over 20 million copies in circulation by October 2022;[52] and over 25 million copies in circulation by June 2024.[53]

The Fable won the 41st Kodansha Manga Award for the general category in 2017.[54] Alongside Blue Period, the series ranked 14th on Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list of best manga of 2020 for male readers.[55] It was picked as a nominee for "Best Comic" at the 51st Angoulême International Comics Festival, held in 2024.[56]

External links