Manga Review: The 13th Footprint Volume 1
Since I loved Kei Sanbe’s previous work, Erased, I immediately took note of The 13th Footprint being published by Yen Press earlier this year. Eager to see more of his writing, I went into this manga with higher than usual expectations for his new series.
Official Summary
After Touya and Haru’s son, Ao, was released from the hospital, the Togawa family was ready for a fresh start in their picturesque new home. But the life Touya envisioned for his family is turned upside down when mysterious postcards begin to appear. No sender, no return address—just a note describing an event that will happen in the future! Following the prophetic cards, Touya embarks on an adventure to help those in need, keep his family safe, and unravel the mystery before disaster catches up with them…
Quick Information
Story and Art: Kei Sanbe
Publisher: Yen Press
Published: July 15, 2025
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Rating: Teen
Series Status: Ongoing
Review
A small family moves into a new home and starts receiving strange postcards with no return address. Then the events the postcards dictate start coming true.
The artwork is what you would expect from Kei Sanbe who draws the same looking characters in all of his manga with simple backgrounds. This doesn’t take away from the main reason people enjoy this mangaka’s work: well-crafted mysteries.
However, as I started reading, the story failed to grab me as much as I thought it would. While the plot sounded interesting from the summary alone, specifically how it centers around an anonymous postcard which predicts the future, the first volume didn’t have an immediate hook. We’re introduced to our main characters, Touya and Haru, who are just bringing their son Ao to their new home from the hospital. Immediately we see that this family hasn’t had it easy from their son’s illness alone. The story feels very mundane, but perhaps that’s the point of this particular mystery. There is also a very heavy handed point made about the importance of a Dragon Quest-esque video game. Combine all of these elements with a dramatic revelation in the back half of the volume and the plot already feels very cluttered with all these narrative threads converging at once. While this isn’t necessarily unenjoyable, I think each of these plot beats could have been introduced at a steady pace instead of jammed into one volume.
Overall, other mystery stories I’ve read lately like The Strange House pulled me in much faster than The 13th Footprint. I’ll probably still read the second volume to see how the story develops as the first does start to gain more traction towards the end. If you’ve enjoyed other Kei Sanbe’s work you’ll probably be interested in reading The 13th Footprint.