Iceland is likely the last place you’d expect as a setting for a Japanese manga series, but Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest isn’t typical manga. Created by Aki Irie and serialized weekly in Harta, this ongoing series, seven volumes so far, blends various elements — mystery, adventure, and the supernatural — against a breathtaking Icelandic backdrop. With an anime adaptation on the horizon, now’s the perfect time to dive into the quiet, magnetic pull that makes this story so hard to put down.
Kei Miyama serves as the protagonist in Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest, but he’s more like our tour guide across its vast, windswept setting. Living with his grandfather at what’s called “land’s end,” the 17-year-old high-school dropout works as a private investigator to support himself. He’s often depicted running around doing odd jobs, like helping people find lost items or reuniting people with lost loved ones, serving as a kind soul with a lack of formal direction.
Despite his minimal schooling, Kei is particularly bright and savvy. He has a few skills most kids his age wouldn’t: He can pick a lock, survive in the wilds, or navigate via his instincts. Unlike the superheroes and gods we often get in manga, Kei isn’t superhuman. His emotional detachment in times of high stress is honed through years of independent living.
Kei isn’t superhuman, but he does have a seemingly genetic gift in addition to his wits. At first, it starts as an odd quirk: He talks to his truck, a Suzuki Jimny, as if it’s an old friend. It’s later revealed that Kei has a strange form of technopathy, an ability that allows him to communicate with electronics in unexpected ways. Similarly, his grandfather can instinctively attract birds.
While most of the story revolves around Kei’s life in this otherworldly abode at the edge of the world, conflict arises when his brother Michitaka reenters his life following the tragic, suspicious deaths of his extended family back in Japan. Michitaka Miyama seems like a charming, sweet young boy. He’s drawn with a magical glow, almost like he can do no harm.
Fans of Naoki Urasawa’s acclaimed manga Monster may see parallels between Michitaka and Johan Liebert, a figure still considered one of the medium’s most terrifying forces of evil. Michitaka, for all his glow, hides a darkness just outside of view. This creates an unsettling undercurrent throughout the manga, leaving his past open-ended as we trek through Iceland, learning more about its rich, fascinating culture.
Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest isn’t like any manga I’ve read before. It almost reads like a dream, featuring this drifting, offbeat tone reminiscent of Yuki Urushibara’s Mushi-Shi. Unlike that story, Irie doesn’t rely on the supernatural to keep the plot moving forward. Instead, the story flows as if we’re a spirit watching Kei’s life unfold organically, meeting his friends and discovering his world piece by piece, until the line between casework and lived experience slowly starts to blur, and Iceland itself becomes as central to the mystery as anything Kei is trying to solve.
This atmosphere is what sells this series for me. Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest isn’t so much a mystery as a slice-of-life tale that touches on various themes, like aimlessness, inherited burdens, and quiet intimacy. It’s not a story that rushes to answer all of its questions, but one that allows Iceland, Kei, and everything in between to blur into something softer, stranger, and harder to leave behind.
