Tag Archives: yusuke nomura

SDCC 2025: Kodansha Reveals New Premium Editions and Upcoming Series

Announced at Comic-Con International San Diego 2025Kodansha revealed to manga fans in-person and online updates to the Kodansha Print Club program as well as more print manga licenses arriving Spring 2026.

Kodansha kicked off their announcements with a surprise update on the Kodansha Print Club program, where they announced that volumes 2 of Blade Girl, Teppu, and Love, That’s an Understatement will be available for purchase in print starting August 2025.

Then, moving onto the Spring 2026 slate of new print manga licenses, Kodansha unveiled new premium editions of fan-favorite series Witch Hat Atelier and Attack on Titan. Also announced were all-new series, ranging from action-packed apocalypse fighting sagas like DRAGON CIRCUS, to taut thrillers about relationships that are too-good-to-be-true, like Whoever You Are, I Love You, and even a new chapter in the perennial cozy kitten series with Chi’s Sweet France. 

See below for details on the full slate of debuts coming soon in print and digital from Kodansha.

Kodansha Print Club Update:

With many thanks to the patience of fans eagerly waiting for more information on this experimental program, Kodansha is proud to announce that volumes 2 of Blade Girl, Teppu, and Love, That’s an Understatement, will be available to purchase online and through select physical retailers on August 5, 2025. Pre-orders will begin as soon as next week, so check with your favorite retailer or bookstore for availability.

Kodansha Print Club Update

Premium Editions:

Witch Hat Atelier: Grimoire Edition

By Kamome Shirahama
JP Title: とんがり帽子のアトリエ
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Rated: 10+

This deluxe, keepsake-quality hardcover edition includes three volumes of the acclaimed fantasy manga on which the enchanting anime was based. Experience the beautiful tale of a young witch who discovers her creativity and faces down a dangerous and thrilling world with her friends by her side in these extra-large books, printed on premium paper with intricate gold foil covers and exclusive bonus content.

Includes Witch Hat Atelier Vols. 1–3.

In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: She wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream…until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem!

The new Grimoire Edition is a gold-foiled hardcover of nearly 600 pages each, including color pages and bonus content and presenting this magical epic in a special large size.

Witch Hat Atelier: Grimoire Edition

Blue Lock Omnibus

Story by Muneyuki Kaneshiro; Art by Yusuke Nomura
JP Title: ブルーロック
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Rated: 16+

The manga that became a worldwide sports action phenomenon returns in a new 3-in-1 omnibus edition featuring sculpted embossed covers!

A mad young coach gathers soccer players from across the country to compete in a series of bizarre challenges in a high-tech colosseum he calls Blue Lock. It’s a no-balls-barred battle to become Japan’s next top striker, in this Squid Game–meets–World Cup manga, now a global hit anime with two explosive seasons!

Blue Lock Omnibus

Attack on Titan Definitive Hardcover Collection

By Hajime Isayama
JP Title: 進撃の巨人 特装合本版
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Rated: 16+

The global manga hit returns in a massive new deluxe edition, including three volumes in one hardcover book featuring faux leather cover, gold foil stamping, library-style binding, and color pages that aren’t even included in the Japanese edition!

For eons, humans ruled the natural world. But a century ago, everything changed when the Titans appeared. Giant, grotesque parodies of the human form, these monsters consumed all but a few thousand human beings, who took refuge behind giant walls. Today, the threat of the Titans is a distant memory, and a boy named Eren yearns to explore the world beyond the wall. But what began as a childish dream will become an all-too-real nightmare when a Titan finally knocks a hole in the wall, and humanity is once again on the brink of extinction.

Attack on Titan Definitive Hardcover Collection

Action & Adventure:

DRAGON CIRCUS

Story by Eiichi Shimizu, Illustrated by Tomohiro Shimoguchi
JP Title: DRAGON CIRCUS
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Rated: 13+

DEATH TO ALL DRAGONS!

The sudden appearance of massive monsters known as “Dragons” throws the world into chaos. The New United Nations, created as a response to the threat, puts together a team known as the Dragonslayers, including (among others) a vampire, an android, a witch, the animated remains of the legendary ogre Shuten Doji, and….a little girl?! Ace pilot Momo may still be in grade school, but she just might have the skills to save humankind.

Taut action, propulsive storytelling, and sly humor take this seinen action series to new heights and unexpected places!

On the fateful day the dragons first appeared, Dr. Abe’s beloved died in the initial onslaught. Now he has created an android in his own image: the DS-08 “Shikigami,” part of the NUN (New United Nations)’s top secret project to counter this monstrous invasion. In addition to the Shikigami, this team of “Dragonslayers” is comprised of members of the many races that have up till now lived in obscurity: elves, dwarves, witches, vampires, and more… As the team assembles to fight off the massive and mysterious creatures that now menace humanity, however, one member stands apart from the rest: Momo Agatsuma, the young daughter of an NUN scientist and ace pilot par excellence. Together this motley crew must fend off the greatest threat the world has ever faced…!

DRAGON CIRCUS

Stella Must Die

Story by Yasunori Mitsunaga; Art by Ine Ohtaka 
JP Title: 絶対死なないステラ姫
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Rated: 16+

From the acclaimed creator of Princess Resurrection and Time Stop Hero comes the darkly comical tale of a princess with a most curious self-defense mechanism… Parasyte meets Cinderella in this zany fantasy manga about a princess who just won’t seem to die!

After losing her father, the king of Hillvalley, Princess Stella is thrown into the middle of a succession crisis. Her stepsister Illusia wastes no time in trying to assassinate Stella and seize the throne, but all her attempts mysteriously go awry. Little does anyone know that the young princess has a hidden protector…in the most unlikely of places!

Stella Must Die

Magical Karina

By Coyuri Tono
JP Title: まじかるカリナ
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Rated: 13+

We all know transforming into a magical girl can help destroy the forces of evil. But can it help a high schooler who’s just lost the person who raised her through the stages of grief? A poignant and funny action manga that applies the trappings of Sailor Moon to the universal experience of elder care and decline; death without closure; and finding a will to carry on.

Just this morning, Karina was sitting at the breakfast table, cleaning up the miso soup her grandmother dropped on the floor. Now, she’s being called out to class to go to the hospital and see her grandma’s body…with a piece of seaweed still stuck to her uniform. She still finds time to make it to her hourly job at a family restaurant, but on the way home, she sees a glittering, elephant-like creature floating in the sky… And a teenage boy appears to push her out of the way of its attack! Death is stalking Karina’s town in a form that only she can see, and this boy gives her two choices: Die or transform and fight! She can scarcely follow what he’s saying, but her clothes do change, and the staff she finds herself holding has enough heft to do some serious damage… But is there space in Karina’s life for getting revenge for her grandma and fighting magical monsters when she’s already stretched to her limit?

Magical Karina

Crime & Drama:

Whoever You Are, I Love You

By Keiku Hagiwara
JP Title: きみが誰でも愛してる
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Rated: 16+

Evil lurks beneath the most beautiful surfaces…

Temp worker Yuki Sato is ready to settle down with the perfect man she met on a dating app—until she discovers her fiancé may not be who he seems. When the beguiling Shun Majima confronts her with the details of the mysterious death of his brother Kosuke, Yuki finds herself torn between the man she thinks she loves and the handsome stranger whose revelations threaten to upend her life completely.

A world of digital deceit gives way to very real danger in this tense romantic crime thriller.

Despite being unmarried at 32, Yuki Sato is happy—she enjoys temping as a greeter, and more importantly, she’s engaged to a handsome, successful man she met on a dating app…until Shun Majima walks into her life and blows it up. 

Does her fiancé seem too good to be true because he is? And was he really involved in the death of Shun’s brother? As Yuki’s life slowly starts to unravel, she finds herself drawn into the seedy underbelly of Tokyo, caught in a web of lies and manipulation. She and Shun join forces to uncover the truth, but will they be able to do so before it’s too late…?

Whoever You Are, I Love You

That’s Not Love

By Peko Watanabe
JP Title: 恋じゃねえから
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Rated: 18+

Two female friends from middle school reunite as adults in this hard-hitting and personal drama manga. What begins as idle reminiscing leads to painful revelations as they heal the reopened wounds of their past in this highly-anticipated first print release from the creator of 1122: For a Happy Marriage.

Drawing on real events and the Japanese #MeToo movement and Watanabe’s own reflections on friendship and womanhood, That’s Not Love won a place on the industry insider poll Kono Manga ga Sugoi! as one of the best manga of the year.

Forty-year-old Akane attends the opening of a new art exhibit by her former cram school teacher, Mr. Imai, who has now become a sculptor. Akane notices that Mr. Imai’s new sculpture bears a striking resemblance to her middle school best friend, Yukari, who she remembers suddenly transferred out of the school. It even has a distinct scar that Yukari shared with Akane privately. Wondering what this could mean, Akane reaches out to her old friend, and learns that there was something else going on when they were children that she only partly understood. Was Yukari just a muse? Or something with more upsetting implications?

That's Not Love

Lonely Deaths Lie Thick as Snow

Story by Hajime Inoryu, Illustrated by Shota Ito
JP Title: 降り積もれ孤独な死よ
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Rated: 16+

The shocking, gritty new seinen crime thriller from the team behind bestselling manga My Dearest Self With Malice Aforethought. A unique blend of cinematic art and realistic storytelling undergirds the terrifying mysteries and wild reversals of this dark police procedural, which will appeal to older readers of crime novels and graphic fiction far beyond the usual manga audience.

A routine call regarding a burglary at an empty mansion leads cocky young police detective Jin Saeki to a gruesome and shocking discovery. The corpses of 13 children, along with the presence of a strange symbol, spur a manhunt for Juzo Haikawa, the mysterious absentee owner of the house. So begins an investigation (and an obsession) that will take Jin all over Japan and into the darkest recesses of both the past and the human soul.

Lonely Deaths Lie Thick as Snow

Cozy & Comforting:

Cat-Life Balance

By Akari Otokawa
JP Title: 黒根さんはニャーと鳴かない
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Rated: 16+

In this office romance manga with a feline twist, a people-pleaser teetering on the edge of burnout discovers his antisocial coworker’s secret: She only smiles when she’s playing with stray cats! Now he’s got a choice: Keep up the façade and keep saying “yes” to every extra task and happy hour, or risk his perfect work image to sneak off for some simple, frisky fun?

Fans of Sweat & Soap and Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You will love this new series from the creator of Cells at Work! Lady.

Everyone at work loves Mamoru, because Mamoru never says no. Replacing lightbulbs, carrying boxes, taking over an impossible client from a retiring colleague… He’ll do it all, and it’s earned him the nickname “Prince of the Office.” This glittering extrovert’s opposite at work is Kurone, a quiet woman in another department who soaks up her boss’s senseless mood swings with a blank stoicism. After one particularly long day, Mamoru is thrilled to be walking home alone, sipping a beer (because all his colleagues went drinking and left him to work overtime), when he encounters something strange: The usually glum Kurone is in the park, gleefully playing with stray cats. This secret seems silly, but it brings Kurone joy. It’s the start of an unlikely relationship that will lead Mamoru to start reflecting on his life and who he really wants to share it with. Is work really all there is, or can he strike a balance with the help of these fluffy new friends–and a human who might become something more?

Cat-Life Balance

Hitting Rewind With You

By Hanamaru Kira
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Rated: 13+

Two college students desperate to live out the high school glory days they never had fall for each other in this silly and sweet romcom manga! This fun and escapist (non-)age gap romance is brimming with youthful nostalgia and perfect for fans of My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv 999 and In the Clear Moonlit Dusk.

Wakaba Kayano is a 20-year-old college student who was too busy studying in high school to experience the quintessential personal milestones of her teenage years, like going on an afterschool date. In a moment of desperation, she goes out on Halloween in her old high school uniform in an effort to take back some of those heart-fluttering experiences she never had, and in doing encounters Fumito, a boy clad in the quintessential high school boy uniform. Whisked away on the date of her dreams, she panics when forced to reveal her true age–only to find out that Fumito is in college, too!

Hitting Rewind With You

KODANSHA and Concacaf Join Forces Bringing together Anime and Football

Blue Lock Concacaf

KODANSHA and the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf), have announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration featuring the critically acclaimed manga and anime series Blue Lock.

This marks Concacaf’s inaugural partnership with a Japanese Manga (Comic) and Anime (Animated Series), uniting two global passions through a shared spirit of competition, ambition, and teamwork. Through this distinct alliance, fans across the Americas will experience exclusive original content, limited-edition merchandise, and crossover activations that blend the intensity of international football with the storytelling power of Japanese animation. Blue Lock, based on the award-winning manga created by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura, follows the intense journey of Japan’s top strikers as they battle in a high-stakes training program to become the ultimate forward. With themes of ambition, competition, and teamwork, Blue Lock resonates deeply with global football culture, making it the perfect fit for this groundbreaking collaboration.

Launching in mid-2025 and running through 2026 leading up to the World Cup, the multi-phase collaboration will include:

  • Special events during key CONCACAF tournaments
  • Limited edition BLUE LOCK x CONCACAF merchandise
  • Cross-platform campaigns across anime, manga, and football fan communities

Artworks Entertainment, a key licensing and brand strategy partner, is overseeing implementation of the project across the Americas and other key markets.

Kodansha Unveils Blue Lock Coloring Book Coming Spring 2025

Kodansha has announced that the Blue Lock— the smash hit, soccer centric manga by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura—will see an official coloring book available for purchase in print this Spring 2025.

The Blue Lock Coloring Book will feature stunning artwork by series artist Yusuke Nomura, highlighting some of the series most action-packed moments, and fan-favorite character, in a format easy for fans to color in themselves.

Blue Lock, the award-winning manga first serialized in the pages of Weekly Shōnen Magazine, was reported as being the 2023 best-selling manga in Japan after “nearly tripling what it sold in 2022.” This series inspired the Blue Lock anime, with season one streaming on Crunchyroll, and season two set to debut October 2024. Blue Lock: Episode Nagi, a spin-off manga featuring the popular soccer prodigy, Nagi Seishiro, will debut in print and digital from Kodansha, October 15, 2024. A feature animated film of Blue Lock: Episode Nagi premiered in June 2024.

The Blue Lock Coloring Book will will arrive Spring 2025 at major retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Amazon, and more.

The official coloring book of the global smash soccer survival manga & anime! Celebrate the arrival of the new Blue Lock season with this 60-page, collectible coloring book suitable for fans of any age.

The prodigy, Nagi. The mastermind, Jinpachi Ego. The monster, Meguru Bachira. The fighter, Rensuke. The rival, Hyoma. And the ultimate egoist, Isagi. All of them and more populate the action-packed pages of this premium-quality coloring book, officially licensed by the creators of the series. Color spreads of your favorite characters, facing off on the soccer pitch. All the most dramatic shots, headers, taunts, celebrations, and turnabouts are here!

Blue Lock Coloring Book

NYCC 2023: Kodansha Reveals New Manga Licenses

Kodansha announced at New York Comic Con an array of new manga licenses debuting as soon as November for new digital series and in print for spring and fall of 2024! 

Coming to print in 2024: This spring sees the print debut of the hitman action/comedy The Fable – which will also be getting an anime next year. Additionally, Blue Lock fans can rejoice over the news that the different POV spinoff, BLUE LOCK -EPISODE NAGI-, makes its debut fall 2024. Also coming in fall is the comically violent wheelchair hero battle manga Tank Chair

Debuting digitally in November: For fans craving new manga series immediately, next month brings two digital series debuts including the pregnancy thought experiment, He’s Expecting, and the risqué fantasy love story, How to Treat a Lady Knight Right.

SPRING 2024 NEW PRINT LICENSES:

The Fable

By Katsuhisa Minami
Rated: Mature 18+

When you’re the infamous “genius killer” hitman The Fable, many things come easy. Being a normal person, however, isn’t one of them. In fact, being told that he can’t kill anyone for a while may just be the hardest job he’s ever taken…

The Fable

FALL 2024 NEW PRINT LICENSES:

BLUE LOCK -EPISODE NAGI-

Story by Muneyuki Kaneshiro
Manga by Kota Sannomiya
Character Design by Yusuke Nomura
Rated: Older Teen 16+

Seishiro Nagi, a second-year high schooler, thought everything was a pain and lived his life in an apathetic fog. That is, until he met Reo Mikage and they entered the mysterious striker training center, Blue Lock… A new spin-off from Blue Lock’s author, Muneyuki Kaneshiro, telling the story from Nagi’s point of view!

BLUE LOCK -EPISODE NAGI-

Tank Chair

By Manabu Yashiro
Rated: Older Teen 16+

Shizuka takes on the most dangerous of assassin jobs, but she’s not the one doing the killing. Rather, it’s her brother, Nagi, a strong assassin who took a bullet to protect his sister, leaving him in a comatose state and having to use a wheelchair. However, Shizuka has figured out the key to waking her brother up: he must be faced with killing intent! Thus begins a violent journey of recovery, battling the most dangerous foes!

Tank Chair

NOVEMBER 2023 NEW DIGITAL LICENSES:

He’s Expecting

By Eri Sakai
Release Date: November 7, 2023
Rated: 16+

When career-minded Kentaro Hiyama finds out that he’s pregnant, it will change the course of more than just his own life. In the Japan of Eri Sakai’s thought experiment, ten years have passed since the male sex has spontaneously gained the ability to get pregnant, and society has struggled to adjust. Kentaro isn’t sure at first who the mother might be, and quickly finds himself butting up against regressive attitudes and discriminatory policies—most of which long precede male pregnancy. In his previous life, he’d never given any of it a second thought—he may have even held the same views. But through his encounters with other pregnant people, and galvanized by his new perspective, Kentaro turns his skills in business and marketing to effecting social change.

He's Expecting

How to Treat a Lady Knight Right

By Kengo Matsumoto
Release Date: November 21, 2023
Rated: 16+

Leo Cornelia has dedicated her entire life to the battlefield. There is no demon she can’t slay, no challenge she can’t handle—at least, not until that confounding halfwit mage Foolie Dent confesses his love to her. Nothing feels farther from her than long-discarded notions of femininity and romance, but this annoying but dependable new friend might just be the key to opening the heart she closed long ago.

How to Treat a Lady Knight Right

Blue Lock Comes to Print in 2022

Kodansha USA has announced the print license acquisition of the fan-favorite manga series Blue Lock. Written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro, and illustrated by Yusuke NomuraBlue Lock is the heart-pounding soccer saga of a nation-wide competition to find the ace striker who will lead Japan to a World Cup victory. The first volume of Blue Lock in print is scheduled for Summer 2022, and will be distributed by Penguin Random House.

After a disastrous defeat at the 2018 World Cup, Japan’s team struggles to regroup. But what’s missing? An absolute Ace Striker, who can guide them to the win! The Football Association is hell-bent on creating a striker who hungers for goals and thirsts for victory, and who can be the decisive instrument in turning around a losing match … To do so, they’ve gathered 300 of Japan’s best and brightest youth players. Who will emerge to lead the team … and will they be able to out-muscle and out-ego everyone who stands in their way?

Blue Lock

Kodansha Reveals its March 2021 Digital Manga Debuts

Today, we got a look at all of the amazing digital manga series debuts coming from Kodansha Comics in March 2021. These new digital debuts as well as returning favorites will be available upon release across all our participating digital vendors including Bookwalker, comiXology, Google Play, Kindle, Nook and izneo.

Araki Won’t Be Tamed

By Kapparappara
Release Date: March 2 // Available Digitally

Yakko has always lived in the shadow of her model/actress younger sister, Yuno. So when she’s surprised on her 17th birthday by super-popular actor Araki Shigaraki, she assumes he’s looking for Yuno…until he declares his love for Yakko?! Not only that, he’d declared his love for her before…but now, as then, she doesn’t believe him! But he’s determined, and if she won’t see him as a boyfriend, maybe she’ll see him as a pet…?!

Araki Won't Be Tamed

Shaman King: Marcos

Original Creator Hiroyuki Takei
Art by Jet Kusamura
Release Date: March 9 // Available Digitally

New Shaman King spin-of from the same team as Shaman King: Red Crimson

What should be a bright future for the X-Laws is shadowed by the absence of Marco. Where could he have gone, and is something sinister behind it? Join the fan favorites in another Shaman King spinoff!

Shaman King: Marcos

Blue Lock

Story by Muneyuki Kaneshiro
Art by Yusuke Nomura
Release Date: March 16 // Available Digitally

By the Story Creator of As The Gods Will: The Second Series

After a disastrous defeat at the 2018 World Cup, Japan’s team struggles to regroup. But what’s missing? An absolute Ace Striker, who can guide them to the win. The Football Association is hell-bent on creating a striker who hungers for goals and thirsts for victory, and who can be the decisive instrument in turning around a losing match…and to do so, they’ve gathered 300 of Japan’s best and brightest youth players. Who will emerge to lead the team…and will they be able to out-muscle and out-ego everyone who stands in their way?

Blue Lock

The Dawn of the Witch

Story by Tatsuo
Art by Kakeru Kobashiri
Character Design by Takashi Iwasaki
Release Date: March 23 // Available Digitally

Cervil is a magic student with no memories of his life before he met a mysterious blond woman in an alley. Now he travels with his teacher, Ross—another student, Holt, and the beastman Coudeau for “special training”… but this field trip may not be as routine as it seems!

The Dawn of the Witch

Chasing After Aoi Koshiba

By FLY and Takeoka Hazuki
Release Date: March 23 // Available Digitally & in Print

All-new Yuri romance!

Sahoko had lots of friends in high school, so there’s no shortage of people to catch up with at her reunion. But the one face she wants to see is missing: that of Aoi Koshiba, her classmate and first love. A star of the basketball team, Aoi caught Sahoko’s eye as an easy way to score social points. But when Aoi quits the team, an unexpected kiss pulls Sahoko closer to her than she intended to be. With a difficult home situation, Aoi is in need of more than just a cynical social climber. She needs a true friend, and something more…

Chasing After Aoi Koshiba

She’s My Knight

By Saisou
Release Date: March 30 // Available Digitally

Haruma Ichinose, 17, has been popular since he was born. So popular, in fact, that he figured no one could even come close…until he met Yuki Mogami. She’s tall, cool, collected, and totally makes him crazy. He may just be in love…but can he deal with falling for someone even more dashing than himself?

She's My Knight

Those Snow White Notes

By Marimo Ragawa
Release Date: March 30 // Available Digitally

Anime to debut April 2021!

When Setsu’s grandfather died, so did Setsu’s “sound”—his unique creative spark. Grieving, he goes to Tokyo to find himself…but manages to become totally, literally lost on his first day. Only a chance meeting with Yuna—aka Yuka, the hostess—saves him from being robbed. At first glance their lives seem totally different, but they’re both striving for their dreams—hers, of being an actress, and his, of developing his talent with the shamisen—and it could just be that life in the raucous, unfeeling urban sprawl of Tokyo could just be what binds their fates together…

Those Snow White Notes