From Anime Expo Kodansha Unveils Spring 2025 & July New Manga Licenses
Kodansha Reveals New Manga Licenses for July 2024 & Spring 2025
As announced today at Anime Expo 2024—Kodansha unveiled a tremendous roster of upcoming print licenses for Spring 2025, including new debuts from celebrated creators like Hiro Mashima (FAIRY TAIL), Tsutomu Nihei (BLAME!, Knights of Sidonia), and Shuzo Oshimi (Blood on the Tracks), as well as hotly anticipated romance stories, fun and exciting BL titles, and more.
Also announced were two soon-to-debut digital manga series, Tokyo Tarareba Girls Returns 2, the latest installment of Akiko Higashimura’s Tokyo Tarareba Girls saga, and My Journey to Her, Yuna Hirasawa's the poignant diary-like memoir about gender affirming surgery. Both titles arrive this July.
Today’s print titles announced will be available starting Spring 2025 at physical and online book vendors like Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Amazon, and more, while July 2024 digital debuts will be available upon release across all our participating vendors, including Bookwalker, Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play, Nook, Kobo, MyAnimeList, and more! Fans can also purchase and read all Kodansha digital manga directly on kodansha.us.
See below for details on the full slate of debuts coming soon in print and digital from Kodansha.
SPRING 2025 NEW PRINT LICENSES:
DEAD ROCK
By Hiro Mashima
Debut Date: Spring 2025
What would you risk to rule the world? Dive back into the imagination of bestselling manga creator Hiro Mashima (FAIRY TAIL, EDENS ZERO) with a new fantasy adventure that pits the aspiring young denizens of Hell against each other in a battle royale to claim the ultimate prize...Earth itself!
Welcome to Dead Rock, the underworld’s top educational institution! A spot at this training facility for demonic mischief is all the young demon Yakuto has ever wanted, but in Hell, there’s no such thing as an easy A. Plenty of Yakuto’s fellow prospects won’t survive the entrance exam, and even fewer will make it to graduation. So why bother? The prize, for those who survive this death game through perdition, is the world, in the palm of their hand!
Rated: 16+
The Ayakashi Hunter's Tainted Bride
Manga by Mamenosuke Fujimaru; Created by Midori Yuma
Debut Date: Spring 2025
The much-anticipated webtoon comes to print! From the creator of Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits and the artist behind Captive Hearts of Oz and the Alice in the Country of Clover series comes a steamy new historical fantasy romance about a cursed girl shunned by those around her...and the demon hunter who falls for her.
Noragami meets My Happy Marriage in this mix of romance, action, and suspense that has already won legions of fans!
Young, cheerful Nanao can’t wait to marry her betrothed, Reito, the young lord of the Byakurenji family. But that changes one night when she is attacked by a vengeful yokai spirit—an ayakashi—leaving her scarred with the mark of a demonic curse. Her cousin Akemi seizes the chance to steal away her fiance, but it doesn’t matter. Reito now finds her repulsive, and Nanao is forced to wear a monkey mask to hide her scar and live the life of an outcast. Years later, she meets Yako, the willful young scion of another noble family. When Nanao’s mask shatters after an accident, Yako sees her face and is drawn to her beauty and great spiritual power. But there’s more to the handsome young lord then meets the eye, and when Yako offers Nanao a way out of her torturous life, the new life that awaits her is filled with more mystery and intrigue than she could ever imagine...
Rated: 16+
The Dashing Zaddy and His Icy Protégé
By Fumito
Debut Date: Spring 2025
An outrageous BL manga about work, unlikely friends, and problems down there! At age 40, Takanashi is in the prime of his life, heading up a high-performing sales team and driving all the ladies crazy. Yet he turns them all down, because he has trouble performing in the bedroom! What will he do when a rising star on his team finds out his secret?!
The second sales division at Gosei Trading Company is headed up by Mr. Takanashi, one of the firm’s top performer and a charismatic knockout at age 40. One of his subordinates is the equally hot, cool and calculating 26-year-old, Hiwatari. Practically every woman at the company has attempted to stir up an office romance with the magnetic Takanashi, but this dashing zaddy has turned them all down, because...he secretly has ED! Meanwhile, Hiwatari seems like a scary robot on the outside, but he’s actually looked up to Takanashi since he started working with him four years ago. When Hiwatari gets a chance to spend the evening with Takanashi, he reveals more than he means to!
An irresistible love comedy between a hot older man with a shameful secret and a cunning underling who becomes an unlikely confidant in his quest to once more stand proud and, ahem...erect!
Rated: 18+
How to Deal When Your Intimidating Neighbor is Actually an Omega
By Nikuya Inui
Debut Date: Spring 2025
Nikuya Inui’s suspenseful and erotic new Omegaverse rom-com manga is finally here! A college-aged Alpha lives next door to a scary-looking hottie whom he assumes is an Alpha, too, but a shocking encounter will correct that assumption! An irresistible, tattooed Omega, living next door... What's a virgin Alpha to do?
Complete story in one volume!
"He looks like a cold and handsome Alpha…who’d ever think he was actually a twisted and sexy Omega!"
Kota is a college student, and an Alpha. Still, he dreads bumping into his neighbor, a super-intimidating hunk with big, black tattoos. He always assumed this mystery man was an Alpha, too, and avoided him like the plague...until, one day, a scent wafts in so powerful it puts even the dull-headed Kota in a daze. It’s the scent of Omega pheromones, from next door! He assumes his neighbor's brought an Omega home, but when he tries to leave, what should he find but the source of the pheromones: his hot neighbor! How will he get out of this situation unscathed, and without his neighbor finding out he’s a virgin?!
Rated: 18+
A Vampire in the Bathhouse
By Niko Izuki
Debut Date: Spring 2025
A heartwarming and hilarious comedy manga about a hot vampire who just wants to unwind and the family who runs the bathhouse where he crashes. Escape to a world of steam and relaxation...and get the blood flowing!
A full story in one volume!
Luka is your picture perfect vampire―he’s good looking, he’s regal... He’s also usually incredibly hungover and exhausted, and wants nothing more than a change of pace from his routine! When he takes a peek into the human world, he finds just the cure he’s looking for―a relaxing bathhouse that will surely cure him of his hangover and rejuvenate him from head to toe. To blow his fatigue out of the water, Luka pays a visit to Mangetsu no Yu bathhouse where he meets the bathhouse’s eldest son, Sakura. But between the bathhouse being short staffed and taking care of his little brother, Sakura has enough to worry about without a bougie vampire being added to the mix!
Rated: 16+
Hauntress
By Minetaro Mochizuki
Debut Date: Spring 2025
A seminal work of horror from 1993, this classic from the author of Dragon Head is finally appearing in English for the first time. Incorporating elements of psychological horror and urban legend, and credited with introducing the idea of stalking to Japan, Mochizuki’s early masterpiece remains just as terrifying as it was when it first appeared over 30 years ago.
Hiroshi Mori is an ordinary college student leading an unremarkable life, until one day he hears someone ringing his neighbor's doorbell over and over again. He goes out onto the landing and finds a strange woman in a trenchcoat―whose tenacious attention soon transfers to him. Stalked and harrassed by this monstrous woman, Hiroshi tries to find out the truth about her before she ruins his life completely.
Rated: 16+
Tower Dungeon
By Tsutomu Nihei
Debut Date: Spring 2025
Tsutomu Nihei, master of the mysterious architectural monolith, brings his genius to bear on the fantasy genre for the first time. Having established himself with hit series like Blame! and Knights of Sidonia, he has now created a gritty, dark fantasy world and populated it with evil sorcerers and unique undead horrors. Tower Dungeon is structurally similar to the perennially popular isekai genre―the ingenuous farmboy Yuva must accompany a contingent of knights through the increasingly dangerous floors of a massive tower on the way to rescue the princess―but Nihei has turned the genre on its head, bringing his unique sensibility to bear on a crumbling world of malformed creatures, wounded soldiers, and labyrinthine darkness.
An evil sorcerer slays the king and takes over his body, kidnapping the princess and spiriting her away to the legendary Dragon Tower.
The Royal Guard is rebuffed in their attempt to rescue her, and to replace the wounded, a young farmhand named Yuva is called up into service. With only a pot lid for a shield and a strong back to carry supplies, Yuva joins the soldiers on the perilous quest to climb the tower and rescue the princess. But the Dragon Tower houses untold horrors...!
Rated: 13+
Toxic Daughter: Chi-chan
By Shuzo Oshimi
Debut Date: Spring 2025
Highly-acclaimed manga author Shuzo Oshimi brings his critical cinematic eye to this original one-shot, a dark, intriguing prologue to director Eisuke Naito’s newly-released horror film Toxic Daughter. The story follows friends Yua and Koudai who decide to save their delinquent classmate Chi from truancy, only to find themselves sinking deeper and deeper into the darkness that seems to haunt everything she touches.
Yua Hayakawa used to love playing with Chi, a mysterious girl with a murky family life who likes collecting dead insects, but it’s been years since they've spoken. Now, Chi hardly ever even comes to school. One day, Chi shows up to class in beat-up gym clothes with a handful of dead bugs and starts a commotion that gives Yua’s classmate, golden boy Koudai, an idea: he’s going to save Chi, and he needs Yua’s help to do it. But clean-cut exteriors don’t always promise good intentions, and the darkness in Chi may be more dangerous than Yua had ever imagined.
Rated: 16+
23:45
By Ohana
Debut Date: Spring 2025
Author Ohana’s debut English series! This bittersweet romantic mystery follows shy college freshman Iku, who has recently discovered he can see ghosts, Mimori, the friendly phantom that latches on to him, and Iku’s search to find out why this spirit is forced night after night to relive the fall that turned him into a specter.
Two months after moving to Tokyo, college freshman Iku is living his otaku nerd life to the fullest. There’s just one problem: he’s started being able to see ghosts. One spirit in particular, a young man about Iku’s age, spends day after day standing on the pedestrian bridge on the way to Iku’s apartment. Though determined to live and let not-live unnoticed, Iku accidentally bumps into the handsome phantom and soon ends up with the very chat-deprived spirit of Mimori Seo haunting his apartment. Not long after, Iku notices that every night at 23:45, Mimori is drawn by some mysterious force back to the bridge and forced to repeat the fall that made him a ghost in the first place. Will Mimori be stuck in this loop forever, or can Iku find a way to save this specter from an eternity of unending tragedy?
Rated: 16+
Spacewalking With You
By Inuhiko Doronoda
Debut Date: Spring 2025
One’s an apathetic loner, one has his head in the stars… And they have no idea how much they need each other. The coming-of-age buddy comedy that became a surprise hit in Japan!
Kobayashi just can’t focus—not on studying, not on work—and the adults in his life think he’s in danger of becoming a worthless dropout. Then, one day, a strange new presence arrives in his class: an energetic and naïve kid named Uno. Kobayashi saves Uno from getting scammed, and that close encounter launches a new friendship. Uno’s definitely a space cadet, but Kobayashi can’t help admiring the way he floats through life, and before he knows it, he might start feeling his feet lift off the ground, too…
Rated: 13+
Magic Knight Rayearth Part 2 Vol. 1 (Paperback)
By CLAMP
Debut Date: Spring 2025
The thrilling and dramatic final arc of CLAMP's manga masterwork Magic Knight Rayearth comes to paperback with a new translation! Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu return to a Cefiro that is not the one they left, and they realize that there was always more to this other world than they realized…
The three teenage girls who saved a world at great cost return to Tokyo, a little older and much wiser. They assume that they’ll never see the magical, troubling world of Cefiro again...when they find themselves back there once again. But Emeraude couldn’t be the one who summoned them this time. What if the tragic climax of their first adventure was only the beginning?
This new edition brings the refreshed translation of the hardcover box set to a paperback format.
Rated: 13+
Codename: Sailor V 1 (Naoko Takeuchi Collection)
By Naoko Takeuchi
The adventures of Minako Aino as the elegant, masked hero Sailor V are here in a new, portable and affordable edition! Featuring an updated translation and high page count, perfect to go wherever you or the legendary guardian in your life want to take it.
A year before meeting Sailor Moon―and her destiny as a member of the Sailor Guardians―Minako was the first hero to find her calling. At age 13, all this teen can talk about is finding a boyfriend, but her dreams change when a talking cat with a crescent moon on his forehead reveals her true identity as the Soldier of Justice, Sailor V! Miracles have returned to modern Tokyo, and she must use her powers to stop the Dark Agency, which is trying to manipulate Japan’s entertainment industry and enslave the population.
Join Minako’s adventures before her debut as Sailor Venus in a new, affordable edition.
Rated: 13+
JULY 2024 NEW DIGITAL LICENSE:
Tokyo Tarareba Girls Returns 2
By Akiko Higashimura
Debut Date: July 9, 2024
30-year-old Reina Hirota’s chill life of snacking and binge-watching TV shows gets a wake-up call through a forgotten childhood dream buried in a time capsule. Suddenly, her content solitude seems more like a forever-solo voyage, prompting her to crawl off the couch and start husband hunting—not just to find love, but to help her family find their groove again. Now, if only she knew what she wanted—not just in life, but in a guy, too.
Rated: 16+
Read the FREE Chapter 1 of Tokyo Tarareba Girls Returns 2!
My Journey to Her
By Yuna Hirasawa
Debut Date: July 23, 2024
After graduating university, Yuna spent several years going through the motions and working an office job. Until one day, while in pursuit of an essential missing piece of her life, she receives a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, which opens up new doors for her. As she takes on medical treatments and tries out new makeup and outfits, she sees just how lonely and difficult the process of transitioning can be. But in 2015, when Yuna travels to Thailand for her gender-affirming surgery, the support of her siblings, new strangers, and documenting her experience through manga helps her begin to heal in more ways than one. Told in an honest and, at times, humorous tone, this memoir is a blend of manga and detailed prose that does not shy away from sensitive topics, such as suicidal ideation, transphobia, and the simultaneously harrowing, yet joyous, experience of gender-affirming surgery.
Rated: 13+