From Anime Expo Kodansha Unveils Spring 2026 New Manga Licenses
Kodansha Reveals New Manga Licenses for Spring 2026
Just announced at Anime Expo 2025—Kodansha unveiled a tremendous roster of their latest print licenses arriving in stores and online, Spring 2026. These new debuts include brand new series like Omori, the dark yet dreamy adventure based on the popular video game, Wicked Spot, a modern magical fantasy about a witch influencer, Kirio Fan Club, the odd ball romantic rivalry comedy, as well as fan-requested modern manga classics like MARS 30th Anniversary Edition, Shugo Chara! 20th Anniversary Edition, and even a premium The Ghost in the Shell Legacy Edition Manga Box Set.
All this and more mark today’s print title announcements, which will be available starting Spring 2026 at physical and online book vendors like Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Amazon, and more, while digital editions 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.
CELEBRATING CREATORS AT AX 2025:
Shugo Chara! 20th Anniversary Edition
By PEACH-PIT
JP Title: しゅごキャラ！ 新装版
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Relive the magic of self-discovery with Amu Hinamori and friends in a refreshed edition of this classic magical-girl manga, featuring new covers, updated translation, and a beautiful color art gallery.
Amu Hinamori is known among her fellow elementary students as a "cool girl" with a spiky personality, but behind closed doors, she's actually extremely shy and wishes she could be brave enough to embrace her feminine, cutesy side. Her wish is granted in the form of three character eggs that hatch into Guardian Characters—mysterious entities that not only encourage her to achieve her potential but can even power her up by granting special abilities. Together with the student council, Amu must use her newfound powers to stop the evil forces feeding on the darkness in people's hearts...
Rated: 13+
Shugo Chara! Jewel Joker
By PEACH-PIT
JP Title: しゅごキャラ！ ジュエルジョーカー
Debut Date: Spring 2026
The magical girl classic finally continues with this sequel manga to Shugo Chara! Amu Hinamori, the Joker Guardian, is a middle schooler now—back with friends and rivals old and new.
Sugar and spice, and everything nice—that may be what girls are made of, but Amu Hinamori is so much cooler, especially now that she's left behind her days at Seiyo Elementary and became a middle schooler! After transferring to Arcana Academy on a special assignment, her role as the Joker Guardian is to intervene in a crisis that is causing students to lose hope and confidence in themselves. But she has another, more important secret mission: to retrieve the all-powerful, mysterious Arcana Jewels.
Rated: 8+
BOX SETS & PREMIUM EDITIONS:
MARS 30th Anniversary Edition
By Fuyumi Soryo
JP Title: ＭＡＲＳ ―マース― 漫画文庫
Debut Date: Spring 2026
The unforgettable classic shojo manga about two young people against the world who overcome their pain by relying on each other returns, in a glittering metallic hardcover with all-new cover illustrations and translation!
Kira's life has been marked by pain. Gang violence took her father when she was young, and her mother's remarriage only inflicted even more appalling scars. She has no trust left to offer the world, so when a ravishingly handsome boy asks her for directions one day, she draws a map and hands it to him without a word. On the other side of the map is one of her drawings, which catches the eye of the boy, a motorcyclist and professional model named Rei. When the two end up in the same class, an outrageous incident will bind them together—Rei promising to model for Kira, in exchange for more of her art. But Rei has also suffered a family tragedy that has worn down his temper to a short, flashing fuse. Can these two damaged souls with nowhere else to turn heal each other, or will they burn themselves out first?
Upon its release in English in 2002, MARS quickly became one of the best-selling shojo manga of all time, on par with Nana. But this beloved classic has been out of print for decades—until now. Kodansha is bringing MARS back for its 35th anniversary with an all-new translation in collectible, 2-in-1 hardcovers featuring glittering metallic covers and new cover illustrations from creator Fuyumi Soryo.
The new edition will be complete in 8 volumes.
Rated: 16+
The Ghost in the Shell Legacy Edition Manga Box Set
By Shirow Masamune
JP Title: 攻殻機動隊
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Every page of the defining work of modern cyberpunk returns in an ultimate, uncensored edition that matches the final Japanese manga, packaged in a box set featuring two brand-new illustrations by creator Shirow Masamune, 11 exclusive posters, and a set of multicolored Fuchikoma robot stickers.
Since debuting in Japan in 1989 and in the West as a monthly comics series in 1995, Shirow Masamune's manga The Ghost in the Shell has become the type species of cyberpunk, with its brain jacks, neural chips, military drones, and optical camo setting the visual standard that would be followed by The Matrix, while its blend of white-hot procedural action and eager intellectual curiosity about the shape of the near future bridged the noir-tinged, American cyberpunk of the 1980s and the globalized, metaphysical stimulation overload that would characterize much of the science fiction of the 21st century.
For decades, the English and Japanese editions of this masterpiece have never quite matched each other. That finally changes with the Legacy Edition, which restores the pages that had been edited in the original The Ghost in the Shell manga. The set also includes the acclaimed Deluxe Edition localization of The Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human Error Processor and The Ghost in the Shell 2.0: Man-Machine Interface. All three are reproduced in a high-quality hardcover, right-to-left manga format, with all the pages included in the latest version currently in print in Japan.
Also included:
- A premium slipcase featuring two brand-new illustrations by original author Shirow Masamune, created specifically for this box.
-
One new piece and ten posters from the rare, limited-edition 1997 Cyberdelics box set, never before released in English, reproduced in new versions featuring a staggering range of special print effects, including etched metallic paper, vinyl stock, and holographic spot gloss.
-
The new, 10-inch-wide posters come rolled (not folded) and packed in a rigid box inside the slipcase for added protection.
-
A set of multicolored Fuchikoma robot stickers, also from Cyberdelics.
-
A double-sided poster with Shirow-sensei's explanation of his artistic process and the poster art, never before translated into English.
Rated: 18+
ACTION / ADVENTURE:
GALAXIAS
By Ao Hatesaka
JP Title: GALAXIAS
Debut Date: Spring 2026
A country girl longing for adventure and a kid with a dragon tail set off on a rip-roaring adventure in this hot new fantasy shonen manga perfect for fans of One Piece, Soul Eater, Fairy Tail, and Gachiakuta.
In a distant corner of the Laniakea Kingdom, humans live alongside powerful beings with strange tails known as dragonfolk. A girl named Jio, whose father has forbidden her from leaving the remote island where they live, yearns to escape the confines of this quiet countryside and explore the world. Everything changes in the moment when Jio meets the mysterious Nereid, who claims to have lost all his memories. The revelations keep coming, as Jio realizes that her father kept her hidden because the whole world is hunting her, setting Jio and Nereid on a path to find the world’s most intrepid explorer, Yuri Holst. Could this living legend be the solution to Jio's problems? Strange lands and uncharted waters await... Let the grand adventure begin!
Rated: 13+
OMORI
By OMOCAT and Nui Konoito
JP Title: OMORI
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Teenage Sunny, a nonverbal shut-in (or hikikomori) dealing with the death of his older sister, leaves the house for the first time in years when his old friend Kel appears suddenly on his doorstep. At the same time, Sunny's dream-world alter ego Omori embarks on a quest with Kel and their friends Aubrey and Hero to search for Basil, a missing member of their group. Together the party must navigate the perils of this strange world, as well as their complicated feelings and repressed memories, to move forward and find what they've lost...!
Rated: 13+
Fruit of the Underworld
By Aya Kanno
JP Title: 冥王の柘榴
Debut Date: Spring 2026
One Bite and You Can Never Go Back
Ever since the day Seiji climbed down a creepy dark well as a kid to retrieve a wayward ball and picked up an odd-looking pomegranate, he’s had to dodge an unending stream of near-fatal “accidents” that push everyone around him away—except for his best friend Haru. But all that changes when their high school bus crashes, killing everybody on board but Seiji. Suddenly, rumors from his childhood about that fateful well reaching into the depths of the underworld take on a whole new light, and Seiji is launched into an epic adventure to save his friend—and his own soul.
The journey into the underworld of Greek legend as never seen before begins in this darkly thrilling action-adventure, perfect for fans of Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, Chainsaw Man, and Bleach!
Rated: 13+
Wicked Spot
By Sal Jiang
JP Title: ウィキッドスポット
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Selfies + Spells = Wickedly Sweet Seduction!
After spending over a century hiding in the shadows, powerful sorceress Sadako stumbles upon the dazzling world of social media and decides to post her way into her first real contact with humanity. She soon becomes an internet sensation, attracting a huge following of doting fans—and shocks them all by announcing she is a witch. The big reveal turns one follower called Hanako, a lonely young woman with seemingly inhuman strength and a curious resistance to magic, into a dedicated hater, and inadvertently sends them both on a whirlwind adventure beyond their wildest dreams!
From popular yuri author Sal Jiang comes a fun, sexy, and free-spirited tale of modern-day magic!
Rated: 16+
Drawing From Your Memory
By Shiki Kawabata
JP Title: 世界で一番早い春
Debut Date: Spring 2026
A poignant and funny time-skip manga about grief, art, and love, like Orange meets Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, from the creator behind the Netflix miniseries Switched. Complete in five volumes.
Mahoro Haruta is a manga artist whose first series became a huge bestseller. Her publisher expects her sophomore effort to be even better. There's just one problem: Mahoro has no idea what to draw next, because she plagiarized the story that skyrocketed her to stardom from a high school classmate named Yukishima, who shared a few precious months with Mahoro in the school's manga club before passing away and leaving her his notebook filled with all his story ideas. When, after a strange encounter, Mahoro wakes up ten years in the past—around the time of her first meeting with Yukishima—she realizes this could be her chance to redeem herself, erase her regrets, and maybe even save Yukishima’s life...
Rated: 13+
ROMANCE & COMEDIES:
Love at First Memory
By Narumi Hasegaki
JP Title: 俺ともう一度、初恋。
Debut Date: Spring 2026
An heiress battling amnesia must piece together which of her four suitors ultimately stole her heart in this upbeat, self-aware reverse harem romcom manga from the creator of Boss Bride Days!
Mia Takanashi, heiress to the famed Takanashi Group, has had the world at her feet since birth. With the future of the company to think about, deciding on a marriage partner early would have its advantages. However, just as Mia set her heart on one of several charming suitors, amnesia from a freak car accident sets her back to square one! Four wildly different boys appear before her, claiming to be her intended fiancé, but which one of them did Mia ultimately choose? She may just have to fall in love all over again to find out!
Rated: 16+
Kirio Fan Club
By Chikyu no Osakana Ponchan
JP Title: 霧尾ファンクラブ
Debut Date: Spring 2026
What would you do if your crush had ear-splitting farts?
For Aimi and Nami, the answer is to cry tears of joy for being able to pinpoint at a distance the object of their affections, Kirio, from a single toot. These are the kinds of deep, philosophical questions the two friends/rivals in romance pose to each other to prove their love for this boy who hardly seems to know they exist. That won’t stop them from conducting nightly rituals to entice him into their dreams, though, or listing out what exactly they like about him, down to the very last organ. But when push comes to shove, will they choose their hilarious friendship over a shot at love?
Get ready for a rip-roaring romcom about the friendship behind what is fair in love and war! A must-read for fans of Nichijou and City!
Rated: 13+
Hitting Rewind With You
By Hanamaru Kira
JP Title: おくれまして青春
Debut Date: Spring 2026
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!
Rated: 13+
Love Out on a Limb
By Yoko Nogiri
JP Title: 僕らの好きはわりきれない
Debut Date: Spring 2026
From the acclaimed shojo creator of Those Not-So-Sweet Boys, Love in Focus, and That Wolf-Boy Is Mine! comes a new high school manga filled with taboo thoughts and curiosities. This love triangle is not so simple!
After her divorced parents remarry, Yui returns to her hometown for the first time in eight years. She has not seen her older brother, Hayato, during that time, so she is amazed to see how popular and grown-up he has become. She also bumps into her childhood friend, Ritsu, who she remembers as a crybaby, and almost doesn't recognize him. Now living with her brother again, she can't help but notice her heart fluttering with each interaction. Does this mean she might like him?! Knowing how taboo these thoughts are, Ritsu suggests he and Yui date as a way to nip her feelings for Hayato in the bud. Yet this family tree may not actually be as simple as it seems…
Rated: 16+
Perfectly Fine on My Own, So My Fiancé Can Twist in the Wind
By Jun Hareta, Original Story by Yahiro Arase
JP Title: おひとり様には慣れましたので婚約者放置中！
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Who needs love? I’m perfectly fine on my own!
Noble young lady Nicole has had her heart broken more times than she can count. Her fiancé Keios is so devoted to Princess Caroline, his childhood friend and the unrivalled belle of their aristocratic academy, that he seems to forget Nicole even exists. But no longer. Tired of waiting around and conforming to Keios’ needs, Nicole makes a most liberating decision: I’ll give up on love and go it alone. Her arranged marriage may be unavoidable, but that doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy her own life, right? Emboldened and excited, Nicole begins to shine as she never had before—so brightly, in fact, that even the clueless Keios can’t help but notice…
Rated: 16+
Yuri & BL:
Marrying the Dark Knight (For Her Money)
By Sometime Suoh
JP Title: 崖っぷち令嬢は黒騎士様を惚れさせたい
Debut Date: Spring 2026
How far would you go to save your family? Clarice is of noble birth, but her father is choking on debts, and her sick sister needs treatment or she'll die. There's only one thing to do: marry the Dark Knight, a terrifying beast-like warrior who always appears in armor. But could it be that, underneath the Dark Knight's armor, she (!!) is really something very different? Don't miss this new enemies-to-lovers(?) dark fantasy rom-com yuri manga!
Clarice's younger sister is her whole world. In a world of monsters, born into a noble family that's gone broke, there's nothing Clarice wouldn't do for her. So when she gets sick, and there's only one way to save her, Clarice doesn't blink! She agrees to an arranged marriage with the Dark Knight, a ferocious warrior who goes everywhere in magical armor—even their wedding! Afterward, Clarice is ready to consummate the marriage and charm her new spouse into paying to save her sister's life. There's just one problem: The Dark Knight won't let her into the bedroom! And Clarice finally finds out why...she's secretly a woman! With female knights forbidden, the Knight seriously lacking in social graces, a household full of servants scared out of their wits, and monster fights breaking out constantly, Clarice realizes that this wedding of convenience is going to be more inconvenient than she bargained for!
Rated: 16+
Voices in the Sea Foam
By Kotaro
JP Title: 泡沫の声を聴いて
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Can true love break a curse crossing lifetimes?
For years, Aito thought he was just a normal kid—until the day he fell in love with a boy at school. Suddenly, a flood of memories come rushing back, reminding him of his first life as the tragic little mermaid who risked everything for her prince, only to fade away into foam. But memories aren’t all that Aito inherits, as a mysterious power wrenches away his ability to speak or stand before his crush without agonizing pain. Ever since, Aito has sworn off love in self-defense, but a fateful encounter with his charming college classmate Toru might just irrevocably shake up his world…
Rated: 16+
Blue Summer Haze
By Dondon
JP Title: 青と陽炎
Debut Date: Spring 2026
A baseball diamond, a love triangle, and two catchers with their eyes on the same pitcher bring the heat in this baseball BL perfect for fans of Nagisa Furuya and Ema Toyama!
Makoto’s favorite childhood memories are of playing baseball with his best friend and former teammate Shuusuke, the catcher of his baseball team. When Shuusuke suddenly moves away, Makoto is left devastated, but clings to the promise of the two of them someday reuniting at Koshien Stadium. Now in high school, Makoto is the star pitcher of his high school’s baseball team, and he and Hokuto, the team’s catcher, are an all-star duo. But one day, Shuusuke suddenly transfers to Makoto’s school, and now baseball isn’t the only thing on the boys’ minds under the scorching heat of the baseball diamond…
Rated: 16+
What If I Said, "I Love You"?
By Kumosoku
JP Title: 俺が好きって言ったらどうする？
Debut Date: Spring 2026
A friends to lovers, first love BL, perfect for fans of My Summer of You, My Ultramarine Sky, and Love on the Horizon!
Kazuho and Tokio have been best friends since elementary school. As the years went on, Kazuho realized his feelings for Tokio were more than just friends, and he began pulling away from Tokio, desperate to keep his feelings a secret. While once close enough to give each other piggyback rides, the two boys, now high school students, pass each other in the hallway as the distance grows between them. But when Kazuho can’t keep his feelings hidden from Tokio any longer, will the two friends only continue to drift apart, or will it be the start to them experiencing the feelings of first love together?
Rated: 16+
Smells Like Green Spirit
By Saburo Nagai
JP Title: スメルズ ライク グリーン スピリット
Debut Date: Spring 2026
Peeking in Pandora’s box is not for the faint of heart.
Viciously bullied for being gay, junior high schooler Mishima struggles to belong in his hopelessly rural hometown. In fact, the only time he really feels alive is when he dolls himself up with a stolen tube of his single-mother’s lipstick. But that pocket of joy is forever changed when he loses the lipstick, only to find soccer team ace Kirino, one of Mishima’s worst tormenters, trying it on in secret on their school roof. So begins a bittersweet summer of searching for a place where the two can be their true selves, but Pandora’s box is not always so easily opened…
Rated: 16+
Honey Bee & Lemon Balm
By Jil Hashikura
JP Title: ミツバチとレモンバーム
Debut Date: Spring 2026
A former yakuza falls fast and hard for the delicate florist who sets him on the right path in this quirky and heartfelt BL manga!
Kaoru Mitsuya has all but given up on living a meaningful life. Ensnared at a young age by the temptations of organized crime, he has neither a penny to his name nor anything he holds truly dear. It is at this lowest point that he encounters Yuichiro Shirouzu—a delicately beautiful florist with a secret or two hidden beneath his kind demeanor. When Yuichiro offers Kaoru a job at his nighttime flower shop, it marks a turning point for Kaoru, both in how he lives his life, and whom he wishes to spend it with…
Rated: 16+