From San Diego Comic-Con Kodansha Unveils Spring 2026 New Manga Licenses
Kodansha Announces New Print Manga Licenses for Spring 2026
Just announced at Comic-Con International San Diego 2025—Kodansha 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Rated: 10+
Blue Lock Omnibus
Story by Muneyuki Kaneshiro
Illustrated by Yusuke Nomura
JP Title: ブルーロック
Debut Date: Spring 2026
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!
Rated: 16+
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
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.
Rated: 16+
ACTION & ADVENTURE:
DRAGON CIRCUS
Story by Eiichi Shimizu
Illustrated by Tomohiro Shimoguchi
JP Title: DRAGON CIRCUS
Debut Date: Spring 2026
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...!
Rated: 13+
Stella Must Die
Story by Yasunori Mitsunaga
Illustrated by Ine Ohtaka
JP Title: 絶対死なないステラ姫
Debut Date: Spring 2026
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!
Rated: 16+
Magical Karina
By Coyuri Tono
JP Title: まじかるカリナ
Debut Date: Spring 2026
A funny and heartfelt action manga that puts a poignant new spin on the magical girl formula, perfect for fans of Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura.
Karina never asked to be a magical girl! In fact, not even a few hours have passed since her dear grandmother's sudden death when a boy meets her in the street and calls on her to transform. But how can a sarcastic teenager from a working-class family juggle her grief, her schoolwork, her waitressing job, and fighting death itself?
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?
Rated: 13+
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
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...?
Rated: 16+
That's Not Love
By Peko Watanabe
JP Title: 恋じゃねえから
Debut Date: Spring 2026
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?
Rated: 18+
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
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.
Rated: 16+
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
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?
Rated: 16+
Chi's Sweet France
Story by Konami Kanata
Illustrated by Catherine Bouvier
JP Title: ＣＨＩ ＥＮ ＦＲＡＮＣＥ ～『チーズスイートホーム』フランス版～
Debut Date: Spring 2026
A coda that picks up exactly where the main series left off: with Chi & Family in Paris.
Chi & her human family have moved to Paris but, even before the boxes are unpacked, relocate to 'burbs just so the cat may still venture outdoors.
Rated: 8+