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Kodansha announces English-first publication of BLOOD BLADE

San Diego Comic-Con heats up with great news as Kodansha announced yesterday its digital and English-first release of BLOOD BLADE. The manga series will be released free digitally starting in the fall, with free chapters until the volume’s collected release.

The series by Oma Sei is the publisher’s first-ever release to be in English first before other territories. Chapters will be available exclusively for Kodansha Reader Portal account holders. After the free period, the manga will be collected in physical form next spring.

About the BLOOD BLADE Release

At their industry panel at Comic-Con International today, Kodansha USA unveiled, for the first time in the world, an all-original manga series by Japanese creator Oma Sei, to be published first in English, titled BLOOD BLADE. A thrilling action-adventure saga about Count Dracula reborn and on the run from an organization that is capturing and using weapons of monstrous destruction, BLOOD BLADE will have its world premiere in Fall 2023 on kodansha.us, with new content serialized weekly and available for free to Kodansha Reader Portal account holders. Episodes will be free until the release of the collected volume. After the exciting web-only run, BLOOD BLADE will also be available in print starting Spring 2024 and distributed by Penguin Random House.

BLOOD BLADE is an all-new kind of manga publishing effort, in which Kodansha premieres the works of an outstanding Japanese talent like Oma Sei to a worldwide English-reading audience first,” says Alvin Lu, Kodansha USA Publishing President & CEO. “And we are inviting anyone to jump right into this manga series by offering each exciting new episode of BLOOD BLADE free for a limited time at the new Kodansha Reader Portal.”
BLOOD BLADE was heavily inspired by classic horror films and dramas,” says Oma Sei, BLOOD BLADE series creator. “Though it is filled with vampires, golems, and mummies, many of these monsters have waned in popularity since their heyday on the silver screen. Monsters that once inspired terror in humans have been left behind by the passage of time, to the point that one might call them an endangered species. In writing this series, I aim to bring the spotlight back onto these monsters of yore.”


In the world of BLOOD BLADECount Dracula is reborn as a katana-wielding young vampiress in a new, never-before-seen action manga set in a gritty, alternate-history Europe. Fans of cinematic, gory, supernatural alternate histories, like Vampire Hunter DHellsing, and Vampire in the Garden, will want to sink their fangs into BLOOD BLADE.

After the reincarnated Dracula rescues a girl named Clara from a mysterious stranger, Clara explains that she is the creation of a certain Victor Frankenstein. She also reveals that she is fleeing from an organization called Cerberus, which seeks to capture and study “monsters” such as herself in order to create an army of human-monster hybrids. Clara begs the vampiress to flee with her to an island of monsters. 

The new Kodansha Reader Portal allows new and existing manga fans to read and buy digital manga with greater ease, sample extended previews of hundreds of Kodansha series, take advantage of exclusive discounts, and much more. To experience the full benefits of becoming a Kodansha Reader, visit kodansha.us and sign up for a free account today!

While BLOOD BLADE won’t be available until this fall, you can check out tons of digital Kodansha manga through the K-Manga app. If you’re looking for some other Kodansha recommendations, you can also check out a manga minis column with a couple of cool titles. We definitely can’t wait for more news to come out of San Diego Comic-Con! Stay tuned for more manga updates here on Miso.

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Katamaris

During the day, Elisha is an aspiring businessman, but at night, he's a wacky freelance writer. Born into the world with a fleeting knowledge of rhythm games, he loves shonen manga and still wants Pushing Daisies to have some closure. For any manga/anime/video game inquiries, please contact him at edeograc (at) gmail.com
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