Date: 2025 March 31 20:06
Posted by Joe
Kodansha USA have announced that Volume 1 of Yuki Urushibara's Mushishi manga is now available for pre-order from all good book retailers. The fantasy manga will be released in a hardcover omnibus edition which includes Japanese Volumes 1 and 2. It also features a completely original translation and new cover designs. It'll be released on 4th November 2025. It'll retail at $29.99 (USD). ISBN 9798888776346.
The Mushishi manga was originally published in English by Del Rey between 2007 and 2010. The manga has long been out of print and as a result became desirable for manga collecting fans. This in turn inflated the price, with a complete collection of the manga being listed for over $1,000 for the whole 10 volume set. It often featured in top 10 lists of most expensive out of print manga titles. Although physical copies of the manga were unavailable, you can still purchase digital editions legally from eBook stores such as Amazon's Kindle store.
There's also a truly excellent anime adaptation (which in turn created interest for the manga), which is currently on Crunchyroll.
It's set in old world Japan, some time between the Edo and Meiji periods, in a world where mushi fungal like spirits manifest with supernatural powers. Sometimes they can curse those who encounter them, other times they can benefit them. The story follows the adventures of Ginko, a travelling Mushi master (almost like a medicine man), who will go from village to village and help the locals or investigate issues around mushi. It's a laid back series, with some horror elements in (especially for those who don't take Ginko's advice). It's a thoroughly enjoyable series and worth your time.
You can pre-order the manga from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk or at any other good book seller.
Full Story
Details as follows:
Mushishi Collector's Edition 1
By Yuki Urushibara
Hardcover $29.99
Published by Kodansha Comics
Nov 04, 2025
5-3/4 x 8-3/16
ISBN 9798888776346
About Mushishi Collector's Edition 1
The beloved fantasy manga returns in a hardcover omnibus edition featuring a completely original translation and new cover designs.
Before life as we know it, there existed entities that don't obey the laws of our reality-primordial beings known as mushi. In Japan, a man named Ginko wanders the land, investigating incursions by mushi into the human world-and by us into theirs. He is a mushi master...a mushi-shi.
Includes Japanese volumes 1-2.
Though invisible to most, tiny creatures known as mushi lurk beneath the surface of everyday reality. They exert a strange and occasionally terrifying influence on people's lives, and only experts known as mushishi carry the knowledge of how to deal with them. A mushishi named Ginko wanders the Japanese countryside, following rumors of various unusual occurences: a young man who dreams the future; a child with horns growing from his forehead; a boy with the power to write creatures into being; and more...
Upon its release in the 2000s, Mushishi earned global acclaim for its poetic episodic storytelling and delicate, beautiful artwork, winning the Japan Media Arts Prize, selection as a Best Manga by the Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs, and recommendation as a top read for teens by the American Library Association. The series inspired two TV anime adaptations in 2005 and 2014 and a live-action film directed by the legendary Katsuhiro Otomo, creator of AKIRA. Unfortunately, after being out of print for 15 years, English copies of Mushishi became as elusive as the strange creatures that populate its pages-until now.
Kodansha's new edition of Mushishi features an all-new translation and lettering, and beautiful color pages and cover illustrations never seen in the U.S. before.