The SOJ Library

What is the City Hunter XYZ edition?

Five Japanese editions of the same 35 volumes, and the anniversary one is named for the code word.

City Hunter has lived in print almost continuously since 1986, in five distinct Japanese editions. The originals are the 35 Jump Comics volumes (1986 to 1992). Shueisha followed with a compact bunkoban in 18 volumes (June 1996 to October 1997), and a 39-volume edition appeared under the Bunch World banner in 2001 to 2002 as the story’s readership migrated to Hojo’s new magazine.

The collector’s editions came from Tokuma Shoten. The Complete Edition (December 2003 to April 2005) republished the run in a larger format across 32 volumes, plus three extra volumes lettered X, Y and Z: X and Y are illustration collections, Z gathers short works and one-shots. It restored title pages and reproduced the magazine colour pages the tankobon era had printed in black and white.

For the 30th anniversary, Tokuma’s Zenon Comics DX line issued the XYZ edition: the whole run in 12 volumes (July to December 2015), named for the code on the Shinjuku Station board. In 2019 Coamix answered again with the 29-volume Zenon Selection, timed to the French live-action film.

The anniversary DVD

“Ryo’s Proposal”

A chapter, animated at last

Buyers who collected all twelve XYZ volumes could claim a DVD of “Ryo’s Proposal”: a new motion-graphic anime adapting a chapter from Angel Heart, voiced by the original cast, produced with Kamikaze Douga.

XYZ on stage

Takarazuka, 2021

The code word travels: the Takarazuka Revue staged City Hunter as a musical in 2021 under the title Nusumareta XYZ, “The Stolen XYZ”.

XYZ in a box

The 2026 collector’s edition

The remastered game’s top tier is the XYZ Collector’s Edition: the code word is now the franchise’s own word for its finest edition.

City Hunter in English

The long refusal

The 1980s and 1990s

English publishers courted the series early and failed, in part because Hojo insisted his pages be printed right-to-left, as drawn, at a time when Western editions were routinely flipped.

Gutsoon! and Raijin

2002 to 2004

Coamix’s American arm serialised City Hunter in Raijin Comics (46 issues) and collected just five volumes before folding: for two decades, that fragment was the English City Hunter.

The complete English edition

Kana, from September 2025

Abrams ComicArts’ Kana imprint finally brought the whole run West in omnibus form: 3-in-1 volumes, a new translation, and colour insert pages, from September 2025. A digital English edition had already run on Coamix’s MangaHot from 2022.

The City Hunter shelf

The City Hunter Manga Gallery

The original 35, documented.

What does XYZ mean?

The code word itself.

How can you tell a first printing?

Reading the original Jump Comics printings.