How can you tell a first printing of Tokyo Ghoul?

Read the colophon. On a Shueisha book the last printed page, not the barcode, tells you the printing.

Japanese tankōbon carry a colophon (奥付) at the back: a block of small type giving the title, author, publisher, the issue date and the printing number. A first printing says so there, in the form 第1刷発行 (first printing, issued) with its date. Later printings increment the number while the book otherwise looks the same.

Two consequences matter for Tokyo Ghoul. First, the ISBN does not change between printings of a Shueisha volume, so an ISBN can identify an edition but never a first printing. Second, the issue date in a first printing’s colophon sits close to, but not always exactly on, the release date: volume 1 was released February 17, 2012, and its first-printing colophon is the document to check against that date. Belly bands (obi) are supporting evidence only: they were printed for the season of release, so an obi advertising the 2014 anime on an early volume already marks a later printing.

THE CHECKS, IN ORDER

For any volume on this shelf

1 · Open the back

Find the colophon page. It is the last printed page of the book, after the final chapter and any afterword.

2 · Read the printing line

第1刷 means first printing; 第2刷, 第3刷 and onward are reprints. The date beside it is the printing’s issue date.

3 · Ignore the ISBN for this

The ISBN is shared by every printing of the edition. Use it to confirm the edition (see the galleries), not the printing.

4 · Weigh the obi

A surviving obi that matches the book’s launch season supports an early printing; one advertising later media contradicts it. Obi are detachable, so they corroborate, never prove.

How can you tell a first printing of Tokyo Ghoul?

THE CHECKS, IN ORDER

THE FIRST WORD