How many editions of Hokuto no Ken are there?

One manga, at least seven Japanese editions, and the count is the easy part.

Hokuto no Ken has been kept in print for forty years by repackaging it. Shueisha, which first published it, issued the original 27 Jump Comics volumes (1984 to 1989), then a 15-volume hardcover aizōban (1991 to 1992) and a matching 15-volume bunkoban paperback set (1997 to 1998). After editor Nobuhiko Horie founded Coamix in 2000 and the rights followed him, other publishers took turns: Shinchosha’s 31-volume Bunch World set (2001 to 2002), a 12-volume convenience-store edition from Tokuma Shoten (2004), and Shogakukan’s 14-volume kanzenban (2006).

The edition that matters most to collectors of the art is the last full one: Tokuma Shoten’s Kyūkyokuban, the Ultimate Edition, eighteen volumes published from September 2013 to July 2014 for the thirtieth anniversary. It restores the serialization’s original color pages like the kanzenban, keeps the tankōbon’s added art, and wraps every volume in a new cover painted by Tetsuo Hara. Volume 11 also carries Last Piece, a new chapter Buronson and Hara made in 2014, set in a gap in the original story.

Cover of Hokuto no Ken Kyukyokuban (Ultimate Edition) volume 11, Kenshiro with the horse Kokuoh — **THE ULTIMATE EDITION**Kyūkyokuban vol. 11: the 18-volume Ultimate Edition (2013–14) is the most elaborate of the seven-plus Japanese editions the manga has had.

THE JAPANESE EDITIONS

Counted from publisher records

Jump Comics · 27 volumes · 1984–89

The original tankōbon, Shueisha. ISBN block 4-08-851661-3 through 4-08-851680-X for volumes 1 to 20, then 4-08-851824-1 through 4-08-851830-6 for volumes 21 to 27. The covers in this archive’s gallery are these books.

Aizōban · 15 volumes · 1991–92

Shueisha’s hardcover collector’s edition of the 1990s, compressing 27 volumes into 15 larger books.

Bunkoban · 15 volumes · 1997–98

The pocket paperback counterpart, Shueisha Bunko imprint: the same fifteen-volume division in a commuter format.

Bunch World · 31 volumes · 2001–02

Shinchosha’s re-division under Coamix license, published alongside the launch of Weekly Comic Bunch and the Fist of the Blue Sky prequel.

Kanzenban · 14 volumes · 2006

Shogakukan, Big Comics Selection. The first edition to restore the water-colored opening pages from the Weekly Shōnen Jump serialization and almost all of the original chapter openings earlier editions dropped.

Kyūkyokuban · 18 volumes · 2013–14

Tokuma Shoten, Zenon Comics DX. New Hara cover paintings, the kanzenban’s restored color pages, light art touch-ups, and the new Last Piece chapter in volume 11. This is the edition Viz adapted for its English hardcovers.

WHICH EDITION IS WHICH, AT A GLANCE

Publisher is the tell

Shueisha on the spine

Jump Comics, aizōban or bunkoban: everything from the first era, 1984 to 1998, came from the original publisher.

Shogakukan on the spine

Only the kanzenban. Fourteen volumes, 2006, the color-page restoration.

Tokuma Shoten on the spine

The Kyūkyokuban Ultimate Edition, 2013 to 2014, and the earlier 12-volume convenience-store set of 2004.

How many editions of Hokuto no Ken are there?

THE JAPANESE EDITIONS

WHICH EDITION IS WHICH, AT A GLANCE

THE FIRST WORD