Plus ‘Call of the Night’ Sequel, Manga Adaptation of ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’
VIZ Media rolled out a set of new license announcements on social media on February 20 that included a new Apothecary Diaries manga, new manga by well known creators, and new boxed sets of Jujutsu Kaisen, One Piece,and My Hero Academia. Here’s a look at the new announcements:
The Apothecary Diaries: Maomao’s Notes on the Inner Palace, story by Hyuganatsu, art by Minoji Kurata, and character design by Touko Shino: This manga, the story of a young woman trained in herbal medicine who is a servant in the inner court of a fictionalized Imperial China, is adapted from a series of novels. Square Enix publishes both the novels and a different manga adaptation, so why is VIZ picking up a second series that tells the same story? Because it’s popular! The first volume of the Square Enix version was one of the top-selling manga through ComicHub in 2025 (see “Top 20 Manga in Comic Stores – Full Year 2025”), and BookScan’s Kristen McLean picked the series as one of the fastest growing manga series of the year (see “Fastest Growing Series”). Sales took off shortly after the anime premiered on Crunchyroll and Netflix in late 2023, and the series has been a consistent best-seller ever since. VIZ is betting that fans can’t get enough, and their offering is sufficiently different from Square Enix’s that they may be right. VIZ’s first volume is 384 pages, which suggests a two-in-one format, and will be released on October 20, 2026, with an MSRP of $22.99.
Box Sets: VIZ also announced a complete boxed set of Jujutsu Kaisen that will include the 30-volume series as well as Volume 0 and a double-sided poster. The set will be released on October 27 with an MSRP of $370.00. Other newly announced boxed sets include My Hero Academia Box Set 2, with the final 22 volumes of Koehei Horikoshi’s series plus an exclusive 48-page booklet and poster; the Black Torch Complete Box Set, with all five volumes plus a poster; and One Piece Box Set 5, containing Vols. 91 to 111. In addition, VIZ will re-release the popular shojo series Yona of the Dawn in a 3-in-1 omnibus format.
The Amazing Digital Circus, by Glitch Productions and Gooseworx, with art by Sakura: This is an adaptation of the Australian animated webseries of the same name, in which a group of people are trapped inside a glitchy circus-themed virtual reality game. Glitch Productions is the company behind Murder Drones (see “‘Murder Drones’ Heads to Comic Shops”) and this series has a similarly surreal vibe. The first volume will go on sale on September 8 with an MSRP of $11.99.
Call of the Night: Paradise Arc, by Kotoyama: A bonus volume that follows up the 20-volume seinen vampire romance with a one-shot detailing what happened to all the characters after the story ended. The 192-page paperback will be released on December 8 with an MSRP of $11.99.
IMAGE_5}Heroes, by Inio Asano: Asano is best known for his moody, character-driven stories such as Solanin and Goodnight Punpun, as well as the psychological horror story Nijigahara Holograph; Abrams will publish a collection of his early short stories, Before Dawn and the End of the World, later this year (see “New Manga by Inio Asano”). Heroes is Asano’s take on the fantasy quest genre, following a group of heroes who come together to fight a threat to their kingdom but are perhaps not entirely heroic. The interior is printed in black, white, and red, and the 176-page one-shot will go on sale on November 17 with an MSRP of $17.99.
Witching Hour, by Paru Itagaki: Itagaki is the creator of the anthropomorphic high school drama Beastarsand the horror manga Drip Drip, both from VIZ, as well as Sanda, published by Titan Comics. With a distinctive art style and imaginative premises, she has built a solid fanbase. Witching Hour is a supernatural story about a married woman who has an affair with a ghost; the first volume is slated for October 20 with an MSRP of $14.99.
Sound of a Blink, by Shuzo Oshimi: Oshimi writes intimate, often dark, stories such as Blood on the Tracks, The Flowers of Evil, and Happiness (all published by Kodansha). Sound of a Blink a memoir that delves into his relationship with his younger brother, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor while Oshimi was in college. The first volume will be released on September 15 with an MSRP of $16.99.
And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie, adapted by Aya Nikaido: This is the first manga adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel to be published in English, and it’s a good choice, a story set on an island where one person after another turns up dead.
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