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Drawn & Quarterly Licenses Sanpei Shirato's The Legend of Kamuy Manga for 1st English Release

North American publishing company Drawn & Quarterly has licensed Sanpei Shirato's original 1964 manga The Legend of Kamuy (Kamui Den) for the first time in English. The series will be available in 10 volumes, with the first volume shipping in fall 2024. Dr. Richard Rubinger is translating the manga to English, and manga scholar Ryan Holmberg is editing.

The manga's story follows Kamuy, a rogue ninja who tries to free himself from the iron fist of his own clan and that of society as a whole in feudal Japan.

Shirato published the Kamui Den manga from 1964 to 1971 as a launch title in Shogakukan's Monthly Manga Garo magazine. Shirato played a major role in the formation of the avant-garde magazine.

Shirato then published the Kamui Gaiden spinoff manga in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine from 1965 to 1967, and continued the manga later in 1982-1987. Viz Media released the Kamui Gaiden spinoff in English under the title The Legend of Kamui. The spinoff inspired the 1969 Ninpu Kamui Gaiden television anime as well as a 2009 live-action film.

Shirato's brother Tetsuji Okamoto drew the Kamui Den Da Ni-bu manga, which serves as the second part of the original Kamui Den manga. Kamui Den Da Ni-bu ran from 1988 to 2000 and had 22 volumes. Shirato and Okamoto worked on this manga together. Okamoto also drew the Kamui Gaiden: Saikai manga, which launched in 2009 and ran for three chapters. Shirato handled the composition for the manga.

Source: ICv2 (Brigid Alverson)