Dark Horse Comics’ manga imprint has announced this week that it is planning two new manga releases in July 2025 — a hardcover deluxe edition of Makoto Yukimura’s Planetes and an omnibus volume for Yasuhiro Nightow’s Blood Blockade Battlefront.
The Planetes Deluxe Edition Book One compiles the first half of Yukimura’s hard science fiction manga series in a 7″ x 10″ hardcover on high-quality paper. It also includes 44 full-color art pages on special gloss stock, with the front and back covers also featuring debossed patterns that provide a tactile effect. The book will also have metallic gilding on the page edges and contain 528 total pages.
The deluxe edition manga will be available in bookstores on July 29, 2025, and comic shops on July 30, 2025. Yuki Johnson is credited as the manga’s English translator.
Yukimura serialized the manga series in Kodansha’s Morning magazine from January 1999 to January 2004. Four tankobon volumes were released in total. The series also inspired a 26-episode TV anime adaptation from Sunrise between 2003 to 2004.
Dark Horse Manga describes the main synopsis of Planetes as:
In 2075, working-class astronauts live an unglamorous and dangerous life. The Moon and Mars are both populated, with people living in challenging conditions. But for some, space is still an epic adventure, as plans take shape for the first-ever crewed voyage to Jupiter. The goal of navigating to the gas giant is harvesting much-needed helium-3 from its atmosphere, opening up the entire solar system to humanity.
Astronaut Hachimaki “Hachi” Hoshino dreams of breaking out from his famous father’s shadow and joining the Jupiter mission. For him, being an astronaut is about cleaning up space, not exploring its vastness. Aboard the DS-12 Toy Box, Hoshino is joined by pilot Fee and fellow crewmate Yuri. Their task is clearing a hundred years of debris circling the world at eight kilometers per second. Amidst a dangerous and unappreciated job, Planetes reveals that the lives of those who fly amongst the stars are filled with the drama of family, romance, and ambition.
Dark Horse is also releasing a new paperback omnibus volume for Nightow’s Blood Blockade Battlefront. The first omnibus volume collects the original manga’s first three volumes and “E-Den of Master Fighters” from volume four. The new release features lettering by Studio Cutie and English translation by Matthew Johnson.
The 672-page omnibus will be available in bookstores and comic shops on July 15, 2025.
Nightow first launched the manga in Shueisha’s Jump Square magazine from January 5, 2009 to March 4, 2009. It was then serialized again in the quarterly magazine Jump SQ.19 from May 19, 2010 to February 19, 2015. Ten tankobon volumes were released in total.
Two new sequels based on the first manga series followed soon after, with Blood Blockade Battlefront: Back 2 Back being published from July 2015 to April 2022 and Blood Blockade Battlefront: Beat 3 Peat, which has been serialized since October 26, 2022.
The manga inspired a TV anime adaptation that released two seasons in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Two OVAs for each season were also produced.
Dark Horse Manga describes the main synopsis of Blood Blockade Battlefront as:
Hellsalem’s Lot, once known as New York City, is a magical city trapped inside an impenetrable bubble. The powerful barrier keeps an onslaught of mystical and mythical monsters from wreaking havoc across the rest of the world after a breach between Earth and the Beyond forced all inside creatures to coexist. Those locked in the city must rely on stylish super humans to keep the peace and ensure their survival. Someone is threatening to sever the bubble and let chaos rip through the rest of the world. One young man with special eyes is determined to stand up and protect the world!
Source: Dark Horse Comics Official Twitter, Dark Horse Official Website
