is a Japanese

dark fantasy Dark fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporate disturbing and frightening themes of fantasy. It often combines fantasy with elements of horror or has a gloomy dark tone or a sense of horror and dr ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written by

Takaya Kagami is a Japanese light novel and manga writer. Some of his major works include ''The Legend of the Legendary Heroes'', ''A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives'' and ''Seraph of the End'', which have been adapted into anime series. Works * ''The Legend of t ...

and illustrated by

Yamato Yamamoto is a Japanese manga artist most notable for providing the illustrations for the Kentarō Katayama's light novel series ''Kure-nai'', as well as creating the related manga. Yamamoto has also been the illustrator for the manga series ''Seraph ...

with storyboards by Daisuke Furuya. The series is set in a world that allegedly comes to an end at the hands of a "human-made" virus, ravaging the global populace and leaving only children under the age of thirteen untouched. It is at this time that

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

s emerge from the recesses of the earth, likely followed by age-old horrors of the dark thought only to be myth. A young man named Yūichirō Hyakuya joins a vampire extermination unit to avenge the deaths of his orphaned family and reclaim his childhood best friend Mikaela from the vampires. It started publishing in

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

's ''

Jump SQ , also written as , is a Japanese monthly '' shōnen'' manga magazine. Published by Shueisha, the magazine premiered on November 2, 2007 as a replacement for ''Monthly Shōnen Jump'', another manga anthology that Shueisha discontinued in June of t ...

'' in September 2012. An

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

adaptation by

Wit Studio (stylised as WIT STUDIO) is a Japanese animation studio founded on June 1, 2012, by producers at Production I.G as a subsidiary of IG Port. It is headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, with Production I.G producer George Wada as president and Te ...

was broadcast in two cours. The first cour aired from April to June 2015. The second cour aired from October to December 2015. A series of

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

s focused on Yu's superior, Guren Ichinose, has been written by Kagami and illustrated by Yamamoto. In North America,

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

licensed the series for an English language release, and it ran in ''

Weekly Shonen Jump Weekly, The Weekly, or variations, may refer to: News media * ''Weekly'' (news magazine), an English-language national news magazine published in Mauritius *Weekly newspaper, any newspaper published on a weekly schedule *Alternative newspaper, als ...

''. The anime series was licensed by

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

. It was later broadcast in the United Kingdom on

Viceland Viceland (stylized in all caps), and Vice TV in the United States, are brands used for television channels owned and programmed by Vice Media. Viceland launched on February 29, 2016, with two branded cable channels; the American version (rebra ...

in February 2018.

Plot

In 2012, the world allegedly comes to an end at the hands of a "man-made" virus, ravaging the global populace and leaving only children under the age of thirteen untouched. At the same time, the vampires emerge from the recesses of the earth, likely followed by age-old horrors of the dark thought only to be myth. They sweep the earth and claim it in a single violent stroke, subjugating the remnants of humanity and leading them beneath the surface to safety. This "protection" comes at the price of "donating" blood to their captors, not knowing that they are vampires. At the age of twelve, Yūichirō and his friend and fellow orphan Mikaela plotted to escape along with the children in Hyakuya Orphanage. However, this resulted in their deaths and Mikaela sacrifices himself in order for Yūichirō to escape and be saved by members of the Moon Demon Company, an extermination unit of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army. Four years later, Yūichirō dedicates his life to destroy vampires and seek revenge against them for killing his "family." At the same time, it is revealed that Mikaela survived and plans to find Yūichirō.

Media

Manga

''Seraph of the End'' is written by

and illustrated by

. It has been serialized by

's monthly magazine ''

Jump Square , also written as , is a Japanese monthly '' shōnen'' manga magazine. Published by Shueisha, the magazine premiered on November 2, 2007 as a replacement for ''Monthly Shōnen Jump'', another manga anthology that Shueisha discontinued in June of t ...

'' since September 4, 2012. A voice comic (vomic) was also produced and published by Shueisha, and its first episode was featured by ''

Sakiyomi Jum-Bang! is a variety show aired on Japan's TV Tokyo network. The series' title is a of and ''Bang''. The first episode was broadcast on April 3, 2009. It features comics from Shueisha's weekly and monthly manga anthologies (Weekly Shōnen Jump, V Jum ...

'' on February 1, 2013. Shueisha has compiled its chapters into individual ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes. The first volume was released on January 4, 2013. As of October 4, 2022, twenty-eight volumes have been published. The manga is licensed in North America by

, who added it to its ''

'' digital magazine lineup. A spin-off gag manga to commemorate the anime adaptation, titled , was serialized in the 17th and 18th issues of ''Jump SQ.19'' from December 19, 2014, to February 19, 2015, and later serialized in ''Jump Square'' from April 4 to December 4, 2015. It also has been published on the ''Seraph of the End'' official website. A manga adapting the Guren Ichinose light novel series was serialized in

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

's ''

Monthly Shōnen Magazine is a monthly shōnen manga magazine published in Japan by Kodansha. It was launched in 1964 under the name . In 1969 it was retitled as and its publication frequency increased from quarterly to monthly. After suspension in 1974 it started pu ...

'' from June 6, 2017 to February 4, 2022. It will end in its twelfth volume, which will be released on March 4, 2022. At

Anime Expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first we ...

2022,

Kodansha USA Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, USA, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and mang ...

announced that they licensed the series for English publication.

Light novels

is a

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term " ...

focusing on Guren Ichinose as the main protagonist, detailing the series of events that occurred eight years before the start of the manga. Written by

and illustrated by

, it consists of seven volumes and was published by

from January 2013 to December 2016. On February 15, 2015,

Vertical Vertical is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Vertical direction, the direction aligned with the direction of the force of gravity, up or down * Vertical (angles), a pair of angles opposite each other, formed by two intersecting s ...

announced that it has licensed the light novels for a North American release and will be releasing it in an omnibus with two volumes per omnibus in January 2016. The novels have also been translated into other languages, such as German and French by

Kazé Kazé is a French publishing company that specializes in anime and manga. Its head office is in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Founded in 1994, the company debuted by publishing '' Record of Lodoss War'' on VHS. It is currently run by Sony thr ...

. A drama CD was released on October 30, 2015, bundled with volume 6 of the light novel and is written by

. A new light novel series about Mikaela's story and the origin of vampires titled began publication by

on December 4, 2015. The story is written by

and illustrated by

. On October 20, 2017, it was announced on

's light novel blog that a second spin-off series about Guren, titled would be released in December. It is written by Takaya Kagami and illustrated by Yo Asami. On March 11, 2019,

announced that it has licensed the novels for a northern American release, saluted for December 2019.

Anime

An anime adaptation was announced on August 28, 2014, and aired on April 4, 2015. The series has 24 episodes. It is produced by

, directed by Daisuke Tokudo, and written by

Hiroshi Seko is a Japanese anime screenwriter. After serving as an episode screenwriter, he was put in charge of all the screenwriting for ''Seraph of the End''. Since then, he has also done screenwriting for many other series, of which notables include ''Att ...

. Additionally, the original manga's writer, Takaya Kagami, personally drafted the original story for episodes with material not yet serialized in the manga and supervised the scripts until the anime's final episode. On December 12, 2014, it was announced the series would be ''split'' into two parts (quarters of the year). The first half (12 episodes) aired in 2015 from April to June and the second half (12 episodes) from October to December. The series premiered on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

MBS MBS may refer for: People * Mohammed bin Salman (born 1985), crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia * Mohan Bikram Singh (born 1935), Nepalese politician Places * MBS International Airport (IATA code: MBS), Freeland, Michigan, US * Mari ...

TV Aichi JOCI-DTV, branded as , is a television station in Nagoya, Japan operated by the Aichi Television Broadcasting Company, Ltd. (TVA; ja, テレビ愛知株式会社, Terebi Aichi kabushiki gaisha) and is an affiliate of the TX Network. Broadcasti ...

, and BS11 at their respective time slots.

NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distribution of anime within Japan. The ...

released the first 12 episodes on Blu-ray and DVD formats in Japan starting on June 24, 2015, across four volumes. A six-minute

omake ''Omake'' (, usually written ) means ''extra'' in Japanese language, Japanese. Its primary meaning is general and widespread. It is used as an anime and manga term to mean "extra or bonus." In the United States, the term is most often used in ...

anime special adapted from the omake featured in the original manga, was included in each Blu-ray/DVD volume titled . On March 31, 2015, it was announced that

has licensed the series for streaming and its home video release in North America.

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

also streamed the series. On May 13, Funimation announced that the English broadcast dub will stream every Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. EDT on its "Dubble Talk" streaming block. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, the English dub was broadcast on

, beginning February 15, 2018. An OAD bundled with volume 11 of the original manga titled was released on May 2, 2016. It was first screened at the Jump Special Anime Festa 2015 event in November 2015.

Hiroyuki Sawano is a Japanese composer, arranger, lyricist, pianist, and Music Producer best known for his work on many anime series, video games, Japanese television drama, television dramas, and movies. His works include the Soundtrack, musical scores for ' ...

produced and co-composed the music, as well as the opening and ending themes, "X.U." and "scaPEGoat", respectively, with

Takafumi Wada is a Japanese composer, arranger and music producer. He has provided the music for several anime series, television dramas, movies and video games. He is best known for his role on the soundtrack of '' The Seven Deadly Sins'', '' Seraph of the ...

Asami Tachibana is a Japanese composer, arranger, pianist and music producer. She has provided the music for several anime series, television dramas and video games. She is best known for composing the soundtrack for ''Darling in the Franxx'', as well as for ...

, and Megumi Shiraishi. As part of Sawano's vocal song project "SawanoHiroyuki Zk, for the first 12 episodes, the opening song is performed by SawanoHiroyuki ZkGemie, while the ending song is performed by SawanoHiroyuki ZkYosh. Both themes were released in Japan on a CD on May 20, 2015.

Video games

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...

strategy game, titled , was released by

Bandai Namco Entertainment is a Japanese multinational video game video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in ...

and

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

on December 17, 2015. BNEI also released a smartphone game titled on September 28, 2015.

Reception

The manga was nominated for the 40th

Kodansha Manga Award is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, the event is sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in three categories: '' shōnen'', '' shōjo'', and general. The awards began in 1977, initially w ...

for '' shōnen'' category in 2016. Rebecca Silverman of

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

gave volume 1 an overall grade of B+.

Sales

Volume 1 reached the 24th place on the Japanese weekly manga chart, and, as of 13 January 2013, has sold 62,434 copies. It also reached the 3rd place on the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' manga bestseller chart. Volume 2 reached the 15th place on the weekly manga chart, and, as of 12 May 2013, has sold 91,095 copies. Volume 3 reached the 9th place and, as of September 15, 2013, has sold 121,235 copies. Volume 4 also reached the 9th place on the chart, and, as of January 19, 2014, has sold 160,444 copies. Volume 5 also reached the 9th place, and has sold, as of May 11, 2014, 155,139 copies. In 2015, the manga sold 2.8 million copies. As of May 2017, the manga had 7 million copies in print, and as of April 4, 2018, the manga had 8.5 million copies in print. In March 2019, the manga had 9 million copies in print. On August 15, 2019, the manga had 10 million copies in print. As of June 4, 2021, the manga has 12 million copies in print. As of October 2021, the manga has 13 million copies in print. The ''Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen'' light novels reached 21st place as one of the Top-Selling light novels in Japan, with 128,690 copies sold in May 2015, and it additionally reached 29th place in 2016, with 100,077 more copies sold. ''The Story of Vampire Mikaela'' novels also reached 21st place, having sold 127,373 copies in May 2016. Its manga adaptation second volume reached 25th place on the Japanese's weekly manga chart, with 30,147 copies in print.

References

External links

Official website

Official manga website

Official anime website
* {{Wit Studio 2012 manga 2013 Japanese novels 2015 anime television series debuts 2015 Japanese novels Anime composed by Hiroyuki Sawano Dark fantasy anime and manga Funimation Kodansha books Kodansha manga Light novels NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan PlayStation Vita games PlayStation Vita-only games Post-apocalyptic anime and manga Production I.G Anime and manga about revenge Shōnen manga Shueisha franchises Shueisha manga Vampires in anime and manga Vertical (publisher) titles Viz Media manga Wit Studio