BASTARD!! Heavy Metal Dark Fantasy is one of those series that commands a fierce following decades after its debut — and figuring out which edition to track down can be genuinely confusing. Between three different Japanese collected formats and an incomplete English release that has been out of print for years, the landscape of BASTARD!! Heavy Metal Dark Fantasy manga editions takes some untangling.
If you’ve recently discovered the series through the anime and want to read the manga, or you’re a collector trying to understand what’s out there, this breakdown covers every edition published to date and what each one offers. A quick note before diving in: the three Japanese editions listed below are all in Japanese. If you don’t read Japanese, the out-of-print VIZ English volumes are the only official option for reading the text — though digital availability and the anime adaptations offer additional ways to engage with the story, which we’ll cover further down.
Every BASTARD!! Heavy Metal Dark Fantasy Manga Edition Explained
BASTARD!! Heavy Metal Dark Fantasy launched in the late 1980s and was originally published chapter-by-chapter — a process called serialization — in Weekly Shonen Jump, a weekly manga magazine in Japan. The series later moved to Ultra Jump, a monthly manga magazine also published by Shueisha. The first collected volume hit shelves on August 10, 1988, making it one of the earliest dark fantasy manga to gain a mainstream audience in Japan.
Over the years, the series has been collected into three distinct Japanese editions: the original Jump Comics tankoubon (27 volumes), the Complete Edition (9 volumes), and the Bunko Edition (9 volumes). A tankoubon is simply the standard collected book format for manga — individual magazine chapters gathered into a single paperback volume, comparable to a trade paperback in Western comics. On the English side, VIZ Media published volumes 1 through 19 before the license lapsed — and those books have been out of print ever since.
The manga itself is currently on hiatus — meaning the author stopped releasing new chapters, and the story remains unfinished — with 27 Jump Comics volumes published in Japan. No new chapters or volumes have been released in over a decade. That frozen state is part of what makes collecting the series so interesting — and occasionally frustrating. What exists is all there is, at least for now.
So is it still worth reading? Yes — with the right expectations. The first 19 volumes available in English contain some of the most influential dark fantasy manga storytelling of the late 1980s and 1990s, and the story arcs within those volumes are satisfying on their own terms even though the overall series remains incomplete. If you go in knowing the English release stops partway through and the manga itself has no ending yet, you can enjoy what’s there without feeling blindsided. Many fans consider the journey well worth it despite the incomplete state.
Japanese Editions at a Glance
Jump Comics Edition — The Original Tankoubon
The Jump Comics edition is the original collected format and remains the most widely available Japanese version of BASTARD!!. It spans 27 volumes, covering the full run of published chapters from serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump and Ultra Jump.
The first volume was released on August 10, 1988, and the most recent — volume 27 — came out on March 19, 2012. That’s a span of nearly 24 years of publication, reflecting the series’ long and intermittent serialization history.
For collectors who want every published chapter in the original presentation, this is the edition to pursue. The standard tankoubon size — roughly comparable to a typical manga paperback you’d find in a Western bookstore — makes it easy to shelve alongside other Jump Comics titles, and because it ran for so long, individual volumes turn up fairly regularly through import retailers and secondhand sellers in Japan. Import retailers are online shops that specialize in shipping Japanese books internationally; several well-known ones cater specifically to manga collectors outside Japan. The downside is that 27 volumes takes up more shelf space and can be more expensive to complete than the other Japanese formats.
Since the series remains on hiatus with no announced return, volume 27 is where the story stops — regardless of which edition you choose.
Complete Edition — Revised and Oversized
The Complete Edition compiles the series into 9 volumes and was completed in December 2009. This is a revised collected edition — sometimes called a kanzenban in Japanese publishing — that condenses the story into fewer, larger books with updated presentation compared to the original tankoubon.
These revised editions typically feature larger physical dimensions, improved print quality, and sometimes revised artwork or color pages that weren’t in the original tankoubon release. For BASTARD!!, this format gives you a more premium reading experience in roughly a third of the volume count.
The trade-off is that the Complete Edition was finished in 2009, and the Jump Comics edition continued publishing until 2012 with volume 27. Depending on where the Complete Edition’s coverage ends, collectors may find that the original tankoubon covers more of the serialized story. If you’re collecting in Japanese and want a polished presentation without filling an entire shelf, this is a strong option — but confirm what chapters are included if complete story coverage matters to you.
Bunko Edition — Compact Library Format
The Bunko edition also compresses the series into 9 volumes and was completed in September 2014. Bunko manga are smaller paperbacks — roughly the size of a standard mass market paperback novel in the West, around 4 by 6 inches — designed to be affordable and portable.
This is the most compact and generally most affordable way to read BASTARD!! in Japanese. The smaller page size means the art is reproduced at a reduced scale, which is worth considering for a series known for its detailed and elaborate artwork. Some readers find bunko editions perfectly readable; others prefer larger formats where the art has room to breathe.
For collectors on a budget who read Japanese, the Bunko edition is practical and space-efficient. It’s also the most recently completed Japanese format, which may make individual volumes slightly easier to find compared to older printings of the Jump Comics or Complete Edition.
The English Edition — VIZ Media’s Incomplete Run
VIZ Media published BASTARD!! Heavy Metal Dark Fantasy in English as single-volume paperbacks, covering volumes 1 through 19. The license lapsed around September 2009 — meaning VIZ’s legal permission to translate and publish the series expired, and it was not renewed — so the English release ended without ever reaching the conclusion of the Japanese tankoubon run. Once a license lapses, the publisher can no longer print new copies, which is why these books went out of print and have stayed that way. Volumes 20 through 27 of the Japanese edition were never officially translated into English.
No current English print edition exists. The VIZ volumes are entirely out of print, and there has been no announcement of a new English license or reprint from any publisher.
For English-speaking readers, this creates a real gap. You can read the first portion of the story in English — if you can find the books — but there is no official way to read the remainder in English. The anime adaptations cover early material and may help fill in some story context, but they are not a substitute for the untranslated later volumes. An anime adaptation is a separate production that retells the manga’s story in animated form — it may condense, rearrange, or omit material from the source manga.
If you’re looking for English copies, secondhand markets are the only option. Individual volumes surface on used book sites and auction platforms, though pricing varies widely depending on condition and which volume you need. Complete sets of all 19 English volumes command higher prices, as you’d expect for any out-of-print manga run.
One volume that’s still relatively findable through various sellers is Volume 1 of the VIZ Media English edition — the natural starting point if you want to begin the series.
Bastard!! Vol. 1: Heavy Metal Dark Fantasy
How the Editions Compare for Collectors
Here’s a side-by-side look at each edition:
| Edition | Volumes | Language | Format | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jump Comics | 27 | Japanese | Standard tankoubon (regular manga paperback) | Complete (series on hiatus) |
| Complete Edition | 9 | Japanese | Larger, revised | Completed December 2009 |
| Bunko Edition | 9 | Japanese | Compact paperback (mass market size) | Completed September 2014 |
| VIZ English | 19 | English | Standard paperback | Out of print, license lapsed |
A few things stand out from this comparison:
Most complete story coverage: The Jump Comics edition at 27 volumes contains every published chapter. The Complete Edition and Bunko each have 9 volumes, but their chapter coverage relative to the full 27-volume run is worth checking before you commit to either format.
Best presentation: The Complete Edition was designed as the premium Japanese format, with revised presentation and a larger page size.
Most affordable Japanese option: The Bunko edition was the last to be completed and offers the most compact, budget-friendly way to own the series in Japanese.
English language: Only the VIZ release, and it stops at volume 19 — leaving a significant chunk of the story untranslated. This is the biggest frustration for English-only readers and the central collecting challenge for the series. Remember that the three Japanese editions require Japanese reading ability — they are not bilingual or translated.
The key gap that every collector faces: the final eight Japanese volumes (20–27) have never been officially published in English. Whether you’re reading or collecting, that gap currently has no official solution.
What the Anime Adaptations Mean for New Readers
Two anime series have introduced BASTARD!! to a global audience relatively recently. The first aired in 2022, and a second series began on July 31, 2023. These adaptations have brought significant renewed attention to a manga that had been sitting on hiatus for years.
For new readers, the anime serves as an accessible entry point — especially given how difficult obtaining the manga can be in English. If you watch the anime and want more, the manga offers deeper story content and artwork that the animated versions can only approximate. The anime covers material from the earlier portions of the manga, so it can also serve as a bridge if you’re considering importing the Japanese-only later volumes — having the story context from the anime makes the artwork and visual storytelling in those untranslated books more approachable even without reading the text.
The renewed interest also has practical implications for collectors. Increased demand for a fixed supply of out-of-print English volumes tends to push secondhand prices upward. If you’ve been considering picking up English volumes, it’s worth keeping an eye on availability — these books aren’t being reprinted, and the pool of affordable copies shrinks over time as collectors buy them up and hold onto them.
Tips for Collecting BASTARD!! Manga Today
Collecting BASTARD!! in any edition requires a bit of patience. Here are some things worth knowing, whether you’re just getting started or filling gaps in a set:
English volumes command premium prices. With 19 out-of-print volumes and no reprint in sight, building a complete English set is a long-term project. Don’t feel like you need to find all 19 at once — many collectors piece their sets together over months, grabbing individual volumes as they appear at fair prices on used book sites, auction platforms, and similar secondhand sellers.
Japanese editions are more accessible. Import retailers — online shops that specialize in shipping Japanese books internationally — carry Japanese manga reliably, and all three Japanese editions (Jump Comics, Complete Edition, and Bunko) can be found through these shops. If you read Japanese or are comfortable collecting for the art and presentation alone, the Japanese market is where the options are.
The Complete Edition is the collector’s choice for presentation. If you want a polished, visually impressive set in Japanese, the 9-volume Complete Edition offers a premium experience in a manageable number of books.
The Bunko edition saves space and money. Nine compact volumes that fit almost anywhere. If you want the story in physical form without dedicating a full shelf, this is the practical pick.
The series is on hiatus with no end in sight. No new volumes have been published since 2012, and there’s been no indication the manga will resume. What’s available now is likely all that will be available for the foreseeable future. That can actually simplify the collecting goal — the target isn’t moving.
The anime is a genuine complement, not just a substitute. Watching the anime adaptations alongside collecting the manga gives you a fuller picture of the series, especially for the portions that were never translated into English. It’s a worthwhile way to experience BASTARD!! even while you’re hunting for physical volumes.
BASTARD!! Heavy Metal Dark Fantasy holds a unique place in manga history — a dark fantasy series that predates many of the genre’s modern touchstones, wrapped in artwork and themes drawn heavily from heavy metal music culture. Whatever edition you pursue, you’re collecting a piece of that history. The incomplete English release and long hiatus make it a frustrating series to collect — there’s no way around that — but for fans who connect with what BASTARD!! does, tracking down these editions is part of the experience. Start with what you can find, and build from there.