Short answer: yes, absolutely. The Phantom Blood manga wrapped up a long time ago, and every volume is available in English right now. If you’ve been wondering whether this manga is still ongoing or unfinished — you’re in the clear. Here’s the full rundown on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood, including how many volumes it has, how the story concludes, and where to buy it.
One quick note if you’re brand new to manga: the English hardcover edition of Phantom Blood reads right-to-left, as is standard for modern manga releases. This means you start at what would normally be the “back” of a Western book and read panels from right to left. It takes a few pages to get used to, but most readers adjust quickly — and it preserves the artwork exactly as Araki originally drew it.
Yes, Phantom Blood Is Finished — Here’s Why That’s Great News
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 1–Phantom Blood is a completed manga. There are no chapters still being released, no hiatuses (long pauses in publication) to worry about, and no ambiguity about the ending. The whole story is done and collected.
Phantom Blood is the first part of the sprawling JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure saga, created by Hirohiko Araki. It was originally published chapter by chapter in Weekly Shonen Jump, a major manga magazine in Japan aimed at a young male audience, published by Shueisha. While the broader JoJo franchise has continued across multiple parts — each one a self-contained story following a different protagonist in the Joestar family — Part 1 is its own complete narrative with a beginning, middle, and end.
To explain that structure briefly: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is divided into numbered “Parts,” each with its own title, setting, and main character. Think of them like seasons of a TV show, where each season tells its own story but shares a connected world. Phantom Blood is Part 1, the starting point of the entire saga.
For anyone new to manga, or new to JoJo specifically, this is genuinely great news. You can pick up the whole thing, read it over a weekend, and walk away satisfied. No tracking release schedules, no waiting months between volumes, no getting halfway through and discovering the series is on indefinite pause. It’s all right there.
And as a dark fantasy manga entry point? Phantom Blood delivers. The story is steeped in gothic atmosphere — think fog-shrouded Victorian England, crumbling estates, and a mood pulled straight from classic horror literature. The manga features vampires, a cursed stone mask with supernatural powers, and a deeply tragic conflict between two men whose fates are bound together. Jonathan Joestar’s journey has the kind of doomed heroism that fans of dark fantasy gravitate toward — a good man fighting something monstrous, at tremendous personal cost. If you like your manga with horror undertones, moral weight, and a setting that feels like it crawled out of a 19th-century nightmare, Phantom Blood is a strong place to start.
Publication Details — How Long Is the Phantom Blood Manga?
Here’s a quick look at the numbers:
| Edition | Volume Count | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese (standard collected volumes) | 5 volumes | Standard paperback |
| English | 3 volumes | Hardcover |
The original Japanese release spans 5 collected volumes. The English manga edition condenses the same material into 3 hardcover volumes, with each English book collecting roughly 1.5 to 2 Japanese volumes’ worth of content. All three English volumes are currently available — nothing is pending release, nothing is out of print as of this writing.
This makes Phantom Blood the shortest part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure by a significant margin. Later parts run much longer. If you want to test whether JoJo clicks for you without a massive commitment, Part 1 is the easiest way to find out. Three books. That’s it.
The English hardcovers also feature a larger page size than standard manga volumes, which gives Araki’s detailed artwork more room to breathe on the page. It’s a premium presentation for what is, at its core, a lean and focused manga.
In terms of what you’d spend, the hardcover volumes carry a typical retail price in line with other deluxe manga editions. For three volumes total, the full set is a modest investment — and the hardcover format means these hold up well on a shelf over time.
Does the Story Actually End, or Does It Just Lead into Part 2?
This is a fair question — and one that comes up a lot with long-running franchises. When a manga series has nine Parts (each a different story arc with its own title and protagonist), it’s natural to wonder whether Part 1 is really “complete” or if it just stops at an arbitrary point and shoves you toward the next installment.
Good news: Phantom Blood tells a complete story with a definitive conclusion.
Jonathan Joestar’s conflict with Dio Brando — the ruthless, power-hungry villain who drives the entire plot — reaches a clear resolution by the end of Part 1. Without spoiling the specifics, the ending is dramatic and bittersweet. It’s widely regarded among fans as one of the most emotionally impactful conclusions in the early JoJo saga. Things are resolved. The story says what it came to say.
Now, does Phantom Blood connect to Part 2? Yes, in the sense that it establishes the Joestar family and the larger mythology that later Parts build on. But there’s no cliffhanger that demands you immediately pick up the next installment. You won’t hit the last page and feel like you’ve been left hanging. If you wanted to read only the Phantom Blood manga and stop there, you’d have a complete, satisfying experience.
That said — most people don’t stop. The ending has a way of making you curious about what comes next for the Joestar family. But that’s the pull of a good story, not an incomplete one.
What to Read Next — Darker Paths After Phantom Blood
If Phantom Blood hooks you, the natural next step is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 2: Battle Tendency. This is the second Part of the JoJo saga, picking up with the next generation of the Joestar family and escalating the supernatural threats considerably. The tone shifts — Battle Tendency is more action-forward and playful compared to Phantom Blood’s gothic tragedy — but the core DNA is the same. Larger-than-life characters, creative supernatural battles, and stakes that keep climbing.
But maybe what grabbed you about Phantom Blood wasn’t the JoJo-specific elements. Maybe it was the gothic horror atmosphere, the vampires, the sense of something ancient and evil awakening. If that’s the case, the broader dark fantasy manga genre has plenty to offer.
Phantom Blood’s vampire mythology and its themes of cursed bloodlines and sacrificial heroism connect it naturally to the wider dark fantasy tradition. Series like Berserk (Kentaro Miura’s legendary dark fantasy manga, known for its medieval horror and tragic protagonist) and Claymore (a manga about half-human warriors fighting monsters in a bleak, medieval world) share that same blend of beauty and dread, heroism and futility. Claymore is fully completed; Berserk is still ongoing under new creative supervision following Miura’s death in 2021, though it is very far along. Both make solid follow-ups if you want more dark fantasy manga after finishing Phantom Blood.
Phantom Blood is a great gateway — short enough to read quickly, atmospheric enough to set the mood, and thematically rich enough to point you toward what you might want to explore next in the genre.
Where to Buy the Phantom Blood Manga in English
The 3-volume hardcover edition is the definitive way to read the Phantom Blood manga in English. These aren’t flimsy paperbacks — they’re substantial hardcovers with quality paper and a page size that shows off Araki’s artwork properly. Each volume is chunky enough to feel like you’re getting real value.
All three volumes are currently available through major retailers. Nothing is out of print, and you shouldn’t have trouble finding any of them. The third and final volume brings Jonathan’s story to its conclusion and collects the remaining chapters of Part 1.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 1–Phantom Blood, Vol. 3 (final volume)
If you’re the type who likes to try before committing, grabbing Volume 1 on its own is a perfectly fine approach. At only three volumes total, though, the full set isn’t a huge investment — and the hardcover format means these hold up well on a shelf over time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many volumes is the JoJo Part 1 manga in English?
Three hardcover volumes. These collect the same material as the 5 Japanese collected volumes — just reformatted into fewer, thicker books. All three are available now.
Do I need to read Part 1 before the rest of JoJo?
Not strictly required. Each Part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure follows a different main character in a different setting, and later Parts provide enough context to stand on their own. That said, reading Part 1 first is highly recommended. Phantom Blood introduces the Joestar-Dio rivalry, which is the foundational conflict of the entire saga. Major plot points in later Parts — particularly Part 3 (Stardust Crusaders, which follows Jonathan’s great-great-grandson Jotaro Kujo) and Part 6 (Stone Ocean, set generations later) — hit much harder if you know where it all started. Plus, it’s only three manga volumes — the time investment is minimal for the context you gain.
Is Phantom Blood a dark fantasy manga?
Yes, and it’s a surprisingly strong example of the genre. Phantom Blood features vampires, supernatural powers tied to an ancient stone mask, a gothic horror atmosphere, and a narrative built on tragedy and sacrifice. The setting draws heavily from Victorian-era England, the villain Dio Brando is genuinely menacing in a classical horror sense, and the story doesn’t shy away from dark consequences. It originally ran in a manga magazine aimed at younger readers, but the tone — especially in the manga — leans darker than you might expect. If you’re browsing dark fantasy manga and haven’t considered JoJo, Phantom Blood is worth a look.