Blue Lock Manga Buying Guide
Start Blue Lock with Kodansha's Volume 1, track print dates rather than the digital count, and keep the separately numbered Episode Nagi apart.
Start with Blue Lock Volume 1 from Kodansha, and buy the main series in its numbered order. Blue Lock: Episode Nagi is a separate, shorter series with its own numbering; it is an extra, not the place to begin.
Identify the actual book
Kodansha USA publishes Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura's manga in English. Match the ISBN when comparing listings: a volume number alone does not tell you which series or which format a listing is for, and with a spinoff numbered from 1 that matters.
| Book | Print ISBN-13 | Print release | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Lock Volume 1 | 9781646516544 | June 21, 2022 | Start the main series. |
| Blue Lock Volume 34 | 9798888777299 | September 22, 2026 | The newest released print volume. |
| Blue Lock Volume 35 | 9798888778678 | October 20, 2026 | The next print volume, not yet released. |
| Blue Lock: Episode Nagi Volume 1 | 9798888771754 | October 15, 2024 | Start the spinoff, separately. |
Kodansha lists the main-series paperbacks at $12.99 and the Episode Nagi paperbacks at $13.99. Those are the publisher's list prices, not what a shop will charge you.
Print runs behind digital
This is the practical catch with Blue Lock in English. Kodansha's series page says 40 volumes are available, but that count includes digital. Volume 35, for example, came out digitally on January 6, 2026, and its paperback is dated October 20, 2026. Volume 34's paperback arrived on September 22, 2026, after a digital release on November 11, 2025.
So if you read on Kodansha's digital edition, you can be several books ahead of a paperback shelf. If you collect print, the number to track is the print release date on each volume's page, not the series count. The Blue Lock catalog records the print books with ISBNs, release dates and status, and keeps announced paperbacks apart from released ones; at the time of writing it lists print volumes through 38, with 35 to 38 still announced.
Episode Nagi: separate and optional
Kodansha describes Episode Nagi as "the new prequel manga" to Blue Lock, following Reo Mikage as he "sets out to fan the flames of ambition in future soccer prodigy Seishiro Nagi." Kodansha marks the series complete and lists eight volumes. The English paperbacks started with Volume 1 on October 15, 2024, and Volume 8 is dated October 27, 2026, ISBN 9798888778685.
It is a prequel about two characters, so it does not replace any part of the main series and is not needed to follow it. It is the manga behind the anime film Blue Lock the Movie: Episode Nagi. Buy it if Nagi and Reo are the reason you are reading, and after you know who they are.
Other formats
Kodansha's Blue Lock page also lists Print Omnibus, Box Set and Full-Color editions alongside the standard print and digital line. This guide does not compare their contents, because we have not recorded which volumes each one collects. Before buying one of those, check on its product page which numbered volumes it contains, and compare that with the singles you already own; a package that repeats books you have is not a saving.
Before you check out
Confirm the seller lists Kodansha as publisher and English as the language, compare the ISBN against the table above or the catalog, and keep the full title beside the number when you record a purchase, so that "Volume 3" of the main series and "Volume 3" of Episode Nagi never get mixed up. For the anime side, our reading of Isagi covers the series' central player, with spoilers.