Monster Manga: Perfect Edition vs the Original VIZ Run
Monster in English: the nine-book Perfect Edition VIZ lists today, the 18-volume original run from 2006 to 2008, and why the two cannot be matched by spine number.
Monster has had two English print editions from VIZ, and they are numbered differently. The original run, launched in 2006, was announced as an 18-volume series. The Perfect Edition, launched in 2014, tells the whole story in nine books. If you are starting fresh, buy the Perfect Edition: it is the edition VIZ currently lists, it has a new translation, and nine books are easier to complete than eighteen. If you already own some of the original run, read the section on switching before you buy anything.
The two editions side by side
| Edition | Books | Dates | US list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naoki Urasawa’s Monster (original run) | 18 volumes | Vol. 1 announced for February 21, 2006; Vol. 18 dated December 16, 2008 | $9.99 at launch |
| Monster: The Perfect Edition | 9 books, 402 to 482 pages each | July 15, 2014 to July 19, 2016 | $22.99 each; $206.91 for all nine |
The Perfect Edition: the one to buy new
VIZ’s June 2014 announcement, reprinted by Eclipse Magazine, describes the Perfect Edition as having “a new translation, re-mastered pages, and a generous amount of full-color content,” and says it would run “for a total of nine volumes covering the entire series.” The editor quoted there adds a “larger trade paperback size, new cover design, and bonus color pages.” That release gave a launch price of $19.99; VIZ’s product pages now show $22.99 for each book.
Perfect Edition Vol. 1 is ISBN 9781421569062, 426 pages, released July 15, 2014. Vol. 9, ISBN 9781421569147, is 482 pages and marked as the final volume on VIZ’s Monster listing, which shows Vols. 1 through 9 and nothing else. VIZ lists the trim as 5 3/4 by 8 1/4 inches. The 2014 release called the edition “print-only,” and the product pages offer no digital price. The Monster catalog holds all nine ISBNs with their page counts and dates.
The original run: what it was
VIZ’s January 2006 press release on Anime News Network called Monster “a new 18-volume manga series,” in stores February 21, 2006, at $9.99. Anime News Network’s release entry for Vol. 18 lists ISBN 9781421518404, 210 pages and a December 16, 2008 date. The original books are not on VIZ’s current Monster listing, so anything you find will be a used or remaining copy, and this guide makes no claim about stock.
Switching between editions
Eighteen books into nine makes it tempting to assume each Perfect Edition book is exactly two original volumes. The VIZ sources we checked do not say so. Neither the 2014 announcement nor the nine product pages state which original volumes each book contains, and our catalog does not guess. If you own original Vols. 1 to 6 and want to continue in the Perfect Edition, do not buy Perfect Edition Vol. 4 on arithmetic: check the opening chapter of the book against where your last original volume stopped. Our edition-switching guide walks through that check.
The simplest rule: keep one edition per shelf. Mixing them also mixes translations, because the Perfect Edition was announced with a new one, so names and lines may read differently from one book to the next.
Which to buy
- New reader: Perfect Edition Vol. 1, then the rest of the nine books in order.
- Owner of a partial original run: finish that run with used copies if the translation matters to you, or restart in the Perfect Edition. Matching a middle book between editions needs a contents check, not a number.
- Gift buyer: ask which edition the shelf holds. “Monster 4” is a different book in each.
For what the story is about before you commit, our essay on Tenma and the life he chose to save covers the opening premise without the ending.