Seraph of the End (Japanese:終わりのセラフ,Hepburn:Owari no Serafu; also known asSeraph of the End: Vampire Reign) is a Japanesedark fantasymanga series. It is written byTakaya Kagami, illustrated byYamato Yamamoto and features 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 thatvampires emerge from the recesses of the earth, likely followed by the emergence of vampires and other supernatural entities 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 Hyakuya from the vampires. It started publishing inShueisha'sJump SQ in September 2012.
Ananime television series adaptation produced byWit Studio was broadcast in twocours. The anime was split into two cours: the first aired from April to June 2015 and the second from October to December 2015. A series oflight novels focused on Yu's superior, Guren Ichinose, have been written by Kagami and illustrated by Yamamoto. In North America,Viz Media licensed the series for an English language release, and it ran inWeekly Shonen Jump. The anime series was licensed byFunimation. It was later broadcast in the United Kingdom onViceland in February 2018.
By October 2022, theSeraph of the End manga had over 15 million copies in circulation.
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 to be only 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. This plan was brought into action by Mikaela, who had been secretly donating his blood to the Seventh Progenitor, Ferid Bathory, in exchange for a map and a gun. However, this plan resulted in every last person besides Yuichiro dying at the hand of Ferid, and Mikaela sacrificing 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 thanks to Third Progenitor and Vampire Queen Krul Tepes, who gave him some of her blood to turn him into a vampire. Mikaela does become a vampire soldier right under Ferid Bathory, and plans to find Yūichirō.
Seraph of the End is written byTakaya Kagami and illustrated byYamato Yamamoto. It has been serialized byShueisha's monthly magazineJump Square since September 4, 2012.[3] A voice comic (vomic) was also produced and published by Shueisha, and its first episode was featured bySakiyomi Jum-Bang! on February 1, 2013.[4] Shueisha has compiled its chapters into individualtankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on January 4, 2013.[5] As of November 4, 2025, thirty-five volumes have been published.[6] The manga is licensed in North America byViz Media, who added it to itsWeekly Shonen Jump digital magazine lineup.[7]
A spin-off gag manga to commemorate the anime adaptation, titledSerapetit! Seraph of the End four-frame manga (せらぷち!〜終わりのセラフ４コマ編〜,Serapuchi! Owari no Serafu 4-koma-hen), was serialized inJump SQ.19 from December 19, 2014, to February 19, 2015,[8][9][10] and later serialized inJump Square from April 4 to December 4, 2015.[11][12] It was also published on theSeraph of the End official website.[13]
A manga adapting the Guren Ichinose light novel series was serialized inKodansha'sMonthly Shōnen Magazine from June 6, 2017[14] to February 4, 2022. It will end in its twelfth volume,[15] released on March 4, 2022.[16] AtAnime Expo 2022,Kodansha USA announced that they licensed the series for English publication.[17]
Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen (終わりのセラフ 一瀬グレン、16歳の破滅,Owari no Serafu - Ichinose Guren, 16-sai no Hametsu) is aprequel focusing on Guren Ichinose as the main protagonist, detailing the series of events that occurred eight years before the start of the manga. Written byTakaya Kagami and illustrated byYamato Yamamoto, it consists of seven volumes and was published byKodansha from January 2013 to December 2016. On February 15, 2015,Vertical announced that it has licensed the light novels for a North American release and will be releasing it in anomnibus with two volumes per omnibus in January 2016.[18][19][20] The novels have also been translated into other languages, such as German and French byKazé.[21] A drama CD was released on October 30, 2015, bundled with volume 6 of the light novel and is written byTakaya Kagami.[22]
A new light novel series about Mikaela's story and the origin of vampires titledSeraph of the End: The Story of Vampire Mikaela (終わりのセラフ 吸血鬼ミカエラの物語,Owari no Serafu - Kyūketsuki Mikaela no Monogatari) began publication byShueisha on December 4, 2015. The story is written byTakaya Kagami and illustrated byYamato Yamamoto.[35]
On October 20, 2017, it was announced onKodansha's light novel blog that a second spin-off series about Guren, titledSeraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Resurrection at Nineteen (終わりのセラフ 一瀬グレン、19歳の世界再誕,Owari no Serafu - Ichinose Guren, 19-sai no sekai Resurrection) would be released in December. It is written by Takaya Kagami and illustrated byYo Asami.[38] On March 11, 2019,Vertical announced that it has licensed the novels for a northern American release, saluted for December 2019.[39]
An anime television series adaptation was announced on August 28, 2014, and aired on April 4, 2015. The series has 24 episodes. It is produced byWit Studio, directed by Daisuke Tokudo, and written byHiroshi Seko.[44] 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.[45] On December 12, 2014, it was announced the series would besplit into two parts (quarters of the year).The first half (12 episodes) aired from April to June 2015, and the second half aired from October to December 2015.[46] The series premiered onTokyo MX,MBS,TV Aichi, andBS11 at their respective time slots.NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan released the first 12 episodes on Blu-ray and DVD formats in Japan starting on June 24, 2015, across four volumes. A six-minuteomake anime special adapted from the omake featured in the original manga was included in each Blu-ray/DVD volume titledSeraph of the Endless (終わらないセラフ,Owaranai Serafu).[47]
On March 31, 2015, it was announced thatFunimation has licensed the series for streaming and its home video release in North America.[48]Hulu 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.[49][50] In theUnited Kingdom, the English dub was broadcast onViceland, beginning February 15, 2018.[51][52]
AnOAD bundled with volume 11 of the original manga titledSeraph of the End: Vampire Shahal (終わりのセラフ 吸血鬼シャハル,Owari no Serafu: Kyūketsuki Shaharu) was released on May 2, 2016. It was first screened at the Jump Special Anime Festa 2015 event in November 2015.[53]
Hiroyuki Sawano produced and co-composed the music, as well as the opening and ending themes, "X.U." and "scaPEGoat", respectively, withTakafumi Wada,Asami Tachibana, and Megumi Shiraishi. As part of Sawano's vocal song project "SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]", for the first 12 episodes, the opening song is performed by SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:Gemie, while the ending song is performed by SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:Yosh. Both themes were released in Japan on a CD on May 20, 2015.[54]
BNEI also released a smartphone game titledSeraph of the End: Bloody Blades (終わりのセラフ BLOODY BLADES,Owari no Seraph: Bloody Blades) on September 28, 2015.[56]
Volume 1 reached 24th place on the Japanese weekly manga chart,[59] and, by January 13, 2013, has sold 62,434 copies.[60] It also reached third place onThe New York Times manga bestseller chart.[61] Volume 2 reached 15th place on the weekly manga chart,[62] and, by May 12, 2013, has sold 91,095 copies.[63] Volume 3 reached ninth place,[64] and, by September 15, 2013, has sold 121,235 copies.[65] Volume 4 also reached ninth place on the chart,[66] and, by January 19, 2014, has sold 160,444 copies.[67] Volume 5 also reached ninth place,[68] and, by May 11, 2014, has sold 155,139 copies.[69]
In 2015, the manga sold 2.8 million copies.[70] By May 2017, the manga had 7 million copies in print;[71] 8.5 million copies in print by April 2018;[72] over 9 million copies in print by March 2019;[73] over 10 million copies in print by August 2019;[74] over 12 million copies in print by June 2021;[75] and over 15 million copies in circulation by October 2022.[76]
TheGuren 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.[77][78] Its manga adaptation second volume reached 25th place on the Japanese's weekly manga chart, with 30,147 copies in print.[79]
^@owarino_seraph (June 3, 2021).ＪＣ24巻発売＆百話突破＆累計1200万部越えを記念し、同日発売のジャンプSQ.７月号では、表紙＆巻頭カラーで最新話を掲載!! [In commemoration of the release of JC24 volume & surpassing 100 episodes & exceeding 12 million copies in total, the July issue of Jump SQ. released on the same day posted the latest episode in cover & preface color! ! Please take a look at the powerful preface color illustration in Jump SQ. This magazine ...! Thank you!!] (Tweet) (in Japanese). RetrievedJune 3, 2021 – viaTwitter.
^@owarino_seraph (October 3, 2022).連載10周年＆シリーズ累計1500万部突破!!!!!『終わりのセラフ』最新ＪＣ28巻は本日発売です！！ [10th Anniversary of Serialization & Over 15 Million Copies Sold in the Series!!!!! The latest volume of Seraph of the End, JC Vol. 28, is out today!!] (Tweet) (in Japanese).Archived from the original on May 16, 2025. RetrievedMay 16, 2025 – viaTwitter.
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