In 2025’s 12th issue of Young Gangan magazine, Square Enix released the first part of the two-part 20th anniversary Bamboo Blade one-shot manga by Masahiro Totsuka and Aguri Igarashi. The second part of the one-shot manga will release in the 13th issue on June 20.
The first part of the Bamboo Blade one-shot manga is titled “Muroe Kōkō Kendō-bu to ○-nen Ato (Muroe High School Kendō Club and __ Years Later),” while the second part is titled “Honki Kojirō to Gachi Tama (Serious Kojirō and Earnest Tamaki).”
Totsuka and Igarashi launched the manga in Young Gangan magazine in 2005. The manga ended with its 14th compiled book volume in 2010. Yen Press publishes the manga series in English.
Here’s an overview of the manga, via Yen Press:
Poor, in debt, and living on instant noodles, high school kendo instructor Kojiro makes a bet with an old friend on a practice meet between the all-girls’ teams of their respective schools. The prize: a year’s worth of free sushi! It’s too good for the desperate Kojiro to pass up! But with only one active member on the kendo team, Kojiro must move quickly to put together a squad before the meet. He’s got his eye on Tamaki, the daughter of a kendo master and a skilled swordswoman herself. The only trouble is…she’s not interested. Kojiro’s willing to try anything, but what will it take to win her over?
The manga received a spinoff series titled Bamboo Blade B by Totsuka and Studio Neko, which ran from 2009 to 2013 in Monthly Shonen Gangan. Bamboo Blade C by Totsuka and Jingu Takao launched in 2013 in Monthly Big Gangan, alongside Totsuka and Saki Azumi’s four-panel spinoff BB Deformer. Bamboo Blade C and BB Deformer ended in 2016.
