Manga
Junya Inoue began publishing Btooom! in Shinchosha's weekly magazine Comic Bunch in 2009. Comic Bunch ceased publication on August 27, 2010, but returned on January 21, 2011, as a monthly magazine.[1][2] It was announced in the May 2014 issue of Comic Bunch, released on March 20, that the manga would enter its final arc in the June issue, released on April 21, 2014.[3] Inoue revealed on Twitter that the series will end with the release of its 26th volume,[4] publishing its final chapter in the May issue of Bunch in March 2018.[5] In an unusual twist, the author made two unique endings, providing "the dark" and "the light" versions of the ending, so that the readers are able to choose what protagonist Ryota Sakamoto will do at a pivotal point in the manga's story.[6]
The series is published in tankōbon form by Shinchosha, and has been licensed for release in North America by Yen Press, who released it between February 2013 and August 2018.[7]
With the Btooom! manga ending in March 2018, a manga spin-off/sequel called ''Btooom! U-18 was announced in February 2018 to begin publication that April.[6] The new series was written by Hiroki Ito, who is known for Ouroboros and Impossibility Defense (Funouhan''). The new manga is a sequel to the main story and launched in the same magazine issue that featured the original manga's light ending.[8][6] The spin-off ended serialization in December 2022[9] and was collected into six volumes.
Volume list
The series has been collected into twenty-six tankōbon volumes as of August 2018.[10] All twenty-six volumes have been published in English, with the final volume published in April 2020.[11] The final chapter was released on March 20, 2018, and the final volume was released on August 9, 2018.[4]
Volume list
The series has been collected into twenty-six tankōbon volumes as of August 2018.[10] All twenty-six volumes have been published in English, with the final volume published in April 2020.[11] The final chapter was released on March 20, 2018, and the final volume was released on August 9, 2018.[4]
Anime
In June 2012, it was announced that the manga will be adapted into an anime television series by Madhouse, director Kotono Watanabe, and scriptwriter Yōsuke Kuroda.[72][6] The 12-episode series premiered in Japan on Tokyo MX from October 4 to December 20, 2012, and was streamed with English subtitles by Crunchyroll in North America, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and South Africa.[73] The anime has been licensed for a 2013 home video release by Sentai Filmworks in North America.[74] The opening theme song is "No pain, No game" by Nano and the closing theme song is "Aozora" (アオゾラ) by May'n. The anime covers the first 50 chapters of the manga (up to Volume 9).
At the beginning of November 2019, the company Televisa through BitMe announced the premiere of 3 new series to its program bar, Among those series was Btooom, the same series was released on November 28, 2019, being dubbed 12 episodes in Latin Spanish and distributed by its video game channel and anime bitme by a large part of South America.
Game
In late February 2017, the BTOOOM! game produced by Masato Hayashi was launched and immediately shot to the top of the charts for free game apps. Despite early success, the game stayed in Japan's top five only for several weeks, and by April 2017 Goboiano reported that the app had "fallen below the top 50".[75] The game was last updated in July 2017 and never received an English port for Android and iOS/iPhone.[6]
Also called Btooom Online, originally developed in 2016, it was a battle royale game, predating PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite. The original BTOOOM! manga itself also features a fictional battle royale video game. The manga was in turn inspired by the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale.[76]
