Corpse Princess Manga Volumes: Full 23-Volume Guide

Corpse Princess Has 23 Manga Volumes — And the Full Series Is Complete

Corpse Princess (known in Japanese as Shikabane Hime) is a completed manga series with 23 volumes total. All 23 volumes have been released in English digitally, so nothing is left hanging — you can read the entire story from start to finish without waiting for future releases.

The series was created by Yoshiichi Akahito (赤人義一) and originally ran in Monthly Shonen Gangan, a manga magazine published by Square Enix in Japan. (“Shonen” means it was aimed at a young male audience, though readers of all kinds enjoy it.) The first Japanese volume came out in August 2005, and the final volume was released in November 2014, giving the series a solid nine-year run.

So what’s it actually about? Corpse Princess is set in a world where the dead don’t always stay dead. Certain corpses rise as dangerous monsters, and the only ones who can fight them are Shikabane Hime — undead girls bound to monks of the Kougon Sect (a fictional religious organization in the story) who battle these creatures. The story follows Makina Hoshimura, a corpse princess with a personal vendetta, as she fights through a dark world of supernatural violence, religious conspiracy, and escalating threats.

It’s a horror-action series at its core — combining intense battle sequences with a genuinely creepy undead mythology. If you like your action with a side of dread, this one delivers.

How the Story Flows — What Each Stretch Covers

One of the nice things about Corpse Princess is that it tells a single, continuous story across its 23 volumes. Here’s how the run flows in broad strokes — treat this as a reader’s rough guide, not official divisions; Square Enix doesn’t publish arc boundaries, so the groupings below are approximate.

The Opening Volumes: The Foundation

The opening volumes introduce you to everything that matters: Makina Hoshimura, her bond with the monk Keisei Tagami, the Shikabane Hime system, and the Kougon Sect that oversees it all. You’ll learn the rules of this world — how corpse princesses are created, what keeps them fighting, and what happens when things go wrong. These volumes establish the core horror-action tone and give Makina her first major battles. A few volumes in, you’ll have a strong sense of whether this series is for you.

The Early-Middle Stretch: The World Expands

This is where Corpse Princess starts showing its ambition. The scope opens up beyond Makina’s immediate circle to include rival factions, competing interests within the Kougon Sect, and a much bigger threat on the horizon. The Seven Stars — a group of powerful antagonists who drive much of the remaining story — step into focus around this stretch. The action escalates, the mythology deepens, and the series shifts from standalone monster-of-the-week chapters toward a larger, more interconnected narrative.

The Middle Volumes: The Seven Stars Conflict

The middle stretch of the series is where things get intense. The Seven Stars conflict dominates these volumes, and Akahito uses this extended arc to challenge everything established in the early chapters. There are major revelations about the corpse princess system itself — the kind that reframe what you thought you understood about Makina’s situation and the Kougon Sect’s true nature. Characters switch sides or have their loyalties shattered. The casualties mount. These volumes are the emotional and narrative core of the series.

The Late Volumes: Building Toward the End

The final war takes shape here. Alliances shift, former enemies find common ground (or don’t), and the stakes reach their peak. These volumes are doing the heavy lifting of moving all the pieces into position for the climax. If you’ve been invested in the mythology and the characters, this stretch is rewarding — it pays off a lot of the groundwork from earlier volumes. Expect a darker tone and higher tension than anything that came before.

The Final Volumes: Climax and Resolution

The final four volumes deliver the conclusion. Without spoiling specifics, the series commits to resolving its central conflicts — Makina’s personal story, the fate of the Kougon Sect, and the larger question of what the Shikabane Hime system was really for. Corpse Princess has a definitive ending, which is something horror-action manga doesn’t always manage. The story wraps up its major plot threads rather than leaving things unresolved, and for a 23-volume series, that sense of completion is genuinely satisfying.

Reading Order and Where to Start

This one’s simple: start at volume 1 and read straight through to volume 23.

Corpse Princess is a single, self-contained series — nothing extra is needed for the story. (Japan did get side items — a first-edition limited version of Volume 17, a novel, and an official guidebook — but none of them are part of the manga’s reading order, and none are in English.)

Yen Press’s English line is single digital volumes — no omnibus (collected multi-volume bundles) or deluxe reprint appears in its catalog as of this writing — just 23 standard-length single volumes.

If you watched the anime first (more on that below), you can still start from volume 1. The manga’s pacing and detail are different enough from the anime that reading from the beginning is worthwhile — the next section covers how the anime relates to the manga — and why a clean “resume point” is trickier than you’d hope.

Manga vs. Anime — What the Volumes Cover Beyond the Show

Corpse Princess received an anime adaptation that aired around 2008–2009. The anime covered a portion of the manga’s story, but here’s the key thing to know: the manga continued for roughly five more years after the anime ended.

That means there is a substantial amount of story in the manga that the anime never touched. The later arcs — the deepening Seven Stars conflict, the revelations about the Shikabane Hime system, the final war, and the series’ conclusion — are manga-only territory.

If you watched the anime and want to continue in the manga: the anime rearranged and condensed the story enough that no clean volume-level cutoff is documented anywhere official — treat any “resume at volume X” advice you see online with suspicion. The safe play, and our recommendation, is to start from volume 1: you’ll catch the details the anime skipped, and the manga’s pacing makes the early ground move quickly.

Even for the parts the anime did cover, the manga offers more detail and slightly different pacing. But the real draw for anime viewers is everything that comes after — the manga’s second half is where the story reaches its most ambitious and intense moments.

Where to Buy Corpse Princess in English

All 23 volumes of Corpse Princess are available in English digital editions. The most straightforward way to collect the series is digitally through major retailers.

The complete series is available on Amazon Kindle, where you can purchase individual volumes. For reference, the card below links the final volume (Volume 23) — if the run’s endpoint shows up as purchasable for you, that’s a decent sign the whole series is accessible before you commit.

A few things to keep in mind when buying:

• Digital is the English edition. Yen Press’s Corpse Princess line is digital-only — there is no official English print edition. If you want paper, that means importing the Japanese volumes.
• The English catalog has no box set or omnibus as of this writing, so you’ll be purchasing individual digital volumes.
• 23 volumes is a moderate commitment. It’s not a massive 40+ volume series, but it’s not a quick weekend read either. If you’re testing the waters, grab volume 1 digitally — it’s low-risk and you’ll know within a few chapters whether the tone clicks for you.
• Digital pricing varies by retailer and format. Check the list price on your preferred platform. Buying volumes in batches during general sale periods can help manage the cost of a 23-volume series.

Is Corpse Princess Worth Reading?

So after all that — is it actually good? Here’s who will get the most out of this series:

You’ll probably love it if you enjoy:

• Dark action-horror manga with supernatural combat — think undead warriors, religious organizations, and escalating monster threats
• Series that build a consistent mythology and then upend it — Corpse Princess spends real time establishing its rules before subverting your expectations
• Complete stories — no indefinite hiatuses, no “read the original novels for the real ending.” All 23 volumes are done and the story wraps up
• The overlap between horror atmosphere and structured battle storytelling — Corpse Princess lives in that intersection. If you enjoyed series like D.Gray-man, Blue Exorcist, or Tokyo Ghoul — manga that mix supernatural horror with ongoing combat and faction-based conflict — Corpse Princess shares that DNA

It might not be for you if:

• You prefer horror that’s purely psychological or atmospheric with minimal action — this series leans heavily on combat
• You want something short — 23 volumes is a real commitment, and the story takes its time building
• You’re looking for something lighthearted between horror reads — the tone stays dark and intense throughout

The series’ biggest strengths are its escalating stakes across the full 23-volume run and the fact that it actually delivers a complete, definitive ending. Too many horror-action manga either get cancelled abruptly or lose steam before the finish line. Corpse Princess runs its full course. That alone makes it worth a look if the premise grabs you.

Grab volume 1, give it a few chapters, and see if Makina’s world pulls you in. Twenty-two more volumes are waiting if it does.