So you want to start JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and you’re wondering exactly how many volumes of Phantom Blood — the first part of the series — you need to track down. Good news: Part 1 is short, it’s finished, and the answer is straightforward once you know which edition you’re looking at.
If you’re new to JoJo, here’s the quick context: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a long-running manga series divided into numbered story segments called “Parts.” Each Part follows a different member of the Joestar family through a complete story. Phantom Blood is Part 1 — the place to start.
Phantom Blood Has 5 Japanese Volumes and 3 English Hardcovers (Complete)
Here’s the quick answer:
- Japanese edition (Jump Comics): 5 volumes
- English edition (VIZ Media hardcover): 3 volumes
The series is completed — no waiting for new releases. Hirohiko Araki (荒木飛呂彦) created both the story and art, originally publishing in Weekly Shōnen Jump, a Japanese comics anthology magazine, through Shueisha (the Japanese publisher behind the series). The final Japanese volume came out on August 10, 1988. VIZ Media — the American company that translates and publishes Japanese manga in English — handles the English release, with the last hardcover volume arriving on August 4, 2015.
The English edition carries a Teen Plus rating from VIZ Media, which is their content advisory label indicating the book is recommended for ages 16 and up — expect violence, some blood, and darker themes. The official genres listed are Action-Adventure, Fantasy, and Supernatural, but don’t let the absence of a “horror” label fool you. Phantom Blood is steeped in horror, and horror fans will find plenty to love here. The story’s roots are firmly in gothic tradition — think cursed artifacts, vampires, and body horror — even if VIZ doesn’t stamp “horror” on the spine.
Why the different volume counts between languages? VIZ collected the material into larger hardcover volumes rather than matching the Japanese numbering one-to-one. You’re getting the exact same story either way — just packaged differently. Three English hardcovers contain everything that five Japanese volumes do.
Japanese and English Editions of Phantom Blood Explained
Understanding the different editions keeps you from accidentally buying duplicates or missing part of the story.
Japanese Phantom Blood Editions
Jump Comics — 5 volumes, available in both paper and digital. This is the original format Japanese readers got when the series was first published. “Jump Comics” is simply the imprint name for manga volumes published from Weekly Shōnen Jump’s catalog. One important detail: Volume 5 of the Japanese edition contains both the conclusion of Phantom Blood and the beginning of Part 2: Battle Tendency. In other words, the physical book includes chapters from two different stories back-to-back. So if you’re reading in Japanese and you finish Volume 5, you’ll notice the story shifting to a new lead character and a different time period — that’s Part 2 beginning, not bonus Phantom Blood content.
There’s also a Digital Color edition available in Japan — a digitally colored version of the manga released as a separate product. This edition is Japanese-only and has not been released in English, so English-language readers won’t need to worry about tracking it down.
English Phantom Blood Edition
VIZ Media Hardcover — 3 volumes, available in both hardcover (physical books with rigid covers, larger than typical manga paperbacks) and digital formats. This is the complete Phantom Blood story in English. Volume 3 is the final volume.
A key thing to remember: don’t try to match Japanese volume numbers to English volume numbers. The content was redistributed across fewer, thicker books for the English release. If someone online references “Japanese Volume 4,” that doesn’t correspond to “English Volume 3” in any neat way. Just grab all three English hardcovers and you have the whole story.
The hardcovers are solid, well-made books with quality paper — they look great on a shelf and hold up well to rereading.
Where Phantom Blood Fits — JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Reading Order for New Readers
Phantom Blood is Part 1. Start here.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is structured as a series of connected but self-contained stories, each called a “Part” with its own lead character (always a member of the Joestar family). The reading order is:
- Part 1: Phantom Blood ← You are here
- Part 2: Battle Tendency
- Part 3: Stardust Crusaders
- And so on through additional Parts
Each Part tells a complete story, but Part 1 establishes everything the franchise builds on: the Joestar family, the central villain, and the supernatural mythology that drives the series forward — including a cursed ancient artifact called the Stone Mask and a combat technique called Hamon (a breathing-based fighting method the heroes use against supernatural enemies).
Why Horror Fans Should Care About Starting Here
Part 1 is the most gothic horror-focused entry in the entire JoJo franchise. Gothic horror is a style that leans into atmosphere, dread, and the macabre — think crumbling mansions, aristocratic villains, and things that shouldn’t be alive walking around. Set in 19th-century England with a brooding, Victorian-era atmosphere of gaslit streets and stone estates, the story revolves around:
- A cursed ancient artifact (the Stone Mask)
- Vampires — not sparkly ones, genuinely monstrous ones
- Body horror and transformation
- Undead armies
Later Parts shift toward different genres and power systems, but Phantom Blood is horror through and through. If you’re coming to JoJo because you love horror manga, Part 1 will feel the most like home.
Manga vs. Anime — What the Phantom Blood Volumes Cover Beyond the Show
If you’ve already watched the JoJo anime, here’s why the manga is still worth reading. If you haven’t seen the anime and you’re coming to this purely as a manga reader, feel free to skip this section — you don’t need the anime to enjoy the manga at all.
The Phantom Blood anime is part of the 1st Season TV anime, which adapted both Part 1 and Part 2: Battle Tendency together in a single broadcast run. (A manga “adaptation” is when an animated TV series retells the manga’s story — same plot, different medium.) So the first anime season covers two full manga Parts.
The anime is a faithful adaptation, but here’s what makes the manga worth reading even if you’ve already watched it:
Araki’s original art has an intensity the anime can’t replicate. The manga was drawn in the late 1980s, and it has that era’s heavy linework and more grotesque approach to body horror. The anime modernized and smoothed the visual style considerably. Character designs are cleaner in the show, the gore is toned down in places, and the overall look is more polished.
For some readers, the polished anime version is preferable. But for horror fans who appreciate the visceral intensity of hand-drawn manga body horror — the ink splatters, the exaggerated anatomy, the panels where Araki clearly reveled in drawing something disturbing — the original volumes deliver an experience the adaptation simply cannot reproduce.
The manga is also the complete, uncut version of the story. Anime adaptations sometimes trim or rearrange material to fit episode runtimes. With the manga, you get Araki’s complete vision for Phantom Blood, every panel exactly as he drew it. Small moments, background details, and visual storytelling beats that couldn’t survive the adaptation process are all intact.
Reading the manga after watching the anime feels less like retreading familiar ground and more like seeing the foundation an entire franchise was built from.
Where to Buy Phantom Blood in English
VIZ Media publishes the official English edition in hardcover and digital formats. Three volumes cover the complete Part 1 story. You need all three volumes to read the full story — they are sequential, not standalone.
Here are the three volumes you need:
Volume 1 — The story begins here. This is where you meet the Joestar family and the central conflict takes shape.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood Vol. 1 (hardcover)
Volume 2 — The story escalates as the supernatural threats intensify.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 1—Phantom Blood, Vol. 2
Volume 3 — The final volume, wrapping up the Phantom Blood story and bringing the curtain down on Jonathan Joestar’s chapter of the Joestar saga.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 1–Phantom Blood, Vol. 3 (final volume)
The hardcover set has been in print since 2015 and is widely available through major retailers. These aren’t limited editions or special printings — they’re standard VIZ hardcovers that stay in stock.
For readers who prefer digital, the volumes are available as digital editions — handy if you want to start reading immediately or prefer reading on a tablet.
Since there are only three volumes total, this is one of the most affordable complete manga series you can own. You’re not committing to dozens of books. Three hardcovers, one complete story, done.
Is Phantom Blood Worth Reading for Horror Fans?
Yes. And here’s why it works so well as a horror manga recommendation specifically:
It’s genuinely a gothic horror story. The Stone Mask, the vampire antagonist, the body transformations, the undead armies — Phantom Blood draws from classic horror in ways that feel surprisingly earnest. Araki wasn’t writing a battle manga with horror flavoring. He was writing a horror story where the heroes happen to fight back.
It’s short and self-contained. Three English volumes cover the entire story from beginning to end. You get a complete narrative with a clear lead character, a clear villain, rising stakes, and a definitive conclusion. For horror manga newcomers who aren’t ready to commit to a 30-volume series, Phantom Blood is an ideal entry point. You can read the whole thing in an afternoon.
Araki’s horror imagery influenced decades of manga creators. The way he draws transformation sequences, the exaggerated musculature that becomes grotesque rather than aspirational, the Stone Mask’s body-horror mechanics — these visual techniques echo through horror and action manga that came after. Reading Part 1 shows you where a lot of that visual approach started.
The villain is fantastic. Without spoiling specifics, Dio Brando is one of the most memorable antagonists in manga, and Phantom Blood is where he becomes what he is. His arc across these three volumes is compelling, theatrical, and genuinely unsettling in places.
If you want a compact, intense horror-action manga with a clear beginning and ending — something you can recommend to a friend without caveats about “it gets good after Volume 12” — Phantom Blood delivers. Volume 1 hooks you, Volume 2 escalates, and Volume 3 brings it all crashing down. That’s a complete horror story with no filler.
For anyone who finishes and wants more, Part 2: Battle Tendency continues the Joestar saga, shifting to a new era and a new lead character while building on the mythology established here. But Part 1 stands perfectly well on its own as a finished horror manga — you won’t be left hanging if you decide three volumes is enough.