Vol.2 – First edition

Volume 2 of the first French edition of Demon Slayer, which became a small collector’s gem due to a spectacular failure.

Published by Panini under the title Les Rôdeurs de la nuit (The Night Prowlers), the series did not find its audience the first time.

Only three volumes were distributed before an abrupt stop in November 2018 due to catastrophic sales. With the reorganization of Panini Manga and taking advantage of the success of the anime, the publisher announced the re-release of the series under the international name Demon Slayer in June 2019 and the rest is history…

The series has become one of the biggest manga successes of all time in France, and the three forgotten volumes with horrible names became a cult among collectors.

• Volume 1
• Volume 2
• Volume 3

Honestly? This one’s a bit of a stretch. It wouldn’t be quite right to call it a variant, but at the same time, it’s not a different edition from what it came after. That said, it remains a fascinating publishing quirk that even sparked some amusing initiatives, like comic shops gifting the regular dust jacket with the English title to those who already bought the volumes so they could have a “uniform” collection; a total role reversal from what usually happens, where the dust jacket itself is the variant.

For the nitpickers among you, you can still think of it as an “accidental” first print variant.