The Road to “Zigoku’s Foreman” Volume 1

From the brand new English manga publisher, Manga Mavericks Books, one of their first titles being released is 9banta’s Zigoku’s Foreman (ジゴクの職長) series. The English digital edition will be available for purchase on July 16^th in a PDF and CBZ file format. The print edition was originally scheduled for a release in July as well, but were slightly delayed due to a printing delay. An early digital copy was provided to fans who pre-ordered the print edition to make up for the delay.

The Japanese print edition of “volume 1” was originally sold at Comitia 143 on February 19, 2023. The book itself was 88 pages, and contained 5 manga chapters that were previously released digitally on Twitter and Pixiv by 9banta. It also contained 3 short stories co-written by Hiroki Kamishiro which further builds upon the framework told in the manga. The English print and digital edition is based on this original Japanese print edition, with some additional content added.

A Japanese print edition of volume 2 was sold at Comitia 146 on December 3, 2023. This volume then added 2 more manga chapters as well as 3 more short stories. Both of these were then combined into a single digital version of “volume 1” which was released in Japan on April 24, 2025. The series is still on-going, with an 8^th chapter being released as during Comitia 150, while the full “volume 3” is still in development. Due to the time crunch to get that 3^rd volume released, 9banta shifted their work towards the Zigoku’s Foreman Guidebook. The concept of the new book will function like a “new employee manual” and continue to expand the world within Zigoku’s Foreman. It will also collect the additional stories and artwork since the last volume release. 9banta is hoping to have the book published in Japan for Comitia 153 on September 7, 2025.

The series is entirely self-published by 9banta in Japan. Originally he started off in his career as an illustrator before shifting over to being a web designer in Japan. After getting hooked on reading One Punch Man in 2018, he started drawing fan art and other illustrations, which he posted on social media. This led him to participate in a Twitter hastag prompt challenge in 2020 which he combined 8 different prompts into the initial design of Foreman Mizuchi, the main character of Zigoku’s Foreman. In the English release, you can see the original design and some of 9banta’s thoughts on the character’s first iteration. This character was then expanded upon into the story “Welcome to the First District of Hell” short story. With the first full chapter of the manga, “The Foreman and the Sneakers”, the character was then refined and started building the world for the larger series which then was published in the first print volume.

As the story expanded and continued to be released online digitally, new characters and elements of the world begin to be added. Notably in the chapter “The Foreman and the Creep” it was originally released in 4 page chunks. This changed the pacing of the chapter to having an interesting scene within each chunk of 4 pages. Each chapter in the series so far is its own stand-alone story, but helps build and explore the world for new and different aspects. An over-arching storyline hasn’t been firmly established within the first volume, but definitely sets the groundwork with the characters for further stories to be explored. The use of bold line-work with gags help keep manga chapters visually appealing and provide a good look into the character’s interactions. The written short stories are a reverse to this, which provide a more grounded story, but allows for more inter-monologue and context behind each characters action. Using both of these mediums allows for a more complex look at the entire world that Zigoku’s Foreman is building towards.

To promote the upcoming English release, 9banta has been posting on Twitter (X) a “ZigokusCountdown” with daily artwork and further behind-the-scenes look at the manga series in English. This is a great collection of artwork and additional information that is not included in the English digital release and further builds upon the author’s creative process for the series. Eventually this information may also be combined into a supplemental PDF for the Japanese fans to download as well.

An upcoming episode of the Manga Mavericks Podcast will also feature some of the Manga Mavericks Books team about how they licensed the series and their thoughts about the book.

Below is the details of the English physical edition of the book, including the localization and Manga Mavericks Books staff:

The Japanese print editions of the books are also available in Japan from 9banta’s Booth store. The Japanese official website also contains some additional information about the series, which was referenced for this article. Updates about new volumes and other events are also documented on 9banta’s blog in Japanese. 9banta also regularly posts on both X (Twitter) and Bluesky.