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Drifters (ドリフターズ, Dorifutazu?) is a Japanese dark fantasy manga written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano.

It started serialization in Shōnen Gahōsha's magazine, Young King Ours on April 30, 2009. Individual chapters were later collected by Gahōsha and turned into tankōbon volumes. Dark Horse Comics later licensed the series for release in North America. Drifters inspired an anime series by the same name produced by Hoods Entertainment under the title of "Hoods Drifters Studio."

In 2023, Dark Horse Comics announced the release of omnibus editions of Drifters.[1]

Plot[]

Shimazu Toyohisa, while involved at the Battle of Sekigahara, manages to mortally wound Ii Naomasa, but is critically wounded in the process. As he walks from the field wounded and bleeding, Toyohisa finds himself transported to a corridor of doors, where a bespectacled man at a desk waits for him. This man, Murasaki, sends Toyohisa into the nearest door where he wakes up in another world. There, Toyohisa meets other great warriors like him who have been transported as well, to be part of a group known as "Drifters". This world contains both native humans and a number of fantastical races, including elves, dwarves, and hobbits. However, the world is at war, with the humans waging a losing war against another group of great warriors, the "Ends", who wish to take over the world and kill all of the Drifters. Under the Ends' command are many terrible creatures, including dragons, which they use to destroy everything in their wake. At the start of the series, the Ends' army has control of the northern part of the continent, and are currently trying to invade the south through a pivotal fortress at the northernmost tip of a nation called Carneades. Meanwhile, the "Octobrist Organization", a group of human magicians native to this world, attempt to bring together the many individual Drifters to save their world from the brutal Ends.

Volume Guide[]

Chapter Numbering[]

The wiki is following the volume chapter numbering as its supposed to be the adjusted correct numbering. There is some inconsistency with the magazine chapter numbering. Originally in the magazine version chapters titled "Chapter 60: Stage of the ground" and untitled "Chapter 61" were released separately, however in the sixth volume, they were combined into a single chapter titled "Chapter 60: Stage of the ground". Same thing happened to magazine chapters "Chapter 68: Reason" and "Chapter 69: Reach Out", which were combined into "Chapter 67: Reason". To follow the new numbering after volume six released, the magazine version also adjusted the numbering and after magazine chapter "Chapter 73: Shinsengumi", following chapter was named "Chapter 72: Asteroid Blues".

Volumes[]

# Release date Volume
1 July 7, 2010 Japan August 31, 2011 American Volume 1
Synopsis: AD 1600. The final battle to control Japan's future is being waged. Shimazu Toyohisa sets his sights on the opposing general's head in an all-out assault on enemy forces. On the edge of death, a door to another world opens and swallows Shimazu. He awakens in a place that is not here, in a time that is not now, where the strongest samurai from the period of warring provinces in Japan are brought to a new world of war where elves, dragons, goblins, and other warrior "Drifters" snatched from Earth's history are used as chess pieces in a endless game of blood, destruction, and madness.
Volume 01
List of Chapters:
2 October 13, 2011 Japan July 25, 2012 American Volume 2
Synopsis: Heroes from Earth's history are mysteriously deposited in an enchanted world where humans subjugate the nonhuman races. Samurai warriors Shimazu Toyohisa and Oda Nobunaga aid the elves in their struggle against tyranny and enslavement, but an even greater threat grows in the North, where the Black King and his Ends have set out to decimate the planet. And yet, sometimes chaos creates opportunity, and Nobunaga has his own visions of conquest!
Volume 02
List of Chapters:
3 March 18, 2013 Japan March 12, 2014 American Volume 3
Synopsis: In an enchanted world, heroes plucked from Earth's history - "Drifters" - face off in battle to determine the future of this mystical calm in the face of the onslaught of the malefic Dark Lord and his own Earth warriors. Allied with the native elves, samurai warrior Shimazu Toyohisa forges a daring plan: form an alliance between elves and dwarves, the elves' generational enemies! From Hellsing creator Kohta Hirano, Drifters is an all-out fantasy slugfest of epic proportion!
Volume 03
List of Chapters:
4 October 27, 2014 Japan August 9, 2017 American Volume 4
Synopsis:< Heroes abducted from Earth’s history — “Drifters” — take sides in a war for a mystical world. Samurai warrior Shimazu Toyohisa and his forces take control of the Orte Empire’s capital only to discover that the Black King has sent his army of monsters to lay waste to the capital... and to Toyohisa’s Drifters! From Hellsing creator Kohta Hirano, Drifters is an all-out fantasy slugfest of epic proportion!
Volume 04
List of Chapters:
5 June 6, 2016 Japan January 9, 2018 American

Volume 5

Synopsis:< From the creator of Hellsing comes the manga that inspired the hit Drifters anime! Warriors stolen from Earth's history - "Drifters" - battle for the fate of a wondrous mystic realm. At the heart of the struggle is the malefic Black King who, desiring more than simple land and resources, is uniting this world's non-human races for a single horrific purpose... the absolute genocide of humanity! From Kohta Hirano comes Drifters, a sweeping fantasy epic of monumental action, towering ambition, and worldwide demolition!
Volume 5
List of Chapters:
6 November 30, 2018 Japan December 31, 2019 American

Volume 6

Synopsis:< In a farflung mystic realm, the army of the Black King--an overwhelming horde of goblins, giants, and dragons--descends upon the fortifications of humanity, led by Earth warriors Oda Nobunaga and Shimazu Toyohiso. Dug in deep, and with the superior strategic acumen and weaponry provided by the warlord Nobunaga, the human races have a chance for victory against the Black King's superior numbers, but the most dangerous enemy may come from within!
Volume 6
List of Chapters:
7 August 10, 2023 Japan TBA American

Volume 7

Synopsis:
Volume 07
List of Chapters:

Chapters not yet in tankōbon format[]

Production[]

March of 2009, multiple sites reported that Kouta Hirano will be moving onto a new project.[2] Hirano also said that he was planning on a fantasy work and a one-shot mystery story set in the early Showa era. A couple of years later, in an interview, Hirano stated that the thing that interests him the most about Drifters, is about the fact that they come from different eras, countries, and that allows him to create original fantasies and interactions.[3]

In Paris during Japan Expo, Hirano appeared as a guest and was interviewed about the basis of characters. Hirano stated that he thought it would be great to have heroes with "experience", and was incredibly interested on bringing them together from different eras, and said that he wants to show what unites them as one. In addition, Hirano said that he does not do research for the characters; instead, he reportedly said that he took elements from games, which he did not state specifically except, the Nobunaga's Ambition series.[4]

Known for being lazy, Hirano had a seven-month hiatus without any chapters lasting from December of 2019 to August of 2020. Anime News Network eventually reported that Hirano had resumed the manga.[5] On July 10 of 2023, it was announced that the seventh volume of Drifters would release on August 10 of the same year; it was the first volume to be published in five years.[6]

Trivia[]

  • Most of the chapters are named after songs, like "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and most notably, "Get Back That Love" which is named after the first opening of the popular 1980s anime series Hokuto no Ken.

References[]

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