Weathering With You Manga Editions: Print & Digital Guide

Every Edition of the Weathering With You Manga

If you fell in love with Hodaka and Hina’s rain-soaked romance in the anime film, there’s a manga version waiting for you — and picking the right one from the available Weathering With You manga editions is simpler than you might think. The series is already finished, so you can read the whole thing without waiting for new chapters.

Weathering With You is a completed manga series with story by Makoto Shinkai and art by Wataru Kubota. It ran in Monthly Afternoon, a Kodansha magazine — meaning chapters were published in that magazine first, then collected into book-format volumes (the standard way manga gets released in Japan). The series wrapped up in 2020 and is available in both Japanese and English, in print and digital formats. It’s a compact 3-volume series, so it’s a quick, satisfying read you can finish in a sitting or two.

One thing that trips people up: the anime film came first. The manga is an adaptation of Makoto Shinkai’s animated movie, not the source material for it. Shinkai created the original story, and Kubota drew the manga version. Most of the time, a manga gets popular and then an anime follows — here it’s the reverse, so it’s worth knowing going in.

The romance between Hodaka and Hina is the heart of both versions. A runaway teenager meets a girl who can control the weather in rain-drenched Tokyo — their connection deepens as the stakes around Hina’s power grow increasingly serious. Genres listed for the series include SF/Fantasy, which fits the supernatural premise, but the emotional core is pure romance.

Japanese Editions

The original Japanese release uses the Afternoon KC paperback format — Kodansha’s standard collected-volume line for series that ran in Monthly Afternoon. These are the compact paperback volumes you’d find in any Japanese bookstore.

An official digital edition is also available in Japan for readers who prefer screens over shelves.

The series is complete, having ended in 2020, so every volume is already out. There are no known special editions, deluxe reprints, or collector’s variants in the Japanese market — just the standard paperback and digital releases.

For English-speaking readers who can read Japanese and want the original edition, the Afternoon KC volumes are the way to go. They’re widely available through import retailers that ship internationally.

English Editions — Print and Digital

English-speaking readers have solid options for both print and digital.

Print: Vertical Comics (Kodansha USA Publishing)

The English paperback edition was published under the Vertical Comics label, which is part of Kodansha USA Publishing. These are the standard English-language print volumes you’ll find at bookstores and online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or the Crunchyroll Store.

Vertical Comics has handled several other Makoto Shinkai manga adaptations, so the quality and presentation are consistent with what fans of his other works might expect. The volumes use right-to-left reading — you open the book from what feels like the “back” in English and read panels from right to left across each page. This preserves the original Japanese page layout, and every English volume has a quick guide inside the cover explaining how it works, so don’t worry if you’ve never read manga before.

If you’re looking to grab the print edition, you can pick up Weathering With You in paperback — at just 3 volumes, it won’t take over your entire shelf.

Digital: Ebook and K MANGA

The Kodansha USA Publishing ebook edition is available for readers who prefer digital. You can find it on major ebook platforms like Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and Google Play. This is the same content as the print release, just in electronic format.

Additionally, authorized digital chapters are available through K MANGA, Kodansha’s official English-language manga reading platform. K MANGA is a legitimate way to read the series digitally, and it’s worth checking if you already use the platform for other Kodansha titles.

Which Format Is Right for You?

Choosing between print and digital really comes down to how you like to read:

• Print collectors will appreciate having the physical volumes on a shelf. Since the series is complete at 3 volumes, it’s easy to own the whole thing without a major investment of space or money.
• Digital-first readers get instant access and the convenience of reading on a phone, tablet, or computer. The K MANGA option is particularly nice if you want to sample chapters before committing to buying the full volumes.
• Film fans testing the waters might want to start digital — low commitment, quick access, and you can always pick up print copies later if you love it.

There’s no wrong answer here. The content is the same across formats, so it’s purely a matter of personal preference.

How the Manga Relates to the Film

This is where Weathering With You gets interesting compared to most manga you’ll encounter. As mentioned above, Makoto Shinkai’s anime film is the original work, and manga artist Wataru Kubota adapted it into comic form. Kubota’s job was to translate a cinematic experience — with its sweeping rain-drenched cityscapes and musical score — into something that works on a printed page. That’s a genuinely different creative challenge than the usual manga-first pipeline.

Why Romance Readers Might Prefer the Manga

The film runs about two hours. That’s enough time to tell a complete story, but some emotional moments necessarily move quickly. The manga format gives those same scenes room to breathe.

Hodaka and Hina’s relationship builds through small, quiet interactions — shared meals, nervous conversations, moments of vulnerability. In the manga, you can sit with a panel as long as you want. You can flip back a page to re-read a scene that hit you emotionally. The pacing of a manga naturally lets you control how fast the story moves, which is something a film can’t offer.

This doesn’t mean the manga is “better” than the film — they’re different experiences of the same story. But if you watched the movie and wished you could have spent more time in certain scenes, the manga gives you exactly that.

Do You Need to Watch the Film First?

Nope. The manga tells the complete story on its own. You can absolutely read it with zero knowledge of the film and have a great experience.

That said, if you’ve already seen the movie, the manga becomes a fun companion — you’ll recognize scenes and appreciate how Kubota interpreted them visually. And if you read the manga first, you’ll get to experience those same scenes brought to life with animation, voice acting, and the film’s memorable soundtrack when you eventually watch it.

Either order works. Both are rewarding.

How to Start Reading Weathering With You

Good news: this is one of the simplest manga series to get into. There’s a single straightforward series with no branching reading order, no spin-offs, no sequel series, and no complicated continuity to track. You pick up volume one and read through all 3 volumes to the end. That’s it.

Here’s a quick summary of your Weathering With You manga editions and where to find them:

Format	Publisher/Platform	Notes
English Paperback	Vertical Comics (Kodansha USA)	Physical volumes, right-to-left reading
English Digital/Ebook	Kodansha USA Publishing	Same content as print — available on Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and more
English Digital Chapters	K MANGA	Kodansha’s official reading platform
Japanese Paperback (Afternoon KC)	Kodansha	Original Japanese edition — requires Japanese reading ability; available via import retailers
Japanese Digital	Kodansha	Official digital in Japanese — requires Japanese reading ability

For digital readers: Check out K MANGA for authorized English chapters. It’s Kodansha’s own platform, so you’re supporting the creators directly. You can also grab the full volumes as ebooks on Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, or Google Play.

For print readers: Look for the Vertical Comics / Kodansha USA paperbacks at bookstores or online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or the Crunchyroll Store.

A note for beginners: Weathering With You is a fantastic entry point into manga, especially if you already enjoyed the film. It’s a completed series at just 3 volumes, so there’s no waiting for new releases. It’s short enough to finish in a sitting or two. And the romance between Hodaka and Hina is emotionally satisfying from start to finish. If you’ve never read manga before and you’re wondering where to start, a short completed series based on a movie you love is about as beginner-friendly as it gets.

One important reminder: Please stick to official releases when reading manga. Unofficial fan translations and pirated scan sites hurt the creators who made the work you’re enjoying. The official English editions are readily available in both print and digital, so there’s no reason to look elsewhere.

Whether you grab the paperback to add to your shelf or pull up K MANGA on your phone during a commute, you’re in for a beautiful, bittersweet love story about two teenagers, a girl who can clear the sky, and the choices we make for the people we care about. Pick up volume one and see for yourself — it’s a lovely read.