Kara Dennison
February 28, 2025 
For more than a decade, Minecraft has been the game of choice for a whole generation of creative gamers. The sandbox game lets gamers build entire worlds on shared servers while investigating the mysteries within. With a film adaptation on the way, the time is just right for Viz Manga to translate the game’s manga adaptation into English!
Launched in 2020, Minecraft: The Manga takes place in the world of the popular game, following a young adventurer on an epic quest. How does the game fare in manga form? Read on to find out!
The Story
Minecraft: The Manga, rather than trying to encompass the entire lore of the game, sets an original story within its world. Our hero is Nico White, the son of a renowned adventurer and an aspiring adventurer himself. At the age of ten, he develops his Mod Power: a special ability denoted by a crest on his hand. In the case of both Nico and his father, it’s the ability to craft anything he imagine without needing a crafting table.
With this power in hand, Nico sets off to find the end of the world—a seemingly impossible task in this allegedly infinite world. Along the way, he meets new friends with goals of their own. The first of these is Gray, whose Mod Power has given him the appearance of a zombie.
Who Is It For?
Minecraft: The Manga runs in the manga magazine CoroCoro Comic. This kids’ manga magazine also runs tie-ins for Pokémon, Beyblade, and Splatoon. In other words, this is definitely a manga aimed at kids. The straightforward story and young protagonist double down on this. But just because something is for kids doesn’t mean it can’t be fun for older readers!
While younger readers will be much more likely to relate to Nico’s bold optimism and big imagination, gaming fans of all ages will appreciate the references to the original game’s mechanics and art. That said, this manga would make a great gift for any young Minecraft fans in your life. It weaves lessons about the game into the story, including tips on how to survive the night and what monsters to look out for in certain areas.
The Big Picture
The main thing that Minecraft: The Manga struggles with is exactly what you’d expect: dealing with the art style. Kazuyoshi Seto does a decent job with the art—melding a kid-targeted manga style with the game’s blocky aesthetic, much less giving it life, is a difficult task. Is it perfect? Not always. Is it cute? Well, it takes a bit of getting used to, but the art does grow on you after a bit.
Overall, this is a fun novelty for Minecraft fans. It’s not high art, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s an excellent approach to adapting the game into manga form. Much like the Dungeons & Dragons movie Honor Among Thieves, it thrives because the setting is treated like the sandbox it is. This isn’t trying to tell the game’s ultimate story: it’s telling Nico’s story. And Nico is a fun character. We’ll see as he progresses toward the end of the world how his story holds up!
