K Manga has announced that it has licensed The Fable: The Third Secret, the latest installment in the popular The Fable manga series, for English release. This allows fans to read the new chapters simultaneously with their release in Japan. The series began serialization in Japan on March 17, 2025, in Kodansha’s Weekly Young Magazine.
What is The Fable?
The Fable is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsuhisa Minami. It centers around Akira Sato, a legendary hitman known as “The Fable”. Feared by the Japanese underworld, politicians, mobsters, and public figures, The Fable is ordered by his boss to take a year-long break from his assassination work and live as a normal citizen in Osaka under the alias Akira Sato.
Initial Series
The initial The Fable manga series ran from November 2014 to November 2019 in Kodansha’s Weekly Young Magazine and was compiled into 22 tankōbon volumes. The series won Best General Manga at the 41st annual Kodansha awards in 2017. Kodansha USA is releasing the first manga in print in omnibus format.
The Fable: The Second Contact
A sequel series, titled The Fable: The Second Contact, ran in Weekly Young Magazine from July 2021 to July 2023. This “second part” of the overall manga franchise was collected into nine tankōbon volumes.
The Fable: The Third Secret
The Fable: The Third Secret is the third installment in the manga series, beginning serialization on March 17, 2025. The story takes place about two years after the battle with the formidable enemy Loomer ends, and focuses on Akira’s “secret.”
Where to Read
K Manga will serialize new chapters of The Fable: The Third Secret in English on Sundays simultaneously with the Japanese release.
Other The Fable Media
The Fable manga has also inspired other media, including:
- Live-action Films: Two live-action films were released in Japan in June 2019 and June 2021, respectively.
- Anime: A television anime series adaptation by Tezuka Productions aired from April to September 2024, with streaming available on Disney+ worldwide and Hulu in the United States. Ryōsuke Takahashi directed the anime, with scripts supervised by Yūya Takashima and co-written by Mayumi Morita.
- Video Game: A roguelike deckbuilder game, The Fable: Manga Build Roguelike, is being developed by Kodansha Game Creators’ Lab and Mono Entertainment.
Popularity and Reception
The Fable manga has achieved significant popularity, with over 25 million copies in circulation by June 2024, making it one of the best-selling manga series. In 2017, The Fable won the 41st Kodansha Manga Award for the General category.
