Dai Dark
Dai Dark is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Q Hayashida. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Sunday since March 2019, with its chapters collected into nine volumes as of October 2025. The manga is licensed for English release in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment.
Synopsis
Setting
Taking place in outer space, which is divided between a "Regular Realm" and a "Dark Realm". The regular world is inhabited by two races: Aliens, who are any type of organic humanoid; and Robos, a mix of mechanical humanoids and remote-controlled puppets. Regular Space is occupied by both neutral and hostile ships, with neutral ships often sustaining themselves by carrying and selling cargo under threat of attack from hostile bandit ships; the remnants of bandit attacks, plundered and destroyed ships drifting through space, commonly litter certain routes. Neutral ships include Great Trees, children's school ships run by Solar Mass' automated light-powered robots, and the Maltekya, merchant ships staffed by lobotomized remote-controlled aliens that avoid attacks by self-destructing with little provocation.The closest sense of order or lawfulness is the theocratic dictatorship, the Solar Mass, a series of ancient religious sects based around light magic and rumored to stem from a mysterious location named Zora. While all followers of the religion are dedicated to researching light magic and combating darkness, the faith has splintered into multiple competing sub-sects like The Light Head, who all ultimately serve their own interests. The church's higher-ranking members have managed to extend their lives to the point of being multiple centuries old, essentially living in a state of undeath through light magic and cybernetics powered by it. The church is also responsible for running multiple educational colonies for children, protected and maintained entirely by automated light-powered robots.
Meanwhile, the Dark Realm is only accessible to dark beings and must be reached by passing through a black hole or equally lightless area. Dark races include dark aliens, hollow but sentient entities dubbed 'Packages' and other dark creatures of varying intelligence, some of whom possess unique powers. The World of Darkness is completely non-visible to regular beings as even light cannot exist within it, resulting in the followers of Light fearing and hunting dark beings, labeling them as Daemons. Regular entities are unable to tolerate the Dark Realms, which physically and mentally warps them into shadow creatures. The Dark Realm contains unusual technologies, including Skin of Darkness robes which use shadows to protect the wearer, and Dark Cores that can provide power and life to ship entities. A common currency with merchants of Darkness is alien bones, which can be traded for dark magic and dark supplies.
Premise
Zaha Sanko, a dark alien teen with a mysterious past, lives as a vagrant and fugitive to avoid capture; a legend claims that possessing his bones will grant the owner any wish they desire, resulting in most aliens being hostile towards him. Travelling with his guardian and "Package of Darkness" Avakian, the duo are seeking the person offering wishes for his bones. The pair regularly crosses paths with Shimada Death, another dark alien feared as the God of Death, who commonly feeds off the corpses they create. Evading a series of attacks and using the skeletons to purchase equipment, Sanko uses a Black Core to create a sentient ship named Moja, which also leads Shimada to join their crew. This then later expands to include Hajime Damemaru, another fugitive pursued by the Solar Mass.Characters
;Zaha Sanko;Avakian
;Shimada Death
;Hajime Damemaru
;Moja
Publication
Written and illustrated by Q Hayashida, Dai Dark started in Shogakukan's manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Sunday on March 12, 2019. Shogakukan has collected its chapters into individual volumes. The first volume was published on November 12, 2019. As of October 10, 2025, nine volumes have been released.In July 2020, Seven Seas Entertainment announced that they have licensed the manga for an English language release in North America. The first volume was published on April 27, 2021. In August 2025, Seven Seas Entertainment announced a three-in-one omnibus edition, with the first volume scheduled for March 2026.
Volumes
Chapters not yet in ''tankōbon'' format
- Bone 60. Exciting Throwback
- Bone 61. Circling • Triangle • Square
- Bone 62. TIME-RUG
Reception