The Weeknd Recommends Nezumi’s First Love
Grammy Award-winning artist The Weeknd recommends Assassin Thriller Nezumi’s First Love! Volume 3 Debuts in English March 2026!
First serialized in the pages of Kodansha’s Young Magazine , and boasting more than 1.5 million volumes sold worldwide, Nezumi’s First Love — the gritty assassin-in-love crime thriller — sees the third volume in English debut March 24, 2026. After a recent visit to Kodansha headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, the globally renowned singer-songwriter, The Weeknd—known for hit songs like “Blinding Lights” — has offered praise for this series. As an avid reader of the series, The Weeknd shared his feelings and endorsement of Nezumi’s First Love:
The Weeknd commented, “A vicious descent into violence and vulnerability, Nezumi’s First Love grips the throat and refuses mercy. Through carnage and despair, Riku Oseto clings to a fragile hope—where love cuts deeper than any blade. Beautiful, brutal, and unflinching, this dark romance is not for the faint of heart and leaves readers desperate for a happy ending.”
Riku Oseto, the author of Nezumi’s First Love , responded, “I was truly astonished, and it’s an honor. I was deeply moved that The Weeknd expressed, through his beautiful writing, thoughtful sentiments about themes in Nezumi’s First Love that I hadn’t even put to words myself. “I will continue drawing this manga until its conclusion and strive to create something worthy of the praise it has received.
Nezumi’s First Love currently has two volumes released in English, with a third scheduled for March 2026. All English-language volumes are available in both print and digital versions. Print editions can be purchased at physical and online book stores like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and more. While digital editions are available across all our participating vendors, including Bookwalker, Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play, Nook, Kobo, MyAnimeList, among others. Fans can also purchase and read all Kodansha digital manga directly on uat.kodansha.us/ .
About Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC
A subsidiary of Kodansha, Japan’s largest publisher, Kodansha USA Publishing is the English-language publisher of some of the world’s most recognizable manga properties, including Katsuhiro Otomo’s AKIRA and Naoko Takeuchi’s Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon , along with a robust catalog of English-language Japanese novels, cookbooks, craft guides, historical and cultural literature, and more. Today, thanks to recent fan-favorite and critically acclaimed hits like Attack on Titan , Battle Angel Alita , Witch Hat Atelier , and the popular MONOGATARI novels, Kodansha USA Publishing is one of the best-selling manga publishers in the United States. Kodansha USA Publishing’s print offerings are distributed by Penguin Random House Publisher Services, and their digital manga and select digital books are available across a number of digital comics, manga, and book vendors. For more information visit uat.kodansha.us/ .
Title Overview:
Title: Nezumi’s First Love
Author: Riku Oseto
Published in English by: Kodansha USA Publishing LLC
Synopsis: Nezumi was raised by the yakuza to be a killer. It’s all she’s ever known. Love is something she’s never experienced or even contemplated…until she meets an ordinary, hapless young man named Ao in an arcade during a hit. Suddenly thrust into the simple bliss of shared dinners, video games, and bashful intimacy, Nezumi is happy for the first time in her life.
But her masters were never going to allow the dream to last forever. Now Nezumi has to make a terrible choice to save Ao’s life—and her own. How far will this killing machine go to assert her humanity…?
Regarding Volume 3 of the Manga Series:
Release Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2026
List Price: Print $13.95 USD // Digital $8.99
Page count: 192 pages
Highlights: Recommended by Grammy Award-winning artist The Weeknd! This series depicts the brutally cruel and heartbreaking first love between a girl assassin named Nezumi and an ordinary young man named Ao, surpassing 1.5 million copies sold worldwide!
