With 2025 behind us, it feels like the perfect time to look back at the English-language danmei scene over the past year. Whether you’ve been following every license announcement or just picking up the books that catch your eye, this past year gave us a lot to talk about!
Let’s dig into the numbers and highlights for a trip down memory lane and a glimpse into the future.
Publishers Entering the Danmei Market
How Many Danmei Books Came Out in English in 2025?
A Look at the Future: New Licenses Announced
Novels For Screen and Sound
Danmei In Many Formats
Baihe in 2025
DanmeiNews.com in 2025
What’s Next for DanmeiNews.com
Publishers Entering the Danmei Market
One of the biggest indicators of how well danmei continues to sell in English markets is just how many different companies are now publishing it. In 2025, we saw several new publishers release their first English-language danmei, expanding offerings beyond the few companies we’ve grown used to seeing.
Publishers releasing their first danmei in 2025:
- Hai Tang
- Debuted Guide on How to Fail at Online Dating Vol. 1 on August 1, 2025
- Inklore
- Debuted Heaven Official’s Blessing (The Comic) Vol. 1 on December 2, 2025
- Tokyopop
- Debuted The Wizard: When Words Kill on June 3, 2025
Publishers see enough interest in danmei to invest in it, even in an increasingly tough publishing climate of rising costs and competition.
How Many Danmei Books Came Out in English in 2025?
In total, 92 printed danmei volumes were released in English in 2025. This takes into consideration all individual volumes within a series, hardcover re-releases, and standalones, but excludes special editions that are a duplicate book with merchandise included and boxsets, regardless of unique ISBNs.
Here’s how that breaks down by publisher:
Seven Seas Entertainment: 60 volumes
Rosmei: 12 volumes
Aloha Comics: 9 volumes
Via Lactea: 7 volumes
Hai Tang: 2 volumes
Inklore: 1 volume
Tokyopop: 1 volume
Of the 92 volumes, 75 were novels, 16 were manhua (comics/webtoons), and 1 was an artbook.
Of the 75 novels, 27 were first volumes, 2 were one-shots, and 8 were the last volume in their series.
Compared to 2024’s 47 volumes, this represents a double in books released overall!
All books released in 2025 can be seen in the DanmeiNews catalog.
Books by Author
Like any genre, there are fan favorite authors and publishers taking note is evident in the books released! Below are the top five authors released in English in 2025 with the number of their novels or manhua books beside them:
- Mo Xiang Tong Xiu: 17 volumes
- Fei Tian Ye Xiang: 15 volumes
- Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou: 8 volumes
- priest: 5 volumes
- Tang Jiu Qing: 5 volumes
A Look at the Future: New Licenses Announced
In 2025, there were 23 new series announced. Some have already debuted, while most we’ll see take off in 2026 or beyond:
- Hai Tang: 9 series
- Seven Seas Entertainment: 5 series
- Rosmei: 4 series
- Via Lactea: 3 series
- Aloha Comics: 1 series
- Inklore: 1 series
Two especially notable series were Little Mushroom and Golden Terrace: these series were previously published in English by the now-closed publisher Peach Flower House, and were relicensed by Seven Seas Entertainment to be released with new translations and artwork. These are the first “license rescues” (where a publisher picks up titles previously published or dropped by another) seen in the English danmei industry.
Novels For Screen and Sound
In 2025, many books saw digital release across numerous platforms. This year also marked the release of the first official danmei audiobooks in English.
💻 Ebooks: 56 volumes
🔊 Audiobooks: 4
Astrolabe Rebirth
Riverbay Road Men’s Dormitory Vol. 1
Legend of Exorcism: Tianbao Fuyao Lu Vol. 1
The Wizard: When Words Kill
Danmei In Many Formats
Donghua
Danmei didn’t see many new animated adaptations in 2025, but the availability of old favorites was improved. Crunchyroll added Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Season Three and The Master of Diabolism Q to its catalog in January 2025, and the Scumbag System donghua in September 2025.
In February 2025, Crunchyroll released the second season of Heaven Official’s Blessing on Blu-ray and DVD.
Webtoons
Webtoons continue to be a bustling corner of the danmei world. We’re excited to continue seeing them licensed on platforms such as Lezhin, Tapas, and INKR!
Several danmei webtoons launched or saw print release in 2025: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Heaven Official’s Blessing, Little Mushroom, Dinghai Fusheng Records, Here U Are, and I Ship My Rival x Me.
Cdramas
DanmeiNews.com seeks to expand its coverage of live-action dramas, many of which continue to see release even in increasingly challenging circumstances. Although we all continue to hold onto hope that we’ll see the still-missing adaptations of Husky and His White Cat Shizun and Heaven Official’s Blessing—among others barred by government censorship in China—platforms such as Viki and GagaOOLala continue to stream new and existing shows.
Video Games
While gamers founds lots to love this past year in Where Winds Meet and Road to Empress, the reigning king of the danmei gaming castle remains NU:Carnival. NU:Carnival continued releasing new content and events all throughout 2025, and is preparing to celebrate its four year anniversary next month.
Baihe in 2025
In 2025, baihe saw its first official English-translated title reach print with The Beauty’s Blade from Seven Seas Entertainment.
There were also two new licenses for baihe manhua in print announced: See You There Beyond the Ocean from Yen Press, and She is Still Cute Today from Tokyopop.
The website Baiheverse continues to offer new baihe content in a variety of mediums, and early in the year BaiheNews.com launched as a sister site to DanmeiNews!
DanmeiNews.com in 2025
What You Read and What We Wrote
DanmeiNews also had a busy year, and we want to take a moment to thank everyone who read, shared, and sent us requests!
In 2025, we published 181 posts across DanmeiNews.com. This total includes news and announcements, first impressions, and FAQ columns, while excluding posts that are solely links to external videos and articles.
Most Popular Posts of 2025
Based on site traffic, these were the five most-read pieces on DanmeiNews this year, proportionate to the time they were live:
- Heaven Official’s Blessing Donghua Briefly Releases All-New Short Film
- What’s Going On with Monogatari Novels and BLoved Publishing?
- Crunchyroll Releases Heaven Official’s Blessing Donghua Season 2 Boxset with No Chinese Audio Track
- What Happened With Hai Tang Books and Their Translators?
- What’s Going On with the Heaven Official’s Blessing Manhua? Is It Ever Coming Out in English?
For What and For Who
The majority of DanmeiNews visitors come to us via search results on sites such as Google and Bing.
The search terms that most lead people to our site in 2025 were:
danmei news
rosmei
heaven official’s blessing manhua
global examination novel
art thou ailing
The most popular pages directly visited on DanmeiNews.com are the main page, where the most recent posts are displayed, followed by our catalog and the many individual books within it.
The majority of visitors to DanmeiNews.com are from the United States of America (🇺🇸), followed by India (🇮🇳), Canada (🇨🇦), and the United Kingdom (🇬🇧).
Some of Our Personal Favorites
While every post has its own charm, some certainly take more time and effort than others. We particular enjoyed the posts below and hope to do many more like them in the future!
- Danmei Retailer Spotlight: The Beguiling (Toronto, Ontario | Canada)
- Interview with Hua Cheng & Xie Lian’s English Voice Actors: James Cheek and Howard Wang!
- Danmei Event Spotlight: Heaven Official’s Blessing Cafe at Dimension Poptown, NYC
What’s Next for DanmeiNews.com
DanmeiNews.com in 2026 will be about refining what we already do best, and bringing on more writers to expand the topics we’re able to cover.
That’s right: in 2026, we’ll be formally opening submissions for additional writers on DanmeiNews! We’ll be looking for individuals interested in writing news posts for topics such as danmei webtoons, live-action dramas, video games, and baihe, as well as seeking pitches from writers for long-form content. Keep an eye on our website and social media accounts for more info about this in the near future!
We’ll also be continuing with our regular danmei news coverage while expanding and improving how we track and present English danmei releases in our catalog. We have more FAQ articles in the works, breaking down various topics within the English danmei industry, as well as upcoming interviews with some exciting individuals, retailer spotlights, danmei event coverage, and more.
Farewell to 2025, Hello to 2026
A cropped image of a Hua Cheng/Xie Lian illustration shared by the official Heaven Official’s Blessing Twitter/X.Whether you’ve been with us since we launched, or found DanmeiNews in 2025, thank you for making 2025 what it was. Your views and shares are what keep the site going, and your continued support of danmei as a whole keeps the books coming and the news flowing. We’re excited to watch both continue to grow.
Here’s to another year of danmei together in 2026!
