# Dig It (manga)
**Dig It** (ディグイット) is a Japanese volleyball manga written and illustrated by Yoshidamaru (ヨシダ。), serialized in Kodansha's seinen (manga marketed to adult men) magazine *Monthly Afternoon* beginning with the June 2025 issue, which went on sale on April 24, 2025.[1](https://pedia.3rd-in.co.jp/wiki/%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%82%B0%E3%82%A4%E3%83%83%E3%83%88) The series follows Gaku Shishitani, the son of a former ace of the [Japan men's national volleyball team](https://www.edgepedia.org/japan-mens-national-volleyball-team), who abandons the attacker position his father demanded and rebuilds himself as a libero, the defensive specialist whose job is to stop the very spikes his father once mastered.[2](https://blogbbm.com/manga/dig-it/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Author | Yoshidamaru (ヨシダ。), story and art; his first serialized work after the one-shot *Square Knot*[3](https://www.zonanegativa.com/dig-it-1-de-yoshidamaru/) |
| Serialization | *Monthly Afternoon* (Kodansha), from the June 2025 issue; also published simultaneously on the K Manga app[1](https://pedia.3rd-in.co.jp/wiki/%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%82%B0%E3%82%A4%E3%83%83%E3%83%88) • [3](https://www.zonanegativa.com/dig-it-1-de-yoshidamaru/) |
| Demographic and genre | Seinen sports manga (school, team sports, volleyball)[4](https://mangacodex.com/manga/dig-it) |
| Japanese volumes | 4 collected volumes: August 22, 2025; December 23, 2025; April 23, 2026; August 21, 2026[2](https://blogbbm.com/manga/dig-it/) |
| Sales | Cumulative circulation passed 300,000 copies with volume 3 and 450,000 copies with volume 4[5](https://afternoon.kodansha.co.jp/c/digit/) |
| Recognition | 11th in *Kono Manga ga Sugoi!* 2026 for male readers; 4th on the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics list[3](https://www.zonanegativa.com/dig-it-1-de-yoshidamaru/) |
| Foreign editions | English simulpub on Kodansha's K Manga app (April 2026); Spanish edition by Milky Way Ediciones; Brazilian edition by MPEG[6](https://www.aprasi.com/de/blogs/trending-topics/dig-it-anime-where-to-watch-it-in-2026) • [7](https://www.listadomanga.es/coleccion.php?id=6458) • [2](https://blogbbm.com/manga/dig-it/) |
## Story
Gaku Shishitani is the ace of his school's volleyball team, but he doubts whether he has what it takes to be an attacker. His father, Kei Shishitani, a former star spiker of the Japanese national team, comes to watch Gaku practice and meets Noboru, a teammate with exceptional talent as an attacker, and declares that he will make Noboru the best volleyball player in Japan. The relationship between father and son ends there.[2](https://blogbbm.com/manga/dig-it/)
Gaku vows to prove his own limits as an attacker and then to surpass his father and Noboru with a volleyball style he develops himself.[2](https://blogbbm.com/manga/dig-it/) The Spanish-language review in *Zona Negativa* describes the turn this takes: pressured since childhood to play attack like his father, Gaku instead resolves to stop every ball from every spiker he faces, becoming a libero opponents cannot get rid of, with his mother as the one person who encourages him to believe in himself.[3](https://www.zonanegativa.com/dig-it-1-de-yoshidamaru/) Kodansha's own synopsis frames the premise as "when the shield pierces the wall," a story of second-generation rebellion.[7](https://www.listadomanga.es/coleccion.php?id=6458)
## Position in sports manga
Reviewers have read the series against *Haikyū!!*, the dominant volleyball manga of the previous decade, which was still running alongside it in Spain when *Dig It* debuted there. *Zona Negativa* calls the two works practically antithetical: where Furudate's series followed a small player with the aspirations of a giant, *Dig It* follows the son of a superstar seeking revenge, and where the earlier series offered a guiding mentor figure, Kei is an authoritarian presence who abandons his son.[3](https://www.zonanegativa.com/dig-it-1-de-yoshidamaru/) A Japanese column on the series makes the same point from the reader's side: comparisons to *Haikyu!!* surface immediately but lose meaning as the pages turn, because the series stands on its own as a passionate sports manga built on raw emotional depiction, the desire to win, the fear of losing, and complicated feelings toward teammates.[8](https://note.com/telpur__ray__/n/n005a819e6af9?hl=en)
The choice of protagonist position is itself a distinguishing feature. As one English-language analysis notes, sports manga have celebrated flashy spikers and setters, while *Dig It* centers a libero, arguably the position the genre pays the least attention to, and pairs it with a tense, unresolved father-son dynamic rather than a straightforward underdog team story.[6](https://www.aprasi.com/de/blogs/trending-topics/dig-it-anime-where-to-watch-it-in-2026)
## Publication and sales
The first three volumes sold steadily on Oricon's weekly charts: volume 2 reached a cumulative 29,710 copies, volume 3 a cumulative 36,057 copies, and volume 4, released August 21, 2026, stood at 25,394 copies through the week of August 31, 2026, a decline of about 30 percent from volume 3.[4](https://mangacodex.com/manga/dig-it) Kodansha's promotional announcements give the wider circulation picture, reporting 300,000 copies in print at the release of volume 3 in April 2026 and 450,000 at the release of volume 4 in August 2026.[5](https://afternoon.kodansha.co.jp/c/digit/)
In its first year the series placed 11th in the male-reader division of Takarajimasha's *Kono Manga ga Sugoi!* 2026 guide and fourth on the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics list, and it also appeared on the Sanyodo Bookstore Comic Awards list.[3](https://www.zonanegativa.com/dig-it-1-de-yoshidamaru/) • [6](https://www.aprasi.com/de/blogs/trending-topics/dig-it-anime-where-to-watch-it-in-2026)
## Translations
Kodansha added the series to its K Manga app as an English simulpub title in April 2026, a step the publisher typically takes when building an international readership.[6](https://www.aprasi.com/de/blogs/trending-topics/dig-it-anime-where-to-watch-it-in-2026) In Europe, Milky Way Ediciones began a Spanish edition in 2026, with volume 1 (208 pages, B6 format, €9.50) released on May 28, 2026 and volume 2 (176 pages) on July 29, 2026.[7](https://www.listadomanga.es/coleccion.php?id=6458) In Brazil, MPEG published volume 1 on April 30, 2026 at R$49.90.[2](https://blogbbm.com/manga/dig-it/)
No anime adaptation has been announced. As of the spring of 2026, no studio, network, or streaming platform had attached itself to the property, and the series was barely a year into serialization, a stage at which Japanese sports titles usually need several volumes and a proven sales record before a production committee commits to a television series.[6](https://www.aprasi.com/de/blogs/trending-topics/dig-it-anime-where-to-watch-it-in-2026)
## The author
Yoshidamaru (credited as ヨシダ。, Yoshida Maru) had published only one prior work, the one-shot *Square Knot*, a slice-of-life story about adolescents drawn in a style compared to that of *Hirayasumi*; *Dig It* is his first serialized series.[3](https://www.zonanegativa.com/dig-it-1-de-yoshidamaru/) Reviewers describe his art as deliberately rougher than typical sports manga, with flatter character designs, more pauses, and movement lines that follow the players' figures rather than long perspective-driven plays.[3](https://www.zonanegativa.com/dig-it-1-de-yoshidamaru/)
## References
1. [ディグイットとは？ - サードペディア](https://pedia.3rd-in.co.jp/wiki/%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%82%B0%E3%82%A4%E3%83%83%E3%83%88)
2. [Dig It - Biblioteca Brasileira de Mangás](https://blogbbm.com/manga/dig-it/)
3. [Dig It 1, de Yoshidamaru - Zona Negativa](https://www.zonanegativa.com/dig-it-1-de-yoshidamaru/)
4. [Dig It (Manga) - MangaCodex](https://mangacodex.com/manga/dig-it)
5. [ディグイット｜アフタヌーン公式サイト - 講談社](https://afternoon.kodansha.co.jp/c/digit/)
6. [Dig It Anime: Where to Watch It in 2026 - Aprasi](https://www.aprasi.com/de/blogs/trending-topics/dig-it-anime-where-to-watch-it-in-2026)
7. [Dig It - Listado Manga](https://www.listadomanga.es/coleccion.php?id=6458)
8. [Column: The 'Heat' and 'Space' of Sports Manga Unleashed by 'Dig It' - note](https://note.com/telpur__ray__/n/n005a819e6af9?hl=en)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Creative written works and worlds › Comics and sequential art › Comic-book series and issues › Japanese shōnen and seinen manga › Action and adventure manga*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license