Dark Gathering

Dark Gathering (ダークギャザリング) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kenichi Kondo. It has been serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Jump Square since March 2019. An anime television series adaptation by OLM aired from July to December 2023.

By February 2024, Dark Gathering had over 1.5 million copies in circulation, including physical and digital copies.

Characters

 * Keitarō Gentōga (幻燈河 螢多朗)
 * A young man with a cursed right hand and a natural predisposition to attract ghosts to himself. As a young boy, Keitarō experienced a spiritual encounter that resulted in both him and his friend Eiko being cursed by an unknown spirit, resulting in nerve endings growing from their hands. This traumatic event resulted in him becoming a shut-in until he was rehabilitated by Eiko. As a way to resocialize himself, he took upon Eiko's suggestion and was introduced to Yayoi as her private tutor. At present, the curse is being suppressed with the help of his grandmother who is a shrine priestess. It was pointed out by Eiko that although Keitarō is terrified by the supernatural, he is also enamoured by the dread that it brings. He has a mutual affection for Eiko which he has expressed on multiple occasions.
 * A young man with a cursed right hand and a natural predisposition to attract ghosts to himself. As a young boy, Keitarō experienced a spiritual encounter that resulted in both him and his friend Eiko being cursed by an unknown spirit, resulting in nerve endings growing from their hands. This traumatic event resulted in him becoming a shut-in until he was rehabilitated by Eiko. As a way to resocialize himself, he took upon Eiko's suggestion and was introduced to Yayoi as her private tutor. At present, the curse is being suppressed with the help of his grandmother who is a shrine priestess. It was pointed out by Eiko that although Keitarō is terrified by the supernatural, he is also enamoured by the dread that it brings. He has a mutual affection for Eiko which he has expressed on multiple occasions.


 * Yayoi Hōzuki (寶月 夜宵)
 * Keitarō's first student. She was a normal child in the beginning but had developed polycoria (two pupils in the same eye) in both eyes for some unknown reason. Originally, she only saw ghosts as hazy figures but after an accident that left her an orphan, she was able to see ghosts clearly. During the accident, she witnessed her mother's ghost being abducted by an embryo of ghostly origins and has made it her goal to get her mother back by capturing ghosts to defeat the perpetrator. Post accident, her IQ was evaluated to be greater than 160 and her intelligence has saved the trio more than once in their search for the embryo ghost.
 * Keitarō's first student. She was a normal child in the beginning but had developed polycoria (two pupils in the same eye) in both eyes for some unknown reason. Originally, she only saw ghosts as hazy figures but after an accident that left her an orphan, she was able to see ghosts clearly. During the accident, she witnessed her mother's ghost being abducted by an embryo of ghostly origins and has made it her goal to get her mother back by capturing ghosts to defeat the perpetrator. Post accident, her IQ was evaluated to be greater than 160 and her intelligence has saved the trio more than once in their search for the embryo ghost.


 * Eiko Hōzuki (寶月 詠子)
 * Eiko is the childhood friend of Keitarō who possess a cursed left hand as a result of being caught up in the same ordeal as Keitarō. Being in love with Keitarō since a young age to the point of a dark twisted obsession, she is immensely over-protective—wiretapping, placing hidden cameras and GPS tracking devices to stalk and monitor his vitals without his knowledge. Although Eiko has a strong foundation in computer science from her wiretapping and excellent grades at school, she opted to study folklore so that she could better understand Keitarō's struggles with the occult. She does not have a spiritual sense like Yayoi or Keitarō.
 * Eiko is the childhood friend of Keitarō who possess a cursed left hand as a result of being caught up in the same ordeal as Keitarō. Being in love with Keitarō since a young age to the point of a dark twisted obsession, she is immensely over-protective—wiretapping, placing hidden cameras and GPS tracking devices to stalk and monitor his vitals without his knowledge. Although Eiko has a strong foundation in computer science from her wiretapping and excellent grades at school, she opted to study folklore so that she could better understand Keitarō's struggles with the occult. She does not have a spiritual sense like Yayoi or Keitarō.


 * Ai Kamiyo (神代 愛依)
 * Keitarō's second student. An energetic girl with star-patterned pupils as a sign that she had been marked by a god as his bride. Due to the god's energy leaking out from the star-shaped seals in her eyes, wandering ghosts are attracted to Ai. At first, Ai appears to be a clumsy girl whose misfortune always ends up involving people around her, including her brother who died as a result of pushing her away from falling steel pylons. However, it is later revealed that this was due to the malevolent god deflecting all of Ai's misfortunes to people surrounding her to prevent his bride from being harmed. Ai is destined to die and become the god's bride on her 20th birthday.
 * Keitarō's second student. An energetic girl with star-patterned pupils as a sign that she had been marked by a god as his bride. Due to the god's energy leaking out from the star-shaped seals in her eyes, wandering ghosts are attracted to Ai. At first, Ai appears to be a clumsy girl whose misfortune always ends up involving people around her, including her brother who died as a result of pushing her away from falling steel pylons. However, it is later revealed that this was due to the malevolent god deflecting all of Ai's misfortunes to people surrounding her to prevent his bride from being harmed. Ai is destined to die and become the god's bride on her 20th birthday.

Manga
Written and illustrated by Kenichi Kondo, Dark Gathering has been serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Jump Square since March 4, 2019. Shueisha has collected its chapters into individual volumes. The first volume was released on June 4, 2019. As of May 2, 2024, 15 volumes have been released.

At New York Comic Con 2022, Viz Media announced that they licensed the series for English publication.

Anime
In July 2022, it was announced that the series would receive an anime television series adaptation. It is produced by OLM and directed by Hiroshi Ikehata, with scripts written by Shigeru Murakoshi, character designs handled by Shinya Segawa, and music composed by Kohta Yamamoto, Shun Narita, and Yūsuke Seo. The two-consecutive cour series aired from July 10 to December 25, 2023, on Tokyo MX and other networks. The opening theme song is "Kakuriyo" (幽世), performed by Luz, while the ending theme songs are "Haiiro" (灰色) for the first cour, and "Intaglio" (インタリオ) for the second cour, both performed by Kana Hanazawa.

Sentai Filmworks licensed the series, and produced an English dub premiered on December 10, 2023. Muse Communication licensed the series in Asia-Pacific.

Reception
In 2020, the manga was one of the 50 nominees for the sixth Next Manga Awards in the print category.

By February 2024, the manga had over 1.5 million copies in circulation.