Goddess of Victory: Nikke is getting a new official manga, and it is going all the way back to the beginning of the war. Kadokawa's Dengeki Maoh magazine announced on Saturday that a comic adaptation of the hit mobile game will start serialization this winter, with artist Yokoshima Penguin drawing it.
The announcement was timed to the game's fourth anniversary celebrations, and the official game account followed up yesterday with the key detail fans wanted: the manga will star the Goddess squad. Check out the original announcement from the Dengeki Maoh editorial team down below:
A Manga About The Goddess Squad
The Goddess squad is one of the most important groups in the Nikke story. The legendary unit fought on the front lines in humanity's early war against the Rapture, and its members, including Lilith, Snow White, Rapunzel, Scarlet, Dorothy, Harran, and Red Hood, are central to the game's backstory and to many of its biggest story chapters.
According to the official Nikke account, the new manga will show the past of the girls who carried the name "Goddess," a history that the people living in the Ark never had a chance to know. That suggests the series will explore events that players have mostly seen through flashbacks and fragments in the game, which could make it essential reading for anyone invested in the lore.
Yokoshima Penguin is a familiar name for Nikke fans in Japan. The artist contributed to the Goddess of Victory: Nikke Dengeki Comic Anthology, with that story collected in the second volume, and the Dengeki Maoh team pointed to how well that work was received when explaining the choice. The magazine's editor also posted that the team cried while reading through the storyboards and promised detailed art from the artist.
The Game Behind The Manga
Goddess of Victory: Nikke is developed by SHIFT UP and published globally by Level Infinite. The game launched worldwide on iOS and Android on November 4, 2022, and a PC version followed in February 2023 with cross-play support.
It mixes gacha character collecting with third-person shooting, and its story is darker than its marketing usually lets on. Level Infinite describes the setup this way: "players lead a squad of android soldiers called Nikke, the last hope for reclaiming the overworld from a vicious race of aliens called Raptures who have forced humanity underground." Players take the role of a Commander who leads these Nikke on missions to the surface.
The franchise has stretched far beyond the game over four years. Nikke has held collaborations with Chainsaw Man, NieR: Automata, Re:ZERO, and Evangelion, and A-1 Pictures produced the Old Tales special animated video in 2024. On the manga side, the game already has a spinoff series in Sweet Encounter along with the Dengeki anthology volumes. This new title stands apart as an official comic adaptation focused on one of the story's core squads.
Fourth Anniversary Plans
The manga is one piece of a much bigger anniversary push. The global version of the game is heading into its fourth anniversary update this week, with maintenance scheduled for October 29 from midnight to 7:00 AM (UTC+9). The new character arriving with the update is Scarlet: Goddeath, a Pilgrim from the Goddess squad who uses an assault rifle, which lines up neatly with the manga's focus.
Here is the official post from the Japanese Nikke account about the comic:
No English release has been announced for the manga yet. Kadokawa has not shared a start date beyond this winter, so expect more details as the debut gets closer.
Would you rather see the Goddess squad's story told in a manga like this, or are you holding out hope for a full Nikke anime series that covers it?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.