Tower Dungeon

Tsutomu Nihei, best known for his sprawling science fiction epics like Blame! and Knights of Sidonia, turns to dark fantasy with Tower Dungeon. The story follows Yōji, a young farmer forced into a suicidal mission: a royal army, decimated by monsters, conscripts villagers to ascend the Dragon Tower and rescue Princess Ignelia from a necromancer. The tower is a living labyrinth of shifting corridors, eldritch beasts, and mechanical traps, and Yōji must adapt quickly or die.

Nihei's architectural background gives the tower an overwhelming sense of scale and decay. Double-page spreads emphasize the sheer height and complexity of the structure, while the artist's signature body horror appears in the grotesque creatures that populate each floor. The narrative is lean and brutal, focusing on survival rather than character development. The series began serialization in Monthly Shōnen Sirius in October 2023, and six tankōbon volumes have been released in Japan as of March 2026.

The English edition, published by Vertical Comics (Kodansha USA), arrived in July 2025. Reviews have praised the atmosphere and artwork but noted that character depth takes a back seat to the relentless dungeon crawl. Comparisons to Berserk and Nihei's own Blame! are common, though Tower Dungeon stands apart as his first pure fantasy work, shedding sci-fi trappings for a more traditional sword-and-sorcery setting. [edit]