Dark Gathering

Following a terrifying spiritual encounter, Keitaro Gentoga became a shut-in. With the help of his childhood friend Eiko Hozuki, he decides to rejoin society by attending college and working as a private tutor. His first student is Yayoi Hozuki, Eiko's cousin, an intelligent elementary schooler who is obsessed with the occult. She is hunting down and capturing dangerous ghosts in order to find the perpetrator who abducted her mother. ==Characters==

; : : A young man with a cursed right hand and a natural predisposition to attract ghosts to himself. As a young boy, Keitaro experienced a spiritual encounter that resulted in both him and his friend Eiko Hozuki 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. Eiko personally believes that although Keitaro 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. ; : : Keitaro's first student. She was initially a normal child, but had developed polycoria in both eyes for some unknown reason. Originally, she only saw ghosts as hazy figures. However, 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 herself, Keitaro, and her cousin Eiko more than once in their search for the embryo ghost. ; : : Eiko is the childhood friend of Keitaro who possesses a cursed left hand as a result of being caught up in the same ordeal as Keitaro. Being in love with Keitaro 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 opts to study folklore so that she can better understand Keitaro's struggles with the occult. She does not have a spiritual sense like Yayoi or Keitaro. ; : : Keitaro'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. ==Media==

Manga Written and illustrated by Kenichi Kondo, Dark Gathering has been serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Jump Square since March 4, 2019. On December 4, 2024, it was announced that the manga would enter a four-month hiatus to conduct research and prepare for a new story arc; it resumed on April 4, 2025. Shueisha has collected its chapters into individual volumes. The first volume was released on June 4, 2019. As of February 4, 2026, 19 volumes have been released. Volumes Anime In July 2022, it was announced that the series would receive an anime television series adaptation. It was produced by OLM and directed by Hiroshi Ikehata, with scripts written by Shigeru Murakoshi, and music composed by Kohta Yamamoto, Shun Narita, and Yūsuke Seo. The two-consecutive cours series aired from July 10 to December 25, 2023, on Tokyo MX and other networks. The opening theme song is , performed by Luz, while the ending theme songs are for the first cours, and for the second cours, both performed by Kana Hanazawa. Sentai Filmworks licensed the series, and produced an English dub, which premiered on December 10, 2023. Muse Communication licensed the series in Asia-Pacific. In October 2025, a second season was announced to be in production, with the main staff and cast returning to reprise their roles. Episodes ==Reception==

By January 2026, the manga had over 2.65 million copies in circulation. In 2020, the manga was one of the 50 nominees for the sixth Next Manga Awards in the print category. ==Notes==