Afternoon (magazine) in the context of Blade of the Immortal

Kodansha Ltd. (Japanese: 株式会社講談社, Hepburn: Kabushiki-gaisha Kōdansha) is a Japanese privately held publishing and music company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include Nakayoshi, Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Weekly Young Magazine, Weekly Shōnen Magazine, and Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine, as well as the more literary magazines Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary, Nihongo Daijiten. Kodansha was founded by Seiji Noma in 1909, and members of his family continue as its owners either directly or through the Noma Cultural Foundation.

Morning (Japanese: モーニング, Hepburn: Mōningu) is a weekly Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Kodansha. It debuted in 1982 as Comic Morning (コミックモーニング, Komikku Mōningu) and was rebranded as Morning in 1991 while still maintaining its weekly publication tradition. The digital edition of the magazine is titled Weekly D Morning (週刊Dモーニング, Shūkan D Mōningu). It is the sister magazine of Evening and Afternoon.

In 2006 a spin-off magazine called Monthly Morning Two (月刊モーニングtwo, Gekkan Mōningu Two) was launched (formerly bimonthly), featuring stories like Saint Young Men, under the supervision of editor-in-chief Eijiro Shimada, who was simultaneously deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly Morning.