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Japanese manga series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All (Japanese: 気になってる人が男じゃなかった, Hepburn: Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Sumiko Arai. Originating as a short story posted on Arai's Twitter account from July to September 2021, it started its current weekly run in April 2022, before being serialized on Pixiv Comic in April 2023. Kadokawa Shoten published the series in print, with its first volume releasing that same month.
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All | |
![]() First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Mitsuki Koga (left) and Aya Oosawa (right) | |
気になってる人が男じゃなかった (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta) | |
---|---|
Genre | Yuri[1] |
Manga | |
Written by | Sumiko Arai |
Published by | Kadokawa Shoten |
English publisher | |
Magazine | Pixiv Comic |
Demographic | Shōjo |
Original run | April 29, 2023 – present |
Volumes | 2 |
The series has been a critical and commercial success, with critics praising the story, artwork, and characters. It won the 2023 Next Manga Award in the web manga category.
Aya Oosawa has developed a crush towards the clerk of the CD shop she frequents. Unbeknownst to her, the store clerk is her classmate Mitsuki Koga. The manga follows the budding relationship between Aya and Mitsuki and their shared love for music as they experience daily high school life.
In an interview with Shuko Yokoi, Sumiko Arai shared that the concept of The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All originated from her being drawn to stories about individuals from differing backgrounds connecting and wanting to tell a story about girls, so she drew short stories featuring no dialogue which were posted to Twitter, as Arai believed it could thus resonate with international readers.[5] One of these short stories, uploaded between July to September 2021, served as the inspiration to the series.[6]
Since Twitter only allows four images per Tweet, chapters of the series are limited to four pages. As a result, Aya and Mitsuki's interactions have to be depicted concisely.[7] The series' editor commented that the character's faces are illustrated to be detailed enough to understand the story without the dialogue, which makes the series more accessible to Twitter users not from Japan.[7] The yellow-green color which complements the black-and-white illustrations was stated by Arai to be a late addition before the first chapter was uploaded.[5]
Written by Sumiko Arai, the series originated on the author's Twitter account on April 10, 2022.[8] It later began serialization on Pixiv Comic on April 29, 2023.[9] Kadokawa Shoten began publishing the series in printed tankōbon volumes in April 2023.[10]
Yen Press will be publishing the series in English.[11][12]
No. | Original release date | Original ISBN | English release date | English ISBN | ||
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1 | April 19, 2023[10] | 978-4-04-681732-7 | October 22, 2024[13] | 978-1-97-539968-9 | ||
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2 | February 27, 2024[14] | 978-4-04-683173-6 | February 18, 2025[15] | 979-8-85-541259-8 | ||
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Apple Music and Spotify released an official playlist containing songs that Mitsuki and Aya listen to throughout the series.[16]
A pop-up store selling merchandise from the series was open in Ikebukuro from September 15–24 and in Nagoya from September 30 to October 9, 2023.[17]
The first volume sold 150,000 copies within a week of its release.[18] By September 2023, the series had 200,000 copies in circulation.[18]
The series won the 2023 Next Manga Award in the web manga category.[19] The series ranked second on the 2023 "Book of the Year" list by Da Vinci magazine.[20] The series ranked second on Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list of best manga of 2024 for female readers.[21]
A columnist for Animate Times praised the artwork, particularly its use of color, and the story's progression.[22] Momo Tachibana of Real Sound praised the main characters and their interactions, describing them as understandable.[23] Erica Friedman felt the story was "not the first of it's [sic] kind" but that it handled its subject better than similar series. Friedman also praised the artwork and its use of black, white, and green.[1]
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