Lovely Muco

Lovely Muco (Japanese: いとしのムーコ, Hepburn: Itoshi no Mūko) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takayuki Mizushina [ja]. It was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Evening from April 2011 to September 2020, with its chapters collected in 17 tankōbon volumes. It tells the story of Muco, the Shiba Inu of glassblower Komatsu-san.^[5]

Lovely Muco
First tankōbon volume cover
いとしのムーコ (Itoshi no Mūko)
Genre	Comedy[1] Slice of life[2]
Manga
Written by	Takayuki Mizushina [ja]
Published by	Kodansha
English publisher	NA: Kodansha USA
Imprint	Evening KC
Magazine	Evening
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	12 April 2011 – 23 September 2020
Volumes	17
Anime television series
Lovely Movie: Lovely Muuuuuuuco!
Directed by	Takenori Mihara
Studio	Doga Kobo
Original network	Fuji TV
Original run	29 July 2013 – 23 December 2013
Episodes	21
Anime television series
Lovely Movie: Lovely Muuuuuuuco! Season 2
Directed by	Takenori Mihara
Studio	Doga Kobo
Original network	BS Fuji[3]
Original run	27 April 2014 – 5 October 2014
Episodes	22
Anime television series
Directed by	Romanov Higa
Studio	DLE
Original network	TV Tokyo[4]
Original run	3 October 2015 – 26 March 2016
Episodes	25
Manga
Daisuki! Itoshi no Muco
Written by	Takayuki Mizushina
Published by	Kodansha
Imprint	Evening KC
Magazine	Comic Days [ja]
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	10 September 2023 – present
Volumes	1

Characters

Muco (ムーコ, Mūko)

Voiced by: Hitomi Yoshida

The shiba-inu pet of Komatsu.

Komatsu-san (こまつさん)

Voiced by: Shinichi Tanioka (Lovely Movie) / Satoshi Hino (TV anime)

A glassblower.

Ushikou-san (うしこうさん)

Voiced by: Mizuki Sano (Lovely Movie) / Junji Majima (TV anime)

A bar patron and friend of Komatsu.

Bōda-san (棒田さん)

Voiced by: Taisei Kurata (Lovely Movie) / Keiji Fujiwara (TV anime)

A local barkeep.

Rena-chan (玲奈ちゃん)

Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka

Bouda's daughter.

Shinohara-san (篠原さん)

Voiced by: Kaori Nazuka

Love interest.

Dr. Mutō (Veterinary) (むとう先生（獣医さん）, Mutō-sensei (Jūui-san))

Voiced by: Kazuhiro Watanabe (Lovely Movie) / Hiroki Takahashi (TV anime)

Tamaki-kun (タマキくん)

Voiced by: Yū Kobayashi (TV anime)

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Takayuki Mizushina [ja], Lovely Muco was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Evening from 12 April 2011^[6] to 23 September 2020.^[7] Kodansha collected its chapters in 17 tankōbon volumes, released from 23 April 2012^[8] to 23 November 2020.^[9]

At Anime Expo 2022, Kodansha USA announced that they licensed the series for English publication.^[10]

A sequel manga, titled Daisuki! Itoshi no Muco, began serialization on Kodansha's Comic Days [ja] website began serialization on 10 September 2023.^[11] The first volume was released on 12 June 2024.^[12]

Volumes

No.	Original release date	Original ISBN	English release date	English ISBN
01	23 April 2012[8]	978-4-06-352415-4	2 May 2023[13]	978-1-64-729239-3
02	21 September 2012[14]	978-4-06-352431-4	4 July 2023[15]	978-1-64-729240-9
03	22 March 2013[16]	978-4-06-352455-0	7 November 2023[17]	978-1-64-729251-5
04	20 September 2013[18]	978-4-06-352483-3	20 February 2024[19]	978-1-64-729252-2
05	20 March 2014[20][21]	978-4-06-354506-7 978-4-06-358702-9 (SE)	—	—
06	21 November 2014[22][23]	978-4-06-354538-8 978-4-06-358749-4 (SE)	—	—
07	23 April 2015[24]	978-4-06-354569-2	—	—
08	20 November 2015[25]	978-4-06-354601-9	—	—
09	22 April 2016[26][27]	978-4-06-354618-7 978-4-06-358805-7 (SE)	—	—
10	22 November 2016[28][29]	978-4-06-354642-2 978-4-06-362345-1 (SE)	—	—
11	23 June 2017[30][31]	978-4-06-354673-6 978-4-06-358851-4 (SE)	—	—
12	22 December 2017[32][33]	978-4-06-510577-1 978-4-06-511017-1 (SE)	—	—
13	23 July 2018[34][35]	978-4-06-512076-7 978-4-06-512951-7 (SE)	—	—
14	23 April 2019[36][37]	978-4-06-515222-5 978-4-06-516235-4 (SE)	—	—
15	22 November 2019[38][39]	978-4-06-517658-0 978-4-06-518140-9 (SE)	—	—
16	23 June 2020[40][41]	978-4-06-520005-6 978-4-06-520004-9 (SE)	—	—
17	20 November 2020[9][42]	978-4-06-521582-1 978-4-06-521646-0 (SE)	—	—

Anime

In 2013 and 2014, a short anime based on the manga by Doga Kobo was used as interstitials on the Fuji TV programme Non-Stop!. A separate anime series started airing on 3 October 2015.^[43][44]

Reception

Lovely Muco ranked sixth on the "Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2013" poll by Honya Club online bookstore.^[45]