Jimoto Saikō!: the controversial manga MAPPA and Netflix are betting on

Introduction

Some of you in the community recently asked me to share a few quick takes on the new manga I’m betting on.

What better way to kick things off than with Jimoto Saikō!?

Jimoto Saikō! roughly means “my neighborhood is the best”.

The star of this manga by usagi is Chanel-chan: a cheerful, naïve girl who is utterly in love with the place she calls home. The problem? Her neighborhood is a hotbed of violence, drugs, poverty and discrimination, with gangs, dangerous senpai and situations spiraling completely out of control.

And yet, whatever happens, Chanel and her friends keep saying the same thing:

“Jimoto Saikō!”

That contrast is what makes the manga so distinctive: adorable characters — kawaii, as you’d say in Japanese — living in a terrifying world, presented as though it were an ordinary slice-of-life comedy.

Scene after scene manages to be funny, absurd and unsettling, all at once. You can see that contrast in publisher Saizusha’s original introduction, too.

Could this become a cult favorite?

The series started on social media, rather than in a major manga magazine.

By the time volume 1 came out in 2022, the publisher was already highlighting 160,000 followers and more than one million likes in total. Those are the figures in the first volume’s listing, rather than a current count of the creator’s accounts.

To me, characters like Chanel have enormous meme potential: a wonderfully simple design, exaggerated expressions, a recurring catchphrase and situations you can understand without knowing the whole story.

They could become more than characters people love. Think reaction images, GIFs and memes that take on a life of their own.

It’s telling that MAPPA and Netflix have chosen to back the series. The adaptation was announced on 19 June 2026 at the studio’s 15th anniversary presentation: a MAPPA production, coming exclusively to Netflix worldwide.

These are two companies investing money, production time and their reputations in stories intended for a global audience.

My reading is that they spotted something rare in Jimoto Saikō!: an instantly recognizable visual identity, memorable characters and a story that can connect with people beyond Japan.

An anime can give a manga a huge visibility boost, taking a story known to a relatively small readership and making it accessible to a much wider audience.

Netflix could amplify that effect by bringing Jimoto Saikō! to viewers around the world. The exclusive release is also confirmed on the anime’s official website; the official sources checked on 11 October 2026 do not list a premiere date.

Even a small percentage of those viewers becoming interested in the original Japanese volume 1 could increase demand among collectors. That’s a possibility worth watching, not something we can take for granted.

According to Saizusha, the first volume was released on 25 August 2022, almost four years before the anime announcement.

That’s an interesting detail for collectors: those earliest copies come from a time before this new wave of attention. The gap alone doesn’t tell us how many first prints exist, though, or how hard they are to find. If you’re looking for a copy in excellent condition, always check the colophon, obi and condition. A sealed copy is not, by itself, proof of a first printing.

A closer look: the A5 format and the obi

Jimoto Saikō! is larger than many of the tankōbon we’re used to collecting: A5, measuring 148 × 210 mm. Saizusha’s listing confirms the format and the 148-page count.

One detail to look for on the obi associated with the first printing is the yellow box marked “16万人”, meaning 160,000 followers. It’s the same figure used in the publisher’s introduction to volume 1.

A recognizable obi is a great starting point. To identify a first printing, though, read the obi and the colophon together.