The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All: the manga that won over the US

What’s it about?

Aya is popular, outgoing and passionate about Western rock music. At a record shop, she meets a mysterious clerk dressed in black, their face hidden behind a mask. She falls for them, assuming they’re a guy.

That “guy” is actually Mitsuki: a quiet, unassuming girl in Aya’s class, someone she sees every day without making the connection.

Mitsuki isn’t deliberately pretending to be a man. Aya has misread her appearance, and once Mitsuki realises what has happened, she can’t quite find the courage to tell her the truth.

What follows is a relationship built through music, identity, misunderstandings and feelings. Rock becomes the language that gradually brings the two girls closer. That connection is also at the heart of the story’s introduction on the official anime website.

A manga born on social media

The series began on Twitter in 2022, without first appearing in a print magazine.

Japanese volume 1, published by KADOKAWA on 19 April 2023, marked its move into book form — and Sumiko Arai’s debut collected volume.

The book retains the acid green that has become the series’ visual signature through distinctive two-tone printing. It also includes colour pages and a new story about Mitsuki’s past that weren’t part of the original social-media release.

By publication, the series had already attracted over 10 million likes, according to KADOKAWA’s launch announcement. An immediate reprint followed, with 150,000 copies in cumulative circulation after just one week, as the publisher’s follow-up release confirms.

That’s a striking start. For collectors, though, one distinction matters: 150,000 was the cumulative figure announced after the reprint, not the size of the first print run alone.

The US breakthrough

Perhaps the most interesting part is that demand didn’t stay in Japan.

On its first appearance in the US BookScan chart published by Publishers Weekly, English volume 1 recorded 5,467 tracked sales in a week, reaching number 18 on the Trade Paper Frontlist chart. That chart includes books beyond manga.

Volume 2 opened even more strongly: 6,313 copies and sixteenth place on the same chart. It’s an encouraging sign of demand beyond the opening volume, although the figures cannot tell us how many buyers were the same people.

As late as June 2025, several months after its US debut, volume 1 was still fourteenth on Circana’s manga chart. That put it ahead of the first volumes of Dandadan, Kagurabachi and The Apothecary Diaries, which placed fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth that month. You can find the chart on ICv2.

These are sales tracked through BookScan, not every sale worldwide. Even so, the message is clear: an international audience is already there.

The anime is coming

The TV adaptation will premiere in January 2027, produced by CloverWorks and directed by Masashi Ishihama.

And the opening theme? Nirvana’s “Breed”. It’s a particularly fitting choice for a story whose identity is inseparable from Western rock. Universal Music’s announcement includes the official teaser below, which features the song’s intro.

Meanwhile, reported worldwide circulation, including digital editions, has reached 2.25 million copies, according to KADOKAWA on 31 August 2026. The previous milestone was 1.5 million in February 2026: a 50% increase between the two announced figures, roughly six months apart and before the anime starts airing.

Volume 5 is also due in January 2027 — on the 13th, according to the publisher — bringing a new book and the TV launch into the same promotional window.

Look closely at the obi

The launch obi for Japanese volume 1 is immediately recognisable by the large 85万 on the left. In the supplied photograph, the full wording is 「85万超」: over 850,000, referring to the author’s Twitter followers at publication.

It’s the 850,000-follower marker often described as 85万人. What makes it interesting is the moment it captures: before the anime, before 2 million followers and before the series’ reported worldwide circulation reached 2.25 million.

To identify a first printing, look at the colophon too. The supplied photo reads 2023年4月19日 初版発行: 19 April 2023, first-edition publication. That is the internal evidence to check alongside the obi; a paper band on its own could have been paired with a different copy.

Explore the five photographs below and enlarge the details. As with our Versus dossier, the idea is to start with the physical book and read the clues together.

Why could this be an interesting pick?

Here are five things to consider:

1. the manga already has an international fanbase;
2. its US sales show demand beyond Japan;
3. the CloverWorks anime could bring a major wave of attention that has yet to arrive;
4. the Nirvana collaboration could introduce the story to people outside the usual manga audience;
5. a first-print Japanese volume 1 with its original obi is worth watching for at an appealing price, including sealed copies, provided you check the copy’s details and provenance.

That last point depends on the asking price. Without a set of comparable completed sales, we can’t establish a reliable market value or assume that every copy is still inexpensive.

What interests me is the combination of a distinctive visual identity, an audience already won over and an anime still to come. It isn’t a promise about future prices. It’s a concrete reason to get to know this series and its first volume.

Acid green, rock music and two girls finding a way to understand each other.
Readers are already listening. Next comes the anime.