Year: 2026

The ChillChill BL (Boys Love) Awards, a Japan-based competition, has been elevating the fan-selected best manga in the genre since 2009.

This June, Kodansha USA went to the 2026 ChillChill BL (Boys Love) Awards Ceremony in the heart of Tokyo to celebrate the five Kodansha USA authors whose works were recognized at this exciting event: Dondon (Blue Summer Haze), Nikuya Inui (How to Deal When Your Intimidating Neighbor Is Actually an Omega), Jyanome (Twilight Out of Focus), Komachi Katsura (Shoot Juliet Down), and Ayumu Nagisa (Omega of the Divine).

How to Deal When Your Intimidating Neighbor is Actually an Omega

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Shoot Juliet Down

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Omega of the Divine

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Blue Summer Haze

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Twilight Out of Focus

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Check out these exclusive interviews with award-winning author Nikuya Inui and nominees Komachi Katsura, Ayumu Nagisa, Dondon, and Jyanome!

Winner, Best Fetish Series category

How to Deal When Your Intimidating Neighbor Is Actually an Omega
By Nikuya Inui

Nikuya Inui’s suspenseful and erotic new Omegaverse rom-com manga is finally here! A college-aged Alpha lives next door to a scary-looking hottie whom he assumes is an Alpha, too, but a shocking encounter will correct that assumption! An irresistible, tattooed Omega, living next door… What’s a virgin Alpha to do?

Rated: 18+

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Nikuya Inui-sensei comments

Nikuya Inui-sensei: Thank you very much!

Kodansha USA: What was it like to attend the ChillChill BL Awards Ceremony today?

Nikuya Inui-sensei: I was honestly incredibly nervous! This morning, I was only about 60% sure I would go. I was ready to leave it to a coin flip if I would skip the whole thing. But I wrote out my acceptance speech, recorded myself reading it, and listened to that over and over again until I memorized it, and one way or another managed to give it without issue.

Kodansha USA: I had no idea, you looked very composed! What was it like when you first heard you’d won? 

Nikuya Inui-sensei: I was actually in the middle of a layout meeting with my editor when all of a sudden she looked at her computer, pointed at me, and said, “First place!” I thought she was talking about the layout, so I thought, “Huh, that’s an interesting way to say she likes it,” and just said something like, “Whoa.” But then she said, “You got first place! How to Deal came in first!” I had no idea what she meant. I thought she was just gassing me up! I only half-believed her. (laughs)

Kodansha USA: Wow! Well, How to Deal is also very popular in the US. Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans who read it in English? 

Nikuya Inui-sensei: Well, in the English editions of the book there is a glossary explaining different aspects of Japanese culture. For example, in the second volume they go to a sento, and the glossary explains these are public baths. So, it would make me very happy if reading my work could help people learn more about and feel closer to Japanese culture, and one day even come visit Japan! 

This story is about two Japanese college students, and I was very worried at first that readers abroad would not be able to relate to them. But I was glad to see a lot of people seemed to identify with the sort of wishy-washiness of their relationship. I feel like that must be the same in every country, that we all hesitate and worry and let the littlest things get us down when we’re in love. So I hope people will come back and find things to relate to and enjoy in Volume 3, too! 

Kodansha USA: I hope so, too! Is there anything you’d like to try next? Any new challenges you’d like to take on? 

Nikuya Inui-sensei: Yes, I’ve always wanted to pursue different media adaptations of my work. This series was made into a drama CD, and the way it sort of left my hands and took on a life of its own in the process was very interesting, so I’d love to experience that again. Also, I’d really love to go to America, meet readers face to face, and hear about the parts they liked most. That’s why now, I’m studying English! I’ll do my best. 

Kodansha USA: Amazing! Thank you so much for your time!

Nikuya Inui-sensei: Thank you very much! 

Nominee, Best Deep Series category

Shoot Juliet Down
By Komachi Katsura

Love is a brutal battle between vanity and yearning. Amidst the dark glamor of host club Velvet Kiss, Juri―also called Juliet―commands a vice-like grip on the number one position. Impressed by this poker-faced beauty’s supreme reign, newbie and number-two host Akatsuki decides he must learn Juliet’s secrets―and shoot him down from the top of the pack. But Aka­tsuki’s first up-close taste of Juliet’s intoxicating charm leaves him craving more than he’d expected. And as he may soon learn, some secrets are better left in their bottles, and the bullet that shoots through one heart might take out more than it bargained for…

Rated: 18+

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Komachi Katsura-sensei comments

Kodansha USA: Congratulations on receiving a nomination for a ChillChill BL Award in the Best Deep Series category this year for Shoot Juliet Down!

Nikuya Inui-sensei: [Shoot Juliet Down] was number one in my eyes! It really, really was the best! 

Komachi Katsura-sensei: Thank you very much! Thank you. 

Kodansha USA: Do you have anything you’d like to tell the people reading your work in America, and in English? 

Komachi Katsura-sensei: Yes, well, Shoot Juliet Down is about a host club, which might be kind of a niche topic for American readers. I’m not sure if they’re aware of what a host club is. But I personally go crazy for American dramas, and I have for many years. Ever since the days of ER I’ve been really into them, and, like, I got really hooked on Orange is the New Black. Of course, I don’t know a thing about what life is like in American prisons, but I had a blast watching the show. So I hope that people can find universally relatable elements in my manga and enjoy it, too!

Kodansha USA: There is a female character in Shoot Juliet Down called Mari who plays a crucial role in the story, which is rare to see in BL manga. Can you tell me a little about what inspired you to write her?

Komachi Katsura-sensei: Honestly, I’ve always been the type to include women in my stories. BL stories all center around the main couple, right? It’s about their relationship. To me, one thing that’s really important when fleshing out that relationship is building the world around it. And since there will obviously always be women in that world, it only seems natural that they’d be in the story, too. So I never go out of my way to write women characters, they are just a given part of the surrounding world.

Kodansha USA: Interesting! Is there anything you’re excited to tackle next? 

Komachi Katsura-sensei: Yes, I’m constantly thinking up new story ideas. I’m always jotting things down and discussing them [with my editor]. What was it we were talking about the other day? One was about a demon, another about a sorcerer. I’m pushing for the one about the sorcerer, but I think she prefers the demon story. (laughs)

Nikuya Inui-sensei: [I want to read] the sorcerer one!

Kodansha USA: I’ll look forward to both! Thank you very much! 

Komachi Katsura-sensei: Thank you!

Nominee, Best Continuing Series category

Omega of the Divine
By Ayumu Nagisa

In this atmospheric tale between a sullen, winged god and his mortal omega bride, tragedy and tradition find hope in a life shared. A three-volume BL romance full of feverish sensual encounters—restrained or otherwise… Rated 18+. A Kodansha Print Club series.

Rated: 18+

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Ayumu Nagisa-sensei comments

Kodansha USA: Congratulations today on being nominated for the ChillChill BL Award in the Best Continuing Series category this year for Omega of the Divine 3!

Ayumu Nagisa-sensei: Thank you very much!

Kodansha USA: How does it feel to be nominated?

Ayumu Nagisa-sensei: I’m very grateful to all the readers. The nomination came in for the final volume in the series, which made it feel as if the readers were watching over Kuro and Luca the whole time, following as the two journeyed through life together. That made me really happy. Getting nominated in the first place is such an honor. I’ve been ecstatic ever since!

Kodansha USA: That’s amazing! Do you have anything you’d like to tell your Omega of the Divine readers abroad?

Ayumu Nagisa-sensei: I studied mythology and folklore back in school. In Japan, mythology, local legends, and folktales can sometimes feel as though they flow naturally into the present day, rather than belonging entirely to the distant past. That sensibility made me wonder: wouldn’t it be interesting if the omegaverse had its own stories about gods, or an origin myth about how the secondary sexes came to be—its own genesis, if you will. I take those potential “what ifs” and use them to really flesh out the universe in Omega of the Divine. My hope is that the readers can enjoy the world building of the story—and the romance, too, of course!

Kodansha USA: Are there any pursuits you’re excited to tackle next?

Ayumu Nagisa-sensei: You know, I really do love writing fantasy. I want to create endearing characters, relatable characters, characters that would resonate to people from all walks of life. And then, with those characters, I’d love to write many more romance stories.

Kodansha USA: We look forward to reading them! Thank you for your time! 

Ayumu Nagisa-sensei: Thank you very much!

Nominee, Best Emotional Series category

Blue Summer Haze
By Dondon

A baseball diamond, a love triangle, and two catchers with their eyes on the same pitcher bring the heat in this baseball BL perfect for fans of Nagisa Furuya’s My Summer of You.

Rated: 13+

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Dondon-sensei comments

Kodansha USA: Congratulations on being nominated for the ChillChill BL Award in the Emotional category this year for Blue Summer Haze 2! Can I ask for a comment on what it’s like to have received this nomination?

Dondon-sensei: Yes, I’d like to thank everyone who’s read Blue Summer Haze! It’s so wonderful to have this opportunity for more people to learn about the series. I’ll keep doing my best to express every character’s feelings and growth with as much love as I can, so please do stick with us until the end!

Kodansha USA: Of course! Speaking of, Blue Summer Haze debuted in English on July 7th. How does it feel for your work to be translated into English?

Dondon-sensei: I honestly had never even imagined that my work might one day be translated into English, so I want to thank everyone who made that happen, from the bottom of my heart. While my characters may originally speak a different language and come from another culture, it’d make me so happy if even a little of their youthful conflicts, joys, aspirations, bonds, yearnings, doubts, regrets, frustrations, and jealousies could reach English readers, too. 

Kodansha USA: I’m sure they will! Lastly, do you have any messages for your readers abroad?

Dondon-sensei: Thank you very much for finding Blue Summer Haze from across the seas! This series is about three boys in the peak of their youth who are trying to figure out what it means to have feelings for someone else, to chase your own dreams, and to find your way forward while balancing those two tricky things. They come from a different country and culture, but I would be overjoyed if you could relate to their choices and emotions and watch over them with love as they grow through their immaturities!

Kodansha USA: Thank you very much!

Nominee, Best Emotional Series category

Twilight Out of Focus
By Jyanome

Film enthusiast Mao Tsuchiya and his lone wolf roommate Hisashi Otomo make three promises: ① That Mao will never tell anyone that Hisashi is gay and has a boyfriend, ② That Hisashi will never approach Mao “in that way,” and ③ That they’ll respect each other’s “private time.” The second-years’ ground rules should ensure a peaceful life together in their dorm, but reality is never as simple as it seems in the movies, and some things are not so easily promised…

Rated: 18+

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Jyanome-sensei comments

Kodansha USA: Congratulations on the nomination for the ChillChill BL Award in the Emotional category this year for Twilight Out of Focus 7: Afterimages in Slow Motion 2! How does it feel to be recognized like this?

Jyanome-sensei: Thank you! Ever since my debut, I’ve been fortunate enough to have made it to the ChillChill BL Awards every year in some way or another (like for the Best Cover category, which doesn’t exist anymore, or the Best Deep Series category), so I’m beyond thankful. I look forward to the awards every year! And I’m very grateful and honored that my Twilight Out of Focus 7: Afterimages in Slow Motion 2 was nominated. 

These kinds of awards that extend beyond a single publisher are always really exciting for me, both as an author and a reader. It makes me so happy when friends of mine are nominated for their work, because it feels like we get to enjoy being together in the same space, even though we write for different magazines and publishers.

I’m going to keep doing my best with hopes that I can make it back to the awards again! (Did you know that readers of the English renditions can also vote in the ChillChill BL Awards? It’d be even more exciting if they joined us in the fun, too!) 

Kodansha USA: We certainly hope you make it back, too! What can you tell us about the future of this series?

Jyanome-sensei: The next volume, Twilight Out of Focus 7: Afterimages in Slow Motion 2 is currently in the works, so please look out for that! 

As for the future of the series, I’m also in the middle of a serialization that stars Kirito Kujo, the goth who rooms with Shion (the main character of Twilight Out of Focus 4: The Evening Monologues). It’s called Senko Flashback (Stunning Flashback), and I hope to bring it to English language readers soon, too! Overseas fans have had lots of love for Kirito since he first came onto the scene, so I can’t wait for everyone to get to read what he gets up to! What sort of person will this goth who’s sworn off all love and romance fall for? Stay tuned!

Kodansha USA: That’s very exciting! Do you have any messages for your readers abroad?

Jyanome-sensei: Hi everyone, how are you doing? It’s me, Jyanome! Thank you for all the lovely comments you send my way on social media. It’s so encouraging to know that there are people like you who love BL as much as I do in such far-off places around the world. I hope to see you soon in another new volume—can’t wait for you to read it! It’d be wonderful to one day meet in person at an autograph signing or something, too. Let’s make sure we stay happy and healthy until then. Wishing you all the best! See you!

That’s Not Love By Peko Watanabe

Creativity and Romance Aren’t Special Exemptions—Turning the Tables on Twisted Oppression

With a discerning eye, the manga artist Peko Watanabe sheds light on issues and incongruities we experience in today’s society such as with 1122: For a Happy Marriage, which has sold over 2 million copies. In her new series That’s Not Love serialized on the online manga magazine Morning Two, Watanabe confronts the themes of “creative expression linked with sexual assault” and “the abusive brutality of romance” head-on. In this interview, we asked Watanabe about what inspired the work and her thoughts behind the story. (Written by Shuko Yokoi)

Overview

One day, 40-year-old housewife Akane discovers that Mr. Imai, a cram school teacher from back in middle school, is now a celebrated sculptor. His sculpture of a girl looks suspiciously like Akane’s former best friend Yukari, and memories from 26 years ago come rushing back. When the girls were still 14, Yukari and Imai had been in love despite him being her teacher…or so it seemed at the time. The three of them now lead completely separate lives, but a nude photo of Yukari that Imai took resurfaces and their paths cross once more. This is the story of confronting the mistakes and regrets from the past that never got addressed.

The Two Core Concepts—Systematic Sexual Abuse and Sisterhood

—When I first read That’s Not Love, it brought to mind a number of incidents. There was the 2017 #MeToo movement in response to sexual abuse by the formerly powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, as well as the 2018 confession by former model KaoRi, who was known as a “muse” to photographer Nobuyoshi Araki. Did the idea for your story originate from those kinds of real-life examples?

The idea didn’t just originate from real-life incidents. There was an indistinct feeling of unease and frustration that gradually grew inside of me over the years. Of course the #MeToo movement was a factor, but the model’s confession that you just brought up was a particularly big influence. When I was in university, Araki was a star in contemporary art and there was an unspoken understanding that, although some of his work was edgy, it was important to comprehend its artistic value. No one explicitly said so, but I understood that reacting with shock at his photos showing women in bondage would be considered very crass and tasteless. But when a shift in value judgement happens in society, an artist’s position can change, along with how their work is viewed. This does seem to be the case, seeing how people recognize that a problem is awful once it comes to light, even if the problem was tolerated until then, with some knowing what was going on to some extent.

Another thing was a semi-documentary film that I personally enjoyed and even wrote commentary for. I found out that one of the male actors had been a victim of coercion. Not only had I enjoyed the film, I had actively recommended it to others. I had been naïve and hadn’t realize what was going on at all. Even after finding out, I didn’t take the victim’s words as seriously as I should have and remained a consumer for a time. That’s a source of deep regret.

From there, I started thinking about various issues—situations where abuse isn’t recognized for what it is, problems that are tolerated for the sake of art or talent, and hierarchies that form within small groups or industries where everyone tends to know each other, among other things. While I’m not a fine artist, I do creative work that I publish, so it was an issue that I cared about on a personal level as well.

—How did those ideas come together as a story?

When art is involved, the problems are less visible and there’s a general unwillingness to question such issues. But I think that we as a society also contribute to creating that atmosphere. We’re responsible for providing the excuse that artists are special, and therefore, exempt. I wanted to think properly about how that happens systematically, and make sure I never forget it.

Separate from my thoughts on sexual abuse, when I was still working on my previous series 1122 that focuses on marriage, a desire to feature middle-aged women for my next story started to well up inside of me. I wanted to depict a kind of sisterhood. I don’t have what it takes to write a legal drama about pressing charges in court, but when I thought about systematic sexual abuse and the bond between two women, I thought I might just be able to make a story out of those two core concepts.

To Step Away From a Schematic Way of Thinking

—What made you want to feature middle-aged women?

In the last several years, I have seen the phrase “life gets easier as you age” as a way of empowering or encouraging women. From experience, I understand the feeling that aging is not a bad thing, and a part of me does want to tell younger people that this is true. Still, the situation can vary by person and I thought it was important to remember that it’s not true for everybody. I just don’t think schematic representations like “age = ease” or “women = [some stereotype]” make sense.

—Right in the first chapter of That’s Not Love is a scene where some old friends of Akane’s are saying things like, “I like myself better now than when I was younger,” and “Your forties are much more liberating and fun,” and Akane feels forlorn deep inside because she can’t relate.

Draining things are still draining no matter how much you age. I’m 45 years old now, and I used to think that at this age I would be more mature, regardless of whether I was married or had children. But when I actually hit my forties, I wasn’t the wise middled-aged woman I thought I would be. I was still just as immature as I had always been. This is nothing new and it’s a common topic, but I wanted to depict that in my own work, too.

—Akane harbors guilt that she never responded to Yukari’s cry for help when they were fourteen. When they reunite 26 years later, both have changed in some ways but not in others. They have carried their issues but a part of them has grown up, too.

With time and distance apart, people change. You can’t hope to rebuild a relationship exactly the way it was before, but from personal experience I’ve found that it’s sometimes possible to reconnect in a slightly more mature, mindful way. Akane and Yukari hadn’t seen each other for years, and they live far apart. But even if they haven’t been together all this time and there is a physical distance between them, some relationships can continue with genuine concern for each other. I hope to depict that in this series.

—I see a kind of solace in Akane’s resolve to not turn her back this time and the story about the two women’s friendship. 

Same-gender friends who get along are more often than not depicted as having very similar mindsets, sharing experiences and emotions in real time with mutual understanding. Personally, I struggle with that kind of closely knit friendship. So I thought in the same way that romance can come in many different forms, maybe it’s okay for there to be a spectrum in friendships, from really intimate to much more mellow.

—There are problems depicted within their respective families, too, including some that are not explicitly apparent but are nevertheless there. Friendships can sometimes provide another place where you feel you belong that’s separate from your home.

Of course, the family you’re born into is different from the family that you build for yourself, but perhaps because I grew up in a home where I was subjected to some pretty unreasonable things, my sense is that having an immature adult in the house is kind of a given. For example, with Yukari or Beniko’s family, I don’t intend to portray them as abnormal or awful homes at all. I think of them as very ordinary families that could exist anywhere. In any family, the roles tend to get fixed as the wife, the husband, the parent, or the child. That kind of “packaging” of the concept of family inevitably gets my guard up. As the slang term “parent gacha”* indicates, what kind of family you’re born into is up to chance, 100%. So I didn’t want to put too much weight on that aspect. Friendship comes in many forms, but I think it’s important that there are no fixed roles between friends.

[Footnote] *”Parent gacha” originates from capsule “gacha” machines where you don’t get to choose what toy will come out of the capsule. The idea is that what kind of parents one might get is up to the luck of the draw, and one might have “won” or “lost” depending on what the family situation is like.

Manga and Lookism

—Lookism, which is about making judgments or discriminating based on physical appearances, is another running theme in That’s Not Love.

I think about looks a lot. As I age, worrying about my appearance has largely gotten easier, but it’s definitely not the case that I can say with 100% certainty that it doesn’t affect me anymore.

—Yukari’s character has a perspective that seems removed from lookism. When Akane self-deprecatingly jokes that she’s a “fat gorilla,” Yukari doesn’t even crack a smile and denies it. She also doesn’t notice Gen’s cosmetic surgery.

That’s true. In this manga, there’s a juxtaposition between people who found it necessary to change their looks versus those who didn’t need to. In Akane’s case, it’s about losing weight. I imagine she went on a diet because it wasn’t acceptable for her to be a bit pudgy or have a thicker physique. Yukari now cuts her hair and has changed the way she dresses to eliminate feminine traits as much as possible. Gen wanted to pursue his idea of attractiveness and changes his face through surgery. Only Mr. Imai, who became a sculpture artist, is able to age without having to change anything.

—Although I do think everyone has the right to choose their appearance, I also feel like Mr. Imai is very privileged compared to the other three, who have all had to struggle with their looks in one way or the other.

Mr. Imai is the only one who gets to stay the same person he has always been. Personally, I think cosmetic surgery is a perfectly viable option. But I also think there tends to be more stories about women getting enhancements, so I knew I wanted my character to be male. That’s how Gen’s character came about. Since some themes of the story are heavy and both Akane and Yukari have quieter personalities, I knew that the mood would be subdued in general. So I wanted to include a character who was uplifting and didn’t worry much.

—It’s true, it’s always a relief when Gen appears. Especially since he’s one of the characters who reaches out to help Yukari.

It’s not just in the story. I also consider all kinds of things about appearances when drawing manga. For example, the majority of manga depict women with bigger eyes and men with sleek ones, which is true in my work as well. I think that’s because there’s a general image that big, wide eyes look prettier on women. I actually wish I could draw eyes the same way regardless of gender, but with my drawing skills it makes differentiating extremely difficult for the reader. So, I follow those conventions to some extent while trying to get as close to my ideals as possible, but even as I draw, I always find myself just making the women’s eyes bigger. By default. [laughs] I know it’s just a conventional way of “coding” characters, but I’m also exacerbating the issue by mass producing it. At this point, I can’t help but wonder if it’s not that different from makeup.

—I suppose with manga, you do have to code your characters to some extent to show what kind of people they are, so maybe it’s easier to notice social conventions on appearances.

I can’t escape that kind of coding completely, but I don’t condone lookism, either. I guess that’s why I wanted to touch on that discrepancy I feel in my manga.

Romance Doesn’t Mean Anything Goes

—Mr. Imai creates a sculpture based on a younger Yukari, and although he does apologize, he still refuses to take down the exhibition despite Yukari’s protests. Meanwhile, he leaves the rebuttal completely up to his wife. He seems almost hollow inside, but also quite realistic.

For an artist or an author, expressing themselves is part of the job and they are making a living off of it. And yet, when incidents of violence or abuse come to light, many of them suddenly turn silent, which always bothered me. Like when they say, “I’m leaving it all up to my lawyer,” or “I have nothing to say.” I’m sure they have their reasons, but still. They express themselves so much through their work, and I have to wonder why they suddenly fade away like they’re invisible the moment some inconvenient truth comes out. Still, having a character stick to that in manga will really just result in a hollow personality, so I keep thinking I have to make Mr. Imai voice his thoughts and tell his side of the story at some point.

—What are you conscious of when depicting Mr. Imai, who is the abuser in the story?

I didn’t want him to seem clearly capable of sexual abuse, or present him as an obvious villain. In line with many real-life abusers, Mr. Imai has created a convenient fantasy of a legitimate relationship in his mind, including the belief that the girl gave consent, or at the very least, didn’t reject him outright.

Mr. Imai’s abuse doesn’t involve violent sexual assault, which makes it more sinister in a way, because he can be as slippery as he wants and get away with it. The idea that “they were in love” or that “it was a romantic relationship” tends to be used to excuse such behavior. An abuser saying, “I couldn’t help it because I was in love with you at the time,” makes things very difficult for the victim. But just because a relationship might have some romantic feelings involved shouldn’t mean anything goes.

—I see, so that’s the kind of message you put into the very striking title, That’s Not Love.

I have always questioned whether fiction places too much importance on romance as a positive thing. Love is certainly dramatic and involves big human emotions, so it’s understandable for a creator to feature it. I know I’ve had favorite romantic TV dramas that once melted my heart. But when “love” becomes this miraculous thing that solves everything and anything goes within the confines of romance, I think we need to be wary. In particular, when a story about an adult and a child is depicted as a beautiful love story_—with the excuse that the temptation was just too much or that there was a special connection—I gradually found I wasn’t okay with it anymore, even if I may have enjoyed it without a problem before. I understand how it might be used as a storytelling device, but I think it’s important for there to be a lot more work featuring things other than romance.

—Because not all relationships are defined by romance.

Exactly. Not everything is about romance. That’s not love. [laughs] I guess that’s really me talking. [laughs] The sentiment that wells up in the story that “it might not have been love,” and my desire to not make everything about love are both manifested in the title.

A Desire to Turn the Tables on Social Oppression

—I think the anxiety and fear a victim feels toward raising their voice is substantial. A monologue by Akane in volume 2 says, “She wants everyone to forget so she can move on. But what if no matter how much she begs or how much she yells, nobody bothers to listen?” The worry that an insignificant victim’s voice might not be heard is depicted repeatedly in your work.

I think there are many people who feel like their voices go unheard or who have given up after being ignored so many times. I can’t solve any of that, but I do create the manga praying that people will listen and those voices will be heard.

—When Gen’s girlfriend describes the news on a sexual harassment court case as “painful to watch” and wonders whether it might be easier for the victim to just forget about the tough situation and find peace, Gen strengthens his tone and says, “That ain’t peace at all, and you know it.” That was striking as an outsider’s perspective.

I think sexual abuse is often shrugged off with comments like, “at least they weren’t murdered.” In terms of this conversation in the manga, I think both Gen’s and his girlfriend’s comments are plausible. Gen’s just happens to be more sympathetic because he’s closer to Yukari in this scenario. It would become draining attempting to relate to all of the information that comes up on the news or online, so sometimes we have to take a step back for our own well-being. But even if we don’t sympathize with everything, if we all use our imagination and learn about the issues, I think it’s possible to avoid shrugging off problems without a thought.

—You handle some very heavy themes, but many of the issues raised, painful or otherwise, are relatable or at least familiar in a “I’ve seen this before” kind of way, which makes the story read well.

Thank you for saying that. Thinking about readability and entertainment value is really difficult for me. I love entertainment, but I’m actually not great at providing it, even though I’m a manga creator. It’s something I always struggle with through trial and error, with help from my editor. One very important thing is that I don’t want my manga to lecture on morality. It might seem to do that sometimes, but as the author I want people to read it for the story, so I take care not to get too explanatory. 

—Finally, can you tell us a little about where the story will go on from here?

Perhaps evident with the scene in 1122: For a Happy Marriage where a man gets stabbed in the genitals with a kenzan (a little bed of needles used to arrange flowers in ikebana), I think I’m impulsively destructive sometimes in my stories. Although it’s entirely unconscious, it seems I have the desire to tear apart sources of oppression. I’m pretty sure I’ve done that kind of thing repeatedly in my works. That’s Not Love is no exception, and I want to turn the tables, as it were. Unfortunately, women are generally weaker than men, both in society and in terms of physical strength. But the desire to flip that script is here inside of me, so I hope you look out for that as the story continues.

—I’ll keep thinking about these issues as I read and look forward to what comes next. Thank you very much. 

About the interviewer:

Shuko Yokoi
Manga Journalist

Born in 1978 in Tokyo, raised in Ibaraki Prefecture. Writes about manga. Associate Professor of Literary Arts at the Tohoku University of Art and Design.

No part of this article may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission by Asahi Shimbun.

Permission Number: 26-1728

Interview provided with permission from The Asahi Shimbun Company until July 17, 2027.