is a Japanese four-panel

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series written and illustrated by Minori Chigusa. The series began serialization in

Houbunsha is a Japanese publishing company founded on July 10, 1950. It is based in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo. History of Houbunsha In 1946, the founder, Yoshichika Koso, proclaimed the vision of establishing Shobunkan to provide entertainment through publishi ...

's ''

Manga Time Kirara is a Japanese magazine published by Houbunsha serializing mainly four-panel ''seinen'' manga. Issued on the 9th of each month, it was first published as a special edition of Houbunsha magazine '' Manga Time'' on May 17th 2002. The first indepen ...

'' magazine in May 2023. Two ''

tankōbon A is a standard publishing format for books in Japan, alongside other formats such as ''shinsho'' (17x11 cm paperback books) and ''bunkobon''. Used as a loanword in English, the term specifically refers to a printed collection of a manga that w ...

'' volumes have been released as of October 2024.

Plot

The series follows Suuna Kuruma, a high school student who has just moved into a new dorm. Upon arriving at her new room, she discovers a girl, Ruka Hamanasu, flirting with another girl. Suuna is surprised to see this happen, to which Ruka claims that they were not going out. She claims the other girl was her , which she says is short for "semi-friend". As Suuna has no other friends, Ruka offers to be her semi-friend.

Characters

; :A high school student and Ruka's roommate. She has a very shy personality and thus had been unable to make any friends prior to meeting Ruka. She is conscious of her name as its ''

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

'' is hard to read. ; :Suuna's roommate, whom she saw flirting with another girl during their first meeting. She claims the other girl is her ''sefure'', but as Suuna is unfamiliar with the term, she claims it is short for "semi-friend". She has a ''

gyaru (, ) is a Japanese street fashion, Japanese fashion subculture for young women, often associated with gaudy fashion styles and dyed hair. The term is a Japanese transliteration of the English slang word . In Japan, it is used to refer to you ...

'' personality.

Publication

The series is written and illustrated by Minori Chigusa. It was originally released as a guest series in

's ''

'' magazine, before beginning serialization in May 2023. The first ''

'' volume was released on December 26, 2023. To commemorate the volume's release, selected Gamers outlets featured a pop-up section selling series merchandise. In December 2024,

Yen Press Yen Press is an American manga, graphic novel and light novel publisher co-owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. It published '' Yen Plus'', a monthly comic anthology, between 2008 and 2013. In addition to translated material, ...

announced that they had licensed the series for English publication.

Reception

The series was nominated for the 10th

Next Manga Award The is an annual award for manga series presented by Kadokawa Corporation's '' Da Vinci'' magazine and Niconico streaming website. It is divided into two categories: one for print manga, and one for web manga. Overview The award was originally ...

s in 2024 in the print category.

References

External links