Rent-A-Girlfriend Creator Announces ‘Forbidden’ New Manga Series

Reiji Miyajima, the author and artist of Rent-A-Girlfriend, has revealed a first look at his next manga series, Shiunji-ke no Kodomo-tachi (roughly translated as The Children of the Shiunji Family.)

Miyajima revealed the first details about the new manga on his personal Twitter account. The series will make its premiere on Feb. 22 on the artist's Fanbox account. Fanbox is a service run by art-sharing site Pixiv that allows users to directly support their favorite artists; fans who contribute a monthly pledge above a certain amount will be given early access to new chapters of the manga, as well as additional art from Miyajima and other bonus materials. The series will also be published in Hakusensha's Young Animal magazine, with the first chapter releasing on Feb. 25.

Shiunji-ke no Kodomo-tachi will tell the story of the seven siblings of the Shiunji family. According to Miyajima, the series is a "forbidden romantic comedy" about the brothers and sisters.

Miyajima is also expected to continue work on his most popular series, Rent-A-Girlfriend. The popular rom-com debuted in 2017 and has achieved a circulation of over 8 million copies. The story focuses on Kazuya Kinoshita, a kind but somewhat immature college student who decides to try a compensated dating service after he is dumped by his girlfriend. He is matched with Chizuru Mizuhara, a beautiful woman who also happens to be his next-door neighbor. Kazuya's jealousy eventually drives a wedge between the two, but they are then forced to pretend that they are a real couple after a misunderstanding with Kazuya's family.

A 12-episode anime adaptation Rent-A-Girlfriend premiered in 2020. The anime was produced by Lupin the Third studio TMS Entertainment and directed by Kazuomi Koga, who previously worked on Fire Force and Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku. A second season of the show is scheduled to premiere sometime next June. The original season's cast and crew have been confirmed to return for the second season. Chizuru is portrayed by veteran voice actor Sora Amamiya, who is best known for portraying the goddess Aqua in the KonoSuba anime. World Trigger and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime's Shun Horie will also reprise his role as Kazuya. The series also features Aoi Yuki (Persona 5), Nao Toyama (Nisekoi, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU), and Rie Takahashi (Re:ZERO, Teasing Master Takagi-San).

The Rent-A-Girlfriend manga is available in English from Kodansha USA. The anime series is available to be streamed from Crunchyroll. An English release for Miyajima's new series has yet to be announced.

Source: Twitter, Fanbox