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What kind of work is “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta)”

The story of “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta)” is about a romance between two high school girls, Mitsuki and Aya, who connect with each other through music.

The story was first published and serialized by Sumiko Arai on her SNS account X (formerly Twitter) in April 2022.
After the work was announced, it received a great response on SNS and became so popular that the number of followers on her account exceeded 1.1 million.

The manga has become a topic of conversation among readers who love manga and is attracting a great deal of attention, including first place in the Web manga category of the “Next Comic Award 2023,” second place in the women's section of "This Manga is Amazing! The book has also been gaining popularity overseas.
It is also very popular overseas, and has been or will be released in 16 countries and regions. The series has sold more than 840,000 copies worldwide, including electronic editions.


 

   

Book Information

• Author: Sumiko Arai
• Publisher: KADOKAWA
• Label: KADOKAWA Comics

 

Synopsis of “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta)”

Aya, a high school girl who likes Western rock music, happens to stop by a CD store and meets a mysterious, black-clad “Oni-san,” a store clerk.

Aya has fallen in love with Oni-San and spends her days at school talking about her favorite girl with her friends.

 However, Aya's “Oni-san” is actually Mitsuki, a girl in her class who sits next to Aya and is a conspicuously unobtrusive, brooding type.
She thought her guesser was a guy, but it turns out to be a girl.
Where will Aya's love for him lead her!

 

The characters in “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta)”.

●Aya Oosawa

She is a sparkling gal who ranks high in her class, but in fact she is a high school girl who loves austere Western rock music.
She happens to fall in love at first sight with “Oni-san,” a clerk at a CD store she happens to visit.
Chizuru and Mao are a group of three close friends, but they do not share Aya's taste in music.

● Mitsuki Koga

Influenced by her uncle Joe, she has loved Western rock music since childhood , he has been familiar with Western rock music since he was a child and works part-time at a CD store owned by Joe.
At his part-time job, he wears black street-casual fashion, but at school, he is an airy, inconspicuous, and unobtrusive student, a completely different person from when he worked part-time.

●Chizuru

One of a group of three close friends with Aya.
She is cool, often has wrinkles between her eyebrows, and is always walking around with a smartphone in her hand.
On the other hand, he is also a counselor for Aya and her friends, listening to their problems.

●Mao

She is one of the three members of the group that Aya and I are good friends with.
She is a doggy type of girl with a friendly personality who can get along with all kinds of people.

●Megumu Narita

He is a boy who is in the same class as Mitsuki, Aya, and the others.
He is a flirtatious character who calls himself “refreshingly good-looking,” but he is also the favorite of both Mitsuki and Aya, and he warmly supports and watches over them.

●Joe

Joe, Mitsuki’s uncle, devotes all his affection to his niece. and the manager of the CD store where she works part-time.
When he was young, he wanted to pursue a career in music.

As he has no children of his own, he devotes all his energy and affection to his niece, Mitsuki.

● Kanna

Joe's ex-girlfriend, 
She used to go for A with Joe, but Joe decided to stay in Japan to raise Mitsuki, so she had to go to L.A. by herself in the past.
She is currently working as a stylist in LA, but is currently back in Japan temporarily and frequents Joe and her friends' CD store.
She is also a reliable older sister who offers advice to Aya.

● Hime

She is a junior at Mitsuki and her friends' school.

Her father is a famous music producer and she is a music geek herself.
She becomes a fan when she sees a video of Mitsuki singing, and tries to introduce him to her father.
 

The allure of “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta).”

 

• Two protagonists with fascinating characters

Aya and Mitsuki are the two main characters in this work.

Aya is a high school girl of today with a seemingly girly appearance.
At school, she makes a fuss with her friends about the girl she likes, but when she actually goes to meet the girl, she sometimes dresses up and sometimes gets nervous and dresses up when going to see her. which is both cute and playful.
When her classmates tease her about a poem she wrote at school, she gets really angry and protests to them.

On the other hand, Mitsuki is an inconspicuous, quiet person at school, but her good-looking comments and body language are always spilling out at a moment's notice, and she is a very attractive person.
The reader can't help but be captivated by his coolness.

The two characters, each with their own gaps, are also a big part of the charm of this work.

 

• A natural depiction of love between women

Aya, who fell in love with “Oni-san,” a clerk at a CD store, was shocked to learn that she was a woman, but through her interactions with the “Oni-san,” she came to recognize that she was an important person to her, regardless of her gender. However, in the course of her interactions with Mitsuki, the “oni-san,” she comes to recognize that Mitsuki herself is an important partner, regardless of gender.

Aya's presence also allows Mitsuki to come out of her shell, and she is able to change and express her true self.

The distance between their hearts gradually grows closer, and their feelings for each other begin to change into a love affair.
Sumiko Arai, the author of the book, depicts the transition of their feelings in a natural and detailed manner, and their pure and sincere communication conveys the feelings of the two girls, and the reader cannot help but be touched.

The way Aya and Mitsuki are surrounded by their classmates, including Narita and Aya's friends, who naturally support their love for each other, rather than treating it as something special, is also very touching.

 
As you read the work and see how Mitsuki and Aya truly care for each other, even at first sight, you find yourself becoming a member of the Mitsui-Aya watch-over squad, just like their friends.

• Charm as a music manga

Although “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta)” is a work about a romance between two women, the important point is not only that, but old Western rock music appears throughout the work as a key word that leads the two to get to know each other and to communicate with each other.

Aya, who had no friends of the same age and lived music as her life's purpose, felt a sense of loneliness deep down in her heart when she found out that Mitsuki shared the same taste in music. The joy of meeting people with the same musical interests and feeling close to each other is something that many music fans have experienced and can relate to.

And by learning about Western rock music, which appears in memorable scenes in the works, readers themselves will have the opportunity to come into contact with new music.

Although the manga falls into the yuri manga genre, it is accessible to those who are not normally interested in yuri or GL manga.

 

Perfect music to listen to while reading the manga! The soundtrack for “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta)” is also on sale!

 

Aya, the main character of “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta),” loves Western rock music, and so does Mitsuki, who works part-time at her uncle's CD store and is a big fan of Western rock music.
Since it was Western rock music that brought these two girls together, many songs by Western artists appear in the work.
A soundtrack containing the songs that appear in the film has been released.
The album includes the song “Heart-Shaped Box” by Nirvana, marking the first time ever that 'Heart-Shaped Box' has been officially included in a compilation album worldwide.
When you read the work while listening to the actual music, you can immerse yourself in the world of the work and enjoy it more than ever before.

The official playlist is available on the official YouTube channel of UNIVERSAL MUSIC JAPAN, the publisher of the album.
You can also listen to the songs here.
 

 

In 2024, “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta)” drama CD was also released!

 

An animated film is also in the works: “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta)”.

Although no details have been announced as to when it will air, “Ki The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta)” is set to be adapted into an anime.
I can't wait to see Mitsuki, Aya, and the others move and talk.
I wonder if there will be Western rock music in the anime.
Just imagining all of this is exciting, but I will wait for further news.

 

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