After putting an end to a decade of epic
battles and unforgettable heroes, one of the most influential authors in the
industry is ready to explore his darker side. Renowned mangaka Kohei
Horikoshi, creator of the massive My Hero Academia franchise
(Boku no Hero Academia), will make his long-awaited return to the pages
of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine on August 10 with a new sixty-one-page
one-shot titled Warawanaide yo Shijima-san (Don't
Laugh, Shijima-san).
This new installment moves completely away from
the colorful world of gifts to enter a spooky horror story with a boy-meets-girl theme.
The project will have a color center page and has already revealed its first
promotional image, where we can see the disturbing designs of the protagonist
and the heroine. For the author's follower community, this turn
towards the macabre is not an absolute surprise, as already in 2022 Horikoshi
had confessed his enormous desire to try his luck drawing an original
work focused purely on the horror genre once Deku's story concluded.
The return of a Shonen Jump titan
This release marks the first work published by
Horikoshi since concluding the serialization of his masterpiece in August 2024.
The magazine's long-awaited combined 37th and 38th issues will not only
celebrate the return of the Aichi-born author, but will also include a six-page
special for the fiftieth anniversary of the legendary originalKochiKame manga.
With an outstanding career in the manga industry that spans
from his beginnings with Oumagadoki Zoo and Barrage to
becoming a global phenomenon, the artist proves that his ability to reinvent
himself is still fully intact.
Whereas Horikoshi's visual style was always
characterized by impeccable shading and highly detailed grotesque designs when
portraying his villains
