Side story to focus on Iris

Series debuted in June 2022

The official X/Twitter account for Shinshokan‘s Wings magazine announced on Monday that it will publish the final chapter of Shuu Katayama‘s Fujōri Zakkaten Unreal (Absurd Variety Shop Unreal) manga in this year’s October issue on Friday. The manga’s fifth compiled book volume will ship in late November.

The manga centers on an unusual variety shop that sells people’s “thoughts.” Customers that come by have their lives changed greatly by the shop’s strange products. The shop’s owner Yagio looks upon what happens in the store with cold, unfeeling eyes. Muneya Hamaie, a high school boy who works at a nearby cafe, looks out for Yagio’s well-being.

Yodaka and Katayama launched the manga in Shinshokan‘s Wings magazine in June 2022. Shinshokan published the manga’s fourth compiled book volume in September 2025.

The series inspired a live-action television series in 2025, which aired on TV Osaka, TV Aichi and BS TV Tokyo.

The stage play debuted in January.

Katayama’s Gakuen Benriya manga inspired the Antique Heart OVA in 1988, while her Dragon Heart manga inspired a 1991 OVA.

Source: Wings magazine’s X/Twitter account

NOTHING NEW began streaming a trailer on Thursday for Kōhei Kadowaki and its We Are Aliens (Ware Ware wa Uchūjin) anime film, highlighting the Heisei era, the time period when the main characters meet.

We Are Aliens centers on Tsubasa and Gyōtarō, two boys who as elementary school students became close friends, but jealousy and misunderstandings eventually drove them apart. Years have passed and the two boys have gone in different directions in life. But when the memories from their past come back, they must face what happened between them years ago.

The film stars Ryōta Bandō (Fureru., live-action How to Train Your Dragon’s Japanese dub) as Tsubasa, and Amane Okayama (Blue Giant, live-action I”s, Hirayasumi) as Gyōtarō, when both characters are young adults. Child actors Yūto Maki and Tasuku Nakagome — who were both selected through auditions — voice Tsubasa and Gyōtarō, respectively, when they were younger. Other cast members include Sakurazaka46 idol group member Ten Yamasaki as Konatsu, comedian Kemuri Matsui as Batahara, Gaku Sano as Tsubasa’s friend Seiya Toda, Reika Ōzeki as young Seiya, Arisa Sasaki as Toda’s friend Elmo Matsushita, and Edo Harumi as a calligraphy teacher.

Kadowaki, who created the second BEASTARS season’s ending sequence and music videos for YOASOBI, served as the film’s planner, scriptwriter, director, storyboard artist, and editor. Yaffle, who previously produced music for Fujii Kaze, Kenshi Yonezu, and others, composed the music. NOTHING NEW planned and produced the upcoming film, and French studio Miyu Productions (Ghost Cat Anzu, A New Dawn) collaborated on the production, after joining on the project in June 2025. adieu performs the film’s theme song “Sasakure” (Split).

The film will open in Japan on September 25. The film screened at the Directors’ Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, and screened in competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which ran from June 21 to 27. The Ottawa International Film Festival (OIAF), the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), and New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) are screening the film. OIAF takes place from September 23-27, MIFF took place from August 6-23, and NZIFF took place from July 29-August 9.

Sales company CHARADES licensed the film to the distributors Hooray Films in Taiwan, Shaw Organisation in Singapore, Intercontinental Film Distributors in Hong Kong, and Sahamongkol Film in Thailand. CHARADES is handling international sales of the film.

The staff launched a crowdfunding campaign in November on the Motion Gallery website. The campaign aimed to cover production and advertising costs, specifically to “improve the quality of the work” and to “distribute the film more widely.” The campaign ended on March 2 and exceeded its 8 million yen (about US$50,365) target and raised 9,604,510 (about US$60,467) yen.

NOTHING NEW is a small film company that was founded in 2022 with the aim “to create a world where talent is not crushed.”

Source: NOTHING NEW‘s YouTube channel