is a Japanese four-panel

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) 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 prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

written and illustrated by Ajiko Kojima. It centers on the relationship between a male

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in ''Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorativ ...

named Tibet and his

yaoi ''Yaoi'' (; ja, やおい ), also known by the ''wasei-eigo'' construction and its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features Homoeroticism, homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typi ...

-obsessed

fujoshi The ''yaoi'' fandom consists of the readers of (also called Boys' Love or abbreviated to BL), a genre of male x male romance narratives aimed at those who participate in communal activities organized around yaoi, such as attending conventions, m ...

girlfriend Yaoi whose obsession manifests as a small, green furry monster. Kojima started the manga on April 18, 2006 on his

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

. Ohzora Publishing released the first bound volume in December 2006, and by June 2007, it had sold 150,000 copies. Eleven volumes have been published. It ended in 2016. The manga began serialization from the first chapter in Ohzora's ''Romance Tiara'' magazine in April 2009. A

shōjo manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent females and young adult women. It is, along with manga (targeting adolescent boys), manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and manga (targeting adul ...

re-imagining of the series entitled ''Tonari no 801-chan: Fujoshiteki Kōkō Seikatsu'' written and illustrated by Jin was serialized in

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

's ''

Bessatsu Friend , formerly known as , is a Japanese Shōjo manga, manga magazine published by Kodansha, aimed at teenage girls. It was originally conceived as a , or companion magazine, to ''Shōjo Friend'', which is no longer published. ''Bessatsu Friend'' i ...

'' from November 28, 2007 to April 13, 2009. A spin-off manga series written and illustrated by Jun Minamikata called ''801-shiki Chūgakusei Nikki: Tonari no Hina-chan'' started serialization in ''Romance Tiara'' in April 2009. A

live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

-only film was produced in September 2007, and a

drama CD Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

was released in April 2008, and another followed in October 2008. An

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

adaptation by

Kyoto Animation , often abbreviated , is a Japanese animation studio and light novel publisher located in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture. Founded in 1985 by Yoko and Hideaki Hatta, it has produced anime works including ''The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (2006), ''Cla ...

was announced to air in Japan in 2009, but was unexpectedly canceled.

Origin

The green monster featured in ''Tonari no 801-chan'' has its origins in , the real-life

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

of the Misono Bridge 801 shopping center in northern

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The mascot, resembling Kyoto's well-known

Kamo The name Kamo may refer to the following: Places Japan (Note: ''kamo'' ( 鴨), is the common word for ''duck'' in Japanese, but the following names do not necessarily mean ''duck'' and are not necessarily written with that character.) * Kamo, N ...

eggplant Eggplant ( US, Canada), aubergine ( UK, Ireland) or brinjal (Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit. Mos ...

, was designed in late 2005 by a student at Kyoto Seika University. The shopping center itself was named for its 800-meter length, adding one to represent future expansion. Since the numbers 8-0-1 can be read in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

as ya-o-i (

), the mascot soon became an

Internet phenomenon An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

. This brought the mascot to the attention of Ajiko Kojima, a Japanese

ger who took the mascot and slightly altered its appearance, using it as a basis for use his new

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

''Tonari no 801-chan'' in April 2006.

Plot and characters

''Tonari no 801-chan'' is

narrated A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional ( fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc.). N ...

by , otherwise known as , a twenty-eight-year-old company employee and boyfriend to Yaoi, otherwise known as . Yaoi, who also works in a company, is a twenty-two-year-old

, a female

who is a fan of

and

series featuring

, or romantic relationships between men. Tibet, who is an otaku himself, initially met Yaoi over the Internet. When she obsesses over yaoi, a small green furry monster comes out of a zipper from her back as the manifestation of her obsession. Tibet and Yaoi eventually get married and have two kids. In ''Tonari no 801-chan: Fujoshiteki Kōkō Seikatsu'', the story begins with the junior-high school student , a fujoshi who does not especially have an interest in the 3D aspect of life. One rainy day, however, she takes an interest in a high school student named and wants to get into the same high school as him. To that end, she enlists the help of her childhood friend who helps her study for the entrance examination, and

diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

so as to become a cuter girl. All goes according to plan, until a scheming girl going to the same school named makes it harder for Rei to get closer to Kei.

Media

Manga

''Tonari no 801-chan'' began as a four-panel

series written and illustrated by Ajiko Kojima which he started on his

on April 18, 2006. Ohzora Publishing released the first bound volume of the manga on December 14, 2006 under their ''Next comics''

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

, and as of June 12, 2018, eleven volumes have been published. Included in the volumes are additional manga strips not featured on his blog. The first two volumes have sold over 320,000 copies in Japan. The manga began serialization from the first chapter in Ohzora's

josei manga , also known as and its abbreviation , is an editorial category of Japanese comics that emerged in the 1980s. In a strict sense, ''josei'' refers to manga marketed to an audience of adult women, contrasting ''shōjo'' manga, which is marke ...

magazine ''Romance Tiara'' on April 11, 2009. The blog was last updated on May 18, 2018. A shōjo manga re-imagining of the series entitled written and illustrated by Jin started serialization in

's shōjo

manga magazine Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) 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 prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is used ...

'' on November 28, 2007. The first volume was released on March 13, 2008, and the second followed on July 11, 2008; the volumes are published under Kodansha's ''KC Deluxe'' imprint. A spin-off manga series entitled written and illustrated by Jun Minamikata started serialization in ''Romance Tiara'' on April 11, 2009.

Film

60-minute film directed by Kōtarō Terauchi was released

direct-to-DVD Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

on September 5, 2007. The film stars Sō Hirosawa as Yaoi, and

Koji Seto Koji, Kōji, Kohji or Kouji may refer to: *Kōji (given name), a masculine Japanese given name *Kōji (Heian period) (康治), Japanese era, 1142–1144 *Kōji (Muromachi period) (弘治), Japanese era, 1555–1558 *Koji orange, a Japanese citrus ...

as Tibet, and also features

Kotaro Yanagi is a Japanese actor. Early life Yanagi was born on December 21, 1985, in Berlin, Germany. He lived in Germany for three years before moving back with his family to Japan. His family moved to India for work, and he lived there for three years. H ...

playing a role. Ajiko Kojima, the original manga author, has a small

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

in the film.

Drama CDs

based on the original manga was released by Marine Entertainment in Japan on April 23, 2008, and the first-print version of the CD came bundled with a mini hand

towel A towel is a piece of absorbent cloth or paper used for drying or wiping a surface. Towels draw moisture through direct contact. In households, several types of towels are used, such as hand towels, bath towels, and kitchen towels. Paper towels ...

. Another drama CD was released by Marine Entertainment on October 22, 2008, and the first-print version came bundled with a

mousepad A mousepad is a surface for placing and moving a computer mouse. A mousepad enhances the usability of the mouse compared to using a mouse directly on a table by providing a surface to allow it to measure movement accurately and without jitter. So ...

sticker, and an extra track featuring a group talk of the drama cast.

Anime

adaptation of the original manga was planned to be produced by

and broadcast on TBS to begin airing in Japan in 2009, but was unexpectedly canceled. However, a 90-second "opening anime" called was produced by

A-1 Pictures is a Japanese animation studio founded by ex-Sunrise producer Mikihiro Iwata and it is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan's anime production firm Aniplex. History The studio was established by SMEJ's animation production division, ...

and directed by

Yutaka Yamamoto is a Japanese anime director from Osaka Prefecture. He is known for his incendiary behavior on Twitter and for being fired from Kyoto Animation and Ordet, the latter of which he helped co-found. Biography As a member of Kyoto Animation, Yamamo ...

; it was bundled with the fourth volume of the original web manga released on September 10, 2009.

References

External links

Ajiko Kojima's blog

''Tonari no 801-chan''
at Ohzora Publishing *{{anime News Network, manga, 8607 2000s webcomics 2006 webcomic debuts 2007 films 2007 manga 2009 manga Japanese comedy webcomics Live-action films based on manga Films directed by Kōtarō Terauchi 2000s Japanese films 2000s Japanese-language films Josei manga Kodansha manga Manga adapted into films Romance webcomics Romantic comedy anime and manga Shōjo manga Webcomics in print Unaired television shows