, also known as ''Tsurekano'' (連れカノ), is a Japanese

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

light novel A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging. The abbr ...

series written by Kyōsuke Kamishiro and illustrated by Takayaki. The series began serialization on the online novel website Kakuyomu in August 2017, with a print version beginning publication under

Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines ...

Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko is a light novel publishing imprint (trade name), imprint of the Japanese publishing company Kadokawa Shoten, a Division (business), division of Kadokawa Corporation. It was established in 1988 and is aimed at a male audience. Some light novels p ...

imprint in December 2018. The light novel is licensed digitally in North America by

J-Novel Club J-Novel Club is a publishing company specializing in the translation of Japanese light novels into English. It streams light novels and manga in regular installments before publishing finalized e-books. As of August 2021, J-Novel Club has licens ...

. A

manga 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 history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

adaptation by Rei Kusakabe began serialization online by

Fujimi Shobo , formerly , was a Japanese publisher that specialized in light novels, manga, Japanese role-playing games, role-playing games and collectible card games. Founded in 1972 and reorganized three times, it was at times an independent company and at ...

via Niconico Seiga website as part of the Dra Dra Sharp and Dra Dra Flat brands in April 2019. An

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

television series adaptation produced by

Project No.9 , is a Japanese animation studio established on February 9, 2009. Works Television series ONAs OVAs References External linksOfficial website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Project No.9 Project No.9, Japanese animation studios Mass media c ...

aired from July to September 2022.

Synopsis

When they were middle schoolers, Mizuto and Yume were a completely normal couple. Between flirtations and shouting matches for minor reasons, the two students stayed together until they entered high school, where they finally decided to break up. What they do not know is that fate sometimes has many surprises in store, and that they will be reunited again as stepbrother and sister only after two weeks. Indeed, their respective parents are about to remarry and the former couple will have to live under the same roof on a daily basis. In order not to hinder their parents' happiness, they accept the situation and decide to put in place the rule of brothers and sisters, according to which the first who feels attraction towards the other loses.

Characters

; : :Mizuto is Yume's ex-boyfriend who became her stepbrother when his father, Mineaki, remarried her mother, Yuni. He shares a fondness for reading with Yume and has high grades, leading to a competitive relationship with her. He and Yume were born on the same day. His mother died when he was young. ; : :Her name was before her mother, Yuni, married Mizuto's father, Mineaki Irido, two weeks after she and Mizuto broke up. She and Mizuto were born on the same day. She is an excellent student and is fond of reading novels. She wore glasses when she was in middle school and dating Mizuto. ; : :Kogure's childhood friend. She and Kogure previously dated, but they broke up after he developed an illness as a result of her excessive affection for him and had to be hospitalized. ; : :Akatsuki's childhood friend. He and Akatsuki previously dated. ; : :Mizuto and Yume's classmate. She is fond of reading books such as

s. She frequents the library, where she meets up with Mizuto. ; : :Mizuto's father who married Yume's mother. His first wife died while giving birth to Mizuto. ; : :Yume's mother who married Mizuto's father after divorcing her first husband. ; : ; :

Production

The first names of Yume and Mizuto come from "oil" (the pronunciation of oil (油) is ''yu'' in Japanese) and "water" (''mizu'' means water (水) in Japanese), respectively. The surnames of Irido, Ayai, Higashira (lit. "east head") and Tanesato come from Conan Doyle ("Irido" is almost an

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which ...

of "Doiru", which is the Japanese pronunciation of Doyle),

Yukito Ayatsuji , known by his pen name , is a Japanese writer of mystery and horror. He is one of the founders of Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan and one of the representative writers of the new traditionalist movement in Japanese mystery writing. His ...

(only the word Aya (綾) is taken),

Nisio Isin , often stylized as NISIOISIN to emphasize the palindrome, is a pseudonymous Japanese novelist, manga author, and screenplay writer. Nisio debuted in 2002 with the novel ''The Beheading Cycle'' (the first in his '' Zaregoto'' series), which ea ...

(while Nisio is the surname, it literally means "west tail", the opposite of "east head") and

Ellery Queen Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1928 by the American detective fiction writers Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971). It is also the name of their main fictional detective, a mystery writer in New York City ...

(while Queen is a duo whose surnames are Dannay and Lee, "Danna-" is pronounced like ''tane'' and "Lee" is pronounced like ''ri'' ("里" can be pronounced as ''sato'' and ''ri'' in Japanese)), respectively. The author Kyōsuke Kamishiro set Yume and Mizuto's birthday as November 3 since both 11 and 3 are

prime number A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a Product (mathematics), product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime ...

s, which cannot be "separated" (in Japanese, "割る" means "to divide" and "to separate"). The location setting of the story had been kept ambiguous since its web serialization. However, after several years, Kamishiro decided to set it in an actual location,

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, since the story in Volume 8 takes place in

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

Media

Light novels

The series began serialization on the online novel website Kakuyomu on August 7, 2017, with a print version beginning publication under

imprint on December 1, 2018; the series has twelve volumes as of November 1, 2024. The light novel is licensed digitally in North America by

. In the

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

set of the anime series, an original what-if story titled written by Kyōsuke Kamishiro is included. The story is about what if Yume and Mizuto did not break up before they became stepsiblings.

Manga

adaptation by Rei Kusakabe began serialization online via Niconico Seiga website as part of the ''Dra Dra Sharp'' and ''Dra Dra Flat'' brands on April 26, 2019, and has been compiled into nine volumes by

as of January 9, 2025. At

Anime Expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first we ...

2023, Udon Entertainment announced that they licensed the manga for English publication.

Anime

adaptation was announced on July 21, 2021. It was later revealed to be a television series produced by

. The series was directed by Shinsuke Yanagi, with Deko Akao handling the scripts, Katsuyuki Sato designing the characters, and Hiromi Mizutani composing the music. It aired from July 6 to September 21, 2022, on AT-X,

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV (channel 9), branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent station, independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city and parts ...

, BS NTV,

MBS MBS may refer for: People * Mohammed Ben Sulayem (born 1961), president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile * Mohammed bin Salman (born 1985), crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia * Mohan Bikram Singh (born 1935), Nepales ...

, and BS Fuji. The opening theme song is by

Dialogue+ Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

, while the ending theme song is by Harmoe.

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...

streamed the series.

Episodes

Notes

References

External links

* at Kakuyomu * * * * {{Project No.9 2018 Japanese novels Anime and manga based on light novels Anime and manga set in schools AT-X (TV network) original programming Crunchyroll anime Fujimi Shobo manga J-Novel Club books Japanese webcomics Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko Light novels Light novels first published online Project No.9 Romantic comedy anime and manga Shōnen manga Television shows set in Kyoto Webcomics in print