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ODD TAXI Writer Kazuya Konomoto Launches New Manga on August 21

The combined 36th and 37th issue of Shueisha's Young Jump magazine revealed on Thursday that writer Kazuya Konomoto and artist Ryō Yamasaki will launch a new manga titled Kami Kill (a play on "kami kiru," which is how "cut hair" would be said in Japanese) in the magazine's next issue on August 21. The magazine teases that the manga centers on two brothers running a barbershop in a shopping district as they wait for their father to return, and for the shopping district to revive.

Konomoto has collaborated with director Baku Kinoshita on the ODDTAXI original anime and the original anime film The Last Blossom, with Konomoto writing and Kinoshita directing both anime. ODDTAXI premiered in Japan in April 2021 and aired for 13 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed the anime in the West. The Odd Taxi: In the Woods film is a "reconstruction" of the television anime episodes, but it also depicts what happens after the television anime's finale. The film opened in April 2022. Crunchyroll is streaming the film.

Konomoto also collaborated with manga artist Takeichi Abaraya on the RoOT/Route of Odd Taxi (stylized with a backwards R in "RoOT") manga spinoff, which launched in February 2023 on Big Comic Superior's web manga site Darupana, and ended on April 25. The manga's sixth and final volume shipped on May 30. The spinoff manga itself inspired its own live-action series that premiered in April 2024. Crunchyroll streamed the series.

The Last Blossom (Housenka) anime film screened in the Feature Film Competition at this year's Annecy International Animation Film Festival. A preview of the film was part of the Work in Progress lineup in last year's Annecy Film Festival. The film will open in Japan on October 10.

Update: Fixed Ryō Yamasaki's name spelling.

Source: Young Jump issue 36/37 and X/Twitter account