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Midori Tayama's K-Pop-Themed Manga Girl Crush Gets TV Anime

TBS announced on Thursday that Midori Tayama's Girl Crush manga is inspiring an anime which will air on TBS and other channels. TBS TV and ENISHIYA are planning and producing the anime, which they describe as the first television anime in Japan with K-pop as the main theme. The production is teasing future announcements on its broadcast date, staff, and cast.

Viz publishes the manga in English, and it describes the story:

Tenka Momose was a quiet and withdrawn child, but before long she realized that the most effective way to protect herself wasn't hiding from other kids—it was being the best at everything! After years of armoring herself with excellence, Tenka lives safely atop her cool-girl pedestal, admired and idolized by everyone. But her flawless composure is suddenly shaken by a very average schoolmate's impressively big dreams. At first Tenka is scornful of Erian Sato's ambition to become a K-pop idol, but the other girl's passion is so irresistible that Tenka soon finds herself with Idol Dreams of her own!

Inspired by Erian's sincerity (and her own unexpected jealousy), Tenka decides that she's going to audition at a famous Korean talent agency. But although her research powers and ability to memorize moves have helped Tenka excel in the past, the judges seem to be looking for something more than just flawless technique. Does Tenka have a chance at becoming an idol when the only thing she's good at is being perfect?

Tayama launched the manga under Shinchosha's Comic Nicola label within the Line manga service in November 2020, and Shinchosha has released eight volumes digitally and four volumes in print so far with over 900,000 copies in circulation. Viz published the third volume in October, and Comikey also released the manga in English in 2021. The Korean version of the manga won the new work of the year award in the 2021 Ridibooks Comic Awards.

Source: Comic Natalie