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Ushijima the Loan Shark's Shohei Manabe Launches New Manga With Artist

The February issue of Kodansha's Monthly Young Magazine revealed on January 18 that Shohei Manabe will launch a new manga titled PICKUP with artist Hirokazu Fukuda in the magazine's next issue and on the Comic Days website on February 20. Manabe is credited for the original work, while Fukuda is credited for the art. The 61-page first chapter will have a color opening page.

The manga centers on Harumi Minami, a 23-year-old new hire at a women's fashion magazine, who remains an unpopular virgin in both his work and private life. However, the magazine's handsome editor Fujihara notices him one day.

Manabe revealed in March 2019 that he would launch a new manga in Shogakukan's Weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine in the fall, but he has not yet launched that manga.

Manabe also ended the Ushijima the Loan Shark (Yamikin Ushijima-kun) manga in March 2019. Manabe launched the series in Weekly Big Comic Spirits in 2004, and Shogakukan published the 46th and final volume last May.

The manga won in the General category of the 56th Shogakukan Manga Awards in 2011. The series was also nominated for an Osamu Tezuka Culture Prize in 2008 and 2010, as well as for France's Angoulême Comics Awards in 2008.

A live-action television series adaptation ran from October to December 2010, and the first film opened in August 2012. A second season premiered in January 2014, followed by a second film in May 2014. The third season premiered in July 2016, while the third film opened in Japan in September 2016. The fourth and final live-action film, Yamikin Ushijima-kun The Final, opened in Japan in October 2016.

Sources: Monthly Young Magazine February issue, Shohei Manabe's Twitter account