Koharu is a relatively new cupid, caught up in and battle to decide a girl's love. As these modern cupids battle with guns, the bullets will bring love to humans and pain to other cupids. Koharu thinks she has a better way in this moving and bittersweet action story about the pain of love

LOVE BULLET has a story and art by inee. English translation is done by Masaaki Fukushima, and lettering by Aila Nagamine. Published by Yen Press (December 9, 2025). Rated 16+.

Erica Friedman
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The story begins with a battle. Cupids have upgraded to guns and other modern armaments from bows and arrows. Koharu and the other cupids argue with their weapons over the fate of three young people in a crowded fast-food restaurant.

There really is no other word to describe this book other than bittersweet. The idea that the Goddess of Love “blesses” those who have not yet felt love by making them cupids who then have to help others fall in love is twisted, but also, who better to bring people together than someone who longs for love? inee's tale of the painful side of love is both poignant and beautiful. Koharu's afterlife as a cupid is going to be full of excitement—maybe even rebirth—and we're there for it, even though we and she understand that it comes with all sorts of conditions. We can see that she still has her human emotions, which means whatever comes, we're sure to be feeling it in our guts. It's easy to understand why some of the cupids are more interested in the fight than the job.

The art suits the tone of the story perfectly, as cupids are drawn to imply a pale, almost-transparency, but still in schoolgirl uniforms, with tactical vests and weaponry. Where living humans are given depth and shadow, these cupids are pale figures, clad in light blue and white, with white eyes and red hair in color images, drawn in near outline in black and white.

This manga was famously saved by a massive Twitter campaign when it faced cancellation. With increased purchases of Japanese manga by fans worldwide, causing it to be reprinted, we're now looking at a second volume, which was released in Japan in November.

I can't call it a “fun” manga, but it is clever and compelling, and good for a few sad sniffles. It's also thus far very Yuri, which thumbs up from me for sure. I hope Yen Press's prediction is right and this becomes a best seller for them.

Caitlin Moore
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LOVE BULLET made waves in manga fandom about a year ago, when the creator inee posted about how the series was facing cancellation due to low sales. The community rallied around her and her story, buying up so many copies that stores were selling out and assuring the continuation of Koharu's story. It's heartwarming to be sure, but I always wondered what it was about this particular series when great manga fail to find their audience and are cancelled all the time. Was it simply that the creator's plea happened to catch the right person's attention?

I still don't have a good explanation for this phenomenon, but I'm happy LOVE BULLET is here to stay. Now that I've had a chance to actually read it, it really couldn't have happened to a nicer manga. The opening short story, in which a group of Cupids argue over how to direct a girl at the center of a bisexual love triangle with her two best friends, grabbed me immediately. The story is both high- and low-stakes; the worst that will happen is that the subjects experience the same kind of breakup and heartache that people all over the world face every day. At the same time, the Cupids for the most part take their role very seriously, wanting to help their subjects find a happy future. When so many romances seem to boil down to two people in proximity falling in love because the author said so, the thought the Cupids put into finding the right person for their target alone makes it noteworthy.

The second half of the volume focuses on Koharu, the main character, on her first job as a Cupid. Koharu is exactly the kind of protagonist you'd expect – clever enough and managing well with the guidance of a kindhearted mentor, but yet to develop the kind of confidence she needs to be great at her job and eventually get the second chance at life she's promised. The character writing didn't blow my socks off, but her first assignment, being to choose someone for her best friend, who had confessed her feelings to Koharu moments before she died in a freak accident, packed a wallop that had me welling up by the end of the book.

I don't know what exactly it was that made so many people show up, but LOVE BULLET was spared the axe, but it's wonderful to see that it happened to a series so deserving. This series has a place on the shelf of every manga fan.

Kevin Cormack
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Why do human beings fall in love, anyway? Is it merely the interplay of physical and psychological attraction, social reciprocity, proximity, and sex drive, or is there something more spiritual and transcendental to the formation of relationships? Religions and philosophies the world over have attempted to explain what love really is. According to LOVE BULLET, what one really needs to spark true love between two people is a gun. Was this thing written by an American?

In this case, said guns are wielded by modern-day “Cupids”, magical beings, normally invisible to humans, who are contracted by the Goddess of Love to set people up with their ideal partners. By shooting them in the head. No, this isn't one of those challenging ero/guro underground manga, and thankfully, it's nowhere near as soul-destroyingly nihilistic as the superficially similar Platinum End. It's more like “what if Dead Like Me was crossed with Haibane Renmei”.

Although this first volume begins with a very funny chapter detailing how a group of Cupids resolve a complicated love triangle involving three high school students (it involves a lot of bloodless violence, I guess love really is war after all), the meat of the volume is the story of newly-minted cupid Koharu. She was a high school girl who prioritised the love lives of her friends over her own; she dies without ever once experiencing love for herself. Resurrected as a Cupid, her first task is of personal importance to her, with an emotionally resonant conclusion that moistened my eyes a little.

There's a definite yuri flavor to most of the human love matches, though I'm unsure if the manga is marketed as yuri specifically. It originated in a seinen magazine, for all that's worth. Although I've heard it was at one point threatened with cancellation due to poor sales, a second volume has just been published in Japan, and I'm greatly looking forward to reading the continuation eventually in English. It's a sweet and silly premise, ripe for further exploration, and the four main Cupids we meet all have pleasingly different personalities and ways of pursuing their goals. The art is light and breezy, though I admit to struggling to follow some of the busier action scenes. This one's definitely worth a look.

Lauren Orsini
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The meta story around LOVE BULLET is even more heartwarming than its content. It's thanks to clamor from Western fans that this yuri manga about gunslinging cupids clashing in fierce shipping wars got a second chance. Though it was in danger of early cancellation due to struggling sales in Japan, the author said that English-speaking fans came to their rescue. After Yen Press announced it had acquired the LOVE BULLET license for English language release in November, the author tweeted a drawing of main character Koharu holding a bald eagle. As you might expect from this level of fan enthusiasm, LOVE BULLET is something special. While I previously had only heard about its cupid shootouts, the volume's bittersweet queer love story added a new dimension of emotion to the action scenes.

High school student Koharu had a reputation as her school's matchmaker, but she died before ever experiencing love herself. Fortunately, she got a second chance when she was reborn as a white-haired, red-eyed cupid. She and her fellow children of the goddess of love have ditched their bows and arrows for more modern implements for no reason I can think of except that the gunfights look cool. Since their bullets only work on people who have chemistry, and the cupids spend most of their matchmaking problem-solving and not shooting, they don't really need a faster weapon. But for the all-out cupid on cupid brawls? Yeah, those wouldn't hit the same way without their heart-accented grenade launchers. Throughout this volume, Koharu's life and rebirth are told in out-of-order fragments, which gradually and effectively introduces us to her extraordinary circumstances. First we learn how playing cupid works; only later do we learn more about who Koharu is through the introduction to a key person from her past. An impermanent reunion with an old friend is all the more bittersweet as Koharu learns to say goodbye to her past and move forward, all the while helping her old friend do the same.

Since the cupids all have the same pale coloring, I found it hard to tell the side characters apart. This volume is really about Koharu, but thanks to new interest in this title, we can expect more in-depth development of the other cupids, too. I'm curious to learn more about Koharu's mentor Kanna and the combative, chaotic Chiyo; no doubt they both have queer romance backstories to work through as well. For now, the details of the world of the cupids are still sketchy, and this manga is running predominantly on vibes. And the vibes are fantastic: they combine fast-paced action with emotional, nuanced yuri—a genre we don't get enough of. Wrap it all in an expertly storyboarded manga that knows when to pause for impactful, meaningful panels, and I can see what all the hype was about. I'll definitely be reading the next volume, too.