Yuushi Kamome is a freelance journalist who lost his beloved daughter in an unforeseen accident. His descent into despair following her death drove his wife to leave him, and he lives each day as a shell of the man he once was. But his fate changes one day when members from a religious organization he had never heard of, the Smiling Hearts Society, knock on his door and hand him a flyer. He's ready to dismiss them until he notices the face of his estranged wife on the flyer, smiling ever so softly. And so begins a tale of religion and insanity. What kind of sinister darkness lurks behind this religion and its strange smiles?

Smile! has a story and art by Mitei Hattori. English translation is done by David Evelyn with lettering by Rafael Zaiats. Published by Kodama (January 1, 2026). Rated M.

Content Warning: Suicide

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Cults suck, right? I think we can all come together and agree that cults suck because of their dangerous influences and desire to prey on the vulnerable. I haven't read a lot of stories about investigating or trying to uncover the truth of cults, so I was very curious about what Smile! was going to do. It's tricky because there's a lot of setup in this early volume with very little payoff. In a lot of ways, you could argue that this is a little bit unsatisfying since I didn't finish the volume feeling like I learned a whole lot. However, I found myself glued to the pages the entire time because of all the breadcrumbs that were being spread throughout. I want to know more about our main character, I want to know more about the history of him trying to find his missing wife, I want to know more about why she might've left in the first place, I want to know more about the police investigations revolving around all these gruesome murders and I want to find out what exactly this cult is supposed to be about.

The cult's philosophy revolves around the idea that smiles and laughter make the soul pure. This is ironic because the characters in the story have smiles and unsettling facial expressions that make them look less human and more uncanny. I like the fact that the story doesn't try to make it seem like our main character is buying into any of the twisted philosophies, or like the cult has some kind of point. There's a lot of effort to show how much influence this cult has on things, and our main lead is warned very early not to get involved. However, he's driven to find a way through all of this, and I'm right there with him, wondering where all of this is going.

I love how the artwork can properly convey just how unsettling a fake or twisted Smile! can be. Just because an expression seems happy doesn't mean that there isn't a lot going on behind that façade. Even our main character makes it very clear from the beginning of the book that he hates fake smiles, which ends up becoming the philosophy of the entire book. I want to take this organization down, but I also felt the claustrophobia and powerlessness of the situation. What can this one man do against all of these unsettling forces that are always watching him? Granted, there is a chance that all of this could amount to nothing or feel very unsatisfying in later volumes, but I am enthralled enough with this first volume to give more of the series a chance, and I think you might as well.