Show-ha Shoten!, Vol. 3

A pair of dreamers strive to rise to the top of the comedy world in this story by Akinari Asakura with art by Takeshi Obata (Death Note)!

Shy Azemichi Shijima has secretly been studying the art of comedy. His outgoing classmate Taiyo Higashikata has big dreams of being funny but no follow-through. When the two team up, they just might take the comedy world by storm!

The preliminary round of the Wara-1 Koshien has begun! Azemichi and Taiyo have put their hearts and souls into preparing for the competition, but if they’re going to make it to Osaka, that holy land of comedy, first they’re going to have to defeat the skilled comedy duo Sprechchor and a mysterious new opponent called Kirameki Confections, aka “the Stage Crushers.” Will they be able to outdo these competitors and seize their ticket to the finals?

Takeshi Obata was born in 1969 in Niigata, Japan, and first achieved international recognition as the artist of the wildly popular Shonen Jump title Hikaru no Go, which won the 2003 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize: Shinsei "New Hope" Award and the 2000 Shogakukan Manga Award. He went on to illustrate the smash hit Death Note as well as the hugely successful manga Bakuman and All You Need Is Kill.