Show-ha Shoten!, Vol. 4

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!

Azemichi and Taiyo are One-Way Ticket to the Top, the final performers of the Wara-1 Koshien prelims! Between Azemichi’s carefully scripted comedy and Taiyo’s flawless acting, they’ve got the perfect routine to win over the crowd. But despite having started off with the biggest laughs of the day, Azemichi draws a blank halfway through their routine and forgets his next line! Unless Azemichi and Taiyo can save their performance, they may have just lost their only chance at making their comedy dreams come true…

Akinari Asakura is a novelist whose previous works include the mysteries Ore de wa nai Enjou (I’m Not the One Being Flamed), Kyoushitsu ga, Hitori ni naru made (Until I’m Alone in the Classroom), Noir Revenant, and the critically acclaimed Rokunin no Usotsuki na Daigakusei (Six Lying College Students). This is his first full-length work as a manga writer.

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.