Show-ha Shoten!, Vol. 5

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!

By winning the preliminary round, Azemichi and Taiyo have officially qualified for the Wara-1 Koshien comedy competition! Rumor has it that everyone who’s ever gotten advice from the eccentric Professor Hiyama has gone on to win Wara-1 Koshien—but the only way to get that advice is to win the Hiyama Cup! Can Azemichi and Taiyo beat both Broken Glass Slipper and Shiba Inu World Tour to win a meeting with the comedy legend?

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). Show-ha Shoten! 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.