Renji Morita, the artist behind That’s My Atypical Girl, is back with a new manga — and this one sounds like a fun makan-first twist on detective stories.
Kodansha’s YanMaga Web has revealed that Morita will launch Makanai Deka no Chōshu Meshi on May 24. The title roughly translates to The Detective’s Meal During Questioning, which already tells you the hook: crime-solving, but with food doing half the work.
Morita also confirmed the new project on X, formerly Twitter. According to the announcement, the manga will arrive earlier on Kodansha’s Comic Days platform, with more details to come once the official reveal is fully out.
A detective who cooks suspects into confessing
Makanai Deka no Chōshu Meshi is described as a gourmet comedy manga. The story follows Mitsuki Kunimura, a detective with a very specific interrogation method: he cooks delicious meals, serves them to suspects, and somehow gets them to confess.
The wild part? Kunimura is said to have a 100% success rate when it comes to making culprits admit the truth after eating his food.
That premise is simple, but honestly quite strong. Japan has always been great at turning niche setups into full-on manga concepts — sports with hyper-drama, cooking with emotional backstories, workplace comedies with oddly specific rules. This one sounds like it sits somewhere between detective parody and cosy food manga, where the real tension is less “who did it?” and more “what dish will break them?”
For Malaysian and SEA manga readers, the food angle is probably the easiest sell. We already understand the power of a good meal lah. Whether it is nasi lemak at 2am, mamak after futsal, or a bowl of noodles that fixes your entire mood, the idea that food can make people open up is very relatable. Of course, using it to solve crimes is another level — but that is exactly why the concept works.
Why Renji Morita’s name matters
Morita is best known to English-language readers as the artist of That’s My Atypical Girl (Asper Kanojo). That manga was created with Sōhachi Hagimoto, who handled the story, while Morita provided the art. It launched on Comic Days in 2018 and ended in January 2021.
Kodansha published the series across 12 compiled volumes, and Kodansha USA Publishing released the manga digitally in English. So if you discovered Morita through digital manga stores instead of Japanese magazines, there is already a proper English access point for the previous work.
That makes this new launch worth watching. No English release has been announced for Makanai Deka no Chōshu Meshi at this stage, but Morita’s past work having a digital English release means SEA readers should keep an eye on it if the series gains traction.
A lighter lane after That’s My Atypical Girl
What is interesting here is the shift in flavour. That’s My Atypical Girl had a very different reputation and emotional lane, while Makanai Deka no Chōshu Meshi is being positioned as a gourmet comedy. That does not automatically mean it will be shallow — food manga can get surprisingly heartfelt — but the detective-meal-confession setup sounds much more playful from the jump.
For manga fans who like oddball premises, this is exactly the kind of series to bookmark. It has a clean gimmick, a creator with a known track record, and a launch on Kodansha platforms that manga watchers already follow closely.
The manga officially launches on YanMaga Web on May 24, with an earlier debut planned through Comic Days. More information is expected once Kodansha shares the full announcement.
Source: Anime News Network