After four years of messy feelings, awkward timing, and classic childhood-friend chaos, You Can’t Be in a Rom-Com with Your Childhood Friends! is officially heading into its final lap.
The manga’s official X account announced that Shinya Misu’s rom-com series will wrap up in three more chapters, bringing the long-running Kodansha title close to its ending. For readers who have been following the “will they, won’t they, bro just say something already” energy since the beginning, this is the point where every confession, misunderstanding, and friendship-risking decision starts to matter.
The series, also known by its Japanese title Osananajimi to wa Rabu Kome ni Naranai, began serialization on Kodansha’s Manga Pocket platform in March 2022. Since then, Kodansha has collected the manga into 20 tankobon volumes, which is a pretty solid run for a modern romantic comedy — especially one built around the childhood-friend trope, a setup anime and manga fans either love deeply or argue about like it’s esports draft priority.
There is currently no English print release mentioned for the series, but Kodansha’s K Manga service releases the English EPUB version. That matters for Malaysian and SEA fans because physical manga availability here can still be very hit-or-miss unless a title gets a strong English publishing push. If you are the type who hunts Kinokuniya shelves or waits for Shopee listings, this one may be more of a digital-read situation for now.
The timing is also interesting because the manga has already crossed over into anime territory. Tezuka Productions adapted the series into a Winter 2026 TV anime, with the studio also known for work connected to titles like The Quintessential Quintuplets and The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses. The anime is available through Crunchyroll with both subtitled and dubbed versions, while Aniplus Asia and Bahamut Anime Crazy broadcast it in their respective regions.
For SEA viewers, that regional broadcast detail is the big one. Rom-com anime tends to travel well here — easy to follow weekly, fun to meme, and perfect for group chat arguments over “best girl” picks. If the anime brings in new fans from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and beyond, the manga ending soon gives them a clear runway: catch up now before spoilers start flying everywhere.
The story follows Yonosuke Sakai, a guy who looks calm on the outside but is actually a huge romantic at heart. He loves reading childhood-friend rom-com manga, which is already dangerous enough, but the real problem is that he has four childhood friends of his own. When Yonosuke enters high school alongside Akari and Shio, he starts wondering whether his real life could turn into the kind of romance he keeps reading about.
Of course, the hard part is not just making a move. It is making a move without wrecking friendships that have been around for years. That is where the series gets its hook: cute rom-com fantasy versus the very real fear of changing a relationship forever.
With only three chapters left, fans should expect the manga to finally answer who Yonosuke chooses — or whether the series has one last curveball waiting. Either way, the childhood-friend wars are almost over.
Source: Anime Corner