Company to publish Umi Takase's I Wanna Be Your Girl on July 1, 2025
School Library Journal—a frequently referenced resource for elementary, middle, and high school librarians—reported on Thursday Random House Graphic is launching Ink Pop, a new brand for graphic novels including manga, manhwa and webtoon. Ink Pop will publish Umi Takase's I Wanna Be Your Girl (Kanojo ni Naritai Kimi to Boku) manga and will release the first compiled book volume on July 1, 2025. The company will also publish Han Ryeo's My Life Yu and A Hyeon as an Internet Novel comic.
Image via School Library Journal
© Random House Graphics
Image via Amazon Japan
© Umi Takase, ComicSmart
Both Young Adult titles will be available in hardcover and paperback. Future Ink Pop books will be aimed at chapter book readers, middle school students, and teens.
Mangamo is publishing I Wanna Be Your Girl in English and describes the story:
Hime and Akira have been friends since they were children. At age 12, Akira revealed to Hime that Akira was actually a girl. She started dressing like a girl and was bullied and harassed at school. Hime couldn't stand it and started dressing like a boy to support the friend she loved. Of course, this means their school troubles are just beginning.
Takase launched the manga on ComicSmart Inc.'s Ganma! website in July 2018 and ended in August 2020. The manga's fourth and final compiled book volume was published in Japan in June 2021.
Source: School Library Magazine (Brigid Alverson)
