Kohei Horikoshi has returned to Weekly Shonen Jump with a sharply different follow-up to My Hero Academia. His new 61-page one-shot, Quit Laughing Shijima (Warawanaide yo Shijima-san), is a “boy-meets-girl horror” story built around a strange town, an admired girl named Shijima, and a secret hiding beneath the community’s cheerful surface.
The one-shot appeared in the magazine’s combined Issue #37/38, which went on sale in Japan on August 10, and is also available digitally through MANGA Plus by Shueisha. For webtoon and digital-comics readers, the release offers a compact way to see one of modern shonen manga’s most recognizable creators test a genre where atmosphere and implication matter as much as spectacle.
Horikoshi Trades Superheroes for Uneasy Small-Town Horror
The official premise keeps its cards close. Everyone in the unusual town seems to admire Shijima, but that public affection conceals something sinister. Rather than introducing an expansive supernatural mythology or a long-running battle system, the one-shot appears designed to create tension quickly, using its limited page count to establish an unsettling relationship between its central characters and the world around them.
That “boy-meets-girl horror” description is particularly notable because it places personal connection at the center of the premise. The story is not being presented simply as a monster tale or a mystery; its horror is tied to the social image surrounding Shijima and the emotional curiosity created by meeting her. That combination gives the one-shot an immediate hook for readers who enjoy romance threaded through darker genres.
At the same time, the wording suggests that the relationship should not be mistaken for a conventional romantic setup. The strange town and its admiration for Shijima introduce an unnerving imbalance from the beginning. In horror, being liked by everyone can be just as suspicious as being feared by everyone.
A 61-Page Showcase for a Different Side of the Creator
Quit Laughing Shijima includes a center color page, giving the one-shot the kind of visual prominence typically associated with a major creator’s special return. Its 61-page length also gives Horikoshi more room than a very short promotional manga while keeping the story firmly within the self-contained one-shot format.
That structure may be the release’s most appealing feature for digital readers. A one-shot can deliver a complete premise, mood, and dramatic payoff without asking readers to commit to dozens of chapters or wait through a long serialization. For fans who primarily follow webtoons and manhwa, it functions as a focused weekend read: short enough to finish in one sitting, but substantial enough to explore a full horror concept rather than offering only a teaser.
Editorially, the format also makes the project feel like a creative laboratory. Horikoshi spent a decade working within the superhero framework of My Hero Academia, where character designs, action choreography, escalating powers, and large-scale conflict were central to the reading experience. A horror one-shot demands a different kind of control. Suspense depends on what remains unseen, while a disturbing expression, an unusual crowd reaction, or a seemingly harmless setting can carry more weight than a large action sequence.
That makes the project interesting even for readers who are not already invested in Horikoshi’s superhero work. The one-shot is not being marketed as another chapter of an existing franchise, a spin-off, or an announced new serialization. It is instead a chance to see how his visual sensibility operates when the goal is unease rather than heroic momentum.
Horikoshi’s First Jump Manga Since My Hero Academia
The release marks Horikoshi’s first manga published in Weekly Shonen Jump since My Hero Academia concluded in August 2024. The superhero series debuted in 2014 and ran for ten years, becoming one of the magazine’s flagship titles with more than 100 million copies in circulation worldwide.
My Hero Academia also expanded far beyond the page through multiple anime seasons, films, spin-offs, and games. That history gives even a standalone horror story a degree of cultural significance: readers are not simply watching a veteran creator publish a new manga, but seeing what kind of material he chooses to make after completing the work that defined his career for a generation of fans.
Still, the one-shot should be approached on its own terms. There is currently no confirmed indication that Quit Laughing Shijima is the beginning of a new serialized series. Its status as a standalone release means the most useful question is not whether it will become the next major franchise, but whether Horikoshi can make its town, characters, and central mystery linger after the final page.
Why Digital-Comics Readers Should Keep It on Their List
Readers coming from webtoons or manhwa may find the one-shot especially approachable because its premise is immediately legible: a seemingly beloved girl, an unusual community, and a hidden secret. Those ingredients are familiar in romance thrillers, supernatural dramas, and psychological horror, but the appeal lies in how efficiently the story combines them within a single release.
It is also a useful reminder that digital-comics audiences do not have to stay within one publishing format. Although Quit Laughing Shijima originates in a print manga magazine rather than a vertical-scroll platform, its availability on MANGA Plus places it within the same broader reading ecosystem as international webtoon and manga audiences. The release can be read as a concise genre experiment from a creator whose previous work already crossed freely between manga, anime, games, and global fandom culture.
For My Hero Academia readers, the one-shot offers a fresh look at Horikoshi after his landmark series. For horror fans, it presents a compact mystery with romantic tension at its core. And for digital-comics readers interested in how established creators move between genres, Quit Laughing Shijima is a particularly intriguing release—not because it promises a new franchise, but because it shows Horikoshi choosing to make something smaller, stranger, and more unsettling.
Sources
- animecorner.me
- mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp
