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How a comic that got posted to social media became my most anticipated anime of the season [Popverse Jump]

Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You started as a simple writing exercise and quickly touched a nerve among anime and manga fans around the world

Popverse Jump Header for Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You
Image credit: Asashi Productions / Popverse

Every day, artists around the world make the brave decision to put their work out there on social media, where literally anyone can see it. Sometimes people like it. Sometimes they hate it. Often it gets lost in the mass of other artists trying to get people’s attention. For Jinushi, the mangaka behind Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You, a post on social media turned into a monthly serialization and, a few years later, one of the most interesting anime of 2026 for me.

In 2022, Jinushi already had one manga series being published in Square Enix’s Monthly Big Gangan magazine. That series, Rokurei – Tenseishi Rinne Kuyakusho Dairokkanbu Joreika Katsudouki, was a supernatural story about government-backed exorcists playing mediator between the living and the dead. As a writing exercise, Jinushi’s editor suggested that they try something more grounded in reality. Not for publication but for

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Trent Cannon

Trent Cannon: Trent is a freelance writer who has been covering anime, video games, and pop culture for a decade. (He/Him)

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