Sumiko Arai On ‘The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All’

The manga series, “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All,” first came to the public’s attention in April 2022, when its author Sumiko Arai posted the first episode to her Twitter. Since then, it’s become an enormous success and was even published in book form; the first volume was published in April 2023, followed by the second volume in February 2024, with total sales of 400,000 copies. It’s also been praised by critics, winning first place in the Web Manga category of the 2023 Next Manga Awards, and second place in the “best manga for female readers” category of 2024 Kono Manga ga Sugoi!

A large part of the success of “The Guy She Was…” is very simple: It’s an incredibly unique and realistic story, which is deeply associated with music. Yes, the title – “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All” – might suggest some sort of love story beyond gender. But while part of the beginning of the story does have that kind of atmosphere, the central theme lies elsewhere.

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The main characters are two high school girls: Mitsuki Koga and Aya Oosawa. Despite sitting next to each other in class, Mitsuki is “socially awkward,” while Aya has an outgoing, sunny personality. There’s virtually no communication between the two in school, but their relationship starts to change rapidly via music. If you’ve experienced a first love with music, the first few episodes will surely bring back some of your nostalgic and bittersweet memories. It’s hardly unusual that friendships develop when you hit it off with someone who has the same musical taste. And, in some lucky cases, that kind of bond can definitely open minds that tend to be closed during adolescence.

“I think music always helped me”, says Arai, who, just like the two characters that she created, reached something of a turning point in her mid-teens thanks to music. “As a matter of fact, in my junior high school days, I was more like ‘secretly listening’ to my favorite songs. And it was only after entering a senior high school when I realized you can find somebody who shares or has sympathy with that feeling. And at that moment, I felt happiness, which is reflected in this work, too.”

Beck was the artist that first captured her musical attention. And, in terms of forming her own image of “rock” more clearly, she owes a great deal to Nirvana. “My father was a big fan of Beck and had all of his CDs. That was a big influence on me, so I grew up listening to them probably from my first year of elementary school. Beck is an artist that I’ve really liked throughout my entire life. And in my case, I’m inclined to associate the word of ‘rock’ with Nirvana. I listen to music without much knowledge of genres. It’s like ‘I like it because I like it.’ But, as it turned out, I was deeply impressed by so-called ‘grunge’ bands from the ’90s, so I was particularly into the artists related to them.”

The manga received its own soundtrack album, released this May. It’s quite exceptional for a series that started only a few years ago. As for this turn of events, Arai is honestly pleased: “I’d say it’s incredible – really like a dream – to have a chance to be involved with compiling a tracklist for a proper CD release, and I’m so happy about it.” And she adds: “One of the reasons why I create manga is because I’d like people to empathize with my favorite things. I think it’s similar to one of those emotional moments you have when you tell someone about a song you like and they like it too.”

The soundtrack opens with “Heart Shaped Box” by Nirvana. You can hardly call it a flamboyant first track, but this sort of selection vividly shows Arai’s love for music. Needless to say, the album’s tracklist, billed as being “curated by Mitsuki and Aya,” was carefully constructed by the author herself. Unsurprisingly, putting together a compilation album comes with “complicated business matters,” which often make it impossible to choose some of your favorite recordings for contractual reasons. Nonetheless, the collection features artists like Beck, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bon Jovi, and even the Killers. You might utter a cry of surprise, “Wow, all these bands appear on the same album?!” But they are selected based on the storyline of the manga. Some of the tracks were, for example, included in a playlist that Aya sent to Mitsuki. That’s a far cry from how folks used to share music, but Mitsuki and Aya are modern characters. Although there’s a sort of nostalgia at its core, this story depicts the present moment.

“Luckily, this manga has been read by people from many different countries, and I hope it would be adapted for a film some day, and would be as widely appreciated as my favorite songs. I think there’s something in common in the minds of music fans from all over the world, and if I can get a lot more people to sympathize with it in that sense, I will be truly satisfied.”

This is what Arai aspires for the future. No one still knows when and how it will come to fruition, but “The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All” is not only being cherished as an important story for a certain type of person, but also as a lovely communication tool in and of itself. Probably somewhere today, it’s already brought someone closer to someone else.

Listen to the The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All soundtrack on Spotify or Apple Music.