Two years after wrapping up one of Shonen Jump’s most celebrated runs, Kohei Horikoshi is heading back to the manga page. His new work, Warawanaideyo Shijima-san (Don’t Laugh, Shijima-san), is a 61-page horror one-shot landing in Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #37/38 on 10 August 2026 — and it is already one of the most anticipated manga releases of the year.
What Is Warawanaideyo Shijima-san?
Officially described by Shonen Jump News as a “boy-meets-girl horror” story, the one-shot centres on two high-school-age characters: a sharp-eyed blonde boy and a smiling black-haired girl who share a battered scooter. The official key visual pairs their deceptively ordinary school-uniform design with a horror close-up that makes clear this is no feel-good romance. Spanning 61 pages with a centre colour spread, the story runs roughly the length of three standard manga chapters — enough room for a complete self-contained narrative.
The title is a play on words: warawanaideyo (笑わないでよ) translates loosely as “don’t laugh” or “don’t smile,” while Shijima could be read as a character name meaning something like “silence” or “stillness.” The tension between the instruction not to laugh and the girl’s unsettling grin in the key visual says plenty about the tone Horikoshi is going for.
Horikoshi’s First New WSJ Manga Since MHA Concluded
My Hero Academia finished its multi-year Weekly Shonen Jump run in 2024, leaving a genuinely enormous gap in the magazine’s lineup. Horikoshi had spoken in interviews about his longstanding interest in horror — a genre that surfaced throughout MHA’s darker arcs — and Warawanaideyo Shijima-san represents that ambition finally reaching the page.
The one-shot arrives while the My Hero Academia 10th anniversary celebrations are still in full swing — a special popup shop opens in Japan on 28 August — making it a memorable return moment for fans who have been waiting to see what Horikoshi does next. Whether Warawanaideyo Shijima-san is a standalone exercise or a proof-of-concept for a longer horror series remains to be seen.
How Singapore Fans Can Read It
Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #37/38 goes on sale in Japan on 10 August 2026. Singapore readers’ best bet is Manga Plus by Shueisha, Shueisha’s free global platform, which has published major WSJ one-shots and new chapters simultaneously with Japan at no cost. Check Manga Plus on 10 August for the one-shot’s availability — no subscription is required to read chapters when they go live.
For collectors who want a physical copy, Japanese import editions of Weekly Shonen Jump typically arrive at local hobby and game retailers in Singapore within a few weeks of the Japan release date, though no confirmed SG distribution has been announced. Keep an eye on our manga coverage for any local retail news as August 10 approaches.
