The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy At All is set to get an anime adaptation on January 8th, 2027. Cloverworks, the studio producing the anime adaptation, has produced popular animes such as “Darling in the Franxx”, season one of “The Promised Neverland”, and “Horimiya.” Masashi Ishihama, the director of “Horimiya” and “Horimiya: The Missing Pieces” under the same studio, will be directing.
On October 8th, 2026, New York City Comic Con played the trailer for the anime. It starts with rock music, and we can hear Aya’s thoughts and her passion for music. Also announced in the trailer were the Japanese voice actors for Aya and Mizuki. Aya is played by Araki Kito, best known for her roles as Nezuko Kamado in Demon Slayer and Nene Yashiro in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun. Mizuki is played by Mariya Ise, best known for her role as Killua Zoldyck in Hunter x Hunter (2011) and in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. The English voice cast has yet to be announced.
The mangaka, Sumiko Arai, originally self-published it as a short story on X (Formerly Known as Twitter) from July 2021 to September 2021. In April 2023, the manga was serialized digitally on Pixiv Comics, its first volume published a year after.Â
The manga is a love story that explores romance, hidden identities, shared music taste, and high school life. Aya Osawa is a fashionable, positive, upbeat girl who dresses in a gayru style and loves Western rock music. Mitsuki Koga is Aya’s classmate who is a reserved and quiet student who sits next to Aya, and she is a rock-loving CD shop employee. Aya develops a crush on a mysterious and stylish employee who is working at her favorite CD store. The mysterious worker is actually Mizuki in disguise, and she is more confident at work because she can express herself by wearing black and having a grunge sense of style. As Aya frequents the CD store, she slowly starts to develop a crush on the store clerk, and she gets his number, not knowing she’s talking to her classmate Mizuki.Â
The opening theme is “Breed” by Nirvana. In an interview, Dave Grohl said, “I think Kurt would have loved this,” referring to his former bandmate and lead singer of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain. Breed as the opening ties into the themes of Western rock, bringing the leading characters together.Â
The upcoming adaptation will premiere on anime-streaming app Crunchyroll. While waiting for the anime to release, you can read the manga online, get it physically, or get it at your local library. The manga is still ongoing, and you can always find more content on Prixiv Comics.Â