Anko Chōchin’s Kuri Hime Ayakashi Yobanashi, the manga adaptation of Hyuganatsu’s novel series of the same name, will end in the next issue of Ichijinsha’s Monthly Comic Zero-Sum on October 28. The announcement came in the magazine’s November issue.
The series is a small one, but the name attached to its source material is not: Hyuganatsu is the author behind The Apothecary Diaries, one of the most prominent light novel and manga franchises of the past few years.
What the manga is about
The story centers on Kinuko, a part-time college lecturer who teaches weaving and Japanese studies and lives in a weaver’s hut on the grounds of a shrine called Tamamayu Shrine. Her living situation is unconventional, but she is well looked after — a wealthy family maintains the shrine, and two children named Shiro and Kuro regularly bring her good food.
Then one day she begins to realize that something supernatural may be living alongside her. The premise places a quiet, everyday life next to a folkloric presence, which is the kind of slow-burn horror-adjacent setup the magazine has long favored.
Publication history
Chōchin launched the manga adaptation in Monthly Comic Zero-Sum in December 2024, so the run will end at just under two years. Ichijinsha published the first collected volume in July 2025 and the second volume on April 30.
The source novel had its own winding path. Hyuganatsu first published the story on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website under the title Otsukaresan Desu, Gokurō Sama, then took it down after MyNavi Publishing released the first print version in November 2016, with illustrations by Munashitsu. Hyuganatsu later reuploaded the original story to Shōsetsuka ni Narō in November 2017 with the publisher’s agreement, and a new volume followed in May 2018.
That history explains why the manga arrived years after the novel: the story moved between a web serialization, a print edition, a takedown and a restored version before the adaptation was ever on the table.
The Apothecary Diaries connection
Hyuganatsu began serializing The Apothecary Diaries (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) on Shōsetsuka ni Narō in October 2011. Shufunotomo started publishing the novels in print with illustrations by Touko Shino in August 2014, and the series has since spawned both a manga and an anime adaptation. That anime’s third season debuts on October 2.
Hyuganatsu is not slowing down elsewhere either. The manga The Failure at God School (Kami-sama Gakkō no Ochikobore), drawn by Modomu Akagawara, is also getting a television anime.
Why it matters
An ending announcement for a two-year manga adaptation is modest news on its own. What makes it interesting is the author’s momentum. As The Apothecary Diaries expands with a new anime season, the rest of Hyuganatsu’s catalogue draws more attention, and a completed adaptation that collects the story in two volumes is an easy entry point.
For readers who prefer finished series over ongoing ones, Kuri Hime Ayakashi Yobanashi now has a clear endpoint: the final chapter on October 28, with two collected volumes available in Japanese. No English license has been announced, so Japanese-language releases are the main route for now.
The ending also joins a run of manga conclusions we have been covering, including My Tiny Senpai closing with its 14th volume in April 2027. For the other side of the coin — new launches — our report on Katsuwo’s new shōgi manga in Dengeki Daioh G covers the debut side of the same publishing cycle.
Source: Anime News Network
Featured image: Kuri Hime Ayakashi Yobanashi manga visual, via Anime News Network.
