Masume Yoshimoto, the creator behind Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear, is launching a new manga. The 37th issue of Champion Buzz, the digital supplement to Akita Shoten’s Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine, revealed on Thursday, October 1, 2026, that the new series is titled Kyō wa Kawabe de Sugoshitai, which translates roughly to I Want to Spend the Day at the Riverbank.
The manga will begin in the supplement’s next issue, scheduled for release on November 5, 2026. That gives readers about a month between the announcement and the first chapter.
What the new manga is about
Details are still limited, but the revealed premise centers on a character named Sawakita, who spends his lunchbreaks at the riverbank, away from work and noise. According to the announcement, one day something appears before him. That is the full extent of what has been confirmed so far, and Akita Shoten has not yet detailed the genre, how long the series will run or whether it will be a short-term or open-ended serialization.
The quiet, slice-of-life framing fits Yoshimoto’s established strengths. Kuma Miko built its appeal on slow, small-scale character comedy set in a rural town, so a story about a character retreating to a riverbank for peace and quiet reads as a natural continuation of that sensibility rather than a hard pivot into a new genre.
Yoshimoto’s Kuma Miko background
Yoshimoto launched Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear in Kadokawa’s Monthly Comic Flapper magazine in 2013 and ended it in December 2023, a run of roughly a decade. Kadokawa published the manga’s 20th and final compiled volume in January 2024. In North America, One Peace Books is releasing the series, though its English edition has been slow to catch up with the Japanese run: the eighth volume arrived in 2018.
The manga was also adapted into a television anime that premiered in 2016, with Funimation streaming the series as it aired in Japan. That adaptation gave the franchise a broader international profile than its niche magazine home would normally suggest, and it remains the most likely entry point for anyone who knows Yoshimoto’s name without having read the manga.
Why the Champion Buzz reveal matters
Champion Buzz is a digital-first supplement, and it has become a regular launchpad for new serials under the Weekly Shōnen Champion umbrella. Announcing a title there rather than in the print magazine is a common strategy for building awareness through a low-risk channel before a series potentially graduates to a bigger platform.
For Yoshimoto, the new title is a chance to establish a fresh identity after Kuma Miko, which had become closely identified with its creator over a decade-long run. Starting again in a shorter-format digital supplement also lowers the pressure of a first chapter having to carry a long-term print commitment.
Why it matters for readers
For longtime Kuma Miko readers, this is the first new serialized work from Yoshimoto since that series ended in late 2023, and it arrives with a concrete launch date. For new readers, the November 5 debut is a clean starting point that does not require backstory.
New manga launches from established creators have been a steady theme this month, from the Magilumiere and Ya Boy Kongming! creators teaming up for Boat Girl to Smells Like Green Spirit’s Saburo Nagai launching a new BL manga. We will update this story when the first chapter arrives or if more premise details are confirmed.
Source: Anime News Network, citing the 37th issue of Champion Buzz
Featured image: Champion Buzz promotional art featuring Masume Yoshimoto’s new manga Kyō wa Kawabe de Sugoshitai, via Akita Shoten / Anime News Network.
