Eito Chida has a new series. The November issue of Square Enix's Gangan Joker announced last Thursday that Hoshibarai no Chidori will start in the next issue, out November 20.
What Hoshibarai no Chidori is about
It is a battle fantasy with two boys at the centre. Chidori wants to shine. Shin believes his own brilliance makes him a hero. Together they take on star spirits, creatures that devour wishes.
Who is Eito Chida
Chida is not a newcomer, but he is not a prolific original-series author either. Most of his known work is adaptation. He drew the manga version of Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki, which ended with the sixth collected volume in April 2021, and Comikey publishes that series in English digitally.
The Tomozaki anime ran twice. The first season premiered in January 2021, with Funimation streaming it as it aired and producing an English dub. A second season followed in January 2024, and Crunchyroll handled a dub for that one. Two OVA episodes were bundled with the third and fourth Blu-ray and DVD volumes in May and June 2021, and Funimation streamed those as well.
Before that, Chida adapted P.A. Works' Hanasaku Iroha, finishing in September 2012. Square Enix shipped the fifth and final volume that December. The anime itself was a 26-episode series that premiered in April 2011, streamed outside Japan by Crunchyroll, and left the service in 2018. NIS America released it on DVD and Blu-ray in two sets in 2013, and also put out the 2013 film Hanasaku Iroha: Home Sweet Home.
Why this launch is worth watching
So Hoshibarai no Chidori is Chida moving into original work after a career built on adaptations, which makes the launch worth watching. Artists who spend years turning someone else's story into panels tend to come out of it with a clean sense of pacing and a good eye for what a page can hold. Whether that produces a story worth following past chapter three is the open question, and the premise is doing a lot of work on its own.
His Tomozaki connection still has legs. The light novel that started it all wrapped with its 12th volume on October 16, which leaves Chida's six-volume manga adaptation as the finished comic version of a finished story. Launching an original series in the same month is decent timing.
Star spirits that eat wishes is a sturdy engine for a battle manga. It gives the leads something to protect, something to lose, and a reason to keep moving. Pairing it with two boys whose rivalry is built on how brightly they burn is a familiar shape too, and familiar shapes are usually the point at the start of a new series.
Gangan Joker is a reasonable home for it. The magazine has run long enough to carry a new battle manga without much fuss, and a November 20 start gets the series on shelves before the new year.
What is still unknown
There is no word yet on an English release, a chapter count, or whether the series will run monthly like the magazine. Square Enix has not announced a collected volume date either, and none of that is unusual for a series that has not published a single chapter.
Source: Anime News Network — Eito Chida Launches New Hoshibarai no Chidori Manga
Featured image: Hoshibarai no Chidori announcement artwork, via Anime News Network.
