German publisher Dokico announced on Saturday that Ayster will draw the manga adaptation of Inori’s novel Homunculus Tears: Alchemy for the Brokenhearted (Homunculus no Namida: Kietai Kimi e no Renkinjutsu). The manga will be published in German, English and Japanese at the same time, starting in January 2027.
That simultaneous release is the detail worth paying attention to. Dokico is a German company, and putting out a Japanese-language edition alongside its own market is not the usual arrangement for a publisher of its size. It points to a project built for an international audience from day one rather than a title that gets translated later if it sells.
A cancelled adaptation, restarted
Both creators commented on the announcement. Inori said the adaptation had been planned before and fell through, and that the project has since been restructured. “Though the previous plans for it had to be canceled, the project has been restructured and is officially moving forward,” she wrote, adding that she wrote the novel for her teenage self and for readers who have felt the same way. Ayster said she is honored to draw it and wants to bring the leads, Maha and Ruri, to life.
The earlier attempt was real. The announcement notes that a manga adaptation was previously set up with Nata Ōkura and Kadokawa attached, and that version never happened. Inori’s statement about the project being rebuilt confirms that the current manga is a restart, not a continuation of that work.
What Homunculus Tears is about
The story sits on the edge of a war between humans and demons. Maha is a powerful alchemist who fights on the front lines. Her mother, Diriyah, announces that she has created a Homunculus through alchemy, a being that can stand in for human soldiers and end the need for sacrifice. Maha, who has only ever found purpose in battle, greets the news not with relief but with a crisis of identity. The novel’s own pitch describes it as a story about overcoming the despair of never having wanted to be born.
Inori self-published the novel digitally in Japanese in April 2025 and in English in May 2025. Sekai Edition handled Spanish, Dokico handled German, and Kevin Ishizaka translated the English edition. Aonoshimo drew the illustration for the novel.
Who is Inori
Inori is best known for I’m in Love with the Villainess, which gives this announcement a wider frame. That series has a manga adaptation by Aonoshimo running in Ichijinsha’s Comic Yuri Hime since June 2020, with the 12th volume out on April 17. It also has a TV anime that premiered in October 2023 and streamed on Crunchyroll, and Seven Seas Entertainment publishes the manga in English. A sequel novel, Come on and Notice Me Already, launched on January 26 with Hanagata returning as illustrator, and Seven Seas will release it in English in January 2027. A spin-off, She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner, is also available in English.
So the new manga arrives with a built-in readership on the strength of Inori’s name. The trilingual launch and the January 2027 date are locked in, though Dokico has not said how the chapters will be distributed or how many pages the first installment will run. Adaptations of this kind keep arriving, and it fits with the Seijo Seisen light novels getting a manga and Hikari’s manga take on the Ducal Heiress story, both of which we covered recently. Our manga launches, endings and licenses hub keeps the running list.
Source: Anime News Network, citing Dokico’s announcement.
Featured image: Key art for Homunculus Tears: Alchemy for the Brokenhearted, via Anime News Network.
