Saburō Nagai has a new series. Shinchosha’s Kurage Bunch magazine announced on Monday that the creator will launch a new boys-love manga titled Iei ga Nai! — translated by the report as “There’s No Deceased Portrait!” — in the magazine on Tuesday.
The launch puts Nagai back in serialisation after the recent success of Smells Like Green Spirit, the manga that first brought his work to a wider international audience. That title has since moved from page to screen, with a live-action adaptation and a follow-up film edition.
Who is Saburō Nagai
Nagai published Smells Like Green Spirit in Fusion Product’s Comic Be magazine from 2011 to 2012, and the series was collected in two compiled book volumes labelled “Side:A” and “Side:B.” A spinoff manga, Shintan Kairō, ran for five volumes. Kodansha USA publishes the original manga in English.
He is not only a boys-love author. SuBLime published Nagai’s Boys, Be Ambitious! — known in Japanese as Shōnen yo, Taishi toka Iroiro Idake — in English in 2013, one of the earlier English releases to carry his name.
The breakout moment, though, was the adaptation wave around Smells Like Green Spirit. The series inspired a live-action drama in September 2024, followed by a compilation film edition in June 2025. For a two-volume manga that finished serialisation more than a decade ago, that is an unusual second life — and it is the kind of revival that tends to open doors for an author’s next project.
What we know about the new manga
The announcement so far is the title, the magazine and the launch day. Kurage Bunch‘s notice, as reported, confirms Iei ga Nai! as a boys-love series and places the launch in the magazine on Tuesday. Details such as the story premise, the cast of characters and any collected-volume plans have not been detailed in the announcement, so there is no synopsis to report yet — and we will not guess at one.
The magazine itself is a useful context clue. Kurage Bunch is a Shinchosha web manga magazine with a broad, adult-leaning line-up, which suggests Iei ga Nai! will be aimed at an older readership than a typical shōjo boys-love launch.
Why it matters
Nagai is arriving at this launch with real momentum behind him. The live-action and film versions of Smells Like Green Spirit put the franchise in front of viewers who never read the original, and a new serialisation is the most direct way to convert that attention into new readers.
The BL market has been one of the more reliably expanding corners of manga publishing in English, and announcements like this one are the pipeline. It also joins a busy week for new serialisations, including Killing Bites writer Shinya Murata’s new ninja isekai manga Shinoblade and other fresh launches across Shogakukan and Kodansha magazines.
Whether Iei ga Nai! stays in Kurage Bunch for the long haul or moves to print collections will become clearer once the first chapters are out. For now, the takeaway is simple: one of the authors behind a recent live-action boys-love hit has a new series running.
Sources: Anime News Network
Featured image: Illustration for Saburō Nagai’s new manga Iei ga Nai!, via Anime News Network.
