Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible

Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible (Japanese: 久保さんは僕を許さない, Hepburn: Kubo-san wa Mobu o Yurusanai, Kubo Won't Give Up The Mob (Is Me)) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nene Yukimori. It was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from October 2019 to March 2023, with its chapters collected in twelve tankōbon volumes. An anime television series adaptation produced by Pine Jam aired from January to June 2023.
High school student Junta Shiraishi is so ordinary and quiet that his classmates and teachers do not notice him at all, as if he were a mob character in a video game, that is, until his female classmate Nagisa Kubo pays attention to him and dares him to do things that would make him stand out.
Introduce in Volume 4 of the manga, Sudo becomes Shiraishi's first male friend of the school after Kubo arranges an improvised conversation between the two of them. Sudo reveals to Shiraishi that he admired his work on the Environmental Committee from the year prior and shortly afterwards expresses his desire to befriend the invisible man. It is later revealed that Sudo was already friends with Tama, Hazuki and Kubo, which eventually allows Shiraishi to properly befriend the gals with Sudo's help. When Sudo eventually learns of Shiraishi's feelings for Kubo and becomes a devoted wingman.
Written and illustrated by Nene Yukimori, Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from October 24, 2019, to March 2, 2023. Shueisha has collected its chapters in twelve tankōbon volumes, released from February 19, 2020, to April 18, 2023. The final volume includes an extra epilogue chapter set after the main story.
The series is simultaneously published in English and Spanish on Shueisha's Manga Plus service and Viz Media's Shonen Jump website. Viz Media licensed the series for print publication in North America.
An anime television series adaptation was announced on May 13, 2022. It is produced by Pine Jam and directed by Kazuomi Koga [ja], with scripts written by Yūya Takahashi [ja], characters designed by Yoshiko Saitō, and music composed by Kujira Yumemi. The series aired from January 10 to June 20, 2023, on AT-X and other networks. The opening theme song is "Dramatic Janakutemo" (ドラマチックじゃなくても, "Even Though it's Not Dramatic") performed by Kana Hanazawa, while the ending theme song is "Kasuka de Tashika" (かすかでたしか) by Dialogue+. At Anime NYC 2022, Sentai Filmworks announced that they licensed the series and is streaming it on Hidive. Medialink licensed the series in Asia-Pacific, with Animax Asia to aired the anime in Southeast Asia.
In 2020, Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible was nominated in the sixth Next Manga Awards and placed 19th out of 50 nominees with 9,306 votes. In 2021, the series was again nominated in the seventh Next Manga Awards and placed 7th of 50 nominees.
The anime adaptation received a mixed reception. Cy Catwell of Anime Feminist, reviewing the first episode, compared the series to Komi Can't Communicate and Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, saying that Kubo loves teasing Junta as a "form of mild bullying/flirting," noted the tender moments, nice simplicity, and called it cute romance between teenagers at its core, but expressed uneasiness with "Junta’s discomfort with Kubo’s actions" and did not recommend the series. In contrast, Nicholas Dupree of Anime News Network had a more positive take, reviewing all twelve episodes. He argued that the series does not challenge genre conventions, but is a "quiet comedy built entirely around the dialogue and chemistry of our two leads," with humble and casual ambitions, calling it "pure fluff," sweet, and funny, approaching the "realm of iyashikei in its most atmospheric moments," praised Shiraishi for becoming more relatable, and said the series was charming, craftful, and a "rewarding experience if you can vibe with its mellow energy."