Komi Can't Communicate is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tomohito Oda. The manga was first published in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday as a one-shot chapter in September 2015, while the regular series started in May 2016. The series has been licensed for English-language release by Viz Media and the first volume was published in June 2019.
Plot
On her first day attending the elite Itan Private High School, the main setting of the story, Shouko Komi immediately receives an overwhelming surge in popularity due to the unprecedented, stoic beauty and refined elegance her classmates perceive her to possess. However, only Hitohito Tadano, an exceedingly average schoolboy assigned to the seat next to hers, is able to have the opportunity to discover that, behind her bishōjo appearance, Komi has serious issues in communicating with others. Tadano sets out to help Komi on her quest to find 100 friends.
Komi Can't Communicate is written and illustrated by Tomohito Oda. The series was first published in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday as a one-shot chapter on September 16, 2015, while the regular series started on May 18, 2016 in the same magazine. Sixteen tankōbon volumes have been released as of 2020. The first volume was published on September 16, 2016. In November 2018, during their panel at Anime NYC, Viz Media announced that they have licensed the manga. The first English-language volume was released on June 11, 2019. The manga has been licensed in Taiwan by Chingwin Publishing Group in February 2018, and Indonesia by Elex Media Komputindo in October 2019.
Volume list
Reception
As of September 2018, the first ten tankōbon volumes had over 2 million copies in circulation. The series ranked first in a poll conducted by AnimeJapan of "Most Wanted Anime Adaptation". In a review of the first volume from Anime News Network, Rebecca Silverman called the series "a nice little story with humor and a distinct lack of cruelty that doesn't break any new barriers but is definitely fun to read." Faye Hopper considered that it is hard to tell if the humor of the series lies in Komi's "seemingly outlandish, absurd behavior" or if it is a "legitimate depiction of anxiety that we laugh at because we relate." Hopper also called the character of Najimi a "transphobic punchline", criticizing the jokes about their gender fluidity, calling them "extremely tasteless" and that they "undermines the book's message by making light of an already marginalized community." Nevertheless, Hopper stated that the series "succeeds in spite of a potentially noxious premise", pointing out that the other characters are "just as dysfunctional as the eponymous Komi, creating a solid base of compassion and doing a good job not casting her as a weird social outlier."
