Someone Hertz
| Someone Hertz | |
 First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Kurage Mizuo | |
| さむわんへるつ (Samuwan Herutsu) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Romantic comedy[1] |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Ei Yamano |
| Published by | Shueisha |
| English publisher | |
| Imprint | Jump Comics |
| Magazine | Weekly Shōnen Jump |
| Original run | September 16, 2025 – present |
| Volumes | 4 |
Someone Hertz (Japanese: さむわんへるつ, Hepburn: Samuwan Herutsu) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ei Yamano. It has been serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump since September 2025. As of August 2026, four volumes have been released. The manga follows the extracurricular activities of two contemporary high school students who are dedicated fans of a late night comedy radio show.
Plot
[edit]Mimei and Kurage listen regularly to the weekly late-night radio show Monday Midnight Talking (Mon-Mid), which features the hosts The Long Hopes, a manzai duo consisting of Osera and Koyama, reading jokes submitted by listeners on air. Mimei, who succeeds at nearly everything he tries, has never had a joke read on air, and idolizes an amateur comic who uses the pen name "Eel Potato" and has a submission read nearly every week. After his friend Kurage confesses to being "Eel Potato", she adds that she will not date anyone who is less funny than her. Is his renewed motivation (and her encouragement) to have his submissions read on-air born out of his frustration, her sense of competition, or from genuine romantic interest?
Characters
[edit]Main characters
[edit]- Mimei Fukumori (梟森未明) / "Owl in the Woods" (「森にふくろう」, Mori ni Fukurō)
- Voiced by: Kazuki Ura (PV and voiced comic)
- A serious, studious second-year student who is at the top of the class academically and athletically, but has a significant deficit of his secret passion, comedy. Since discovering Mon-Mid while studying for high school entrance exams, he has submitted jokes diligently for three years under the pen name "Owl in the Woods", but none of them have been read on the air.
- Kurage Mizuo (水尾海月) / "Eel Potato" (「うなぎポテト」, Unagi Poteto)
- Voiced by: Saku Mizuno (PV and voiced comic)
- Kurage is quick with a pun when speaking with other students and despite assumptions, does not have a boyfriend, vowing that she will not go out with anyone who is less funny than her pen name, "Eel Potato", who has won a minor following through her submissions to Mon-Mid.
Other listeners
[edit]- Natsu Akabane (赤羽ナツ) / "Bat Bahtz-Waru" (「バットばつ悪」, Batto Batsu Aku)
- A 22-year-old entrepreneur who runs a cafe; Natsu expresses some jealousy over Mimei's relationship with Mizuo. She met Mizuo at the previous Listener Koshien, a competition between the top ten submitters, determined by the number of entries read on-air; she uses the pen name "Bat Bahtz-Waru".
- Shuri Ebina (海老奈 シュリ) / "Shrimp Sushi" (「えびのおすし」, Ebi no o Sushi)
- An 18-year-old fan of Mon-Mid who fell just behind Eel Potato in the prior listener Koshien. She is socially awkward, having no one in real life with which to share her love of comedy.
- Torano Karino (狩野 虎乃) / "Iron Man of Cold Chinese Noodles" (「冷やし中華の鉄人」, Hiyashichūka no Tetsujin)
- A 27-year-old advertising agency employee
- Shintaro Shirokuma (城熊 晋太郎) / "Don't Pass Middle Infield" (「抜けないで二遊間」, Nukenai de Niyūkan), later "Don't Leave the Team, Middle Reliever"
- A 19-year-old part-timer and serious baseball fan; he later changes his on-air name, prompting the Long Hopes to ask what is happening to his team.
- (?) / "Eight Guys in a Four-and-a-Half-Mat Room" (「四畳半に8人」, Yojōhan ni 8-ri)
- His identity and age are unknown, as he showed up to a public meeting wearing a paper bag over his head
- Ryuji Kamakiri (鎌桐 竜司) / "Chupet of Love" (「恋のチューペット」, Koi no Chūpetto)
- A 23-year-old researcher. Chupet is a soft drink which was packaged in a tubular polyethylene container, popularly frozen and sold as a freezie until it was discontinued in 2009 due to manufacturing issues.
- Ryusuke Nekota (猫田 良介) / "Super Town Mayor" (「超町長」, Chō Chōchō)
- A 42-year-old employee of the town hall
- Hideto Miyamoto (宮本 英人) / "Hateful Eight" (「ヘイトフルエイト」, Heitofurueito)
- A professional comedian who belongs to the same agency as the Long Hopes
- Mokomo Watanuki / "Do Gummies Count as Snacks"
- A cheerful girl who is a fan of the Long Hopes and regularly submits entries.
- Reiji Takayama / "Noise-Canceling Junkie"
- The childhood friend of Mokomo who has been submitting entries to Mon-Mid solely for his resume, as he wants to work in media. He is rather direct.
Publication
[edit]Written and illustrated by Ei Yamano, the series began serialization in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump on September 16, 2025.[1] As of August 4, 2026, the series' individual chapters have been collected into four tankōbon volumes.[2]
Viz Media and Manga Plus are publishing the series in English simultaneously with its Japanese release.[3]
A collaboration with the late-night radio show All Night Nippon was held to commemorate the release of the first volume.[4]
Volumes
[edit]| No. | Release date | ISBN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 5, 2026[5] | 978-4-08-884815-0 | ||
| ||||
| Mimei is shocked to learn his friend and fellow Mon-Mid fan Kurage is the famed on-air contributor "Eel Potato". She advises him to send in multiple submissions, and his joke is read on-air for the first time. They aim to enter the Listener Kōshien, despite her huge lead. To research the week's prompt, Kurage invites Mimei to karaoke; once again, her submission makes it to air. Because Mimei realizes he needs experience to write better jokes, Kurage takes Mimei to a cafe run by her friend, Natsu Akabane ("Bat Bahtz-Waru"), who promptly puts both to work. Mimei and Kurage shop for radios with their cafe wages and pick a matching set. Later, one of his jokes is read on air, while hers is not. For the Ball Game Festival at school, Mimei competes in soccer and Kurage is drafted onto the basketball team. When he sees her practicing alone, he teaches her while they listen to an old Mon-Mid episode which had three entries read on-air from Eel Potato. To their surprise, the next prompt involves basketball. Kurage's friends ask if she is dating Mimei; he overhears and wonders how he feels. After running into each other at the convenience store, Kurage asks if he has started to hate Mon-Mid, but his glum attitude is from missing out on collaborative merchandise. They visit Natsu together, who gives them some of the sold-out merchandise, and later that night, congratulate each other, as they each had one joke read on-air. | ||||
| 2 | March 4, 2026[6] | 978-4-08-884869-3 | ||
| ||||
| Shuri Ebina, aka "Shrimp Sushi", another Mon-Mid fan, confronts Kurage, but she does not react until Shuri calls Mimei "some random listener". The trio research that week's prompt at an arcade and form an awkward friendship. After Kurage tells Mimei that he can't be funny by being a good kid all the time, they run to the fifth anniversary Mon-Mid event through the rain, which wrinkles their stickers; Kurage does not regret the memories. The Long Hopes mention them on-air as a soaked high school couple they passed who were obviously having fun; Mimei fears Kurage is acting strange because of that call-out, but she is suffering from a cold. He takes her to the nurse's office and walks her home after school. Kurage passes a makeup quiz in math using his mechanical pencil, which she claims absorbed his diligence, so in exchange, she gives Mimei her joke writing pen. Mimei and Kurage submit jokes with postcards due to phone issues; Kurage's joke is read and Mimei's thanks are shared privately among the Mon-Mid staff, who notice the postcards came from the same neighborhood. Kurage and Mimei return to Natsu's cafe and buy a disposable camera to research the latest topic; Natsu asks Mimei to photograph Kurage while they find the Mon-Mid mascot Midran at the neighboring shopping mall. Kurage takes a picture of Mimei for the last frame. With only four points, Mimei fails to qualify for the Listener Kōshien. After school, they run into Shuri, who drops her Line contact information and an Omamori amulet, inspiring Kurage to visit the same shrine, where Mimei prays for her success, receiving "small luck". She prays that he will join her in the next competition next time and pulls "expected person", auguring well. For the Listener Kōshien semi-final, ten contestants each submit ten entries and the three with the most read on-air advance to the finals. Kurage, buoyed by Mimei's cheering, gets one more than Shuri, advancing to the final with "Hateful Eight" and last year's winner, "Battle Chimney". Kurage asks Mimei to listen to the finals together; when he is surprised she is being shut out, he hurries over to encourage her. | ||||
| 3 | May 1, 2026[7] | 978-4-08-885037-5 | ||
| ||||
| Although she staged a remarkable comeback, Kurage finishes second to "Battle Chimney". She calmly asks Mimei to push her on the swings, where he initially does not see her crying and when he does, he comforts her by offering some tissues. He vows to compete as her peer, and the next day, she says the next Listener Koshien has started. Mimei picks up some products used by the Long Hopes; at school, he panics when he sees Kurage has matching items, fearing he is being too forward; she says she noticed and wants more matching things. To research the next prompt, Kurage studies "all-too-perfect" Mimei as he goes through a typical day, admiring his perspicacity. They each have an entry read that night on Mon-Mid. Mimei researches a prompt for his friend Nakatani by shopping for a present for a girl. At the mall, he runs into Kurage, who invites him to a meetup for Mon-Mid Listener Koshien contestants. Kurage misses the start of the meetup to make up a math test; in her absence, Mimei's awkwardness evaporates after introducing himself as "Eel Potato"'s disciple. After Kurage shows up late, Mimei runs an errand for Natsu. Outside, he meets "Hateful Eight", a professional comedian who describes himself as "not funny at all", recognizing the same characteristics in Mimei and encouraging him to keep working to beat "Eel Potato". Walking home together, Kurage tells Mimei that right now she is the only one who knows how funny he is. Mimei hits a submission slump as the summer school break starts; walking home, they duck into a Saizeriya restaurant for lunch to wait out a sudden rainstorm. After their meal, they are stunned by a vivid rainbow and Mimei nervously proposes weekly listening meetings together, to which Kurage readily agrees. The next week, they attend the Tozai Radio Festival and run into a fellow Mon-Mid Listener Koshien contestant Torano Karino, who is running an event using Midran, the Mon-Mid mascot, to sell a new drink. Kurage steps in to portray Chef Midran. She slips coming off the stage, but Mimei catches her by the hands; is her face flushed only from the heat of the costume? Torano assumes that Kurage is Mimei's girlfriend, which he quickly denies. As research for the next topic, Mimei asks Kurage to visit a summer festival together, then frets he is being too forward. When he arrives, wearing a yukata, she is already working at Natsu's yakisoba stall alongside Natsu's grandpa. Natsu loans Kurage an old yukata and Mimei proves to be an able paper net fisherman while Kurage's efforts go awry. When they try to watch the fireworks with Natsu, they are separated by the crowd. | ||||
| 4 | August 4, 2026[2] | 978-4-08-885135-8 | ||
| ||||
| While separated, Kurage helps a lost dog; the Mon-Mid episode helps them reconnect at the Baby Castella stand, where they enjoy the fireworks. Kurage suggests they can repair Mimei's sandal at her home. Outside her building, Kurage patches up Mimei's scrapes and applies a bandage with a handwritten message of encouragement, which he finds while writing submissions. She continues to drop hints about her interest, as she filed their selfie with Midran in her "folder of important stuff". They each have one submission read the following Monday. Mimei forces Kurage to finish her homework at Cafe Akabane, where they run into a new part-timer: Shuri, who is surprisingly tied with Mimei at three points and calls Mimei a rival; after Shuri's shift, she confesses she planned to stop submitting and study for college entrance exams, but Kurage's effort inspired her to keep competing. Kurage reassures Mimei that he has earned his rival status. Mon-Mid celebrates its two-year anniversary with a special episode featuring trivia questions mocking Osera. Although Mimei knows most of the answers, he hesitates; he memorized one answer because he listened to that episode with Kurage. The pair join morning neighborhood radio calisthenics for a week to research the current topic; reluctant and arrhythmic at first, Kurage gradually improves. Mimei oversleeps and misses the last day, but Kurage gives him a personal exercise session and "stamps" his palm (as an ersatz attendance card) with her finger; the physical contact results in mutual blushes. Outside the Mon-Mid live event, Mimei and Kurage help a middle schooler find a lost ticket, making them slightly late to get in; the Long Hopes offer a personal, friendly greeting, raising their spirits. Mimei, surprised by the size of the crowd, confides to Kurage that he was depressed while studying for high school entrance exams, and Mon-Mid helped him realize he was not alone; Kurage says the show was always this popular, even if only a handful regularly submit entries, and reassures him that she is also present. Kurage and Mimei are seated next to another high school pair: Mokomo ("Do Gummies Count as Snacks") and Rei ("Noise-Canceling Junkie"). During the show, the Long Hopes read ten listener entries; both Kurage and Rei are included. Rei pointedly asks Mimei if he would keep listening after the Listener Koshien, and Mimei replies that only those with a weak attachment to the show would do so. Kurage admires his cool response and reminds Mimei about the Rookie Round, which is a Listener Koshien limited to listeners with less than five points; he vows to win. To help Mimei, Kurage proposes they do all the potential summer activities in a single day at a dude ranch where Natsu is running an onsite cafe, catching a ride with her. On the way there, Natsu is dismayed to hear all the times Mimei and Kurage have hung out together, and Mimei is surprised to hear Natsu call their outings dates. Kurage leads him through a series of fun activities, including wading in a river, gobbling soft serve, sliding down a hill, feeding goats, and wandering through a field of tall sunflowers, advising him to abandon any sense of shame that would keep him from enjoying them. He asks why funny people are cool even when doing uncool things, and she replies that anyone who gives their all is inherently cool; she approves of his effort that day, calling him "properly silly". She volunteers to grab his lost hat, leading to another physical encounter. The exhausted couple fall asleep on the way home, leaning in toward each other, and Natsu, who won the rookie round four years ago, wishes Mimei good luck reluctantly. As part of her summer homework, Kurage writes her favorite food (gyoza) in calligraphy at Natsu's cafe, where they meet up with Mokomo and Rei before the rookie round starts. The four are drafted into searching for a lost parrot who belongs to a fellow Mon-Mid fan. Mokomo tells Kurage that Rei helped write her entries to win the exclusive keychains. Rei tells Mimei he wants to make Mokomo see him as a romantic prospect instead of just a friend; he recognizes the same effort in Mimei. As the rookie round starts, Kurage realizes that should Mimei win, he will be awarded five points, moving into a tie with her. | ||||
| 5 | October 2, 2026[8] | 978-4-08-885203-4 | ||
Chapters not yet in tankōbon format
[edit]These chapters have yet to be published in a tankōbon volume.
- "Mimei Fukumori's Radio Days, Part 1" (梟森未明のラジオデイズ①, Fukurō Mori Mimei no Rajiodeizu 1)
- "Mimei Fukumori's Radio Days, Part 2" (梟森未明のラジオデイズ②, Fukurō Mori Mimei no Rajiodeizu 2)
- "Beet Red" (真っ赤, Makka)
- "Watch This" (見てなね, Mite na ne)
- "On A Roll" (調子のいい日, Chōshinoī-bi)
- "A Fight with Your Belt" (おどれとの戦い, O Dore to Notatakai)
- "It's Kurageeee" (くらげや〜〜♡, Kurage ya 〜〜♡)
- "Whatta Mess" (えらいこっちゃ, Erai Kotcha)
- "Evolving Each Day" (進化する日々, Shinka Suru Hibi)
- "The Phantom of Minami Town" (南町の怪異, Minami-machi no Kaii)
- "Might Be Terrible!" (まずいかも!, Mazui Kamo)
- "The Night Before" (前夜, Zenya)
Reception
[edit]Kittun Nozomi of Real Sound felt that the comedy was more relaxed than Akane-banashi and Beshari-Gurashi, two other comedy manga published in Weekly Shōnen Jump. They also liked the focus on the late-night radio subculture and the story's setting.[9] Radio personality Hikaru Ijūin discussed the manga during an episode of his show.[10]
The pre-orders for the first volume sold out on Amazon Japan.[3] By May 2026, the series had 300,000 copies in circulation.[11] By August 2026, the series had 500,000 copies in circulation between its print and digital editions.[12]
The series has been nominated for the twelfth Next Manga Award in 2026 in the print category.[13]
References
[edit]- 1 2 リスナー仲間でライバル、深夜ラジオでつながる男女の青春ラブコメがジャンプで [A youthful romantic comedy about a boy and girl who are fellow listeners and rivals, connected through late-night radio, is being published in Jump]. Comic Natalie (in Japanese). Natasha, Inc. September 16, 2025. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
- 1 2 さむわんへるつ 4 (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
- 1 2 Srivastava, Tulisha (December 29, 2025). "Shonen Jump's Latest Breakout Series Is Already Selling Out Its Debut Volume". ComicBook.com. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
- ↑ 青春ラジオラブコメ「さむわんへるつ」オールナイトニッポンとコラボ、1巻は本日発売. Comic Natalie (in Japanese). Natasha, Inc. January 5, 2026. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
- ↑ さむわんへるつ 1 (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved November 19, 2025.
- ↑ さむわんへるつ 2 (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved January 19, 2026.
- ↑ さむわんへるつ 3 (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved March 18, 2026.
- ↑ さむわんへるつ 5 (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved August 18, 2026.
- ↑ Nozomi, Kittun (September 28, 2025). 少年ジャンプがラブコメ激戦区に！？ 深夜ラジオのハガキ職人×ジト目ヒロインの異色作が起こす天変地異. Real Sound. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
- ↑ 伊集院光、ラジオ番組の『はがき職人』に持論 リスペクトを持って「理解しないほうがいい…」. Sirabee (in Japanese). November 14, 2025. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
- ↑ 『さむわんへるつ』累計30万部突破! 『呪術廻戦』作者のお祝いイラスト公開. Oricon News (in Japanese). May 1, 2026. Retrieved June 8, 2026.
- ↑ 「さむわんへるつ」最新4巻で累計50万部突破、秋本治も推薦「毎週いやされてます」. Comic Natalie (in Japanese). Natasha, Inc. August 3, 2026. Retrieved August 3, 2026.
- ↑ 【次にくるマンガ大賞2026】、ノミネート作品発表 6/26よりユーザー投票開始. Billboard Japan (in Japanese). June 26, 2026. Retrieved June 26, 2026.
External links
[edit]- Official website at Weekly Shōnen Jump (in Japanese)
- Someone Hertz at Anime News Network's encyclopedia