Trivia / Manga Time Kirara

• Adored by the Network: This happens when a new Cash-Cow Franchise is born. In the 2000s, it was Hidamari Sketch and K-On!. For the 2010s, it was Is the Order a Rabbit? and Laid-Back Camp, and in the 2020s, the latest has become Bocchi the Rock!.
• Breakthrough Hit: While it was not their first series, Hidamari Sketch was the first to receive an anime adaptation and subsequently became a pioneer of its genre, allowing for future Kirara adaptations to exist and was their flagship series during the 2000s. It is credited as Kirara's first big hit.
• Cash-Cow Franchise:
  • And it has been profitable ever since K-On! became a Sleeper Hit. However, it didn't truly achieve this status until Kirara Fantasia launched and the announcement of Manga Time Kirara Ten, the latter being successful enough to get a rerun in Osaka. In recent years, Laid-Back Camp and Bocchi the Rock! have become this, due to their surprise Sleeper Hit successes.
  • Enough Anime based on Kirara properties has been made that sequels can be predicted: If a series sells at least 5200 Blu Ray copies, it will get an additional season. If it comes close, there will usually be an OVA release. If it falls short, no sequel. As such sales of 5200 Blu Rays is called by fans the "Kirara Line".
• Creator's Oddball:
  • The Demon Girl Next Door runs in Carat, yet its more dramatic, serialized storyline makes it stick out from its contemporaries; it seems like a better fit for the Darker and Edgier Forward brand.
  • After the Gut Punch towards the end of its second volume, Stardust Telepath regularly featured heavily emotional, multi-chapter dramatic arcs more germane to a Forward series like Hanayamata than the lighthearted iyashikei typically found in the mother magazine.
  • School-Live! and Slow Loop can be seen as this to Forward, given the former's explicit First-Episode Twist that leads to the rest of the series, and the latter's more somber undertones present throughout the series' recurring themes of grief and loss.
• Executive Meddling: As mentioned by the authors of Urara Meirocho and Stardust Telepath, Kirara's editors have plenty of control when it comes to the manga that run in their magazines, and they have more interest in reusing certain character archetypes and dynamics that follow a similar formula. An example of how old their meddling is dates back to Hidamari Sketch, where Ume Aoki wanted Hiro to have been revealed to be a Wholesome Crossdresser, but this was rejected by her editors, while a later instance during the development of Stardust Telepath came to light when Rasuko Okuma's pitch for a rather tragic backstory for it's main character (Umika) was rejected by her editors due to it being considered too dark for the magazine's standards.
• Follow the Leader: Comic Cune can be seen as this to Kirara, as both magazines center on female four-panel, Slice of Life mangas with cute art styles and often focus on overlapping themes and storytelling. Unlike Kirara, Cune rarely dips their toes into making anime adaptations, compared to the vast library its rival has.
• Milestone Celebration: Kirara Fantasia released in 2017, 15 years after the debut of Manga Time Kirara and 10 years after their very first anime.
• More Popular Spin-Off: Serves as this to the greater Manga Time family, to the point where it has almost as many sub-magazines as its parent.
• No Dub for You: Many of the anime adaptations of these titles are usually licensed by Sentai Filmworks for the North American market, and it's expected that many of them are often released sub-only. The chances of their manga getting released outside of Japan can also be counted as this.
  • In the cases of Is the Order a Rabbit? and Blend-S, their licenses were given to Sol Press in 2020, but due to going out of business for failing to pay their taxes around the same time, both manga were left with only one volume each translated. To make matters worse, it was only done digitally with no physical prints. This is no longer the case for the former, as it was rescued by Yen Press in 2024.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: There have been plenty of unconfirmed rumors regrading Kirara's future anime throughout the years, including the likes of a new Yuyushiki Original Video Animation, a second season to Kill Me Baby, a fifth season of Hidamari Sketch or a School-Live! animated film.
• Production Posse: It isn't too uncommon to find certain studios and people be involved in more than one of their anime productions. J.C. Staff and Studio Gokumi are notable examples of this, having produced a good handful of their anime.
• Series Hiatus: In terms of their line of original anime adaptations:
  • 18 months between GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class in 2009 and Dream Eater Merry in 2011
  • 15 months between Dropout Idol Fruit Tart in 2020 and Slow Loop in 2022
  • 12 months between the releases of Bocchi the Rock in 2022 and Stardust Telepath in 2023 (and unlike the other examples, no sequel to a previous Kirara anime was released in-between, meaning a year-long drought)
• Sequel Gap: Most Kirara adaptations usually take 3-5 years from their manga debut to become TV shows. The fastest was K-on! in just two years from its 2007 debut in 2009, while Three Leaves, Three Colors had the longest from its 2003 manga release to its 2016 anime premiere.
  • For sequels to anime, the gap can range anywhere from a single year to upwards to half a decade. It really depends on who animates it.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A Kanamemo OVA was planned to follow up the anime, but was cancelled due to its lukewarm sales on home media.
  • As mentioned above, there were rumors of a second season to Kill Me Baby being developed in the late 2010s (including an infamous fake image leak in February 2021), though it seems nothing has come out of it if it was ever actually considered by Kirara or JC. Given the manga is still ongoing, it isn't too unlikely to think it may have been considered.
  • Likewise, rumors of a fifth season to Hidamari Sketch occurred during the mid 2010s and was even reported to be in development by several sites, though it seems it may have been mistaken for the 2013 Series Finale OVA. The unfortunate death of main cast member Miyu Matsuki in late 2015, alongside the declining popularity and infrequent release schedule of the series likely prevented another season if one was ever planned at the time.