hololive’s La+ Darknesss is now a published manga author! As an anime blogger and a Plusmate, I had to write about it.

Shoujo manga magazine Hana to Yume is celebrating its 50th anniversary. As part of the festivities, they published an interview with La+ in their 14th issue of 2024, wherein the holoX leader talks about a variety of topics related to shoujo manga. On top of that, she also got the chance to script a manga, with art by Chitose Shiki. We’ve seen manga about hololive talents, but never an officially published work by one.

The one-shot work is titled The Knight-themed Streamer Who’s My Oshi Is Actually My Male Glasses-Wearing Coworker!? As is implied, it’s about a girl who discovers that her meek coworker is her favorite online personality. It’s a funny and all too fitting topic for a VTuber to be writing about. La+ in many ways has the tastes of both an old man and a young girl, and it manifests in this cute story.

As for the interview, here are some highlights:

  • La+ is a voracious reader. She typically reads 40 volumes of manga and other books every month. Even when she has a busy month, she’ll still read about 20.
  • Despite seeming like someone who would be more into shounen, half of her reading is shoujo manga. She thinks Hana to Yume can appeal to guys and girls alike.
  • What she’s into can change, but recently, she’s been into more conventional shoujo romances.
  • Yazawa Ai is how she got into manga—Nana and Paradise Kiss, especially. Yazawa’s work made her want to become a fashion designer, which she has studied. La+ actually still does fashion design. (In her casual outfit reveal stream, she mentioned designing the entire outfit from head to toe. Previously, she had also mentioned that she’d probably be a designer if she hadn’t joined hololive.) 
  • The title that got her reading Hana to Yume was Ouran High School Host Club. Kyouya (who she refers to as “Kyouya-sama”) is what kickstarted her love of glasses. (Generally, La+ describes herself as being into glasses rather than glasses characters.)
  • After Ouran, the big Hana to Yume titles that drew her in further were Yona of the Dawn and Snow White with the Red Hair.
  • What she looks for in major female characters differs between shounen and shoujo. In the former, she wants girls who are super-talented and extremely cute. In contrast, she prefers very normal and average shoujo heroines.
  • Her favorite currently running Hana to Yume titles are It Takes More than a Pretty Face to Fall in Love and Tamon’s B-Side. 

If you want to just have a digital copy, the easiest way is probably to get a Bookwalker account.