Medaka Kuroiwa Is Impervious to My Charms (Japanese: 黒岩メダカに私の可愛いが通じない, Hepburn: Kuroiwa Medaka ni Watashi no Kawaii ga Tsūjinai) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ran Kuze. The series began serialization in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine in May 2021, with its chapters collected in 25 tankōbon volumes as of August 2026. The series is licensed in English by Kodansha USA. An anime television series adaptation produced by SynergySP aired from January to March 2025. A second season is set to premiere in January 2027.
Contents
Plot
Mona Kawai, a popular queen bee, is happy that everyone at her high school adores her, except for the new transfer student Medaka Kuroiwa, who looks angry all the time, and will not even look at her. Mona then makes it her mission to make him fall in love with her, but the more she tries, and the more Medaka resists, the more she finds herself falling in love with him. It turns out that Medaka is a monk-in-training who is forbidden by his temple masters from falling in love, but he finds it difficult to resist Mona's advances. Other girls join in either as Mona's rivals or supportive friends, much to Medaka's frustration, as he tries in vain to avoid more romantic advances.
Characters
Medaka Kuroiwa (黒岩 メダカ, Kuroiwa Medaka)
Voiced by: Ryota Iwasaki (Japanese); Austin Tindle (English)
The titular protagonist of the series. Medaka is a second-year high school boy who is a monk-in-training at his family's temple. He is instructed not to fall in love with any girls, so he finds it rather frustrating that these city girls give him so much attention.Vol. 1 At the start of the series, he is the only one in school who does not show any romantic feelings for Mona at all. However, his frustrations only grow more as he realizes he is genuinely in love with her.
Mona Kawai (川井 モナ, Kawai Mona)
Voiced by: Yū Serizawa (Japanese); Megan Shipman (English)
The main heroine of the series. Mona is a beautiful and friendly second-year high school girl who is originally from Osaka Prefecture and had only moved to Tokyo the year prior. She prides herself on being the queen bee of the school, charming all the boys, until she meets Medaka. She then tries to win him over but ends up falling in love with him, although she denies the latter part. She occasionally reverts to her Kansai dialect when flustered. She is easily jealous of other girls who vie for Medaka's attention. Most of the story is told from her perspective.Vol. 1 Issue 2021 No. 29 of Weekly Shonen Magazine has pictures of Enako cosplaying Mona as well as characters in other series.
Tsubomi Haruno (春野 つぼみ, Haruno Tsubomi)
Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese); Lindsay Sheppard (English)
Medaka and Mona's classmate greatly admires Mona, and has a collection of phone photos of her. Mona initially thinks of her as her love rival. After seeing Mona's interacting with Medaka, Tsubomi easily figures out that Mona likes him, and tries to push Mona towards the relationship.Vol. 1
Asahi Shonan (湘南 旭, Shōnan Asahi)
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Ran Kuze, Medaka Kuroiwa Is Impervious to My Charms was originally published as a one-shot in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine on December 23, 2020, before beginning serialization in the same magazine on May 26, 2021. Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on August 17, 2021. As of August 17, 2026, twenty-five volumes have been released.
The series is licensed in English by Kodansha USA; the first English volume was released in digital on March 8, 2022. During their panel at Anime Expo 2022, Kodnasha USA announced that they would begin publishing the manga in print in Q2 2023.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced on May 13, 2024. It is produced by SynergySP and directed by Yoshiaki Okumura, with scripts written by Kazuyuki Fudeyasu, characters designed by Mayumi Watanabe, and music composed by Akiyuki Tateyama. The series aired from January 7 to March 25, 2025, on TV Tokyo and its affiliates. The opening theme song is "Ame Tokimeki Koi Moyō" (雨トキメキ恋模様; lit. 'Heart-Fluttering Rainy Love Pattern') performed by AyaFubuMi (a VTuber sub-unit composed of Hololive talents Nakiri Ayame, Shirakami Fubuki, and Ookami Mio), while the first ending theme song is "Kyunapi" (キュンアピ), performed by Kaori Maeda, and the second ending theme song is "Is this love?", performed by Rikako Aida. Crunchyroll streamed the series.
Following the airing of the final episode, a second season was announced. The staff and cast from the first season are reprising their roles, with Yoriko Tomita replacing Fudeyasu as series scriptwriter. It is set to premiere in January 2027.
Reception
In January 2022, Kodansha reported that the series had over 150,000 copies in circulation. In August 2023, it was announced to have reached 1 million copies in circulation. In September 2026, it was announced that it had surpassed 3 million copies.