Manga
The manga that were hits in Japan in the 2020s.
2020S HITS
About
Momo Ayase strikes up an unusual friendship with her school’s UFO fanatic, whom she nicknames “Okarun” because he has a name that is not to be said aloud. While Momo believes in spirits, she thinks aliens are nothing but nonsense. Her new friend, meanwhile, thinks the exact opposite. To settle matters, the two set out to prove each other wrong—Momo to a UFO hotspot and Okarun to a haunted tunnel! What unfolds next is a beautiful story of young love…and oddly horny aliens and spirits?
Character analysis
Momo is confident that spirits are real and aliens are nonsense, and the story wastes no time proving her only half right. Her dare with Okarun, visit a haunted tunnel and a supposed alien site to settle the argument, backfires on both of them, leaving her with real supernatural powers she never asked for. She's loud, quick to fight, and not shy about dragging Okarun into danger with her, but the story increasingly leans on how much she actually looks out for him underneath the bickering.
Okarun is bullied for his obsession with aliens and conspiracy theories, which makes it almost too fitting when he ends up at the center of genuinely supernatural events involving both aliens and ghosts. The encounter that kicks off the story costs him something deeply personal, and his arc afterward is as much about rebuilding his confidence as it is about surviving increasingly chaotic fights. His bond with Momo, built on mutual insults that slowly turn into real trust, is the emotional spine running under the series' louder chaos.
Aira is introduced as the kind of effortlessly popular student other characters assume has an easy life, which the story is quick to complicate. Bringing her into Momo and Okarun's orbit widens the cast beyond just the two leads bickering their way through danger, and gives the series room to explore how differently people carry hidden trouble depending on how they're perceived from the outside.
Jin rounds out the main trio alongside Momo and Okarun, bringing a steadier presence into a story that otherwise runs on constant escalation. Side characters like this often function as the audience's grounding point, someone reacting to the escalating weirdness the way a reasonable person actually would, even while getting pulled deeper into it anyway.
Seiko is introduced in a grounding, family role as Momo's grandmother, but a story this committed to blending the ordinary with the supernatural rarely leaves family members purely on the sidelines. Her presence hints that whatever is happening to Momo might connect to something bigger than one unlucky dare gone wrong.
Status evaluation
The art is widely praised for its detailed, dynamic character work and some of the most striking action sequences in current serialization.
This is a critically acclaimed blend of horror, comedy, romance, and action that is consistently praised for how well those tones work together.
The rapid-fire banter between Momo and Okarun, and the series' willingness to undercut its own tension with jokes, make this genuinely one of the funniest ongoing series.
Real heart sits underneath the chaos, particularly in Momo and Okarun's growing trust in each other.
Genuine horror-tinged imagery is mixed throughout the action and comedy, and it is often played completely straight.
Supernatural battles get intense and visceral at a moderate level, without becoming the series' main focus.
An escalating cast of supernatural elements, factions, and rules adds real complexity to track as the story grows.
This is an ongoing series. The exact current volume count has not been confirmed against a current source and should be treated as approximate.
“A ghost-versus-aliens bet that somehow turns into the funniest, most heartfelt chaos I've read in ages — I did not see that coming.”