The Manzai Comics

Takashi Akimoto has one burning ambition: to form the funniest manzai duo his middle school has ever seen. But every great comedy act needs a partner, and Takashi has already set his sights on one—the oddball classmate Ayumu Seta, a misfit who wants absolutely nothing to do with him. Undeterred, Takashi tracks Ayumu down and corners him, only to blurt out the one phrase his nerves will allow: "Please go out with me!" Ayumu naturally assumes he has just been confessed to by another boy, and he scrambles frantically to reject the advance. Only after the dust settles does the truth emerge—Takashi wasn't asking for romance at all. He was recruiting Ayumu as the straight man in his comedy duo. The misunderstanding, however, does nothing to slow him down. Armed with overwhelming confidence and an aggressively pushy personality, Takashi refuses to take no for an answer. And the harder Ayumu struggles to escape his relentless pursuit, the deeper he finds himself dragged into a whirlwind world of comedic mayhem.