Girl Meets Rock!

Heartbreak

Chihiro Hatono (鳩野 ちひろ, Hatono Chihiro)

A 15-year-old first year high school student who is a self-described introvert. After her parents divorced, she moved from Kawasaki to Osaka Prefecture for her first year of middle school. Despite being a complete beginner on guitar, she borrows money from her mother to buy a red Fender Telecaster. She has dreamed of being the guitarist and vocalist in a rock band since she was a child, but has suppressed the latter ever since her voice was made fun of in middle school. As the story progresses, she develops a crush on Mizuo. She is impressed by his guitar skills, and they interact regularly in everyday life.

Rin Koyama (幸山 厘, Kōyama Rin)

A tall first year student with short hair. She is a bassist who asks Hatono, whom she calls "Hato-chan" (はとちゃん), to form a band, La Cittadella (and later Heartbreak after their initial disbandment). After secretly watching her sing, Rin becomes obsessed with Hatono's vocals, to the point of worshiping her as her "god". She pulls numerous schemes in order to form a new band with the perfect members and Hatono as frontwoman. Although she often looks like the guru of the informal "Hatano cult", Rin shows genuine affection and concern for her and the other members of the group in critical moments. She uses a sunburst Fender Jazz Bass.

Momo Uchida (内田 桃, Uchida Momo)

An outgoing first year student with two braids in her hair. She is a drummer who befriends Hatono, whom she calls "Hattocchi" (はとっち), on their first day of high school. She initially forms a trio named Sound Sleep, but they disband in June when a member quits the club after being dumped by Koki Takami. After hearing Hatono sing at a karaoke session arranged by Rin, Momo joins their band. The other three members elect her to be bandleader.

Ayame Fuji (藤井 彩目, Fuji Ayame)

A guitarist with a wolf cut who is always seen wearing a pink hoodie jacket. She is a former elementary school classmate of Momo. Ayame was the guitarist in the band Protocol until leaving it after being dumped in August by its vocalist Koki Takami. Although she was planning to quit the music club, she agrees to join Hatono's band after seeing her perform solo following her summer training. Her former surname was "Morita". She uses an orange Fender Jazzmaster.

Protocol

Koki Takami (鷹見 項希, Takami Koki)

A skilled guitarist and singer who is popular with girls. He is the vocalist and a guitarist of the band Protocol. Days after breaking up with the bassist of Sound Sleep, Takami begins dating his bandmate Ayame. He breaks up with her a couple months later. He has an older brother who was in a band, but he does not know his current whereabouts. Initially, Takami displays an attitude of rivalry towards the main characters. He uses a blue Fender Telecaster.

Haruichi Mizuo (水尾 春一, Mizuo Haruichi)

The laid-back and unemotional guitarist who replaces Ayame in Protocol. He attended the same middle school as Hatono, and is her co-worker at a Chinese restaurant. Although he begins to notice that Hatono is acting strangely at some point, he still does not realize that she has begun to have feelings for him. He uses a yellow Gibson Les Paul Special.

Ryuya Taguchi (田口 流哉, Taguchi Ryūya)

The bassist of Protocol and Rin's cousin. He is aware of Rin's scheming and manipulations, and went to middle school with Takami. Taguchi is also the support bassist of Friday Nights. He uses a white Fender Jazz Bass

Gen Tono (遠野 元, Tōno Gen)

The bespectacled drummer of Protocol who has a crush on Momo. He is very knowledgeable about the drums, which he has been playing since elementary school, and has disdain for those who do not take their instruments seriously. He is the bandleader of Protocol.

Other characters

Yoichi Tabata (田端 陽一, Tabata Yōichi)

A member of the light music club who is nicknamed "Yonsu" (ヨンス). He is the singer and a guitarist of Hatono's first band, La Cittadella, until quitting the club after being romantically rejected by Rin. However, after he continued to message her, Rin realized she can use Yonsu in her schemes. He rejoins the music club to sing in Yoshida Mart (吉田商店, Yoshida Shōten) after their vocalist quits, and renames the band to Friday Nights (フライデーナイツ, Furaidē Naitsu).

Reiha Tatsumi (巽 玲羽, Tatsumi Reiha)

A member of Shichido High School's light music club that works as a model. She went to middle school with Hatono and Mizuo, where she was briefly the latter's girlfriend. She is nice to Hatono on the surface, but Reiha looks down on her and Hatono can sense it. Hatono envies how bold and unrestrained Reiha is as a performer.

Origins

Wanting to try something new during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kuwahali bought an iPad and started practicing drawing before eventually deciding to try his hand at manga, which he has liked since childhood.^[4][5] Insecure in his skills, his first work was an essay manga about his high school life that he published in serialized form on Twitter.^[5] He then conceived Girl Meets Rock! as he wanted to create fiction with more ups and downs in the story.^[5] Kuwahali's time working as a teacher at a high school in Osaka for over a decade influenced the series; "The students I taught as a teacher were actually striving to win the top prize at the school festival. I want to portray the joy of being passionate about something. I feel like nowadays the spotlight tends to focus on big goals like 'becoming number one in Japan' or 'making a lot of money', so I think this work serves as a counter to that trend."^[6] The light music club setting was chosen because he was the advisor to the one at the school and felt that focusing on a large number of the club members would differentiate it from other works featuring the same setting.^[5][7] He set the story in Osaka because he is familiar with it and also thought readers would enjoy it.^[6]

When asked about the manga's title, the author said he did not give it much thought but that it came from his time as advisor, "It was just the norm for the club to be full of all sorts of people, and for none of them to be particularly talented. I wanted to depict the story of just such an ordinary light music club."^[7] Kuwahali also has a background in music personally, as he formed his first band, which played original songs, during his freshman year of college where he was the bassist.^[7] Although he continued to play in cover bands casually for nearly 20 years, and also plays drums as a hobby, he insists he is not very good.^[7][8]

After publishing the first three chapters on Twitter, Kuwahali began uploading to Jump Rookie!—a part of Shueisha's digital platform Shōnen Jump+—with 22 chapters published from January 7 to September 18, 2023.^[5][9] Believing there was no way he would become a professional manga artist due to his lack of drawing skills, he said it was the response from his gradually increasing readers that motivated him to continue, rather than any personal desire to create.^[5]

Kuwahali said that at first, Girl Meets Rock! was like an essay manga when he started it. But this changed when Hatono became depressed over making mistakes at her first live and picked herself up and started to practice; "I started to feel that Hatono was like the protagonist of a shōnen manga. With that development, I felt like the character's attributes became clear again. The excitement of the work rose, and it felt like it was not as relaxed as it was at the beginning, and it had a rather hot-blooded, sports-spirited element to it."^[4] It was around this point that Kuwahali was approached by an editor at Shōnen Jump+ to have a meeting about turning Girl Meets Rock! into a proper serialized manga.^[4] He was hesitant because of his lack of skills and because he already had a full-time job, but agreed once it was decided that he would focus on writing the story and Tetsuo Ideuchi would be in charge of illustrating it.^[5] The editor chose Ideuchi because his previous work, Yakyū-ba de Itadakimasu, also featured cute girls and everyday scenes.^[8] Additionally, while Ideuchi had no experience in bands, the editor knew he had traveled to various places to do research for his manga, so he thought the artist would be good at absorbing new things and incorporating them into the series.^[8]

Process and characters

When serialization was decided, Kuwahali used the chapters published on Rookie! as a base and reworked their pacing. With an increase in page count from 8 to 19, he said he enjoyed going back and rearranging the storyboards to show parts he previously had to skip.^[5] Kuwahali does not plan the story in advance. Although there are times when he thinks of developments he wants to do in the future, he does not decide on how to get there and just focuses on the immediate developments as he draws the storyboards.^[4] For example, he never thought about having Yonsu return to the club. Knowing that chapter 30 would be the end of the third tankōbon volume, he felt ending on Hatono's discussion with her dad would be weak, thus he brought in an unexpected character with Yonsu.^[4] Kuwahali said the only thing in his writing that had changed since the shift to Shōnen Jump+ was that he now thinks more about adding a hook to the end of each chapter.^[4]

Although he is often told that his characters are realistic, Kuwahali said he is not conscious of that at all when writing, but suggested it might be due to the influence of the essay manga by his two favorite manga artists; Saho Yamamoto and Shigeyuki Fukumitsu.^[4][5] There are no clear models for his characters, and although he thinks they are mixed with the essences of people he has met and characters from other works, the author largely believes he is projecting his own thoughts, personality, and experiences. For example, he embarrassingly admitted that Yonsu's "slightly creepy" way of asking someone out is something he actually did in the past.^[5] The main character of Hatono is largely a projection of Kuwahali himself, and the other characters were created based on their connection to her.^[5] Each one was conceived based on a rough first impression, such as "cheerful" or "cool", and the author then wrote chapters that gave them more dimension. For example, Momo is introduced as a cheerful and energetic girl, but is later shown to have trauma and a complex surrounding love.^[5] Another example is Rin, who began as the "cool" character, but as Kuwahali wrote, he came to want a "powerful" character who can move the story forward and selected her for the role.^[5] Kuwahali suggested the Osakan way of speaking frankly may have influenced the characters.^[6]

The manga features many real-life songs by Japanese rock acts, which Kuwahali chooses from those that he listens to personally.^[4] He noted that although Hatono was initially portrayed as a rather stubborn fan of Japanese rock who made fun of major label bands, he decided this was not a good message to readers. So he consciously selected major bands that Hatono would listen to.^[4] When deciding which song a character will sing, he considers their personality.^[6] When a song appears in the story, he listens to it while drawing the storyboards in order to try and make the flow of the panels match the rhythm of the music.^[7] Kuwahali said the reason there have not been any original songs in the manga yet, is simply because he wants to introduce some of his favorites, but said original songs may appear as it goes on.^[10] He also said Western music might appear in the future.^[7]

Volumes

Chapters not yet in tankōbon format

These chapters have yet to be published in a tankōbon volume.

• 94. "Let's Meet Up" (会いにいく)
• 95. "Let's Light the Fire" (鼓舞する)
• 96. "Let's Shout a Huge Lie" (大嘘を叫ぶ)
• 97. "Let's Stop Holding Back" (わきまえなくなる)
• 98. "Let's Enjoy the Main Attraction" (真打登場する)
• 99. "Let's Watch Mawari Nikaido Run Wild" (二楷堂まわり暴れる)
• 100. "Let's Set Our Sights" (照準を定める)
• 101. "Let's End the Joint Concert" (合同ライブが終わる)
• 102. "Let's Put On a Christmas Concert" (クリスマスライブをする)
• 103. "Let's Celebrate New Year's" (年末年始を過ごす)
• 104. "Let's Start the Third Semester" (3学期が始まる)
• 105. "Let's Watch Evil Rear Its Head" (悪が蠢く)
• 106. "Let's Dig into Rin's Past" (厘の過去を探る)