Murai in Love

Murai is a top student in his grade at his high school who is in love with his homeroom teacher, Ayano Tanaka. However, Ms. Tanaka has no interest in him and is secretly an obsessed with Hitotose, her favorite character from the otome game Feudal Era Love Scroll. After Ms. Tanaka rejects him, stating that she has no interest in men with long, black hair, he appears at school the next day with short, blond hair, becoming the spitting image of Hitotose. ==Characters==

; : : :Murai is the top student in his grade at his high school. He is in love with Ms. Tanaka and tries to pursue her at all costs. He is in the school's A class. ; : : :Ms. Tanaka is Murai's homeroom teacher and is nicknamed because of her "steel heart". Secretly, she is an and is obsessed with Hitotose, her favorite character from the game Feudal Era Love Scroll. ; : : :Hitotose is Ms. Tanaka's favorite character from the otome game Feudal Era Love Scroll. ; : : :Kiriyama is Murai's friend who is in the school's art program. He is commonly referred to as . ; : : :Hirai is Murai's friend who is a womanizer. He is in the school's B class. ; : : :Mr. Yamakado is Ms. Tanaka's co-worker. He is known as the "teacher from hell" and has been previously divorced. ; : : :Yuuka is one of Murai's childhood friends along with her twin sister Hitomi. She is a artist under the pseudonym , who also coincidentally happens to be Ms. Tanaka's favorite fan artist. She is in the school's art program. ; : : :Hitomi is one of Murai's childhood friends along with her twin sister Yuuka. She is a cosplayer. She is in the school's B class. ; : : :Yayoi is Murai's childhood friend who has been in love with him for 10 years. She learned self-defense after she was nearly kidnapped as a child and tries to keep a docile demeanor around Murai. ==Media==

Manga Written and illustrated by Junta Shima, Murai in Love was serialized under the Gene Line label of Line Digital Frontier's Line Manga service from June 18, 2018, to June 13, 2022. Media Factory has compiled the chapters into individual volumes. Seven volumes were published from December 2018 to June 2022. A spin-off manga, titled , began serialization on Line Manga on October 23, 2023. The first volume was released on September 13, 2024. Volumes Murai in Love Murai no Koi Gaiden: Great Twin Busters Drama A television drama adaptation was announced in March 2022, starring Hikaru Takahashi. It was directed by Taichi Imura, , and Daisuke Yamamoto, based on a screenplay by Kōhei Kiyasu. Keiko Matsumoto and Hiromi Matsushita of TBS Sparkle served as the producers. The series aired from April 6 to May 25, 2022, on TBS's brand new programming block. The opening theme song is by , while the ending theme song is by . The series began streaming on Viki on April 21, 2023. Episodes Anime An anime adaptation was announced in June 2022. It was produced by J.C.Staff and directed by Yoshinobu Yamakawa, with scripts supervised and written by , and music composed by . While the series streamed worldwide on Disney+ and on Hulu in the United States from September 4 to November 20, 2024, it aired from October 6 to December 22, 2024, on Tokyo MX and other networks. Episodes ==Reception==

In 2019, the series ranked second in the Next Manga Awards in the web manga category. The series' first episode received mixed reviews from Anime News Network's staff during the Fall 2024 season previews. Richard Eisenbeis was critical of the "motion comic" quality animation but praised Yoko Hikasa's performance as Ms. Tanaka, concluding that: "All in all, this isn't ever going to be considered a masterpiece. It looks far too rough for it to ever get any mainstream appeal. However, as a comedy, it did its job. I laughed a lot and will continue watching as long as I continue to do so." Caitlin Moore criticized the "limited animation" for removing the series' comedy potential and felt that Ms. Tanaka's mishaps were "not relatable enough to feel like it's funny because it's true." Rebecca Silverman was also critical of the "choppy and cheap-feeling" presentation and "downright ugly" animation, and was turned off by the "obnoxious characters and storyline". James Beckett found the episode "earnestly pathetic" with its "memorably terrible visuals" and Hikasa's "genuinely charming and energetic performance". Fellow ANN editor Jeremy Tauber reviewed the complete anime series and gave it an overall B grade. While critiquing that the first three episodes felt awkward in places, the humor and direction did not consistently deliver and the "unorthodox nature" will put off regular rom-com viewers, he praised the crude animation and direction for giving the story an "oddball charm", some "slower tender moments" breathing believability into the main couple's chemistry, and the "well-composed" soundtrack, concluding that: "For better or worse, you won't find an anime this season that looks and feels this unique. I'd like to think it's for the better." ==Notes==