So like, when she gets resurrected, how will the people who knew her be affected? Aki has spent the last 5 years mourning, so when Koharu comes back looking like she hasn't aged a day, how is Aki going to mentally process that? Like, you can't just easily paper over that with memory manipulation. Even if you make her forget about Koharu's death, she's still going to be 6 years younger than Aki by the time she's alive again. Aki, who knows her primarily from being classmates in school. How is that gonna be rationalized? What about Koharu's parents? They had to bury their teenage daughter half a decade ago, but then she'll be back one day looking as if nothing happened? Mourning isn't something people just do privately, it affects major life decisions. So if you retroactively undo Koharu's death, all her loved one's actions since then won't make a whole lot of sense, even if you erase their memory of her dying. Without her death as context their remaining memories will still be nonsensical.
All this kinda makes me suspect that being resurrected is an empty promise that no cupid ever achieves.

The shortest answer is: wait until the story explains it lol
Every chapter so far has introduced or explained a piece of lore, with Chapter 8 showing that Cupids have extremely fast healing and can't die from physical trauma (according to Chiyo). What happens when a Cupid "returns" to their human life will likely only be covered when they meet a new Cupid who's close to filling their Karma Gauge or when one of the Cupids out of the main 4 fills up their gauge.

Short answer: No. The point of inee's promotional push on Twitter is to prove that the manga is worth it for Flapper to 1) continue the story, and 2) put actual effort into the marketing. The latter should've been given to the manga from the beginning, but that's not the case for a lot of mid-tier magazines or publications that are iffy at marketing in general. The former is easiest to prove with undenaibly good sales volume sales, as Flapper would be shooting themselves in the foot by not marketing it more at that poiint.

Something interesting that a JP user on twitter noticed was that the Yuri Navi article was a sponsored one, meaning that inee/Kadokawa paid for it to be uploaded. However, the article says "PR (inee)", instead of what should be "PR (Kadokawa)". The user was questioning why the author was given the responsibility to arrange the PR article when the publisher/editor is supposed to. I don't like peddling conspiracy theories or anything, but all signs during this last month of sudden daily posting and new content from the author (with no retweets from Comic Flapper, though the parent company Kadokawa at least posted the interview article) heavily suggest that it's the author doing everything she can to increase sales while the publisher is more waiting to see the results before investing any more time/money into Love Bullet.

I wonder if her distance from Japan might influence their decision making? Since they apparently help translate chapters into Japanese and for correspondence. Maybe they consider that when deciding what resources are required? Either way, I hope it works out for her and they start putting in more effort.

I was looking into more due to this discussion and inee thanks an editorial company called "Sunplant" in her Afterword in Volume 1. A quick Google search shows that they're an editorial company that connects authors to various publishers. If inee's been working with them, it's possible that she doesn't have an editor at Kadokawa, but an editor at Sunplant and there's not much direct contact between her and Flapper/Kadokawa at all. (This is going a little too deep, but a Twitter account with "Inaba" included, the name of her main editor she also thanks in the afterword, is one of the 4 accounts that the inactive Sunplant Twitter account follows).

That's not necessarily a bad thing since apparently Sunplant was in charge of editing Girls Last Tour which sold great and got an anime, but it would suggest that most of the marketing, promotional stuff, and probably translating was the responsibility of Sunplant and the author until this point. Also considering schwinn's bad experience with her editor at Flapper during Hanamonogatari's run, it could be better that inee's editor might not be from Flapper lol

Please note that there's been no indication of a reprint (which would mean all the volumes sold out) from the author yet, so there's no confirmation that the series is out of the woods yet. We can't celebrate too early, especially after we found out that the publisher did have a bunch of books sitting in their their warehouse following the first out of stock notices on online retailers - they only just connected that stock to the online retailers two days ago.

It'll be important to support the series while the author's doing her promotions on Twitter! So please consider supporting the manga if you've been enjoying the scanlations and want the story to continue! Our Buying Guide is here: https://bit.ly/lovebullet

Has Comic Flapper started to play ball yet with promoting Love Bullet? Or even just retweeted any of the promos from the author? Cuz so far I'm glad for the outpouring of love for the series but feel bitter that it's resulting in these bastards getting paid for work they've refused to do.

Short answer: No. The point of inee's promotional push on Twitter is to prove that the manga is worth it for Flapper to 1) continue the story, and 2) put actual effort into the marketing. The latter should've been given to the manga from the beginning, but that's not the case for a lot of mid-tier magazines or publications that are iffy at marketing in general. The former is easiest to prove with undenaibly good sales volume sales, as Flapper would be shooting themselves in the foot by not marketing it more at that poiint.

Something interesting that a JP user on twitter noticed was that the Yuri Navi article was a sponsored one, meaning that inee/Kadokawa paid for it to be uploaded. However, the article says "PR (inee)", instead of what should be "PR (Kadokawa)". The user was questioning why the author was given the responsibility to arrange the PR article when the publisher/editor is supposed to. I don't like peddling conspiracy theories or anything, but all signs during this last month of sudden daily posting and new content from the author (with no retweets from Comic Flapper, though the parent company Kadokawa at least posted the interview article) heavily suggest that it's the author doing everything she can to increase sales while the publisher is more waiting to see the results before investing any more time/money into Love Bullet.

last edited at Sep 28, 2024 12:04PM

I'm so glad we saved this manga! It would've been a huge loss if it were to be axed... Thank you all for your work to those who aided in promoting and boosting vol. 1's sales!

The author managed to sell enough copies! I’m so happy for her, now we can continue enjoying this great series!

The author sells enough copies, now we can continue enjoying this great series!

Please note that there's been no indication of a reprint (which would mean all the volumes sold out) from the author yet, so there's no confirmation that the series is out of the woods yet. We can't celebrate too early, especially after we found out that the publisher did have a bunch of books sitting in their their warehouse following the first out of stock notices on online retailers - they only just connected that stock to the online retailers two days ago.

It'll be important to support the series while the author's doing her promotions on Twitter! So please consider supporting the manga if you've been enjoying the scanlations and want the story to continue! Our Buying Guide is here: https://bit.ly/lovebullet

last edited at Sep 27, 2024 12:35PM

From Inee's tweets, the main issue seem to be lack of exposure, which thankfully the scanlators rectified.
Pretty shitty on the publisher's part to leave all the marketing to the mangaka, especially a newbie one.

Unfortunately a lot of signs point to this being the case. There weren't any ads given to Love Bullet anywhere vs. the subway flyers and even voice-acted PVs (!) that other Comic Flapper series got for their first volumes. We've seen the Comic Flapper account retweet some of inee's posts, but not to the extent that they religiously retweet some of the other authors' posts/doodles.

The manga is running in the same magazine as Hanamonogatari (the old lady yuri), which got axed a few months before Love Bullet started. The author of that manga revealed after she was axed that her editor from Flapper had basically told her the whole time the manga would fail, and she was never even followed by the official Comic Flapper account. And all that happened even after her first volume went viral and clearly managed to get good sales.

We don't think that the situation was as bad for inee, but her manga clearly wasn't on the list of manga Flapper wanted to push, leading to the current situation. Fortunately it seems like there might be a happy ending for this situation given how much the international fans have stepped up, but for a bunch of other yuri authors/author in general, the opportunity to save their series never came.

last edited at Sep 21, 2024 1:42AM

There's a lot of people I'm seeing saying they're buying the volume that I'm seeing, although almost all in English, not Japanese. I wonder if there's a reason this concept works better for us in the West lol

Probably because Japanese fans already bought their copies without being asked.

It's more likely that Japanese fans don't know about this series yet. A post by inee photographing the spread from Chapter 1 went viral on Japanese twitter earlier this month (75k likes!) and no one knew about the manga until that point. It looks like interest is slowly increasing in Japan while International fans are already making a difference!

Pretty much all of the major Japanese sellers are temporarily out of stock of physical volumes thanks to the influx of international fans purchasing - whether this is because the suppliers are trying to catch up with the sudden demand or because the actual stock is running out, we're not sure yet. So we encourage anyone who wants to support the series right now to buy a digital copy!

So many yuri series in Japan get axed early because publishers aren't willing to invest in promotion or advertising. With dozens of new manga volumes being released every day in Japan, it's often up to the authors/readers to market the stories they believe in. Let's keep up the momentum for LOVE BULLET!!

last edited at Sep 18, 2024 3:13PM

Who doesn't love a wholesome addition to Dynasty's "smell" tag :3

inee recently posted a comic explaining that Volume 1 sales are low and she'll be pumping out content to help promote the series last-minute (including this Twitter extra!). Please check out https://SupportLB.carrd.co for a comprehensive list of socials and https://bit.ly/lovebullet for a direct link to the Buying Guide!

#ReadLoveBullet!!

That's largely true, but Seven Seas does quite a lot of yuri manga, much more than 1% of their sales. There's a decent enough chance that they'd pick it up, especially something like this that went viral last year outside of Japan and is more likely to do better with an international audience. Not to mention, Seven Seas had a very large hand in getting I'm in Love with the Villainess enough notoriety (being the first of anyone to publish the light novels) to get it published in Japan. Regarding genre, this isn't a manga for old women in a josei mag but rather manga about old women for a larger audience.

I'm not sure who published this originally, but it could be slightly more complicated by having Kadokawa or a publisher other than Kodansha being the ones with the license because they have their own English publishers (and Seven Seas works with Kodansha on a lot of YH titles). Basically, just wanted to say that it's more than viable that Seven Seas or Yen Press pick this up, less so that Kadokawa would and next to impossible that Viz would.

Something I think that would be trickier about this is that the story is not shy about being a feminist tale (not unlike All My Darling Daughters). Yoshiko seems to pretty clearly be a 70s-era feminist guiding a woman dealing with intentionally portrayed compulsory heterosexuality. Hmmm, might be worth the josei tag...
(tricky because detractors are kinda nuts and supporters are very critical of representation being perfect)

It'll be a difficult pick-up because the series has already been cancelled at 3 volumes and schwinn wrote about how she got pretty much no support from the magazine or publisher of Hanamonogatari when it was running, despite it getting good sales for at least the first volume. Despite not seeing as high initial sales, Comic Flapper's newer duo male investigator manga got a voice acted PV for its first volume and the official twitter account retweets basically everything the author tweets. Most other authors at least get a follow and some retweets from the Flaper account. Compare that to Hanamongatari, where the author didn't ever get a follow.

There's preferrential treatment and then there's whatever was going on with Flapper/Kadokawa and schwinn. It seems like the publisher just had no hope for the series even from the beginning, so I anticipate it will take a very large number of people to show up and ask for a localization to get one. I think the revived scanlations could definitely rejuvenate that effort, though! Seven Seas has cooled down on their yuri acquisitions lately but they're a good option since they've done Kadokawa works in the past. (+People can continuously bug them on their monthly licensing surveys!)

last edited at Jul 31, 2024 2:20AM

Volume 1 of LOVE BULLET has officially released in Japan!

The author's hinted that she has the whole story planned out, but she's also said that the series will be cancelled if Volume 1 doesn't sell well. We've created a detailed guide for anyone who wants to buy a digital or physical copy of Volume 1 to support the series! The shareable link is: https://bit.ly/lovebullet

We'd appreciate any help we can get! Even sharing the manga on social media (mainly Twitter), can make a difference!

last edited at Jul 28, 2024 7:47PM

And that's a wrap for Volume 1 (':

This is a great time to rec this manga to others now that Koharu's first mission arc is over - please help us spread the word!!

Unless I'm forgetting some exposition from the previous chapters, I think one has to go into this series under the assumption that Love (that is, actual mutual romance) is not a thing that just happens in the organic way we think of it but always by the hand of a cupid.

based on chapter 5, where we see characters being clearly lovestruck without cupid intervention, it follows that love is something that can happen, and the work of a cupid is to ensure it does happen.

The "rules" of Love Bullet's universe are being doled out in in small chunks, and from what we know love must be sparked by Cupids. But whether those feelings last or fade away afterwards is up to each human and their interactions with the person they fall for. The author mentioned in her interview that she made a world "where love is only possible thanks to Cupids". So we can assume that anyone who shows up in already in love has had those feelings triggered by another Cupid's love bullet/bomb in the past, which was stated to be the case for Aoi and Daito in Chapter 0's love triangle.

last edited at Apr 13, 2024 5:39PM

After reading the interview, is there a way to support the story? I would buy a physical copy for sure.

Since the manga's so new and there aren't enough chapters for a volume release yet, the most us international readers can do right now is support inee's twitter/pixiv accounts.

But based on the usual release schedule for monthly manga, Volume 1's physical book will go on sale around a month after Chapter 6 or 7 comes out. Once the volume's available for physical/digital purchase we'll be making a guide on how to do so through the Japanese websites!

last edited at Feb 27, 2024 4:40PM

A translation team in Vietnam said that Chiyo could be the cupid that appeared at the beginning of chapter 0. That means she has been a cupid for several hundred years. Yet she still hasn't been returned to her human life. Which means either a lot of "krama" is needed for that, or she caused so much trouble that all her "krama" was removed.
Edit: 100th comment

We actually think the Cupid in Chapter 0 is Chiyo as well! Though the Western hat + European lapel/suit the men are wearing in the prologue suggest it takes place around the Meiji or Taisho periods (which would be the late 1800s or early 1900s). So she'd be 100+ "years old" but maybe not much older than that.

Also, if you also look closely at the panels with their guns, each of the Cupids have a heart-shaped dial on their guns that are visible when the wings are lifted. Koharu's in Chapter 2 is completely blank/white, but in Chapter 0 (which takes place later in time), her dial is filled in a little bit. This dial might be an indicator of how much "karma" a Cupid has accumulated. Chiyo's dial in the last page of Chapter 3 looks to be around half-full so if it is really is a measure of how much karma's been gained, she's certainly not close to "retiring" (though perhaps by choice?).

It's fun to theory-craft with this story despite it being so early on since it seems like the author has planned out a lot of the lore/mechanics in advance :)

Am I missing something? Why would they need body armor?

Presumably the body armor would protect from love bullets/ammo - the only times in Chapter 0 the Cupids were hit were when body armor was rendered useless (Kanna was shot in the head and there's not much you can do with a grenade at your feet).

In general it looks like more of a personal preference for the Cupids. Chiyo is the least protected + casually dressed in just a flight jacket but is clearly the most competent fighter of the gang, so it could speak to her confidence in winning bouts with other Cupids without needing any protection.

last edited at Dec 9, 2023 10:36PM

Is this manga still continuing? Is it a collection of many one-shots (like each chapter has a different couple) or a long series with 1 couple?

Lead of the scanlating team here, there are only two chapters out so far but the next one begins with a flashback to how the main character Koharu became a cupid, suggesting the series will have an overarching storyline following the team of cupids and not episodic "Lovers of the Month" every chapter. And more importantly, the next chapter has yuri too!

last edited at Dec 1, 2023 12:51AM