Manga

Junai Tokkou Taichou! is a manga that was written and illustrated by Seino Shizuru. It ran in the magazine, BetsuFure, for four years until it ended in 2009. JunToku has a total 13 volumes and two drama cds. In 2010, its sequel and its mangaka's newest work, Junai Tokkou Taichou! Maji!, started and continues where JunToku left off.

Although JunToku officially started in 2005, the story of Chiemi and Hirata was first created and introduced by Seino-sensei during the running of her earlier work, Power!! (Girl Got Game). In Power!!, after fleeing her all-boys school, Ryo Aizawa, the protagonist, gets a job at a construction site, where she meets and befriends headband-wearing Akifumi Hirata. Since Power!! takes place ten years after the events in JunToku, Akifumi Hirata is twenty-seven years old and works as a construction worker to support his wife, who was also his high school sweetheart (Guess who?), and his young son. After learning that Ryo ran away from her life at school, Hirata becomes her emotional support and later encourages her to return to school, helping her realize what is important in life. After Power!!, there is no other work done by Seino-sensei, where Hirata and Chiemi appear as guest stars. The next time they appear is in their own series, which is, of course, Junai Tokkou Taichou!.

Around 2006, Tokyopop got the permission to publish Junai Tokkou Taichou! in English under the title, Love Attack. For three years, Tokyopop published five volumes, but in 2009, had its contract with Kodansha (JunToku's publisher) cancelled before it could publish volume 7. Reason are unknown as to why Kodansha cancelled the contract with Tokyopop, but rumors say the reason that Kodansha cancelled the contract was because they are planning to publish their manga in English and need to regain the publishing-in-English rights. I do know whether or not that rumor is true, so I guess all we can do is wait and see what the reason was. I am just glad that I read the Japanese version of the manga, so this contract problem does not affect me. Unfortuately, it does affect English-readers of JunToku, so I hope that JunToku will continue being published in English.

Credit to Anime News Network for the Tokyopop information