Shogo Sugitani’s Formula Girl Manga Wraps Its First Part

Shogo Sugitani brought the first part of the manga Formula Girl to a close on Wednesday. The chapter went up as an early preview on Shogakukan’s Manga ONE platform, with wider public access following on October 22.

Formula Girl is a fairly recent series, having launched on Manga ONE back on May 7, and its second collected volume reached shelves in Japan on October 10.

Sugitani may be better known under the pen name Ningen Plamo, which translates to Human Plastic Model. Under that name, the creator began posting Pompo: The Cinéphile on pixiv in 2017, where strong word of mouth helped it pass half a million views and earn a Manga Taisho nomination.

That love of film carried into a spinoff, Fran: The Cinéphile, and eventually an anime film adaptation of Pompo that opened in 2021. Directed by Takayuki Hirao at studio CLAP, the movie screened internationally, including a North American debut at Montreal’s Fantasia festival and a wider US release through GKIDS.

My take: It is always interesting to follow a creator known for one beloved work into something new. The end of a first part usually means bigger things are coming, so I am curious where Formula Girl heads next.