Yuri web comic-turned-manga The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy at All is getting an anime adaptation in January 2027, as Crunchyroll announced at Anime Expo. Among its sterling credits is an endorsement from Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters singer Dave Grohl, who reckons late Nirvana singer, songwriter, and guitarist Kurt Cobain would’ve loved the series.
Nirvana’s song Breed will serve as the opening theme of the anime, which stars two Japanese high school girls who frequent a music shop and share a love of Western rock music. One ends up infatuated with the other without realizing that the rock-savvy boy of her daydreams is in fact her female classmate in a punk getup, and the two unavoidably grow closer. The series’ neon green motif, a sharp highlight in a sea of black-and-white panels, has earned it the nickname “green yuri” among English fans, with yuri referring to women-loving-women stories (complementing yaoi, men-loving-men).
Though many mainstream rock and pop bands have been featured in countless anime openings and endings, Nirvana is an extraordinarily rare type of license for an anime studio to pursue, let alone secure. Aniplex, parent to CloverWorks, the animation studio which will adapt the series, released a short interview with Grohl, conducted by series author Sumiko Arai, who discussed the song Breed and his thoughts on the series.
“Breed was always my favorite song to open a show with,” he recalls. “We did it a few times, I think. The last time that Nirvana performed together with me and [Krist Novoselic] and Pat Smear, we performed for this benefit concert in Los Angeles after the fires. And we were trying to think of what song to begin with … I think it’s a great way to start the show.”
With a physical volume of The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy at All in his hands, Grohl says, “I think that Kurt definitely would’ve loved this.” Arai, or perhaps an interpreter, seems to ask, “Really?” in response.
“Oh my god, yeah, of course,” Grohl adds. “This is exactly – it seems like the same message, aesthetic, and the vibe. It’s cool.” It’s a fair read. After all, Cobain was staunchly supportive of the LGBT community, famously saying, in early print liners of Nirvana’s 1992 album Incesticide, that, “If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us — leave us the fuck alone! Don’t come to our shows and don’t buy our records.”
Reviewing a list of songs that will be used in the anime, Grohl adds, “These are amazing. What? Wow. Oh my god, this is a good playlist. This is incredible. Oh my god, it’s so good, you have really good taste in music.”
The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy at Allwas part of our list of the top 10 manga of 2024. I stand by my thoughts at the time, with the small caveat that the series’ central relationship was a little less clear in early volumes, and look forward to the anime.
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