The staff for Kadokawa’s Monthly Shonen Ace magazine have announced that the Hajimete no Gal (はじめてのギャル) manga by Ueno Meguru will be going on hiatus due to the creator’s paternity leave. The manga is set to return in the magazine’s September 2026 issue, which will be released in late July 2026.
[https://x.com/shonen_Ace/status/2047575305381130428?s=20]
Due to some misunderstanding of the initial announcement, manga artist Ueno posted on Twitter to clarify that he is a man and on paternity leave, not maternity leave.
[https://x.com/uenotei/status/2048013071491436819?s=20]
Ueno started the romcom manga in November 2015 in Kadokawa’s Monthly Shonen Ace magazine, and Kadokawa published the manga’s first tankoubon volume in May 2016. The manga’s 21st volume was released in January 2026.
The manga follows Junichi “Jun” Hashiba, an uncool high school student who frets about wanting to lose his virginity. To break the status quo, Jun’s friends forced him to confess to his classmate, Yukana Yame. However, things do not go quite as he expected, and he finds himself in uncharted waters with Yame, a trendy and fashion-conscious gal.
The manga was adapated into a TV anime in July 2017. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in Japan under the title My First Girlfriend Is a Gal.
