Puniru Is a Cute Slime

Puniru Is a Cute Slime (ぷにるはかわいいスライム) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Maeda-kun. Preceded by a one-shot published in Shogakukan's children's manga magazine Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic in February 2019, the manga started its serialization in Weekly CoroCoro Comic online service in March 2022. Shogakukan has collected its chapters in five tankōbon volumes as of January 2024. The series focuses on the titular character Puniru, a slime girl created by a boy named Kotaro Kawaii during his childhood and wants him to notice her for her cuteness despite him being in love with his high school senior. An anime television series adaptation produced by Toho Animation Studio is set to premiere in October 2024.

Plot
A young boy named Kotaro Kawaii made a slime as part of a science experiment on which it came to life. The slime named Puniru, resembled a penguin and thinks its creator is cute despite him not wanting to admit it. About 7 years has passed as Kotaro is in 2nd year Junior High School and he is having a hard time admitting his feelings of love to his one-year senior Mami Kirara. In that time, Puniru gained a new ability to morph herself into a human girl and knowing him, she wanted her creator to notice him again and her cuteness.

Characters

 * Puniru (ぷにる)


 * Kotaro Kawaii (河合井コタロー)

Manga
Written and illustrated by Maeda-kun, a first one-shot, titled "Cute Puniru Slime" (かわいいぷにるはスライム), was published in Shogakukan's children's manga Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic on February 28, 2019. Puniru Is a Cute Slime started its serialization in Weekly CoroCoro Comic online service on March 15, 2022. Shogakukan has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on July 28, 2022. As of January 26, 2024, five volumes have been released.

Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced on December 13, 2023. It is produced by Toho Animation Studio and directed by Yūshi Ibe, with scripts written by Michiko Yokote, Aya Tanaka providing the character designs and Izumi Mori composing the music. It is set to premiere on TV Tokyo in October 2024.

Reception
The manga placed fourth in Next Manga Awards's Web category in 2022.

The manga was viewed more than 600,000 times on its online website by March 2022; it rose to more than 3.5 million views by May of that same year, and 7 million by July of that same year. The first tankōbon volume had a first-print run of 100,000 copies.