A one-shot manga about rescuing a friend from a romance scam has gone viral on X (formerly Twitter), racking up tens of thousands of views and prompting publisher Big Comics to turn it into an ongoing series just hours after it was posted.
Manga artist Chikyu no Osakana Ponchan (地球のお魚ぽんちゃん), known to fans simply as Ponchan, posted the four-part comic titled “A Story About Saving My Best Friend Who Fell for a Romance Scam” to her X account on July 10, 2026. The story follows the narrator’s fast-paced dash to help a close friend who had been targeted by an online romance scammer, packed with the artist’s trademark absurdist gags and sudden tonal swings, including an oddball detour about pet-related expenses that readers singled out as a highlight.
Later that same day, Big Comics announced on its bigcomics.jp platform that the one-shot would be developed into a full series called “Kuso Romance Syndrome,” part of a one-shot anthology line billed as “Ponchan Theater.” The publisher’s announcement noted the new series follows Ponchan’s earlier viral one-shot “Junko NEVER DIE!!!,” which had previously become a breakout hit for the artist.
Reactions on X praised the manga’s unpredictable pacing and comedic timing, with several commenters saying it recaptured the chaotic energy of “Junko NEVER DIE!!!” One reader wrote that they were reading seriously until the story suddenly swerved into full comedy, while another simply reacted with confusion at the twists. Others zeroed in on specific gags, including a running joke about a cat’s neutering costs and a naturalistic but inappropriate exchange between the friend and the scammer.
Who is Ponchan?
Chikyu no Osakana Ponchan is a Japanese manga artist best known for “Kirio Fan Club” (霧尾ファンクラブ), a series that ran to six volumes plus a spinoff and was adapted into both a live-action drama and an anime. She also currently serializes the webcomic “Saboe Senpai” (サボり先輩) on the comedy site Omocoro. Her one-shot manga posted directly to X have repeatedly gone viral, with “Junko NEVER DIE!!!” and now the romance-scam story both drawing large followings before being picked up for official publication.
