Marika's Love Meter Malfunction

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rin Komugi. It began serialization online in April 2024. An anime television series adaptation produced by Studio Leo is set to premiere in April 2026.

Plot

Kanata Kitami has feelings for his childhood friend Marika Chitose. Given their contrasts, with Marika being cute and popular, and Kanata being a loner with few friends. One day,he encounters a shooting star and wishes to be able to understand other people better and to make life more like love simulation games. The next day, he wakes up with the ability to see love meters next to other girls. He discovers that Marika's own meter is in the negative, a fact that confuses him when the two meet up later that day and he treats her nicely.

Characters

The protagonist, he has long had feelings for Marika. However, he is too timid to confess. After making a wish to a shooting star on the way home from school, he gains the ability to see love meters next to women, including his mother and the family dog. He discovers that Marika's is broken. He is confused as to why Marika treats him so nicely.

Kanata's childhood friend and a popular student in school. Because she is popular and he is not, he has difficulty confessing to her. She secretly has feelings for Kanata as well, being obsessed to the point of having his picture on her phone and his pictures plastered throughout her room. This leads to her love meter being unable to handle her love for him.

Development

Rin Komugi wanted to write a series featuring characters who are clumsy at expressing their love. They found it challenging to characterize Marika as a character who is seen as a perfect girl by others but actually has flaws, specifically her extreme love for Kanata.

Media

Manga

Komugi launched the series on April 29, 2024, with it being published by Suiseisha on multiple websites under its Trahison label. 17 chapters and volumes have been released as of November 2025, and a printed version will begin publication by Suiseisha under its Suiseisha Comics imprint on April 17, 2026. The series is released in English on the MangaPlaza website.

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was announced on November 20, 2025. The series is produced by Studio Leo and directed by Sumito Sasaki, with Masamitsu ÃÂtake and Scenario Engineering Institute handling series composition and Rena Nasu designing the characters. It is set to premiere on April 6, 2026, on Tokyo MX and BS11 and as part of AnimeFesta. The opening theme song is , performed by Maaya Uchida as her character Marika Chitose. OceanVeil will stream the series. Plus Media Networks Asia has licensed the series in Southeast Asia and will broadcast it on Aniplus Asia.