CloverWorks' anime adaptation of The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All will premiere in January 2027 on Crunchyroll with Nirvana's Breed as its opening theme.
The anime adaptation of The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All widely known among fans as "Green Yuri" will premiere in January 2027 with Nirvana's "Breed" as its opening theme. CloverWorks unveiled the details at Crunchyroll's Anime Expo 2026 panel on July 3, releasing an English-subtitled teaser trailer alongside the cast and staff announcement.
Director Masashi Ishihama leads the production at CloverWorks, joined by series composer Rino Yamazaki and character designer Kanna Hirayama. Akari Kitō voices lead character Aya Ōsawa, while Mariya Ise takes on the role of Mitsuki Koga.
The story follows Aya, a fashionable high schooler who develops feelings for a cool employee at a local CD shop, unaware that the person she admires is actually her female classmate Mitsuki in disguise. What begins as a case of mistaken identity becomes a tender exploration of self-expression, music fandom, and first love. Sumiko Arai's original manga first went viral on Twitter/X in April 2022 before being serialized on pixiv Comic from April 2023. Kadokawa Shoten publishes the series in Japan, and Yen Press holds the English license, with volume three released in December 2025.
The selection of "Breed" is far from a random licensing play Nirvana's music is threaded into the manga's identity from its opening pages. Mitsuki, the series' androgynous love interest, is introduced wearing a Nirvana hoodie, and the story's visual language draws heavily from '90s grunge culture and the aesthetic of independent record shops. "Breed" originally appeared on Nirvana's landmark 1991 album Nevermind and was known as one of the band's most frenetic live tracks.
Dave Grohl, Nirvana's former drummer and Foo Fighters frontman, personally endorsed the anime's use of the song. "I think that Kurt definitely would've loved this," Grohl said of the manga. "It seems like the same message, aesthetic, and the vibe it's cool." Grohl also told manga creator Sumiko Arai that "Breed" was one of his favorite songs to open a live set with, calling it a natural fit to kick off each episode of the anime.
The Anime Expo reveal generated an outsized reaction online. Clips of the panel announcement spread rapidly across social media platforms, with the unlikely pairing of a yuri romance anime and a Nirvana opening theme capturing attention well beyond the typical anime audience. Music fans, LGBTQ+ communities, and anime viewers all converged in the trending conversation, making the announcement one of the most widely discussed reveals from the entire Anime Expo 2026 weekend.
Arai's manga has earned major critical recognition in Japan. It ranked number two on the 23rd Da Vinci "Book of the Year" list and placed second for top manga for female readers in the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! 2024 rankings. That double placement across both a mainstream literary list and an otaku-focused ranking signals the kind of cross-demographic appeal that makes a property attractive for a high-profile adaptation.
CloverWorks brings a strong track record to the project. The studio previously produced Bocchi the Rock! and My Dress-Up Darling, both of which transformed well-regarded manga into culturally resonant anime with distinctive visual identities. Expectations for the adaptation's production quality are correspondingly high.
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All will stream on Crunchyroll when it premieres in January 2027. With a critically lauded manga, a rock-history-making opening theme backed by Dave Grohl's personal stamp of approval, and a studio known for elevating its source material, the series is positioned as one of the most distinctive entries on the winter 2027 anime calendar.
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