Hit Manga Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Components
• Setup
• Playing the Game
• Ending the Game
• Scoring

Overview

• Players: 3–8
• Playing time: 10–20 minutes
• Age: 8+
• Game design: Yoshida Masanori

Components

The game contains 63 cards:

• 30 reading cards (読み札, yomifuda): the cards the reader reads from; the picture shows a scene with an empty speech bubble.
• 30 grab cards (取り札, torifuda): the cards players try to take; each shows a picture that matches one reading card.
• 3 cancellation cards (打ち切りカード, uchikiri card).

Setup

• Shuffle the reading cards well and place them face down within reach of all players. This is the draw pile (山札, yamafuda).
• Place the cancellation cards face up in a stack beside the draw pile.
• Lay all the grab cards face up on the table, spread out so that none overlap.

Playing the Game

• Decide who will be the first reader (the player who reads the card aloud). Start with the player who loves manga the most.
• The reader draws 1 reading card from the draw pile. Be careful not to let the other players see the picture.
• The reader thinks of a line (セリフ, serifu) to put in the speech bubble of the drawn reading card, and reads it aloud, loud enough for all players to hear. Get into the character and say the line.
• The other players listen to the line and work out which grab card it belongs to. When a player knows, they say "Hai!" and take that card. Seating order does not matter; the fastest player to react takes the card.
• When a player takes a grab card, the reader says whether that card is correct.
  • If correct: the reader shows the reading card to everyone and takes that reading card. The player who was correct takes the grab card they grabbed. Each of these is worth 1 point.
  • If incorrect (otetsuki, おてつき, a misfire): that player has one chance to grab a card. A player who has misfired may not take any more cards for the rest of that turn (that reading).
• If all players have misfired, or if no one knows the card and no one can take it, the reader removes the reading card together with its matching grab card (the grab card showing the same picture) from the game as a pair and returns them to the box. Then the reader takes 1 cancellation card. This card is worth −1 point. (The manual notes: a manga that no one relates to does not become a hit.)
• When someone answers correctly, or when the reader takes a cancellation card, the reader changes. The player to the left of the current reader becomes the next reader.

Ending the Game

Repeat the play steps above until one of the following happens. The game ends at that point:

1. The reading cards and grab cards have run down to the last one (the source does not specify whether this refers to each pile separately or to the pile total).
2. All 3 cancellation cards have come out. It does not matter who holds them; the game ends once all 3 have been drawn.

Scoring

• Each reading card is worth +1 point and each grab card is worth +1 point.
• Each cancellation card is worth −1 point.
• Add up each player's total. The player with the highest total wins.

Ties: the player with fewer cancellation cards wins. If the tie remains, either all tied players share the win, or the tied players hold an ōgiri (大喜利, a comedy caption contest) round with a randomly chosen card, and the player who comes up with the funnier line wins.