Two Sunday GX Heavyweights, One Crossover
Shogakukan's Monthly Sunday Gene-X magazine dropped two major volumes on the same day: volume 22 of Minoji Kurata's The Apothecary Diaries: Maomao's Notes from the Inner Palace, and volume 9 of Ryūhei Tamura's COSMOS. To mark the occasion, Japanese manga news site Comic Natalie reports that a bookstore fair launched on June 18 with four exclusive collaboration illustration cards featuring characters from both series.
The hook is the artist swap. Kurata, who draws the Sunday GX adaptation of Natsu Hyuuga's Apothecary Diaries light novel, illustrated COSMOS protagonists Rin and Mizumori. Meanwhile, Tamura, the Beelzebub creator behind COSMOS, drew Apothecary Diaries leads Maomao and Jinshi. Customers who purchase any volume from either series at a participating store receive one card per book.
The Cards Themselves
The four cards split into two distinct physical styles. Kurata's illustrations of the COSMOS cast are printed on a washi-textured stock, giving them a traditional Japanese paper feel. Tamura's illustrations of Maomao and Jinshi take the opposite approach with a metallic finish. The contrast fits: The Apothecary Diaries is set in a historical imperial court, while COSMOS is a modern-day sci-fi about alien insurance investigators.
Participating stores are listed on Shogakukan's website. As with most Japanese bookstore fairs, cards are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis and will disappear once stock runs out.
About the Two Series
Fans outside Japan may know The Apothecary Diaries primarily through its anime adaptation, but there are actually two separate manga versions of Hyuuga's light novel. Kurata's Sunday GX version, subtitled Maomao's Notes from the Inner Palace, has been running since 2017 and now sits at 22 volumes. It is a distinct adaptation from the more widely circulated Big Gangan version by Nekokurage, which serves as the basis for the anime.
COSMOS launched in Sunday GX in April 2023 and has gained traction quickly. Tamura's sci-fi series follows Kaede Mizumori, a high schooler with an innate ability to detect lies, who gets recruited by a mysterious girl named Rin Homura to investigate extraterrestrial cases. The manga won the 71st Shogakukan Manga Award and has topped 1.4 million copies in circulation.
Looking Ahead
Both series are headed to English-language readers. Viz Media licensed COSMOS for North America, with volume 1 already available as of 2025. Kurata's Apothecary Diaries manga is also licensed by Viz, with the first English volume expected in Fall 2026. The bookstore fair itself is Japan-only, and no international distribution for the collaboration cards has been announced.