Lycoris Recoil: Friends Are Thieves of Time Manga Adaptation Announced
Monthly Comic Flapper will launch a roughly six-month manga adaptation of the six-part Lycoris Recoil anime-short series in its February 2027 issue.
Kadokawa’s Monthly Comic Flapper has announced a manga adaptation of Lycoris Recoil: Friends are thieves of time, the six-part anime-short series about the everyday lives of the Café LycoReco characters. The announcement appeared on the magazine’s official X account, making the manga the latest expansion of the Lycoris Recoil franchise. 1
The adaptation will be drawn by Yasunori Bizen, who also works on the existing Lycoris Recoil manga adaptation. It is scheduled to debut in the magazine’s February 2027 issue and is planned as a short serialization running for roughly six months. Those are the only publication details confirmed in the announcement: there is no announced international licensing plan or release date for English-language editions.
From short anime to manga
Friends are thieves of time began as a six-part series of short episodes focused on the quieter, more domestic side of the Café LycoReco cast. The shorts debuted through Aniplex’s official YouTube channels in April 2025 and were also made available through Crunchyroll, giving the spin-off a route to viewers beyond the original television series. 2
The manga announcement therefore extends a story that was already designed around small character moments rather than a new high-concept storyline. Monthly Comic Flapper’s wording points to a compact run, so readers should not assume this is a replacement for the main manga or a full-length continuation until further details arrive.
What readers can expect
For now, the confirmed news is straightforward: Bizen is returning to the franchise, the adaptation starts in the February 2027 issue of Monthly Comic Flapper, and the planned run is about six months. The announcement does not name a collected-volume schedule, overseas publisher or digital distribution service. 1
The official Lycoris Recoil website continues to host information and promotional material for the wider anime project, including the franchise’s short-movie material, but it has not supplied additional manga-release details in the sources checked for this report. 3
Our opinion
This is a sensible format for Friends are thieves of time. The shorts’ appeal comes from spending time with familiar characters between bigger action beats, and a compact manga run gives Bizen room to add more of that everyday texture without pretending the spin-off needs to become a sprawling sequel. The useful next detail will be whether the manga brings over the shorts’ individual stories or uses the premise as a springboard for new Café LycoReco episodes.