Games
Their Beginning: LaLa launches ARG with a real manga connection
The story about a missing up-and-coming mangaka reaches into the current LaLa issue.
The free ARG "Their Beginning" launched on September 24, 2026 as a joint production of Fourth Boundary and the editorial team of the shoujo magazine LaLa. The story takes place directly in the magazine's surroundings and links a fictional up-and-coming mangaka with real published material in the current LaLa issue.
The focus is on the mangaka Seri Serizawa and a LaLa editor named Shinojima. Both initially work toward a publication in LaLa, but in the course of the backstory they drift apart. Serizawa then disappears from public view. Players examine her chat history and reconstruct what happened between the two. The project is freely accessible via the official project page and runs in the browser and through other internet content, without a dedicated app or console.
Fictional manga appears in the real LaLa issue
The connection between game and magazine doesn't stop at the backdrop. The November issue of LaLa, published on September 24, includes a name for the manga "Makuake," which is attributed to Serizawa within the story. This moves part of the ARG directly into the magazine's actual issue.
For the accompanying PV, Saori Hayami voices the character Liz and Nobuhiko Okamoto voices the character Lenny; Ryoko Maekawa provides the narration. A verified official YouTube upload of the PV could not be found at the time of publication, so no video is embedded here.
Fourth Boundary describes its productions as "everyday invasion games," in which real websites, publications and locations become part of the narrative. "Their Beginning" uses this principle for the first time in direct collaboration with LaLa, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2026. Denfaminicogamer publishes the announcement, including details about the project and the LaLa issue, verbatim.
aninew.de has recently also covered other changes in the manga magazine landscape, including the new anthology Soten Le Ciel Azur. In the shoujo field, an anime adaptation of Dengeki Daisy was also announced, set to start in January 2027.