Before they were pinponpanpon, the members of the Japanese digicore girl group — Domenatsu, Katherine, and Tokyo-chan — were strangers, each with a dream. At least that’s how a new manga tells it.

To celebrate their debut album pinponism, out October 10, the trio have released a mini graphic novel telling the (almost) true story of how they found each other. The manga is only available for download on their website. But below, the band kindly shared some exclusive pages from the graphic novel for you to read, featuring photos from a recent trip they took to Hawaii, their thoughts on other “pon” out in the world, and a personality breakdown for each of the members.

The cover of pinponism.

pinponism is the group’s official debut album and follows their 2023 EP PinPonPeaceProject. The new record, seven songs of blown-out and cute-ified digicore, arrives after a breakout year for the group that saw them perform stateside at Frost Children’s Frost Fest, Summer Smash, Los Angeles’ Anime Expo, and more.

Courtesy of pinponpanpon

Courtesy of pinponpanpon

Courtesy of pinponpanpon