Jinushi is a Japanese manga artist and writer best known as the creator of the series Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You. The artist began serializing a different work, Rokurei - Tenseishi Rinne Kuyakusho Dairokkanbu Joreika Katsudouki, in Square Enix’s Monthly Big Gangan magazine. While working on that supernatural series, Jinushi received advice from an editor to draw a short story as a creative writing exercise, which led to the creation of Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You. Drawing on a background in customer service sales, Jinushi chose to set the new story in a realistic, mundane environment like a supermarket, in contrast to the supernatural elements of the previous work.

Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You stands as Jinushi’s most prominent work to date. The series began as a webcomic posted on Twitter in March 2022, where its first chapter quickly garnered significant attention. Due to its popularity, it moved to serialization in Square Enix’s Monthly Big Gangan magazine in August of the same year. The series is published in collected tankobon volumes under the Big Gangan Comics imprint, with Square Enix Manga & Books releasing the English version in North America. As of 2025, the series has a growing number of volumes and has been licensed for international release in multiple languages.

The work achieved early industry recognition, winning the 2022 Next Manga Award in the web category. It also appeared on several prestigious annual lists, including a seventh-place ranking in the 2023 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook for male readers, an eighth-place finish in the 16th Manga Taishō, and a top-four placement in the Nationwide Bookstore Employees’ Recommended Comics of 2023. In 2025, an anime television series adaptation was announced, scheduled to premiere in 2026, marking a significant expansion of Jinushi’s original work into a new medium.

Thematically, Jinushi’s storytelling in Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You is characterized by a focus on quiet, slice-of-life narratives with a romantic comedy tone. The story centers on the slow, subtle bond that forms between a weary, middle-aged salaryman and a young supermarket cashier who presents a contrasting dual personality. Jinushi’s artistic identity in the work involves expressive character designs that highlight this duality, using visual cues to distinguish the character’s public-facing persona from her private, more candid self. The series is noted for its grounded humor, authentic dialogue, and emphasis on the emotional significance found in small, everyday moments.