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jennariaBy request from last week!
Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san - 2018, available on Crunchyroll
Amount watched: 8 episodes of 12
Official description: Honda-san is at war - with business, with out-of-print books, and with people who love manga! Who knew there were so many laughs to be found at the manga counter of a bookstore?! These are the day-to-day happenings that take place at a certain bookstore where the love of manga is abundant.
Weeb rating: 5 out of 10. On the one hand, retail war stories transcend the boundaries of mere countries! On the other hand, certain aspects are maybe more Japanese specifically? And not just in a 'limited edition bookmark is enclosed with this shipment,' but also in a 'hardcore books are next aisle over from regular books' sort of way.
Ass rating: 1 out of 10. I think there's a few images of 'this is the front cover of certain books,' but none of the characters.
Shit rating: 1 out of 10. It doesn't have a 'plot', per se: it's a slice of life that absolutely reads like the anime version of Customers Suck, and a very solid example thereof.
Violence rating: 2 out of 10 - there's occasional examples of the booksellers hitting each other cartoonishly hard and blood spurting, but those are explicitly noted as 'artist's rendering', i.e. not something that literally happens.
Crack rating: 5 out of 10. On the one hand, the main character is literally portrayed as a skeleton selling books - and their co-workers wear bandages, or a paper bag, or a kitsune mask. On the other hand, that's at least as solid a disguising method for real life co-workers as some of the renaming I've seen on Ask A Manager.
Actual opinion: According to Wikipedia, this is based on a manga which is based on the Real Experiences of its author. (Which Wikipedia uses the female pronoun for, but which the anime cast as male - and the manga is listed as just by * Honda, which means nope, no clues there.) Regardless: oh, yeah, I absolutely see it. This is the story of someone who absolutely knows the inner workings of retail. But it doesn't have the hollow feeling of someone who's burnt out and hates their job. Honda likes their co-workers, and respects their boss, and takes pride in finding the right books for people. I'm not sure how much of this is different cultural attitudes toward retail workers (Japanese vs. American), and how much of it is the author's own filter, but it makes this funny and relaxing to watch.
Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san - 2018, available on Crunchyroll
Amount watched: 8 episodes of 12
Official description: Honda-san is at war - with business, with out-of-print books, and with people who love manga! Who knew there were so many laughs to be found at the manga counter of a bookstore?! These are the day-to-day happenings that take place at a certain bookstore where the love of manga is abundant.
Weeb rating: 5 out of 10. On the one hand, retail war stories transcend the boundaries of mere countries! On the other hand, certain aspects are maybe more Japanese specifically? And not just in a 'limited edition bookmark is enclosed with this shipment,' but also in a 'hardcore books are next aisle over from regular books' sort of way.
Ass rating: 1 out of 10. I think there's a few images of 'this is the front cover of certain books,' but none of the characters.
Shit rating: 1 out of 10. It doesn't have a 'plot', per se: it's a slice of life that absolutely reads like the anime version of Customers Suck, and a very solid example thereof.
Violence rating: 2 out of 10 - there's occasional examples of the booksellers hitting each other cartoonishly hard and blood spurting, but those are explicitly noted as 'artist's rendering', i.e. not something that literally happens.
Crack rating: 5 out of 10. On the one hand, the main character is literally portrayed as a skeleton selling books - and their co-workers wear bandages, or a paper bag, or a kitsune mask. On the other hand, that's at least as solid a disguising method for real life co-workers as some of the renaming I've seen on Ask A Manager.
Actual opinion: According to Wikipedia, this is based on a manga which is based on the Real Experiences of its author. (Which Wikipedia uses the female pronoun for, but which the anime cast as male - and the manga is listed as just by * Honda, which means nope, no clues there.) Regardless: oh, yeah, I absolutely see it. This is the story of someone who absolutely knows the inner workings of retail. But it doesn't have the hollow feeling of someone who's burnt out and hates their job. Honda likes their co-workers, and respects their boss, and takes pride in finding the right books for people. I'm not sure how much of this is different cultural attitudes toward retail workers (Japanese vs. American), and how much of it is the author's own filter, but it makes this funny and relaxing to watch.