Happy new year all! Excited to continue learning and reading with everyone in 2026. The question is, is there interest in continuing to read this manga in 2026?? Poll below and find out!! (For what it’s worth I’ll likely continue reading this series regardless and am happy to host an offshoot!)
I’m 33% leaning toward joining an offshoot, but considering I have volumes two and three, I’d join at least as far as that. Then decide whether to continue from there. (There are plenty of series I really enjoyed only starting from the second or third volume.)
I read chapters 5 through 8 today in bulk as I had been busy. I LOVED this manga!! I’d 100% join an offshoot if we have one. If one doesn’t form, I’ll def be continuing the manga by myself.
I got behind over the holidays and also read chapters 5 - 8 today! And wow they were so good! I feel like things are really picking up quickly. Excited to keep reading!
A laid-back personality is one thing, but standing on the walking side of the escalator just makes Hiroto a jerk. I mean, stopping to take photos of cats when they’re running late is already pretty jerky, but that at least I kinda understand. Getting in other people’s way is just straight-up rude.
Mini rant
Maybe people want to get a three-metre head start. If there’s three metres from the top of the stairs to the nearest door on the train, then three metres could absolutely have made the difference between catching that Mitaka-bound train and missing it. Plus, three metres feels kinda pessimistic anyway - the panel Hiroto and Hideki performing the experiment shows Hiroto on the stairs, which means he’s probably rushing since he has a point he’s trying to make. You’re supposed to be Zen, Hiroto, not a jerk.
(That said, I saw signs in plenty of station on my trip saying “no walking, stand on both sides”… and a lot of the time people half obeyed them… by just standing on the left, and leaving the right completely empty.)
Page 164 final panel, NHK’s のど自慢. The opening theme sounds like this:
what a great book club! I found this one sort of difficult to parse because of the lack of furigana and the font choice, but I loved the overall vibe of the story, the characters, and the relationship between Hiroto and Natsumi.
I kinda envy him though.
I have an perpetual FOMO, so I walk fast. But he enjoys his life to the full.
It was a cute cat, maybe he won’t see one in a week, are you sure that the movie/some minutes at the start is more important?
And the escalator. I didn’t fully get his rant about 渋滞, but I think the amount of people there was too large to form just one line on the escalator. The old man behind him wasn’t rushing at all too. And if I’m really in a hurry and I see that it would be difficult to walk on the escalator, I take the stairs.
She has a point too, of course. They just live in different worlds.
I do love the setup of the both of their lives and personalities (and their contrast). And I’m looking forward to seeing them interact more!! They can fix each otherrr
Work is going to pick up soon, and I’ve already been busy enough that I’m glossing over a LOT of the vocabulary, so I wouldn’t be joining the offshoot. (Also, I also don’t have any of the other volumes!)
Nonetheless, reading this volume has been a great time and a great introduction to different forms of natural Japanese speech. I’m glad to have been here for the club!
Yeah, I think this is what is cool of this setup, they are kinda a bit too far on either direction of going too fast or too slow on life (although I guess it has been working out pretty well for ヒロト so far, getting the house and all lol, but I guess it could spiral out of control eventually)
Okay, I’m officially done the volume! Thanks for reading with us, everyone
What a nice ending to the volume. A little bit of intrigue for the next volume, and then a sweet bonus chapter with some backstory.
I don’t think I was really “ready” to read this manga – I was relying far too much on google translate to help me at least get the gist of what the heck I was looking at. I think I picked up at least SOME of the new vocabulary I saw, but I think I’d have picked up more if the dialogue was more in line with my knowledge.
I still enjoyed it though, and I’m sure I’ll be back to the BBC some time in the future!
I’ve seen the “no walking” signs too, but people definitely don’t always follow them. While I don’t agree with Hiroto’s rant about people rushing too much and I think his experiment was ridiculous, one can legitimately argue that people shouldn’t walk on escalators at all. Escalator accidents and failures have killed people, and walking on an escalator increases the risk of tripping, bumping into someone, getting your shoe stuck in the side, etc. I imagine the no walking signs exist partially to actually reduce these kinds of accidents, and partially for liability prevention.
That being said, if I’m on the walking side of the escalator, I absolutely will walk up it. I’d definitely prefer to slightly increase my accident risk for ten seconds than to piss off potentially dozens of people, lol.
Seems like there’s a decent amount of interest in an offshoot club! I’m super sick at the moment, so I’ll set up an offshoot thread next week. Definitely feel free to get a head start though if anyone is eager to see what happens next. Excited to start volume 2 with you all shortly
