百木田家の古書暮らし (Living in the Karakida Family Bookstore) By 冬目 景 (Kei Toume)
Genres: Slice of life, SLOOOOWWWWW BURN, Family, LGBT Themes, Drama, Books
Triggers: mentions of past domestic violence
Read the first chapter for free here!
Background on the artist:
Kei Toume is a great example of a career manga artist who has constantly had work and moderate success, but has never exploded or become a sensation due to the slower-paced nature of their manga. While her earlier manga Kurogane was a violent samurai-tale of revenge, and Lament of the Lamb was a horror manga, recently her work has been more focused on slow, slice of life stories. (btw doing research for this, I want to check out Lament of the Lamb someday!)
You can see the difference in vibe between these manga, can’t you? Kurogane is a much older manga, and Lament of the Lamb is 20 years old now! Toume-sensei is a veteran mangaka, one who used to bounce around to different Kodansha publications, but is now a staple of Grand Jump. The most recent manga from Grand Jump she made that you might have heard of is Sing “Yesterday” for Me, which was made into an anime in 2020.
Now, just because her work hasn’t popped off like some other mangaka does not mean she is unsuccessful by any stretch of the imagination! She has been a staple of Grand Jump, being serialized in it through various manga series. She has won several awards and had an anime adaptation! Being able to keep running in a major magazine like Grand Jump with different manga series with different genres is a really impressive feat, and something that we often take for granted. Think about all of the One-Hit-Wonder mangaka we have heard of constantly get shunted off to less-read magazines as the glory of their heyday falls further into the past. (If anyone is interested for more info on this, lemme know!)
She is no Rumiko Takahashi, but she also isn’t trying to be. She is an artist making her art, and getting paid to make it, and people are reading it! Also, her recent work seems perfect for a drama adaptation, which might raise her profile even more. I think seinen manga by female mangaka are usually worth checking out since they typically have such a different style and focus, and I find myself gravitating more and more to them. If you are interesting in reading more works by female-mangaka (tagging you because this might be up your alley! @MaraVos ), you should check her out!
Manga Summary:
From MangaDex: “The world’s largest collection of used bookstores, Kanda-Jinbōchō. There begins the story of the unforgettable days the three Karakida sisters spend surrounded by the scent of used books when they inherit the used bookstore their grandfather left behind.”
For the first time in highlighting the manga from this magazine, I can confidently say that this manga is COMPLETELY SFW! Its honestly a relief, I was worried that Grand Jump was not the magazine I thought it was! (for those looking for an even more aggressive version of GJ, might I suggest Grand Jump Mecha, which is literally exactly that. It’s not for me though personally)
No, this is a very slow burn slice of life about three sisters (one married and divorced, one recently out of college, and one still in high school) moving into their grandfather’s old used bookstore. It is very very very chill, though still with drama, but the drama is not an explosive-type of drama but rather the drama of things that happened in the past and the feeling of grasping for a place in the world. It is definitely not a stressful read. While it isn’t a full-healing manga, (and thus maybe not exactly what you are looking for @mitrac ), there isn’t really anything overtly bad that happens (except for one fight earlier in the manga, but it resolves positively). This is a slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow burn manga, but it has plenty of wholesome and cute moments as well as a great atmosphere!
Sean’s Thoughts/Should You Read This?:
So, this is the longest series I’ve read in Japanese for this particular project, and boy howdy did I pick a dense one. Some manga I feel are secretly books with lots of pictures, and I think that Karakida (the much faster way to write the book’s name) is one of those. That isn’t the say the art is bad (its nice and atmospheric and is great at showing character moments, in fact its art is what drew me to this manga in the first place!), but rather that the text is DENSE. The daily conversation is pretty easy and snappy, but there was a lot of stuff I didn’t know.
Fortunately they do offer some explanation pages, but these are meant for her Japanese audience, which means there are a lot of words that her readers are assumed to know that I just don’t!
That said, I feel like I improved a lot reading it, and it was definitely worth it as a project! I’ll keep up with the magazine releases now, and I’m looking forward to the next chapter! I got more into it than I thought, kind of like getting sucked into a whirlpool. Also, if you want to catch up, its 4 volumes until you are basically caught up to the magazine!
TLDR:
You should read this if:
- You are interested in Japanese literature/the used book scene
- Slow burn is your kind of burn
- You want a more difficult manga as your next project
- You want to read something by a notable female mangaka, a master of older-style of manga art
- You want something atmospheric
- You want to improve your Japanese with a challenge!
You shouldn’t read this if:
- You need action/people yelling at each other
- You prefer the new wave of digital art as opposed to classic ink drawings
- You are not a semi-confident reader
- I’m serious, this is a really slow burn. Like I would say strap in for a slow burn but this burn is so slow that straps are not necessary for this ride.
- If this burn was a real burn it would take so long to hurt you could literally walk to the hospital