There is something kind of intriguing about the concept at play here. The main character is undeniably a skeleton, at one point his lower jaw drops, literally. And yet, the show doesn’t seem to want to address that or the other staff members walking around who have a variety of interesting helmets, masks, and identities. It just kind of is like the elephant in the room and if you actually ask why it feels like you might lose some kind of game you don’t really understand.
I’m going to be honest, a comedy/slice-of-life has limited appeal to me and literally the skeleton protagonist and the bookstore setting were the only two things that made me curious about this. Fortunately though, watching this episode kind of felt like being in a book store (which I love and I really miss being able to do this on a regular basis given I live in a town without a book shop these days).
The humour works well enough though is the kind of obvious with Honda getting flustered by non-Japanese speaking customers and then a group of girls wanting BL recommendations, though I’m not entirely convinced there’s enough material here for a season even with the 11 minutes episode run time. But what really makes this one a harder sell are the visuals as it all just seems very roughly sketched in.
Still, if you want to catch some fantastic references to anime on the covers of books and in conversations you’ll certainly find plenty there to keep you busy. I’ll probably watch this for a bit but like with all comedy anime there’s a good chance I won’t finish it.
Thanks for reading
Karandi James
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- Episode 1 – Just Your Everyday Bookstore
- Episode 2 – Too Many Books in the Bookstore
- Episode 3 – Sales People and Recommendations
- Episode 4 – We’ve All Been There
- Episode 5 – Overcoming the Trials and Tribulations of the Bookshop
- Episodes 6 + 7 – What Happens When Our Skeleton Bookseller Leaves the Bookshop
- Episode 8 – The People You Meet At The Bookshop
- Episode 9 – Book-lovers Can Relate To The Pain in Honda-San This Week
- Episode 10 – Were You Considering a Job in the Bookstore?
- Episode 11 – Bored at The Bookstore? Just Add Monsters
- Episode 12 – Tis The Season To Be Jolly and Wear Funny Hats
1) There’s references to manga and it’s a comedy, both of which are definitely my wheelhouses, 2) Honda talks about the global nature of manga, at least for this episode, and 3) I have some experience being behind-the-scenes when it comes to bookstores and libraries, so it’s basically tailor-made for me…aside from the fact I had to Google a few things. But that never fazes me – in fact, I’m a fan of shows that send you on quests to figure out references.
I think you may have slightly missed one point of this show though – you don’t ask why he’s a skeleton, /because/ that makes the show funnier when he acts like a skeleton should.
There’s a reason I don’t watch or cover a lot of comedy. I just don’t get it a lot of the time, now the humour in Zombieland Saga and I get along fairly well. With things like this, I just put that aspect to the side and forget about it.
I watched the first episode and loved it! Definitely going to be one of go-to’s this season.
Dropped it at the eyecatch because they were doing nothing… not “nothing with the premise”, but “completely nothing”…
And that is a reasonable view and normally I’d probably do the same. Still skeleton in a book shop, that notion alone earned it at least a second episode from me (okay, apparently I’m easy pleased at the moment).
I know how you feel about losing the game when I was trying to figure out the masks haha. “Is this a reference that I’m missing?”
I know. I wondered if this was some kind of Halloween theme going on, or if the bookstore had some kind of policy or hired supernatural creatures, and then they just never addressed it so I resolved not to ask until they decide to tell me.
I’ve been seeing this show in many places… Maybe I should give a try 🤔
Depends really on your taste. There was nothing in this first episode that would convince me to recommend it but nothing that was completely off-putting either. It was just kind of middle of the road.
I’ve still got to find time to watch this one… :-/
Haha, a skeleton protagonist would be the only reason for me to check this one out too lol 😂😂 But, honestly…I probably won’t watch this one. It does look funny though, have to admit that 😊😊
I’m kind of wondering if this one will find its feet as it goes, or if this episode has set the formula for the season. I’m curious enough to watch a few more episodes even if I know this one might not work for me.
Well, will definitely keep following your posts. I honestly do like the concept, so who knows maybe I will give it a watch at some point 😊
I guess we’ll all see if this is it or if they intend to do something with this. Given its tagged slice of life, this might be it.
Well, I am always up for a comedy slice of life…. Mostly because we can’t exactly say what is going to happen. Even though we knew nothing is going to happen we still stick with it just to see what they are gonna show us…. In my opinion I think that where slice of life gets it’s charm, also that is where most slice of life series fail, so let’s see this has to offer….
I don’t have huge expectations for this one, but with a short run time I’ll stick with it for a little and see.
Yap me too….