There may be new books every week, new promotions every month, and rotating work duties every so often, but nothing ever really changes in Honda-san’s bookstore, for better or for worse! There are always strange customers coming in, stocking issues, and plenty of anime and manga-related jokes to make about the whole situation. But Honda-san’s time working at the bookstore is coming to an end — what new things will she have the opportunity to write about now?
As Honda-san freely admits in volume four, this series was only ever planned to be three volumes but with the release of the anime they were asked to do a fourth volume and there just wasn’t much material! She had already left their job at the bookstore by that point (the impression I got was that this was voluntary, that she did want to shift to being a full-time manga-ka, not that she was forced out because she aired some dirty laundry about how a bookstore really operates) and it’s really clear that they just lost steam before the volume was done which makes the series sadly end on a bit of a whimper. There were still plenty of fun sketches in volume four that I’m glad we got to see, like discussions with an e-commerce company or Honda-san’s overseas trip to Taiwan and Malaysia. It’s hard to pick a favorite part of this series but as someone who’s interested in how fans in other countries interact with media (I mean, that has been basically my interest in Skull-faced Bookseller Honda-san from the get-go) these overseas trips are definitely up there as some of my favorites (along with the classic “MUSCLE X MUSCLE” quote which I still think about from time to time). Even in an unfamiliar space, Honda-san always manages to find the humor in the situation, the silly thoughts that everyone has but no one wants to admit.
Yet at the same time, I really was left wishing that the publisher hadn’t gotten “greedy” and allowed the series to end where it was first planned to. You can practically feel Honda-san’s sanity slipping away as the entire back half of volume 4 is assorted illustrations, 4-koma strips, and other bonus material that had come from promoting the first three volumes, it’s not a strong ending to go out on! It honestly made me a bit worried about their future career as a manga-ka but fortunately it seems like they’ve worked on a few series since wrapping up this one, although nothing has gotten even a fan-translation into English as yet (I’m definitely curious to see how they handle non-slice-of-life comedies since I’ve seen some creators be unable to make that thematic shift in their stories).
But even with a weaker ending, this series continues to be fun and charming all the way through, making it a must check-out for anyone who’s ever had to work in customer service.