Manga Debuts: Hon nara Uru hodo
In the previous edition of Manga Debuts, I looked at Ryoko Fukuyama’s latest work. Today, instead of a new series from a veteran of the industry, I’m here to talk about newcomer Ao Kojima and their first serialisation: Hon nara Uru hodo.
The series has been serialised in Enterbrain seinen magazine Harta since September 2023 but the first chapter was originally run as a one-shot in 2022. The first compiled volume was released in January 2025 and by early March when I bought a copy, the book was already on its third print run. Volume 2 is scheduled for release in April.
For language learners specifically: This is certainly not the most accessible of works, as there’s a lot of dialogue with no furigana for the kanji to help muddle through. I’d suggest being at the higher end of intermediate to advanced in the language. However, since the chapters are all self-contained stories it does mean there’s more flexibility in being able to skip past something you’re struggling with and move on to the next.
The Premise
Our story takes place in the secondhand bookstore, Juugatsudo. The store is run by an unnamed cheerful middle-aged man sporting a hap-hazard ponytail hairstyle. No matter who comes through the door, he’s always there to give a recommendation or help out his customers in whatever manner his store suits.
There isn’t a great deal of money to be made buying and selling secondhand books, but for our protagonist what matters most is seeing how these books impact a person’s life. From the regulars who simply love reading and talking about books, to the high school girl hoping to show off her knowledge and the widow selling her late husband’s collection. There are so many different ways someone can interact with literature and as a bookseller, you’re privileged with being able to see this in a variety of ways.
The allure of the book
I’m someone who loves stories that revolve around the publishing industry, be it from the perspective of a writer, editor, publisher or bookseller. Really, anything about books and book lovers is going to immediately pique my interest one way or another. And perhaps what I appreciated the most about Hon nara Uru hodo, is that it’s a real love letter to people who love books.
The six chapters in this first volume all revolve around a different character. If not for the consistency of being set in or at least passing through Juugatsudo, this could almost be an anthology piece rather than an ongoing story. And that disconnected nature of these chapters means there’s a lot of variety in the characters and their perspectives.
One of my favorite chapters is #2, where our protagonist goes to visit an elderly lady looking to sell her late husband’s collection of books. She’s not a big reader herself, but she and her husband used to spend their time quietly as he read and she spent her time knitting. This is one example of how even if not a reader herself, the books still had a way of touching her heart through the bookworm in her life.
My second favorite is chapter 4, which is about a middle-aged man building bookcases to furnish an apartment. Due to the frequency with which he’s buying materials for the project, he makes friends with the DIY store worker who offers to help him build the bookcases. As the project goes on it becomes apparent that this will house thousands of books, which means surely the apartment owner is a big reader. But as we soon learn, looks can be deceiving and he only reads 5 or so books a year, he simply fell in love with the idea of having a secret kingdom of books in an apartment which no one would suspect is home to such a big personal library. This one teaches us that you don’t have to be a big reader to love books.
It’s that well-rounded approach to the characters that is surely making it such a hit with readers. Due to how these characters interact with and care about literature, it becomes relatable no matter how you like books. In fact, offering so many contrasting views to your own can make it quite thought-provoking too.
The one thing it doesn’t offer is any kind of deep dive into the behind-the-scenes workings of running a bookstore. This is lightly touched on, but certainly not to the depth of something like Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-san. That’s not an issue since it’s not what the book sets out to do, but it may come as a surprise to some given the setting.
Ao Kojima’s Work
In the afterword for this volume, Ao Kojima talks about being nervous when they were approached to turn Hon nara Uru hodo into a long-term serialisation. They’re more comfortable with short-form works and perhaps that’s one of the reasons this is structured in such a way that each story can be read standalone without a great deal of knowledge about the Juugatsudo bookstore or its owner.
Magazine Harata is known for publishing works with exceptional artwork, as well as storytelling. Ao Kojima’s work is no exception to this. The artwork is immersive despite using quite small panels, but these are filled with all the background detail you need to set the scene. The character designs are varied and expressive too, ensuring that they’re easy to recognise even when we only spend a single chapter with them.
It’s also clear that Kojima loves literature just as much as the characters in the book. There are several references throughout this volume related to not only popular Japanese literature but also stories from overseas and some historical works. There are so many, that there’s a reference list at the end of the release for anyone looking to check them out for themselves! And this broad knowledge is of course another reason that the series is so appealing to readers.
In Closing
Hon nara Uru hodo is a love letter to those who love books, in whatever form that appreciation may take. It’s easy to see how this has become so popular so quickly, despite Kojima’s position as a relative newcomer. It’s a thoughtful read that resonates emotionally in all the right ways, and I think Kojima has a structure that will allow the series to run for a long time should it remain this popular with readers. For now, at least, I am certainly eager to see more and I’m sure I will find myself revisiting this many times in the future.
Hon nara Uru hodo is available to read monthly in the magazine Harata. Chapter 1 is available to read for free on Kadokawa’s Kado Comi platform (formally known as Comic Walker).
©Ao Kojima / KADOKAWA