Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru (SoreMachi: And Yet the Town Moves)

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Synonyms: SoreMachi

Japanese: それでも町は廻っている

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 16

Chapters: 130

Status: Finished

Published: Mar 30, 2005 to Oct 28, 2016

Genres: Award Winning, Slice of Life

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Young King OURs

Authors: Ishiguro, Masakazu (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.25¹ (scored by 2,371 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #401²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2087

Members: 9,540

Favorites: 395

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8.25

Ranked #401Popularity #2087Members 9,540

MangaYoung King OURsIshiguro, Masakazu (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /16

Chapters: /130

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Synopsis

Hotori Arashiyama is an average high school girl; that is, if the definition of "average" includes having an obsession with detective novels and working at a maid cafe to pay off an enormous debt incurred from years of eating "free" curry. Whenever she is not working, she can be seen hanging out with her friends, taking care of her younger siblings, or annoying her math teacher. However, while she lives the fairly run-of-the-mill life of a teenager, she is no stranger to the paranormal and unexplained.

Sprinkled in with Hotori's everyday antics are occasional run-ins with the supernatural—including taking an unexpected tour of Heaven, discovering a ray gun that creates giant holes, and accidentally interfering in a dispute between some aliens. In addition, she tends to spontaneously investigate cases that strike her fancy, like uncovering the true purpose of some paintings left in a will, identifying a strange man walking the hospital grounds, and going on a treasure hunt in a far-off village.

Hotori manages to find herself in the middle of some strange circumstances, and yet the town moves on in spite of the oddity of it all.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru won the Excellence Award in the Manga Division at the 17th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2013. In 2018, the manga was also awarded the Seiun Award for Best Comic, and ranked 20th in the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! for the Male Readers division.

The series was published digitally in English as And Yet, The Town Moves by Crunchyroll. It was also published as SoreMachi: And Yet the Town Moves by Shonen Gahosha through Manga Planet from May 20, 2020, to May 26, 2021. The manga was released in Chinese by Ever Glory Publishing Co., Ltd. from October 18, 2006, and November 13, 2020; and in Italian as Eppur... la città si muove! by GP Publishing from June 23, 2012, to October 20, 2012—with the company only publishing the first three volumes.

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Related Manga

Adaptation:

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

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Characters

Arashiyama, Hotori

Main

Kon, Futaba

Main

Tatsuno, Toshiko

Main

Sanada, Hiroyuki

Main

Isohata, Uki

Main

Josephine

Supporting

Moriaki, Natsuhiko

Supporting

Kameidou, Shizuka

Supporting

Haribara, Harue

Supporting

Sanada, Yuuji

Supporting

Reviews

Dec 29, 2023

therealkale

Recommended

There's only a couple of comedy manga that really captured the feel of "comedy". In terms of manga related to the genre of comedy, you are most likely to think about simple fresh comedy that doesn't get lost in translations like Azumanga Daioh or the rarely story-based comedy like Gintama, that is somehow able to be funny through all the translations' problem. So what's my point? Thing is, SoreMachi never comes up in any of the conversation, even though I argue it was also of the great comedy manga of its time.

When you start reading, you won't expect nor get any continuous story. From ...

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Dec 4, 2023

typewritermonkey

Recommended

Soremachi is a manga I find myself coming back to every few years. Why? It's a comedic slice of life told in non-linear format, jumping all over Hotori's 3-year high school timeline, but that doesn't sound particularly interesting. However upon each re-read, I am drawn in by the richness of the world that is Soremachi, and hypnotized by the unique storytelling. I would say the manga hits the ground running, but the episodic plots never get exciting enough to be called fast-paced. Instead, what I mean is that due to the non-linear structure, Ishiguro wastes no time with introductions and starts as if we already ... have several volumes worth of familiarity with the characters. In lieu of standard introductions, we jump immediately to their character-defining episode. Instead of waiting for another opportunity to return and develop a side character further, we skip the predictable formalities and right to the funny -and believable- tomfoolery they engage in with Hotori. Although this feels like cheating, it works, in no small part thanks to the copious omake in between chapters, adding humorous context, continuity to character personalities, giving closure, and greasing the clutch as gears are shifted. Ishiguro goes above and beyond with the extras, adding classroom roster lists, made up alien language substitution ciphers, character trivia and notes, effortlessly immersing readers with lore and revealing how much of Soremachi was pre-developed from the start. Much like Hotori's persona, Soremachi is so charming and charismatic that it eases in right next to you without you realizing. Coupled with the non-linear episodes, reading it is like getting cozy while listening to a family friend regale you with stories from their childhood. The stories are frankly, forgettable, but they are associated with warm feelings and this demerit actually becomes a merit when you want to read it again.

Hotori's appetite for mystery provides ample opportunity for episodes to be told, excuses the supernatural, spooky events, and also ties together running plot lines spanning the first to the last volume. It's a great fit all around, and sets the bar for how ambitious the story is to be. The overarching "concern," if we can call it that, of Soremachi is how Hotori will turn out, being a klutz who worries everyone around her. However, due to the described structure, it's not a coming-of-age story. Instead, what we get is a medley of situations when Hotori is the fool, when she is competent and mature, and a majority of when she's in between the two. It's not clear how she changes- she just gradually reduces the number of really dumb mistakes she makes, like chopping up a gifted $1000 fountain pen because she wanted to attach a magnifying glass to a pen. This approach makes resolution a bit boring, but the upside to this is that Soremachi doesn't overstay its welcome and can afford to dedicate the entire last volume, 16, as an epilogue for all its secondary characters, something exceedingly rare. As mentioned, Soremachi's pacing is deliberate and reassuringly consistent, so even the epilogues feel natural, everyday, and merely good notes to end on. Overall the manga's value proposition offers moderate highs and virtually no lows, and so if this kind of story is up your alley, then you get to enjoy a singularly smooth ride beginning to end.

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Jul 27, 2023

William278

Recommended

Like standing next to a hot oven after coming in from a cold, damp day, SoreMachi: And Yet The Town Moves is soothing wonder. It's a timeless must-read manga that deserves far better than it has gotten in the west.

While many slice of life manga fixate themselves on the daily routine of ordinary people, SoreMachi concerns itself with the extraordinary—and maintains an obsession not just with relationships, but with the invisible glue that binds together the balance of human interaction.

SoreMachi features an ensemble cast, that gradually unfurls itself as the chapters go by. Friends, townsfolk, teachers—not to mention a dash of the supernatural—fill the world, ... beautifully realized by the talented Masakazu Ishiguro ("Heavenly Delusion"). At the center of its ambitious cast is the lovable Hotori Arashiyama, who is clutzy and airheaded—but never stupid—and movingly ambitious. Impressively, both in design and personality, every character is amazingly distinct. Ishiguro draws round faces with big expressions, bigger mouths and even bigger hearts. Love triangles form, friendships falter, and the town changes at the whim of its residents.

Seeping through the lines of the comic cell borders is an occasional air of mystery and unknown. One chapter involves a ray-gun from an alien civilization; another tackles the the misadventures of a character's pursuit of a mystery sweet left behind by a time traveler from the future. Ishiguro portrays these themes with a dreamlike quality that challenges the reality and canon of the world he creates. It's left ambiguous whether such events really occurred, and the lines between truth and fiction within its word are frequently left blurry. Perhaps it's all just in Hotori's head? Or perhaps that's what *they* want you to think...

Time is both the least and most important element of SoreMachi. While there is a canonical timeline of events, the manga is presented achronologically. Chapters flow continuously into the next at times, while others cut back and forth across the story. In one chapter, Hotori has a haircut go wrong, leading to her cutting her hair short; a moment whose butterfly effect ripples through the space-time (by which, I mean, paper) of the rest of the manga. The progression in SoreMachi, then, doesn't necessarily materialize within the characters so much as it does in the understanding the reader has *of* the characters and the relations between them. Is Hotori a better person at the end of everything? Sure. Does Kon open up as the manga progresses? Absolutely. But the true genius here is the way in which it compels the reader to understand and appreciate different people, their perspectives, what makes them tick, their mannerisms and worldviews. In a polarizing age where hate dominates so much of human discourse, this resonated with me in a profound way.

This ties into Ishiguro's remarks in the afterword of the first volume. In it, he talks about how through his work he aimed to write a "textbook on communication," with the manga is largely based on his own experiences moving to a new part of Tokyo. After just ten chapters, SoreMachi earns the right to call itself a textbook, but perhaps more fascinatingly stays consistently relevant a hundred chapters later—which is over ten years in publishing time. Being released over the epoch (2005-2016) of society's digital upheaval, I found myself in awe at how I never felt it dated like so many of its contemporaries. I feel like this is a work you could read at any age and get something different out of it. In this regard, it's less of a textbook and more of a bible.

SoreMachi ends just as thoughtfully as it begins. It leaves you little empty. It makes you smile a little. It makes you cry a little. It's not overly conclusive, necessarily dramatic, or overwhelmingly loud even. But it's there, and those last few pages will live with me for a long time.

In summary: Rarely a page was turned without me having to correct the smile that had formed between each of my ears to ward off strange looks from others in public. In a way, I think that element of wariness about people judging me for a smile sort of represents this manga perfectly; it's confusing underappreciation in the west could be attributed to poor luck with licensors, but ultimately I think it's case of people rolling their eyes.

Whether just a hundred or a billion people have read SoreMachi, though, doesn't ultimately matter; the manga is brilliant all the same. It's a cult classic, just without the cult. Even so, the town moves—and I hope the passage of time treats these words as kindly as it has to Ishiguro's quiet masterpiece. Maid-o.

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Poll: Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru Chapter 137 Discussion gedata - Oct 22, 2016	7 replies	by HibiChika »» Jan 8, 2023 11:09 AM
Poll: Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru Chapter 79 Discussion HibiChika - Jan 7, 2023	0 replies	by HibiChika »» Jan 7, 2023 5:08 AM
Poll: Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru Chapter 29 Discussion hellogoodbye - Mar 22, 2013	2 replies	by Ryan_Melvin15 »» Jun 18, 2022 5:26 PM
Poll: Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru Chapter 1 Discussion Eris-w- - Sep 8, 2020	1 replies	by Gosplan14 »» Apr 1, 2022 7:26 PM
Poll: Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru Chapter 138 Discussion gedata - Nov 5, 2016	32 replies	by Ackackack »» Mar 3, 2022 5:55 AM

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru
SoreMachi: And Yet the Town Moves
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