But what if you have something to preoccupy yourself with? Perhaps burying yourself under loads of work, breaking sweat on a particular sport or embracing a new hobby--things that could help rehabilitate not only our heart but also our mind.
Now this brings us to the starting premise of this manga....
Bonnouji story revolves around the life of a boy and a girl in their mid-20s who lives in the same condominium. The girl's name is Ozawa, 26-year-old working lady, who had just recently broke up with his 5 years live-in partner. Then she met a boy named Oyamada in the most crucial time in her entire life - the moment she needed to use the bathroom. If you think things will go sticky from here on then you're getting the wrong idea, for his room wasn't filled with tons of porn books but instead, it was decorated with souvenirs, collectible items, figurines and boxes. Yes, you've read it right, boxes and...some more boxes. And what do these boxes contain? Well, that's one of the reasons why you should read this manga.
After she saw Oyamada's bizarre room and opening a box, they chugged down a wine-looking liquid that they got from the box and they got laid... Oh wait! they didn't...instead they talk about how brokenhearted Ozawa is then Oyamada comforted her and that's the start of their friendship. And everyday, driven by curiosity, Ozawa comes to Oyamada's room to unravel what lies inside the boxes.
Story: 8/10
There aren't many complications and twist in the story, aside from the ones I've already said, for this is just about interactions between characters and eccentric boxes with a hint of romance. Being a quintessential slice of life romcom, the conflict faced by the characters in this manga aren't as grave or heavy as you expect to come out from a story that is rooted from a broken heart. Angst, envy nor extreme sadness are nowhere to be found; in fact, the atmosphere is just light in nature and refreshing. There aren't any absurd dramatic moments nor stupid misunderstandings that are most of the time the reason why usual 'romance' manga stretch out for too long.
The flow of the story is episodic and slow but the slowness is not a bad thing in itself, for it takes it time for the readers to feel their daily life and to make out a bit of development in every chapter. It may look like that only each day are passing by every chapter but in reality, weeks are passing. From time to time, you'll get to read remarks like 'Oyamada-san hasn't been visiting for weeks now', basically that's just that. Also, events are taking place into two places, the condo and Oyamada's working place.
Characters: 10/10
The characters aren't deep; however, you might think that they are very shallow and plain-- not enough to put a spice in the story-- but that just contributes to the charm of this manga which is its simplicity. The girl is in her twenty-six and the boy's age wasn't given but it seems that there is a gap in the age of characters, with the boy being younger one, but isn't really felt with their interactions and there is a potential for romance between the two.
Art: 9/10
The art is great. Sketchy sometimes but isn't lacking when it comes to background or other details and it fits the atmosphere of Oyamada's somewhat messy round. Also, each character has a trademark look: the main guy wears a glasses and has slightly long hair, and the main girl has a very long black hair. The dialogues aren't misleading too, despite being all over the place some times because of the art, some lines has a small doodle like a face with glasses hinting that the character with glasses, which is the main guy, is speaking.
The girl is 26 but she doesn't really look like one. It could be that my image of a 26-year-old character looks older because of the other manga that I've read that has female girls in their mid-20s or she's just drawn to look young way because she is portraying a cute, either of the two or both.
Enjoyment: 9/10
I enjoyed the entire first volume of the manga and will read some more later. I like how the anime is fun and light that despite having a combination of 'Seinen' and 'Romance' tags, there seems to be little to no sex jokes present. Not that I hate lewd humor but I'm surprise this one manage to get by and give me a few chuckles without being dirty. I did catch myself laughing and smiling on some of its cute moments. Overall it's great.
