Feb 27, 2023
Long story short: this is basically a tourist guide for Tokyo's various suburbs.
So, if you lived in or near Kichijoji and decided you want to rent a new apartment, you'd wish such a real estate agency like this one existed. This fictional one is run by lady twins who are slightly eccentric, more than slightly overweight and very much into heavy metal, but that's neither here nor there. They absolutely will, however, sit down with you to talk about your ideal apartment and will make their utmost efforts to guide you to your ideal apartment, even if it's not in Kichijoji - and somehow it
...
never is. Along the way they'll show you why they chose this exact apartment for you, be it for the safety of the general vicinity or, more importantly, for all the cool shops and cafés in the neighborhood.
The twins' biggest challenge, though, is to have their own house adequately renovated.
So yes, like I said, this manga is a thinly veiled tourist guide. The client of the episode will be shown around an area they're unfamiliar with and so they'll discover it together with the reader. Of course, the art is both gorgeous and functional enough to bring out the appeal of the landscape, the buildings, the shops, and sometimes the people as well. Sometimes the drawings feel a bit clinical, but overall it's a joy to look at.
Of course it's not just an art exhibition either, there will be moments of humor, drama and calm as well, brought by various characters. Of course most of them will only appear once, the only constants are the twins and their very peculiar store clerk. But these three are more than enough to provide some comedy whenever necessary or applicable. For everything else there are the customers, and they bring their own human, down-to-Earth, realistic and relatable stories with them. Maybe one of them will find their relationship in shambles, maybe another one will feel beleaguered by a stalker, maybe yet another one will want a change of pace, or maybe yet again another one will state that her current living conditions go against her sense of aesthetics. Yes, her, for the clients are for the most part women. There is probably no special meaning here, at least I haven't been able to spot one, it's just how it is. The only problem would be that the satisfied client is out of the picture and therefore gone at the end of an episode, the next one starts from scratch with another one. But it's a big one, it's hard to care for any of them that way.
But still, it's always fun to read another episode of "Kichijoji", and not only because of the relatable women who are looking for a new place to live, not only because of the staff of Shigeta's Real Estate (although they're quirky and fun). Of course it's also because you get to see depictions of real places and landscapes in Tokyop that look as realistic as they can be in a black & white drawing. Some cafés will look neat, other will look stylish, there are some cool shops, malls and shopping streets and, as an added bonus, there are even some real people who'd be glad to be in charge of your interior design and your garden, should you ever settle down somewhere nearby. If you ever decided to take a trip to Tokyo, you could perhaps even use this manga to pick out places to visit.
Don't expect much more from this though. It is, after all, an episodic manga about taking strolls in Tokyo's various suburbs, and if that isn't enough to hook you, I'm afraid you'll feel disappointed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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