Mar 22, 2023
A manga about an assistant manager into retro video games but hides it, is usually known for being really tough, Sugita the male lead that hangs out with her at the coffee shop and finds out other sides of her compared to what most people see, the coffee shop with the manager there and later on a highschooler that ends up working at the store. So there is the main 3-4 characters and then a bunch of others appear for certain arcs/conflicts and disappear the next.
It's a fine office, bit a of gaming and romance type manga. Kind of like Wotaki but more focused on
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old arcade style games (mostly references some like Mario Bros, Pacman, Missile Command, Kung Fu, Mappy, and more to name a few, some notable some not, has knockoffs they play and the odd business work dialogue and situations. Sometimes it covers the business situations more in a chapter other times not depends what they feel is necessary.
Got a large gap to make it clear where the spoilers are if you want to skip them they are still vague enough to not name characters but still name some events to give an idea of what situations/1-3 chapter storylines happen in certain early and late chapters.
Spoilers to give an idea of early/late chapters (without going deep into who these events effect)
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Later on you get your romance stuff in there. Stuff about one of the character's ex and how to solve that problem, or marriage interviews (was odd the way they presented the arranged marriage but with a NEET then a financial angle, the arrange marriage part made sense as they do that 'your of age' thing but yeah I found that odd otherwise that and when they explain the person's background somewhat.
I find it odd when NEET is used but the Employement or Training part of the term is just misused, oh they work so they are employed, oh they are studying but they are in training then it's just odd when I see it in some translations that's all. How can someone be a NEET but also employed at home?) but that's more in the ending chapters. I do think that the ending chapters do feel a bit 'wrap this up' in a way.
Like you can guess who the person is in a flashback/backstory who the 'to be interviewed for marriage person is' it is all leading up to the chapters it isn't halfway through the manga. It all makes sense and works but it's all leading up to the ending chapter after chapter to get the details ready is how I'd put the execution.
I guessed they were going to have a marriage interview and the characters that do get together but it was a bit forced to wrap it up I think as while it's done across a few chapters it still felt like a predictable but also not terrible ending just a pretty straightforward one that gets the job done.
I mean the manga isn't that deep and it's clear what it wants to be but the romance angle while it's hits the notes for the characters I do think the ending was what to expect but also kind of just 'interview, but how do I deal with it, say how they feel and trying to wrap this up with 'how did the interview go' and 'the status we are now and adjusting'' pretty quickly. It works but it's just yeah nothing outstanding.
It does go into some backstories for the assistant manager, what the ex acted like for one of the characters, leading up to that character arc. So they get their moments to shine with flashbacks and interactions.
But early chapters it's mostly just work situations and the arcade coffee place stuff for lunch. Like an intern confusing people (Ch4), dealing with the latest games to work around a present for one of the staff member's son while still hiding the assistant manager's hobby but she wrote up a book to help that Sugita gives to the staff member (Ch5).
Ddealing with the assistant manager drunk (about halfway through the manga forget the chapter, it references it in the later ones when drunk too but I forget) and more (felt like mentioning Ch4 and 5 as there a bit more into the chapters to give a better idea of what's going on and the sort of game hiding and office situations they come across).
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So that's it for story related and theming and what some things the characters go through early on and later chapters onto the art and other aspects.
The art was interesting. The characters look nice and the environments suit the situations pretty well. The arcades/games capture enough along with the dialogue/explanation scenes and are fair designs for the game knockoffs they talk about and the types of differences they have.
The fun factor is there if you like games but could you skip those parts and go for the business/romance yeah you could, but the gaming side is enjoyable enough to read about but mostly if into retro games or just enjoy hearing characters explain/analyze games even if they are retro era.
I don't have any issues with it really. Would I say it can get deep into the explanations yes but they are only a few pages and I enjoy hearing people talk about games/analyse them and such.
Do I think the business/romance scenes are good. They get the job done, they make characters face a handful of situations, there is some character development they do but as much as you can expect from 26 chapters, from characters going for coffee/lunch, business situations and the bits and pieces of romance between characters.
The length is just right I think and the arcs are short it doesn't drag them on for more than 2-3 chapters and then it moves on to the next 1 chapter situations or storyline while others are 2-3. Other than that don't have much else to say it's business, romance and gaming.
I enjoyed it for what it was. This, Wotaki and Kimi to Pico Pico are the game related manga I enjoy right now office or school setting so if you haven't read this one or a more highschooler one like Kimi to Pico Pico (I prefer it over Gamers) then I'd recommend this and that for sure.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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