is a Japanese comedy manga series by Honda, serialized online via '' pixiv Comic'' website between August 2015 and March 2019. It was collected in four ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes by

Media Factory , formerly is a Japanese publisher and brand company of Kadokawa Future Publishing. History It was founded on December 1, 1986, and its headquarters are situated in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Recruit Co., Ltd. Media Factory was possi ...

. The manga is licensed in North America by

Yen Press Yen Press, LLC is an American manga and graphic novel publisher co-owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. It published '' Yen Plus'', a monthly comic anthology, between 2008 and 2013. In addition to translated material, Yen Press ...

. An

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

television series adaptation by DLE aired from October 8 to December 24, 2018.

Plot

''Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san'' is based on a real life experience of the author Honda during her days as a bookstore employee. The story follows the life of the staff while explaining how a bookstore works.

Characters

; : :The

title character The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...

and

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

of the story, Honda is drawn with the appearance of a human skeleton wearing a book store uniform. Honda has been working at the book store for 10 years. Being in charge of foreign comics and art books (which is why the boxes containing her books are usually heavy), she is not good at speaking English and will only deal with one English word she knows when dealing with foreign customers. ; : :Honda's co-worker who worked earlier before him. He is drawn with a

paper bag A paper bag is a bag made of paper, usually kraft paper. Paper bags can be made either with virgin or recycled fibres to meet customers’ demands. Paper bags are commonly used as shopping carrier bags and for packaging of some consumer go ...

covering his head. He is in charge of manga, including ''

yonkoma , a comic strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom. They also sometimes run right-to-left horizontally or use a hybrid 2×2 style, depending on the layout requirements of ...

''. Among the workers at the comic section, Honda is his closest friend. ; : :A worker in charge of a girls-oriented section of the store. Hōtai is drawn with bandages covering her face. ; : :A woman who is drawn with a pumpkin head, Lantern is in charge of Shū-E-Sha books. She worked in the store earlier than Honda. ; : :In charge of Kō-D-Sha books, Okitsune is drawn with a ''

kitsune In Japanese folklore, , are foxes that possess paranormal abilities that increase as they get older and wiser. According to '' yōkai'' folklore, all foxes have the ability to shapeshift into human form. While some folktales speak of employing ...

'' mask on her face. ; : :A worker who is in charge of novels section of the store. She is drawn with ''omote'' mask on her face. ; : :In charge of game guide books. ; : :In charge of Sho-G-Kan books, Fullface is drawn with a full face motorcycle helmet on his head. ; : :In charge of Kadokawa men's comics. ; : ; : ; : :The manager of the store and is in charge of the

boys' love ''Yaoi'' (; ja, やおい ), also known by the ''wasei-eigo'' construction and its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created b ...

section of the store. Armor is drawn with a western war helmet on her face ; : :The Section Chief. A really kind woman drawn wearing a pest mask who gets scary when it's related to book distributors. ; : :Editor of the work's author who actually asked to be called by "Azarashi" in Honda's comic. ; :

Anime

An anime adaptation aired from October 8 to December 24, 2018, on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

and other channels with each episode running for about 15 minutes. It is adapted by studio DLE and directed by Owl Todoroki. Both the opening theme "ISBN~Inner Sound & book’s Narrative~" and the ending theme "Book-end, Happy-end." are written and performed by TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND. The series aired for 12 episodes. On December 13, 2021, it was announced

Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retro titles fr ...

will release the anime on Blu-ray in March 2022.

Episode list

Notes

References

External links

Manga website

Anime website - May 2021 archive
* * *{{IMDb title, 9100954 Anime series based on manga Comedy anime and manga Discotek Media Japanese webcomics Media Factory manga Kadokawa Dwango franchises Shōjo manga Webcomics in print Yen Press titles