29 to JK

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Japanese: 29とJK

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Type: Manga

Volumes: 6

Chapters: 29

Status: Finished

Published: Sep 14, 2017 to Jan 9, 2020

Genres: Comedy, Romance

Serialization: Gangan Online

Authors: Yuuji, Yuuji (Story), Katou, Kakito (Art)

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Score: 6.66¹ (scored by 3,020 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #14392²

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

Popularity: #2968

Members: 7,572

Favorites: 30

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6.66

Ranked #14392Popularity #2968Members 7,572

MangaGangan OnlineYuuji, Yuuji (Story), Katou, Kakito (Art)

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Volumes: /6

Chapters: /29

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Synopsis

Eiji Yariba is a 29-year-old sales team coach working at a call center for Arcadia car insurance at the Hachijou branch in Tokyo. Although he sees himself as nothing more than a corporate slave, he is widely recognized as the call center's ace and admired by all his juniors. One weekend, free from his work, he bumps into a high school girl in a manga cafe. They find common ground as book lovers, especially since the 15-year-old Karen Minamisato aspires to be a writer. The underage girl soon develops a crush on Yariba, who is forced to turn her down.

Thinking that to be the last he would see of Karen, Yariba is in for a rude surprise when the CEO of Arcadia's Japanese subsidiary, Takayashi Takamishi, personally orders him to "court Karen Minamisato." As Karen's grandfather, Takamishi wants his grandchild to find happiness, and he has never seen her as lively as when she was with Yariba. Although the CEO's order is later downplayed after a horrified Karen learns of her grandfather's actions, he still insists that Yariba become Karen's friend and keep an eye on her. Eiji Yariba soon finds himself juggling huge challenges in the sales department, in his personal relationships, as well as in his task of maintaining a non-romantic relationship with Karen while developing her writing.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Reviews

Jan 7, 2025

hexashadow13

Recommended

As the title would suggest, this manga does feature a romance between a 29-year-old man named Yariba and a 15-year-old girl named Karen. However, romance is surprisingly a pretty small part of the story. I would say only about 10% of the manga is related to this romance, with the majority being towards the beginning and end of the manga. About 50% is about Yariba working as a manager of sorts at a car insurance call center and getting involved in all sorts of corporate drama. And the remaining 40% is about Karen pursuing her dream of a becoming a published author.

The parts of the ... story centered around Yariba’s work life are really well done. The actual subject matter isn’t all that interesting to be honest, in that it’s mostly just optimum call center strategies or corporate forensics. However, Yariba is a great protagonist in such a context. He’s very proactive and competent when it comes to his job and is very realistic about all the bullshit that goes on. But at the same time, he still does his best to do right by his subordinates. And when things get really messy and he ends up a victim of corporate sabotage or on the path to being set up as the scapegoat for someone else’s malpractice, it’s his prior good behavior that ends up helping him turn things around. It can be quite thrilling to see how things progress and it’s really satisfying when Yariba manages to eke out a victory.

The parts of the story centered around Karen’s writing are much more generic. It’s mostly just the standard affair with things like her guardian wanting her to pursue a more realistic career or her needing to pick herself up after her writing gets heavily bashed online. What makes this side of the story interesting is how Yariba plays into it. See, Yariba once dreamed of being a writer, but after many failures he gave up and ended up a corporate slave. Now he’s serving as a mentor to Karen and helping her with her writing in order to vicariously achieve his dream through her. And on top of that Yariba is often able to muster the willpower to put up a fight at work thanks to being inspired by the passion that Karen shows. The writing surrounding this dynamic is interesting in that it acknowledges how selfish Yariba is being, but at the same time it doesn’t really judge him too negatively for it. Overall, I liked the dynamic.

Now while the romance is only a small part of the manga, that is not to say it isn’t there. It isn’t just a hook to draw the reader in. It is something that does progress significantly over the course of the story. It is kind of tacked on though. While it is absolutely essential that the two main characters have an age gap, it didn’t really feel that their being romantically involved with each other really contributed anything. The writing does bring up the obvious issues involved in such a relationship and also explores some of the less obvious ones such as differences in values between generations. Though ultimately, it pretty much just waves them off. It’s not like there’s all that much in terms of romantic fluff either. Overall, it just felt half assed and rushed. There are various other side characters including a couple women that are clearly in romantically interested in Yariba who similarly also feel greatly underdeveloped. For better or worse, the manga is pretty much entirely focused on Yariba’s work life and Karen’s writing.

This manga is the adaptation of a light novel series, and though I haven’t read the novels I believe that this adapts only the first two volumes of what is currently an eight-volume series. This is a good point to stop though as the ending has Yariba making it past a long running crisis, Karen’s making a major breakthrough in her writing career, and the two having taken a major step forward in their relationship. Thus, I was pretty satisfied with the ending. I would read the novels if they got a good translation but I doubt they ever will be.

The art in the manga isn’t that great either. The art quality is okay, but the art style and framing just make the manga feel really plain. There are moments here and there where its a bit better but overall the art didn’t really do much for me.

tl;dr: A manga that contrary to the title is mainly a pretty solid corporate thriller.

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Jul 8, 2023

Kezeroth

Recommended

Story: 6.5
29 to Jk has such an interesting premise. Through the synopsis, you are given that you are following a 29 year old corporate slave named Yariba Eiji who has managed to get a 15 year old high school girl named Karen to become interested in him and even fall in love with him. That alone suggests that this manga would have some assemblance of a funny and cute story about their relationship and how it progresses despite the fact that their age groups are so far apart from each other. Well that’s not the case at all. This story only has a few key ... moments of romance and development in their relationship. The story actually centers around Eiji and the corporate company that he works for. If you are coming to this story and expecting some sort of cute relationship story to be given to you. Well, you are not getting that. Not to say that the story itself is that bad though. As said, the story is focused around Eiji’s life in the company that he works for. It mainly centralizes on the trials and tribulations of working for a corporate company, its competitors, and the overall shady and disgusting figures that you would find when working for such a company. While doing so, it provides some good drama and characterizes Eiji extremely well. It shows everything from his strengths, to his weaknesses and hubris, and his overall development as a person all while offering up a satisfying ending to all of the ordeals that he is put through. I like the story, but if you want a story that centralizes mainly on romance instead of the development of a single dude who works in a harsh environment, this story maybe isn’t what you are looking for exactly.
Characters: 6
There are a couple of characters who continuously reappear in the story aside from the main characters of Eiji and Karen, but I just don’t think that there is all that much to say about them. Eiji is obviously the most well-developed character as you are literally following him as he shows off his abilities, is presented with his weaknesses and hubris, and is tried by everyone again and again. But since the story is mainly focused on Eiji himself and his own development, the other characters lack in development or realistically even their build-up. Karen is a pretty shallow and underdeveloped character. There was so much opportunity to have her develop just as much as Eiji as she is also placing herself in a very tumultuous environment, that of trying to become a writer whose stories will be loved by everyone. However, because the story is so focused around Eiji and his time in the workplace, you don’t really see that much of Karen in a scenario where she is able to really show her character and develop. Sure, there are some times when you can see her character growing stronger mentally, but that is to be expected when you are subjecting your writing to others who judge and criticize you for something they don’t like. There isn’t much to say about Eiji’s coworkers because they aren’t exactly the ones in the limelight of this story. As for Karen’s grandfather, he is such a hard-headed individual that his actions are literally what is driving most of the conflict in this story. You see no change in his character and the only times he rescinds his decisions is when he comes to an agreement or makes a deal with the other party. The antagonists of this story are pretty much just scumbags. Nothing much to them, but I will say that the second antagonist of the story is pretty well-characterized in terms of an antagonist. However, their actual character still isn’t much.
Art: 6
I think that the art is fine. My only gripe with it is that Eiji doesn’t show that much emotion. Sure, there are points in the story where you can see him frustrated or stressed or pleased, but comparing those moments to some of the faces drawn for the other characters when they experience the same feeling, Eiji’s expressions are definitely lacking, especially for what he goes through in the story.
Overall: 6
I like this manga. I think the story is good, but my only real problem with it is how it is presented. The title is literally called 29 to Jk (29 year old and high school girl), but the focus of the story is not about Eiji’s relationship with Karen in spite of their age groups. I am not bothered with how the story played out with Eiji’s time working in his company, but I am disappointed that it isn’t what was advertised. I think that many people will come into this manga expecting it to be more focused on Eiji and Karen’s relationship, but their relationship is more of a side plot or even as a plot tool in the story rather than something that is front and center. If their relationship was more focused on or if it wasn’t advertised as such, perhaps the overall experience of reading would be better, but as it stands, the story is still good. Just not in the way you would expect from how it is presented in the first place.

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Jun 16, 2020

merrickhouk

Recommended

Preliminary (11/29 eps)

For someone who is about to get involved with adulthood, I found 29 to JK to be really informational. Take notes that I still have not done reading this yet, so my review might be incomplete in a lot of ways.

Story : 9
The story is about workers at a call centre, that is under a car insurance company. To be honest, the manga shows how works there are done in great details. I really appreciated those details because they showed me how works are done in a company. Although, this is probably not exactly the same to the real world, it is still a great ...

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Poll: 29 to JK Chapter 29 Discussion Zaphkiel_El_Rem - Mar 19, 2020	5 replies	by DebiPS »» Jan 1, 2023 2:19 PM
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