Houkago no Honya-san

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This manga is not cute, it's weird. This manga is not funny, it's lame. This manga doesn't belong on normal manga websites, but on the forbidden websites.

I could go on like this for a pretty long time.


Houkago no Honya-san is, as the MAL synopsis says, a manga about an 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘦. This alone should give you the sign to not read this, but sure. Tsubasa is a nine-year-old elementary school student who loves erotic books. She meets a 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 succubus who wants to get more erotic. Other friends of hers - all underage - help her at the ... erotic bookstore while building friendships and making jokes. Not normal, humorous jokes: unamusing and oversexualized jokes.

All the customers of the bookstore think it's completely normal that these girls organize the place. They even call them 'cute'. Hm.

Overall, Houkago no Honya-san is not cute or funny at all, and I would most definitely not recommend it.

A 9 year old girl working in an erotic bookstore. Some may not like it but it is fiction, think about that.
This is not a series for everyone but I would say for the lolicon community, even if you don't like lolis but you don't have anything against them you can enjoy this short story.
The elements of the story would be:
- Tsubasa with a perverted mind despite her age.
- Yuma, a succubus who is too pure and tries to be perverted
- Iroha, who says she is against lewd things but is a closet pervert.
The story is fine, the personalities of the characters don't bother me, ... that said I repeat the initial, if you don't like lolicon works this manga is not for you, if you don't have anything against the subject, you can read it without any problem.
7/10

Despite the synopsis of this sounding kinda suspect, it's actually quite a fluffy and funny story. The subject matter is a ero bookstore, but it doesn't really ever come up besides for jokes and isn't used to get into weird lewd stuff. The setting and characters are absurd and silly, but it plays well into the humor of it all. It's kinda actually wholesome feeling at times.

The art is pretty cute and well done. The plot is pretty much nonexistent since it mainly just a canvas for jokes, but it's also not just random nonsense like ... you'd expect from typical gag manga.

As long as you don't take it too seriously it can be a decent quick read.

In general I tend to dislike 4 comma manga more than traditional style manga because of how the paneling makes it reiterative and how the punchline is always easy to see when it will appear. So it's a little surprising that I actually like this one.

Most of the jokes are short but cohesive and gets to the point. The cutesy art works well with the raunchy gage humor, it makes the situations more absurd and through that makes the punchline land even better. I would say that the raunchy jokes are rather tame compared with most other manga series that I have read but some ... could still argue that the setting / subject matter of the story is still inappropriate. Which is an opinion I do not hold.

If you despise loli characters in raunchy situations then this manga is not for you!

In conclusion, it's a fun innocent short story worth reading. The art is pleasant and the characters are cute and relatable.

Houkago no Honya-san is what I’d consider a wholesomely-degenerate manga. The cast is almost entirely made up of lolis, but the art isn't any more explicit than what you’d find in a mild or even average slice-of-life manga or anime. Therefore, it’s more of a moral decision to read this.

The MAL synopsis provides enough information, but I believe the sentence "which makes it somewhat challenging for an elementary school student to work there" isn't entirely accurate. Tsubasa doesn’t find her situation challenging; in fact, she seems to quite enjoy it. While one could ponder the psychological impact of working at an erotic bookstore on a ... still-developing mind, it’s important to remember that this is fiction, not reality. Fiction that is not visually explicit.

The supernatural aspect initially almost put me off reading, but even though it’s woven into the main fabric of the story, it’s not aggressively pushed in your face and is handled in a light tone.

The majority of the panels are 4-koma, and the art is actually very good. At the end of the book, there’s a story/message from the author, which I personally enjoy as it reminds you that everything you’ve read was created by a passionate human being, not just mass-produced swill. The author is a self-proclaimed cute girl lover who occasionally posts on social media and shares some of their work online.

This manga is definitely not for everyone, but if you’re looking for a short, off-center read, you could do worse—much, much worse.

If you prefer physical copies, you can have the comic shipped to a large number of countries, but as far as I can tell, it is only available in Japanese.