Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru
SoreMachi: And Yet the Town Moves

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This manga deserves more reviews, and so I am writing one.

The synopsis gives a good description of the events at the beginning- the first 2, 3 chapters. I will be clear that this is not a romance manga and there will be no resolution to any love stories. I wish it was not so, but things stay exactly the same at the end as they were in the beginning- apart from Hotori moving to her 3rd year of high school and one of her seniors (Kon-senpai) graduating.

The characters are where the real charm of SoreMachi lies. You have the Arashiyama family, the 3 regulars to ... Seaside Maid Cafe, Hotori's High School friends and various others. The chapters are (mostly) stand-alone stories, sometimes a mystery Hotori solves, sometimes just a normal day in her life. Keep in mind that the chapters are in a non-chronological order, I first noticed this when Hotori's hair length kept changing between successive chapters. Still, the episodic nature of the manga ensures this is not a big deal (until the last chapter).

There are some supernatural elements too, like aliens, heaven, alternate dimensions, ghosts, monsters, a memory erasing gun etc., The supernatural aspect is the least developed though and only comes in once every 10 chapters or so. But it serves to freshen up the stories once every now and then.

Lastly, even though the serialization of the manga has ended, the story itself does not give any sense of having ended. Its like we were given a tiny glimpse into the lives of the people in the shopping district. Life will still go on for them (figuratively speaking), but we won't have the pleasure of knowing what happens afterwards. Sanada has still not confessed to Hotori. Tatsun has also not confessed to Sanada yet. Ebi-chan and Takeru (Hotori's brother) are a cute elementary school couple. Kon-senpai has started college and has moved away to another town. If only we could see what happens after graduation for Hotori. 'And Yet the Town Moves'.

There is something great about reading a manga about a normal daily life and feeling a powerful immersion with that common, ordinary reality. It’s delightful to read something so simple and yet so captivating with its wacky adventures and charismatic characters. And that’s Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, or SoreMachi for short, for me.

SoreMachi is a manga about a mischievous and aspiring mystery writer girl called Arashiyama Hotori and her adventures as a normal school student, who also works as a maid in a local restaurant. She lives in the downtown and her neighbors, as well their shops, have an important role in the story. Arashiyama’s ... relationship with her neighborhood is somewhat close to a family relationship: they know her since she was a child and are pretty much used with her mischiefs. There is the owner of the restaurant/maid-café where she works, an old woman who acts like her grandmother, the owner of a local drink store that is like a big sister and so on. This whole neighborhood/family bond creates a very warm feeling around the characters and it's a powerful representation of a family not connected by blood ties, making the city not only just a setting but an important character among them.

Not only that, but the characters are fun in their unique way. The manga follows an episodic format, so you can have a chapter with Arashiyama playing a detective-esque role trying to solve a local mystery or just chillin' out with her friends, but also a chapter around any character close to her doing something totally different and interacting with different characters. The manga creates a setting where everyone can have their shining moment and play their role as a unique character in the story, which can also help to expand its cast.

What is so great about SoreMachi is how it has so many sides and yet it works so well, be it a chapter about Arashiyama’s normal school life and her interaction with her friends, a mystery being solved, some kind of random supernatural event, or an emotional and deep moment of a character. It takes so many routes with its episodic format, but the result is not a mixed reaction. Its real forte is on creating random situations and letting the characters do what they do best. And that's what a slice of life manga should aspire to be. You can show great moments of an ordinary reality if you create great characters to explore it.

There's something really special about Soremachi as a manga that really gets me. A manga from the talented Masakazu Ishiguro, it has gone pretty much unnoticed among the Western community but has gotten critically great reception and awards from Japan, winning the Excellence award for the Japanese Media Arts Festival in 2015 and amazingly, the best scifi manga in the Seiun Awards.

People say slice of life as a series can get boring over time but Soremachi has proved that wrong time and time again. In Soremachi, you follow the charismatic and bumbling but lovable fool of a character in Hotori Arashiyama - a high ... school student working in a maid cafe for 3 years of her high school life. That's it. Yet, the story of Hotori's life throughout these 3 years is so well-done, seamlessly weaving through her life - interacting with the many characters, solving various mysteries and dramas, and just living her life her own way. What really stands out is the growth of Hotori in these 3 years, you can truly feel that she has evolved as a person the more you read the manga and by the end, I couldn't help having tears in my eyes like a proud father watching her daughter grow up.

What Soremachi does right, among many things is quite simply knowing how to nail slice of life in the best way. The series is full of life with many diverse characters from all walks of life in the small bustling town of Maruko Shopping District. And they aren't cookie-cutter characters either, but characters that have their own story, personalities, quirks and charm to them with great interactions with the main cast. They have their own families, brothers and sisters as well as parents which do not magically disappear like most manga do. It feels so goddamn organic and that's why they feel so real as well as the town itself and the moment I flipped the last page, I already have missed the characters like they were my very own family.

The many stories in this series really appeal to me. They never come off as generic but instead feels natural with every chapter building up to a certain event in a future chapter and there's this feeling of continuity that is oh so satisfying. Some chapters can be real emotional and some can be super funny. This mix really shows the many colours of life one can go through and it never gets old. The comedy in this series as well is top notch. It stands out simply because it is so different (and much better) from the many romcoms and SOL type of comedy out there. There are no cheap and overused gags with random references but very smart comedy with a lot of buildup which gets so satisfying when you reach the punchline. I adore this kind of comedy, smart and interesting.


Lastly, this series has this amazing blend of what is already amazing SOL elements with surrealistic and sci-fi elements as well. It's a masterpiece in a sense that it never feels out of place when something out of the ordinary happens and that I felt that it actually suits the town in a way. It's hard to describe but it really does feel special and I always smile reading these chapters and how genius it turns out to be.

I urge everyone to try giving this a read and def stick with it for a few volumes or more for this manga as the introduction of the characters happen early on. Once I started getting into more chapters, this is when Soremachi really started being a masterpiece. You know it's a great manga when it all ends and that emptiness starts filling your heart as you leave the town of Soremachi behind - and yet the town moves.

Like standing next to a hot oven after coming in from a cold, damp day, SoreMachi: And Yet The Town Moves is soothing wonder. It's a timeless must-read manga that deserves far better than it has gotten in the west.

While many slice of life manga fixate themselves on the daily routine of ordinary people, SoreMachi concerns itself with the extraordinary—and maintains an obsession not just with relationships, but with the invisible glue that binds together the balance of human interaction.

SoreMachi features an ensemble cast, that gradually unfurls itself as the chapters go by. Friends, townsfolk, teachers—not to mention a dash of the supernatural—fill the world, ... beautifully realized by the talented Masakazu Ishiguro ("Heavenly Delusion"). At the center of its ambitious cast is the lovable Hotori Arashiyama, who is clutzy and airheaded—but never stupid—and movingly ambitious. Impressively, both in design and personality, every character is amazingly distinct. Ishiguro draws round faces with big expressions, bigger mouths and even bigger hearts. Love triangles form, friendships falter, and the town changes at the whim of its residents.

Seeping through the lines of the comic cell borders is an occasional air of mystery and unknown. One chapter involves a ray-gun from an alien civilization; another tackles the the misadventures of a character's pursuit of a mystery sweet left behind by a time traveler from the future. Ishiguro portrays these themes with a dreamlike quality that challenges the reality and canon of the world he creates. It's left ambiguous whether such events really occurred, and the lines between truth and fiction within its word are frequently left blurry. Perhaps it's all just in Hotori's head? Or perhaps that's what *they* want you to think...

Time is both the least and most important element of SoreMachi. While there is a canonical timeline of events, the manga is presented achronologically. Chapters flow continuously into the next at times, while others cut back and forth across the story. In one chapter, Hotori has a haircut go wrong, leading to her cutting her hair short; a moment whose butterfly effect ripples through the space-time (by which, I mean, paper) of the rest of the manga. The progression in SoreMachi, then, doesn't necessarily materialize within the characters so much as it does in the understanding the reader has *of* the characters and the relations between them. Is Hotori a better person at the end of everything? Sure. Does Kon open up as the manga progresses? Absolutely. But the true genius here is the way in which it compels the reader to understand and appreciate different people, their perspectives, what makes them tick, their mannerisms and worldviews. In a polarizing age where hate dominates so much of human discourse, this resonated with me in a profound way.

This ties into Ishiguro's remarks in the afterword of the first volume. In it, he talks about how through his work he aimed to write a "textbook on communication," with the manga is largely based on his own experiences moving to a new part of Tokyo. After just ten chapters, SoreMachi earns the right to call itself a textbook, but perhaps more fascinatingly stays consistently relevant a hundred chapters later—which is over ten years in publishing time. Being released over the epoch (2005-2016) of society's digital upheaval, I found myself in awe at how I never felt it dated like so many of its contemporaries. I feel like this is a work you could read at any age and get something different out of it. In this regard, it's less of a textbook and more of a bible.

SoreMachi ends just as thoughtfully as it begins. It leaves you little empty. It makes you smile a little. It makes you cry a little. It's not overly conclusive, necessarily dramatic, or overwhelmingly loud even. But it's there, and those last few pages will live with me for a long time.

In summary: Rarely a page was turned without me having to correct the smile that had formed between each of my ears to ward off strange looks from others in public. In a way, I think that element of wariness about people judging me for a smile sort of represents this manga perfectly; it's confusing underappreciation in the west could be attributed to poor luck with licensors, but ultimately I think it's case of people rolling their eyes.

Whether just a hundred or a billion people have read SoreMachi, though, doesn't ultimately matter; the manga is brilliant all the same. It's a cult classic, just without the cult. Even so, the town moves—and I hope the passage of time treats these words as kindly as it has to Ishiguro's quiet masterpiece. Maid-o.

It's no less than amazing. I've already written a review for the anime adaptation of this work, so I'll keep it short.

While I do admit that Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru's anime adaptation is better than the manga, it's still one of the funniest mangas I have read. The artstyle is just perfect. I really like all the facial expressions, movements, and paneling that this manga has, and it really elevates it. I really can't read ugly looking manga, and a lot of comedy/4 Komas tend to be lacking in detail (D-Frag) and just end up looking like a rough draft. This manga has such a ... clean, nice artstyle to it that can't be replicated. Like I said before, the simple facial expressions just make the manga that much better. There's not too much clutter, but there's a good sense of detail.

As for the characters, they're also good. They manage to integrate a lot of characters into the story, and all of them have distinct personalities and as a result, when you see chapters involving different characters, it's like a different story. While the main character is clearly Hotori, there's a lot of variety when it comes to chapters since there's always a difference mix of people that are involved in wacky scenarios. While it is a comedy novel, by involving characters in different settings and interactions, you really get to naturally know their personalities as the story progresses. No character is limited to their initial personality/archetype, and they all get expanded as chapters including them increase. Kon's my favorite character, but there are just a good variety of characters that you won't get bored for the entire 16 volume run.

Another reason why this manga is so fresh is the setting. It takes place in a simple town, so the manga involves the entire town. You're not limited to a classroom, or Hotori's home, but rather, you're able to take a look at characters doing things at various places in the mundane town. Plus, the contents of each chapter is so different. Sometimes, it's about romance. Sometimes, it's slice of life. Sometimes, it's supernatural. And there's always a lot of comedy sprinkled into each chapter, regardless of it's theme, genre, or characters.

It's such a lively town, it reminds me of Gintama, but honestly, Gintama focuses more on characters, while Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru focuses on the completeness of a single town. It's really cool and unique in how many different and varied chapters there are that just involve the same cast of characters and same town.

I suck at reviewing comedy series in general, but basically: it's really good.

Soremachi is a manga I find myself coming back to every few years. Why? It's a comedic slice of life told in non-linear format, jumping all over Hotori's 3-year high school timeline, but that doesn't sound particularly interesting. However upon each re-read, I am drawn in by the richness of the world that is Soremachi, and hypnotized by the unique storytelling. I would say the manga hits the ground running, but the episodic plots never get exciting enough to be called fast-paced. Instead, what I mean is that due to the non-linear structure, Ishiguro wastes no time with introductions and starts as if we already ... have several volumes worth of familiarity with the characters. In lieu of standard introductions, we jump immediately to their character-defining episode. Instead of waiting for another opportunity to return and develop a side character further, we skip the predictable formalities and right to the funny -and believable- tomfoolery they engage in with Hotori. Although this feels like cheating, it works, in no small part thanks to the copious omake in between chapters, adding humorous context, continuity to character personalities, giving closure, and greasing the clutch as gears are shifted. Ishiguro goes above and beyond with the extras, adding classroom roster lists, made up alien language substitution ciphers, character trivia and notes, effortlessly immersing readers with lore and revealing how much of Soremachi was pre-developed from the start. Much like Hotori's persona, Soremachi is so charming and charismatic that it eases in right next to you without you realizing. Coupled with the non-linear episodes, reading it is like getting cozy while listening to a family friend regale you with stories from their childhood. The stories are frankly, forgettable, but they are associated with warm feelings and this demerit actually becomes a merit when you want to read it again.

Hotori's appetite for mystery provides ample opportunity for episodes to be told, excuses the supernatural, spooky events, and also ties together running plot lines spanning the first to the last volume. It's a great fit all around, and sets the bar for how ambitious the story is to be. The overarching "concern," if we can call it that, of Soremachi is how Hotori will turn out, being a klutz who worries everyone around her. However, due to the described structure, it's not a coming-of-age story. Instead, what we get is a medley of situations when Hotori is the fool, when she is competent and mature, and a majority of when she's in between the two. It's not clear how she changes- she just gradually reduces the number of really dumb mistakes she makes, like chopping up a gifted $1000 fountain pen because she wanted to attach a magnifying glass to a pen. This approach makes resolution a bit boring, but the upside to this is that Soremachi doesn't overstay its welcome and can afford to dedicate the entire last volume, 16, as an epilogue for all its secondary characters, something exceedingly rare. As mentioned, Soremachi's pacing is deliberate and reassuringly consistent, so even the epilogues feel natural, everyday, and merely good notes to end on. Overall the manga's value proposition offers moderate highs and virtually no lows, and so if this kind of story is up your alley, then you get to enjoy a singularly smooth ride beginning to end.

Story - 10/10

SoreMachi is a Slice of Life story, but mixed with many many different genres, each feeling like if the author decided to write a dedicated manga, every single one of these would be good.
Despite its simple core, the writing in the manga is truly excellent and the somewhat chaotic (I assume on purpose) progression of the lives of the staff of the Maid Cafe Seaside, especially the Main character Arashiyama Hotori, is both fluid to read and never gets old. The first few chapters are kinda meh ngl, alongside a single weeb-brained later on, but the overall quality is very high and consistent ... all the way through, with some really standout chapters.

Art - 8/10

It's an artstyle similar to late 90s shows like Serial Experiments Lain, The Big O and the 2006 show Welcome to the NHK. Warm and simple, it just works well in every way. There's also some creative or fun facial expressions in the manga, which is a plus.

Character - 10/10

The manga's *big, big, big* strength are its characters, and literally every single one of them is loveable and well developed, no matter how late the character was introduced or how minor they were. An example is a character going through something similar to what Itsuki and Iketani from Initial D had. Despite only having limited interactions with the rest of the plot or characters, his arc was one of my favorites, with an excellent ending. Of course, the main character stole the show. Hotori is much more than the archetype recognizable in the first few chapters and a character you just can't help cheering for.

Enjoyment - 10/10

I binged SoreMachi in a couple of weeks, reading chapters every day. It's very, very fun and by the ending, I was craving more.

Overall - 10/10

Fantastic manga. The most fun story I've read since Mob Psycho 100.

This is just so nice. So very very nice. It's funny, sweet, silly, weird, completely ordinary, and yet special as well.

It's a perfect brain calming manga, one that makes you feel nice all the time, has no drama or pressure, nothing to rack your nerves, and yet it's never boring and always keeps your interest by making even the most mundane situations engaging, all thanks to the brilliant characters, their dynamics, and the simple yet expressive and fun art.

The situations in this manga range from completely ordinary to wacky and goofy, but nothing ever crosses the border into bland or into stupid.

It's not demanding, ... it's effortless to read, it's always rewarding, and no matter your mood - it will always improve it in a sincere, casual, and unobtrusive way.

Probably the best way to express how I feel about it is that I like it, a lot.
Like, a lot a lot. The kind of like you'd feel towards a friend whose company is never unwelcome.

And that's what Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru is like - a pleasant experience of the sort that is never unwelcome.

There's only a couple of comedy manga that really captured the feel of "comedy". In terms of manga related to the genre of comedy, you are most likely to think about simple fresh comedy that doesn't get lost in translations like Azumanga Daioh or the rarely story-based comedy like Gintama, that is somehow able to be funny through all the translations' problem. So what's my point? Thing is, SoreMachi never comes up in any of the conversation, even though I argue it was also of the great comedy manga of its time.

When you start reading, you won't expect nor get any continuous story. From ... the very start, the author decided that each SoreMachi chapters will differ in point of time; there will be chapters that happens after the next chapter and vice versa. Sure, the character is interesting at best, but that's the main appeal of comedy. If you don't get goofy, fun, enjoyable character; you can't call it good comedy. Halfhearted written characters will go down the drain as something that merely exists and nobody will even care about them. SoreMachi is exactly that. You exactly get your goofy, weird, and colorful characters. When you're reading, maybe you see the random plot as something generic or nothing special, but somehow you just want to keep reading. You read, you read, you read, and the character is able to pull you towards them, getting you to turn each page and force your straight lips to bend on its own. I rarely get the feeling where you just want to read more, but have to hold back because you don't want this feeling to end.

The best slice-of-life makes you feel the emotion of the characters, and with such absurd moments happening in between chapters; you can still feel those emotions. Friendship and character interactions are all fleshed out, delivered in a warm way and never really devolves into something drama-like, heavy, or forced.

Unfortunately, in the last volume, Ishiguro-sensei somehow forgot that Hotori's attachment to her town is the main focus of the entire series. The thing with Futaba was sweet and heartwarming, but I have to admit the half-assed ending could've been turned into something special. Well, it's a comedy manga after all! Nothing you can do about it!

It's a light-hearted comedy with joyful and characters written by someone that is enthusiastic about his work, you don't get those in this day and age. Read SoreMachi and you will not regret it. Read it.