Gaikotsu Shoten’in Honda-san – 01

OP Sequence

OP: 「ISBN: Inner Sound & Book`s Narrative」 by Technoboys Pulcraft Green-Fund and Souma Saitou

「お次でお待ちのお客様がイケメン / ヤオイガールズフロムOVERSEAS!!!」 (Otsugi de Omachi no Okyaku-sama ga Ikemen / Yaoi Girls from Overseas!!!)
“The Handsome Guy is First in Line / Yaoi Girls from Overseas!!!”

A high-concept premise about a bookstore run by a skeleton man could only go up, and luckily, Gaikotsu Shoten’in Honda-san makes the most of it’s 11 minute run time with the crazy scenarios that he finds himself in. Taking place in a bookstore, the show pokes fun at many of the trials and tribulations behind how bookstore employees have to contend with their eccentric otaku patrons, and is well-versed enough in manga to be able to be on-point with their ribbing on several facets of manga fandom.

Although a majority of the book store’s patrons are speaking English and are directly from overseas countries, the variety of cases Honda has to contend with are universal such as a daughter having her dad purchase explicit doujinshi, a rabid collector buying boatloads of expensive volumes, and a collective of fujoshi camping out in the manga aisle to mutually invest time in their favorite manga. Their status as foreign visitors makes for some humorous dialogue with Honda trying to make out what his patrons are saying and try to answer their inquiries to the best of his abilities. Similarly, the conundrum he finds himself in with having to recommend foreign fujoshi the establishment’s finest BL made for some great comedy with how he had to guesstimate which BL manga they’d be impressed with until he pointed out the one that had an obviously explicit cover.

Gaikotsu Shoten’in Honda-san has really funny referential humor to both otaku culture and running bookstores, and its comical cast of skeletons and costumed beings is icing on the cake. The show’s greatest asset is its 11 minute time allowing for the jokes to be finely tuned to its best degree without overstaying its welcome. There was a main focus on foreign customers and BL in this episode, but it’ll be interesting to see what other aspects of the bookstore, its customers, its material, and the goofy requests for Honda and his patrons will be explored in this season’s premiere comedy short.