Honda

Description
Honda is the creator behind the manga and anime series Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san. This work serves as the author's professional debut and is an autobiographical essay manga, drawing directly from Honda's personal experiences working as a bookstore employee for over a decade in the manga section. The series was serialized online via the pixiv Comic website and Gene pixiv magazine from August 2015 to March 2019, and was later compiled into four complete volumes.

The narrative of Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san follows the daily life of a skeleton-headed bookstore employee named Honda and their eccentric colleagues, who are depicted with various objects or masks in place of their faces, such as paper bags, bandages, or animal heads. This artistic choice was made to obscure the real identities of the author's former coworkers, with the designs often based on their personal requests or feedback. The series is noted for its comedic and insightful look into the Japanese book industry, covering everything from dealing with unique customers to the logistics of distribution and retail. Honda has stated that while the stories are based on their own experiences at a single bookstore, they are careful not to generalize these experiences as universal for all bookstores.

In 2016, the manga was recognized with an award at the first Miyawaki Comic Awards, sharing the honor with other popular titles. The success of the manga led to a television anime adaptation produced by the studio DLE, which aired for 12 episodes from October to December 2018. The anime adaptation, while using a male voice actor for the main character, does not change the fact that the original author Honda is a woman. Outside of this series, there is no widely documented information about other original manga or anime works created by Honda, making Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san their singular notable contribution to the industry as of the available records.
Works