I thought I would try something new for a change. Usually, when I have the urge to write about a book, I turn that into a review. But sometimes there are books I don’t want to deep dive on and put that level of work into presenting, but I still have some things to say about them. This usually translates into posting about them on social media, but that’s becoming fragmented (and character limits are a pain…), so it occurs to me it would be better to have a series on my blog instead. These aren’t supposed to be reviews, but instead snippits of my impressions. Something more personal without regard for my professional output, which is a lot better.

The naming scheme comes from the fact that, well, every book that comes in ends up in the backlog. I prioritise reading review materials for work and generally don’t read stuff I got in for myself personally until later on (with occasional exceptions). And while this isn’t fuelling a quest to get the backlog number down, it is more a byproduct of my effort to do that regardless. The backlog is a treasure trove that holds things for who knows how long, but eventually they come out.

I’m picking a completed series to talk about today, but that won’t always be the case. It won’t always be manga, either. Or at least that is the vision; the realities, as we all know, could be completely different.

Anyways, to kick things off, I want to talk about Work Sweet Balance (ワークスイートバランス) by Tenga Muranishi that was serialised on MANGA ONE. I picked up Volume 1 when it came out in September last year but didn’t read it until January. At which point, Volume 2 had already been released and the final #3 was due out in March, so I ended up reading the whole series relatively close together (#2 end of last month and #3 just this week).

It caught my eye originally due to being advertised as a realistic office romance, and I liked the character designs / art style. The story is about salaryman Daisuke Shima and his girlfriend Ayaka Hayami, who has just joined his company. They’re keeping their relationship under wraps at work in order to keep things professional and not affect Ayaka’s career progression. And their relationship seems solid; they clearly care for and support one another, and on the surface there’s no real problem here. (Although the workplace setting does end up feeling like background noise and not a whole lot more over the course of the series).

Yes, it’s not their relationship that is a problem but rather their family circumstances. Daisuke still lives at home, where he’s the oldest in a single-parent household and often tasked with caring for his two younger siblings (still at school) and his elderly grandmother, who has memory issues. Although they do seem to get some supportive carers in, the burden is often placed on Daisuke while his mother drowns herself in cigarettes and alcohol. It’s got to the point where everything Daisuke does, he believes, is to better his family’s situation. He loves his grandmother, who has always been there for him growing up, and he’s frustrated by his mother’s inability to get it together. He feels guilty about his relationship with Ayaka because that’s something that’s solely for his own sake and not for his family.

Ayaka, meanwhile, is from a well-off family, which means there’s a lot of expectation placed upon her. And not just on her, but any prospective partner she might bring home. Daisuke experiences this firsthand when he ends up attending a family gathering and finds himself being judged rather harshly, even just for simply not owning a wristwatch! It’s rough for both of them in different ways, and it’s not hard to imagine how it’s shaped them. Their relationship is an escape, but they worry about the burden they each bring due to their upbringers and home lives.

To the credit of the series, it explores these themes quite well. I was disappointed at first when I finished Volume 2 and learned #3 was the last because a lot of time was spent on sex scenes in #2. And while I have no inherent issue with this since it (mostly) served a purpose for the narrative, I worried that the conclusion would end up being rushed. And that is sort of how things go. Daisuke’s story ends relatively well without feeling unnaturally forced, but Ayaka’s isn’t given a great deal more time to be developed or resolved. With Daisuke’s you can at least see the throughline and be satisfied with the conclusion he reaches, but Ayaka feels like she’s left a little in limbo. An effort is made; there’s just not enough time. Muranishi’s previous series was considerably longer-running, and maybe being told (or planning to) wrap it up in only 3 just proved too high a hurdle.

I’m still glad I read this one because it was an interesting look at how people get weighed down by things they feel responsible for or simply because of the weight of expectation. And it’s a decent portrayal of how important it is to break that cycle. It was up and down, but for a short read, I’m relatively satisfied.