Hatori to Furuta no Hinichijou Sahanji

I always found it funny that despite my tag line being someone who rambles about games and manga, I really don’t ramble about manga that much huh? Well, part of it is because I read a lot of manga, and a lot of ongoing ones at that too. It’s pretty much my daily ritual to read updates before I sleep every day. I do want to talk about more, and I do have plans for a few series that I dearly dearly love as well, but I’ll need to reread them (for the probably tenth time). I just find it kind of hard to talk about ongoing stuff until they finish, and I realize for manga I tend to be more selective about what I write about, especially when compared to games.

Anyways, the reason why I’m making this post is I wanted to talk about one of my favourite Shounen Jump manga lately, Hatori to Furuta no Hinichijou Sahanji. I normally don’t really read that much Shounen Jump, but this one in particular really grabbed me and I’ve loved it since pretty much the very first chapter.

It’s a relatively straightforward story about Hatori, a guy who doesn’t have much passion, and a girl, Furuta, who can see the extraordinary. Their dynamic is fun and I’ve always been a fan of the deadpan and extremely energetic duo so it was pretty much a given that I’d like them.

But the main reason why I loved this series is because of the premise. I love it when ordinary things become extraordinary. Another great example of what I’m talking about is Shinozaki-kun no Mente Jijou (wow I mention this series a lot, can you guess what my favourite manga series is?), where it’s a comedic but also serious look at an everyday life with extraordinary events. I won’t talk too much about Shinozaki in this post (I already have in the past and it may in fact be another series I plan on talking about in the future again), but to tie it back, I just really… like these kinds of stories.

And I think the theming in Hatori to Furuta no Hinichijou Sahanji (I have no idea what the proper short form is) is very unsubtle and pretty much summarizes why I love it. It’s really just a story about how sometimes, you just have to really look to find something you love. In the boring town that Hatori lives in, obviously in an extreme way, the town was filled with fascinating things. But he just didn’t really “see” it before.

There’s a particularly beautiful scene early on when he gets launched into the air and talks about sunsets. How before he hated sunsets. But then he found it beautiful. It wasn’t just about the angle he saw it at, but it was about how before it was like sealing in the fact the next day would be the same. Of course though, since he found Furuta and went on all these exciting adventures, he now actually looks forward to tomorrow. He finally has the passion to make his life exciting.

In a lot of ways, I relate heavily to his… passion chasing? Maybe that’s a nice succinct way of putting it. I mostly grew up in a suburb where my hobbies mostly revolved around playing games on my computer and other nerd stuff (like reading manga!). As I grew older and older, I never felt like I ever truly clicked with a hobby that I felt like I could be “truly” passionate about.

This is a bit personally ranty so feel to ignore this, but I heavily related to Hatori in the earlier chapters. I was jealous of people who COULD put their all into their passions, who found that drive. I’ve picked up many hobbies (in fact I’m still picking up random hobbies), discarded just as many, all in the hopes that maybe “this is the one!” where I find myself lost in a rabbithole wanting to do better and better. Those early scenes are probably why I found myself so drawn to the series.

It’s why I really like manga where I can feel that passion the author has for what they’re writing. Whether it be a hyper realistic fantasy town, a manga about food, a manga about watches and clocks, and so on, when I can feel the love the author has for the subject they’re writing, those are the series that I tend to fall in love with the most.

So far, I do enjoy this series a lot. I love the main characters and I think the arcs have been fun and interesting too! The art has also been fantastic. Do I sense that same passion for this series from the author? Maybe not yet. But I can sense that passion from Hatori. And I think that’s why I like the series so much.

If this series matures poorly, well, so be it. But let it stand that I really enjoyed the earlier chapters still!