Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou 1 & 2 (Ashinano)
I think I first heard of this manga when they announced the deluxe omnibus editions, but every time I tried to go order the first volume, it was out of stock. When RightStuf did its big final sale as they were eaten by the ever-chewing maw of Crunchyroll, I went and looked and lo! They had all three volumes in stock. So I bought them all. And, uh, well, a lot of Laid Back Camp (see below lol).
Yokohama Shopping Log, or YKK, is, from what I can tell, the progenitor of the "cozy end of the world" manga, like Girls Last Tour or Humanity Has Declined. It is very good. The main character is Alpha, a humanoid robot left behind by her owner to tend the coffee shop at the end of the world. That is to say, the world has ended. Ecological disaster flooded vast swathes of land, resources are drying up, and, well... people get on with their lives. It's not numb to the suffering that happened during the cataclysm, but most of the characters weren't there for that. Several were, and as the story continues we get moments with them as well, reliving strange moments, like when "Uncle" and "Doctor," decades ago, rode out to the new edge of land where the latest flooding has taken things back.
But in general it's a slice of life story about what the world looks like when it no longer looks like now.
I bought a coffee grinder because I'm an impressionable asshole and all the coffee drinking got to me (I was thinking about it anyway). Asashino is also very good at drawing both everything and also dumb cute faces.
Laid Back Camp v8 (Afro)
It's more Laid Back Camp, what do you want from me? This volume begins the Izu camping trip story, which is where season 2 of the anime ended. It's got some nice jokes that didn't make it in, and overall it's good. My opinion of Laid Back Camp, like Nozaki-Kun, is that it's fine, but the anime is actually better, but, you know, there's more manga... so I read it. LBC is better than N-K in that sense I guess, I genuinely like it on its own.
Delicious in Dungeon 11 (Kui)
It's more Delicious in Dungeon, what else do you want from me? The "oh fuck us" plot point comes here, while we thankfully still get plenty of time to listen to Laios pontificate about monsters.
A Night in the Lonesome October (Zelazny)
It's confusing to me that Zelazny has fallen into obscurity, especially given that he was still writing and well-loved in fandom circles in the early 90s. This is, I believe, his last novel. I read it every year in October -- each chapter is a day of the month, so I read one chapter each day.
The story is that, every so often when the full moon rises on the 31st day of October, it's possible for those who wish it to open a portal to the other dimensions and allow the Elder Gods through, and like a magnet, those who wish to stop them draw to the area as well. Less a love letter to Lovecraft's work, it's a love letter to old horror, Hammer movies, Poe and Stoker and Doyle. Sherlock Holmes shows up, investigating a murder, and figures out there's a ritual afoot. Jack the Ripper lives across town from Dr. Frankenstein.
But the narrator is Snuff, a wizard's familiar -- a dog, in fact. He guards the house and walks the town, networking with all the other familiars, who do business in a professional manner, not knowing who's wanting to open the portal to hell and who wants to keep it closed. You should read this book.
It's worth noting specially that Zelazny has a sense of humor. The book is very funny, in a goofy macabre way. The Gahan Wilson illustrations add to that as well.
CW: there's a chapter in which abused dogs are described, and there's a threat of vivisection leveled against Snuff. It's set in the Victorian period after all. You see it coming as you begin the chapter and can just skip to the last page, in which, I'll go ahead and say, the assholes get their just reward for such behavior.
