I love how there are so many types of manga. As a mangaphile I'm a die-hard fan of fantasy, isekai and magical school, mangas but I also adore some simple realistic slice-of-life mangas.
Seto Utsumi is going to be on my list of "Fav Slice-of-life". I loved the artwork. of Konomoto sensei. The subtle combination of humour and the unreliable and indecisive future is portrayed very well.
Japanese art and literature have a way of making you feel melancholic, however humourous the situation be. The theme where teens are comprehending where to go after their school life ends is nothing new but every mangaka has their own way of telling the story. Kadzuya Konomoto has done it very well.
This manga has been adapted into a live play in Japan as well. So you get an idea of how popular it is.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our library collection on preorder and will recommend it to students.

This manga was comprised of seven chapters, each containing a separate story. Well, story is not quite accurate... Each chapter is really a new conversation between the two teens as they sit by the river after school. They talk about anything and everything, from girls to bullies to ghosts. It's sweet at times, when the boys' affection for one another is made apparent, even without them actually voicing it. They tease each other endlessly, argue and taunt each other, but all in good humour.

Some of the things they talk about did seem rather shallow to me, and the way they spoke was a little strange to me. I get the feeling that this is aimed more at readers who understand the culture a bit more and can relate to the characters.

Personally, I found the book a little boring overall. There was no real plot, which can be nice sometimes, but just felt a little... lost here. Sometimes the boys spoke about interesting topics, but I would have liked to hear more about their personal lives, their emotions and fears. 

This was a strange read, honestly. I didn't particularly like it, though I didn't dislike it either. I just didn't really connect with the characters or enjoy it that much. 2.5 stars.

I received this book from Netgally in an exchange for an honest review.

I haven't read many mangas that have this kind of heart felt friendship. It might seem boring or average when you read it, but it's really well drawn and the characters are just teenagers like many others, yet their randomness makes them kind of quirky and unique. Maybe I feel that way because I had friendships like that, and it's those exact moments that we cherish the most now.
I didn't like much the usage of the words like "yer" rather than "your" but that's the way some people actually speak so I can't be too fussy about it.

An interesting series that I'm willing to come with on the ride for. For more mature audiences that may have grown up with manga and are looking for some more adult content.

I received the e-arc book for an honest review, thank you!

The Seto Utsumi has been made into TV series in Japan, that tells something about the plot. The graphic novel has its charm, representing pure boyish talk, friendship, when nothing particular special is going one, just random conversations and situations involving each others family and school problems, dreams to finally graduate and be someone…like many other students at the age.

I found to like the graphics, facial expressions were illustrated just as watching a movie in black and white. I enjoyes the scenes with sudden rain and background illustrations. The book, however, is not for everyone, especially, I think the audience in Europe and outside Japanese/Asian community have a different expectations from a general book and a graphic novel. Rating Seto Utsumi as manga/graphic novel set in Japan and knowing the culture it represents – I think it’s a nice read, very general episodes of “nothing special” going on in a teenage life, which not always are easy to represent. Very fast read. The book at the times felt repetitive, but nothing too much.

The comic captures the random, laid back nature of teens. Set and his best friend Utsumi encounter stuff, chat about stuff, smoke some stuff etc.

I liked the illustration / graphic work but Utsumi looks a lot like Urushi and Narayami is a fat version of both. And for a colored book, the hair color, styles are similar in all boys / men/ women drawn.

Konomoto's Seto Utsumi follows the eponymous Seto and Utsumi, two high school boys, as they shoot the breeze by a river each afternoon while Utsumi is waiting to go to cram school. There are seven different chapters, following seven different, non consecutive days. One day, the pair play badminton. Another day they spend discussing bad habits. Or talking about learning to tie a tie. Overall, neither the artwork, nor the stories appealed to me. Perhaps I'm just too far removed from high school trivialities, but the conversations seemed rather shallow and boring to me. The person most interesting to me was Naruyama, the bully. He shows in several of the chapters, and I can't help but wonder what his full story is. What's going on behind the scenes to make him the way he is?

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Akita Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I thought it was a little different - almost a modern day 徒然草 in manga form. The setting hardly changes and it made me feel like I'm eavesdropping on someone's conversation most of the time. But it wasn't hard to follow. I think I'd like to read more of the series.

I really enjoyed this manga.
The artist is really great as with character design, as with the enviroment. I really liked that.
This is not an average "slice of life", I can even say it's closer to a seinen, but not even that serious.
It's great how Katzuya made a routine conversation between 2 teenagers so interesting and catchy. There's a big load of nostalgia and comedy (japanese comedy, maybe if you are not used to read manga or watch manga you won't be able to enjoy it)
I want to read the rest of it badly.

Really not my kinda manga style and it was a bit tedious. Nothing much happens but constant talking about random subjects. I like more of a fleshed out plotline, I doubt I'd read the next volume.

I wanted to give this book a shot, but Adobe Digital Editions kept crashing when it tried to go past the cover. It had no problem with the other titles I am previewing.

4 stars. It only loses 1 star because it was too short and I felt it was over in a jiffy.

Do you have a really close friend, with whom you've shared many conversations, nonsensical and funny but also serious at the same time? If so, you'll see yourself and your friend in this manga. I know I did. I thought it was incredibly relatable, funny (the humour in this was right up my alley), and, honestly, very entertaining to read. Even though it sounds silly, I really enjoyed seeing myself in this, even though I'm obviously not a high school boy. It was nice to see that other people have silly conversations like that, too.

This is a collection of stories revolving around two friends Seto and Utsumi and the bouts of talking that occur when they hang out after school.

I was expecting most of their talks to be comedic in general and while their conversations can turn humorous their conversations can be serious at times. Right off the bat, through the art, I can see how different they are and yet here they are talking about random happenings. I found that most of their conversations are very normal where everyone can relate to one topic yet have their own twist added in to help portray each boy’s personality. I thought the artwork perfectly captured the ordinariness of the situation. The pacing in each panel really helped to create those comedic pauses when needed, and how calm or quick each conversation is.

This is the first release of an eight volume series. This is the great start of a wonderful relationship and I can’t wait to find out what happens next.

“If you can’t learn to smile, you’re just gonna end up with a heap of memories you can’t enjoy.”

This is read right to left as is tradition with manga. The characters have a Kansai dialect which is often depicted with a southern states slang in the US.

The stories are simple little snippets of the lives of two high school boys; a girl one likes, how much one hates a spider in his room, bullies, and learning how to tie a tie for a wedding, and an afternoon playing badminton. Seto and Utsumi are nearly complete opposites of each other; one being deeply into his studies and just wasting time before cram school, the other just wasting time in general.

Usually I enjoy these kinds of manga; simple stories that take a slice of a person’s life to show in an artistic form; it’s almost like sitting on a bench people watching, but through book form, but this manga didn’t quite cut it for me. The art was grainy for a manga with a Shonen Jump quality to it instead of a well put together manga.

If you can't learn to smile, you're just gonna end up with a heap of memories you can't enjoy.

Our protagonists, Sokichi and Utsumi, are in high school.

Yeah, that's about it. There is nothing else I can say about this manga other than:

1)The main characters are in high school.
2)They enjoy sitting on steps and talking to each other.
3)They talk about the same things every day


It all starts with a little friendly banter and two friends mulling over old times in elementary school. They talk about the school bully, Naruyama.

Honestly, this manga was still just two friends complaining about life. Well, Utsumi complains and his friend, Sokichi, spouts good (and bad) advice which he never listens to.

Utsumi likes a girl named Ichigo. Not much more to say, really.

The art style is strange, if not a little grating. I'd put it under the category of "uncanny valley", really. I think I would have enjoyed it more if the comic was better.

The friends play Badminton with a guy called Shinji Tanaka. I dont like this comic - it doesn't offer anything except two friends talking. There's no morality, no lesson or anything of interest present in this manga.


There are literally 15 pages of the one friend instructing the other how to tie a tie.

All in all, there is very little I have to say about this manga. I suppose you'd enjoy it if you like high school students mulling over their boring lives.

I need to stop requesting manga off of NetGalley just because it's manga

I'm used to manga where the action is full on and the conversation is mostly grunts and whoa and noises like that. This manga is all conversation. Two high school students who have nothing to do sit on the steps by the river and have teenage boy type conversation. They talk about ghosts, bugs, girls their teachers and the school bully. It isn't exciting but it is pleasant, beautifully drawn and quietly lovely. I saw that it is being filmed and I can imagine that the conversation between the boys is quite good in drama. It is quite good to have a manga which is more quiet and reserved but I think the boys at school are so used to having monstrous action that this one would have much more limited appeal.

'Seto Utsumi #1' by Kadzuya Konomoto is a manga about two friends who sit on some stairs by a river and talk. That didn't draw me in, but that it got made into a movie and a tv series did.

In 8 plus stories, over 164 pages, nothing much happens besides dialogue. These two friends meet and talk about, well, not much. There is some competition over badminton, or whose sparkler will last the longest. There is a recurring bully that doesn't seem very threatening, and there is the girl that one of the boys awkwardly likes but can't ever seem to get the nerve up to approach. There is a bonus story at the end of this volume that explains how they met. And that's about it.

I suspect you'd have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy this. It does remind me of other conversation driven media I've seen, but with more of the cynicism of youth thrown in. The art is really quite good. The characters don't do a whole lot, but the perspective is fluid and doesn't make the lack of plot feel static and boring. It's probably not for everyone, but I kind of liked it.

I received a review copy of this manga from Akita Publishing Co., Ltd. and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this manga.

This manga gripped my heart in all the right places. I loved the art, the main character easy to relate to, the story interesting and heartfelt.

There's no real plot, just Seto and Utsumi sharing pieces of their lives with each other in the most casual way, through conversation. What I love about manga is that dialogue really drives the story and I loved reading the two of them get closer and just weld together as friends. The art in facial expressions was beautiful and there was so much atmosphere in it all.

It's different and I loved diving into their lives, being a part of the conversation somehow. The lack of direction made for casual conversation, which felt light and uplifting to me.
This was so...awesome!

A love the art and it had a very interesting story, but I struggled to connect to the story. I do want to read similar stories from this author.