Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC!

After leaving Tokyo to return to her hometown to spend time with her dying father, Nichiko meets Chimaki. As the two of them grow close, they help each other with the difficult past they each have.

This was such a beautiful and emotional manga. The last couple chapters had me tearing up. My heart went out to Chimaki. It made me so happy to see that they found a place where they felt the belong once they found each other.

I have read Koari Ozaki’s past work and this is no exception of greatness! This story is about grief, belonging, and rediscovery. I really loved how this story was constructed and the flow of it. Nichiko and Chimaki are an unlikely couple that bring out the best in each other. They found each others resolves while still giving autonomy to the other person. The last several pages of the book had me so scared, but I am happy with how everything turned out. You get to see different people‘s perspectives within the small island town and the roles they play within the story. this was a good and insightful read, and I can’t wait to read it again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vertical comics for this E-ARC.

I went into this manga not know what to expect and let me say it kept surprising me at every turn.

This slice of life romantic manga somehow is both funny and lighthearted while being sad and serious at the same time.

Themes such as dealing with coming home to oversee an estranged parents end of life, battling with depression, infidelity, murder? You wouldn't expect it to also be wholesome and heartwarming.

I read it in one sitting, that's how much it took ahold of my heart.

Give this a try, prepare to cry tears of sadness and joy.

This mangaka has published some of my favorite works. Dogs & Punching bags is a story of love and loss. The art is beautiful and the romance is adorable. I'm such a fan of this quick and emotional read.

Published by Kodansha and available January 21, 2025, Dogs and Punching Bags is a seinen manga following a woman's return to her small town home after heartbreak and her growing relationship with a strange young man with a tragic past. The rural setting is charming and captures the small town life where everyone knows everyone -- for better or for worse -- and the romance between the two leads is well done. This standalone volume will appeal to fans of rural settings, dramatic slice of life storytelling, as well as complex relationships and hopeful endings.

it’s been so long since i’ve read a manga, and i’m so happy to get back into it. i’ve missed it so much and this book is the perfect way back to reading manga. i loved it so much, it’s my first 5-star read for 2025. 🥹♥️

The story takes place on a small island. After her father dies, Nichiko returns to her home and befriends Chimaki. Both Nichiko and Chimaki carry the burden of their past.

I really enjoyed reading about Nichiko and Chimiko supporting each other and moving on from their pasts. It’s nice to see both of them grow and build a deep connection. The little island setting was interesting, and I loved how it all wrapped up at the end.

The artwork is lovely. It was an easy and quick read.

Sweet little manga volume that does focus a little bit much about making new babies to replace dead ones, but still a sweet romance manga.

An intriguing look at life after loss and dealing with grief. The characters are all well-developed and you can feel the love and loss throughout. Both Chimaki and Nichiko are mourning losses in different ways. I love the way that the heavier topics are presented but don’t bog the reader down in sadness. This is my first read by this author and I will be looking for more.

hands-down my favorite work of ozaki’s. this manga, originally a two-volume work, now combined into one volume, touches on a lot of incredibly heavy topics and discusses them in an incredibly human way by being perfectly imperfect. every character is given their due and given the chance to shape themselves into three-dimensional human beings. it was such a refreshing read.

i was down bad for nichiko and chimaki. at the heart of this manga is the budding romance between them: a twenty-three year old hurt puppy of a man and a thirty-four year old woman with more than her fair share of emotional baggage. i loved them and the journey ozaki took us all on. i think this is a great work for seasoned manga fans, as well as one for those who may be new to the format. i’d absolutely recommend it to everyone who it looking for a compelling read.

An absolutely beautiful one shot about growing up, standing on your own, finding yourself and most importantly; love.

Following multiple POVs on a tiny island we see many relationships blossoming and evolving. Nichiko returns to her family home after the death of her father. Leaving her life in Tokyo and returning to the haunting emptiness of her past and make an unlikely friend who may very well change the course and outlook of her life.

This was absolutely beautiful and had me crying!

Beautiful artwork, as always! It's an interesting yet very honestly human story about people who are flawed finding love. The softness of the art style really helps smooth life's edges so we can view even a flawed humans with a warm, hometown romanticism.

I love a heartbreaking tale with a hopeful ending and "Dogs and Punching Bags" definitely delivered that! With its beautiful art style, "Dogs and Punching Bags" approaches a heavy subject by introducing us to a "golden retriever" like character who is always eager to help and loyal like a dog. Cute romance.

Kaori Ozaki has a talent for tackling complicated emotions and nuanced situations. Every character in this work is flawed and going through a loss of some sort, be it, death of a family member, divorce, guilt, or unrequited love, giving the work a certain somberness to it, but there are plenty of lighter moments as well, such as two characters getting together and it's framed as one party excitedly discovering the new land mass that is their partner's body. The characters will make or break the story for you. I found the whole cast interesting, so that made it easy to keep going. Another theme I liked was how it tackled aging, specifically with our leading lady. Various characters called her past her prime in her thirties, but she looked at it as she's still got over half her life left and there is still growing to do. If what I've said sounds interesting, then give this a read!

The story didn't seem to go anywhere. Just a lot of happenings and after a while becomes boring. It can use a more defined purpose. What is the actual intent of the story?

First up a big thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this one, sadly I didn't click with this book at all.

I loved the art (it was so pretty). I loved Nichiko (and I am very curious about her past and why she moved back (we get a hint). I loved that she returned to the island and really picked things up from farming to boxing to living her best life. I loved the island and the community feel. There were several other characters I really liked.
But Chimaki. What the heck is wrong with him? I was shocked that he was 24. He acts for most of the time more like anywhere between 3 and 10 year old. His manners are odd. He behaviour is weird. Then there was a moment he could just fluently tell them all about his travels (and apparently he travelled a lot and was volunteering for all sorts of things) or had some clear thoughts. It just didn't click with me and didn't work, in fact, I just got very annoyed that he was around. Add to that the fact our MC treats him like a puppy? And even lets him do paw and all that. Even sniffs him and thinks he smells like a dog who has been in the sun. Sorry, but no thank you. That is not my thing, great if that is yours, but I am not into puppy play and such.

I gave up at page 109. I just couldn't anymore.

DNF @ 30%

This book had a beautiful art style but the plotting and characters felt underbaked. The plot jumped all over the place making me feel like I had whiplash and the most of the characterization is told not shown. I just honestly was dreading reading more and decided to put it down as I was constantly confused and not having a good time.

I have been wanting to get into comics and art, and this was an amazing place to start! Dogs and punching bags by kaori ozaki kept me on my toes.

While I found this manga to be decent, I do feel like it tried to tackle a lot for the length of the book. Choosing to explore the back stories of Nichiko and Chiamaki, and how they go together makes sense, but adding in Atsumu's issues with his family maybe complicates it a little too much. I did enjoy the character growth experienced by Nichiko and Chiamaki, they both found ways to work through/come to terms with their trauma, and open up to each other. I did think Nichiko's story focused a little too much on the men in her life, I wish she was allowed to have conversations with the other women side characters without it only being about men.

Overall, I did enjoy reading this and found the art to be really nice. I would recommend this to a friend who needed a quick read.

Dogs and Punching Bags is slice of life and seinen. I really enjoy Ozaki's series, since she knows how to make short stories that are full of life and emotion. The original Japanese version is two books long as this is an omnibus containing both of those. It's a good call, since the book feels whole now on a totally different level. Nichiko is a 34-year-old woman, who returns from Tokyo to her home island after learning that the man she loves is married, but didn't tell her. She tries to find herself again and meets this Chimaki named guy, ten years her junior. He's got a past, but that doesn't prevent them of for starting to have feelings for each other. I really enjoyed the age gap and how the woman is older. Especially the ending is wonderful and the picture of everyone at the back shows something great.

The art is wonderful as it always is in Ozaki's manga. The atmosphere is even hollow and sad mostly, but there's that amazing glimmer of hope. The realism is something you can actually touch. I really enjoy stories like this a lot - well-constructed, emotional and relatable. I highly recommend. This is surely a manga for adults in a good way.