29 to JK

29 to JK is a manga about the trials and tribulations of a coach at a Japanese call centre selling car insurance, with a weird and unnecessary love aspect tacked on. We see from his perspective how he deals with corporate schemes and helps his colleagues on the work floor.

First things first - this is not a manga about lolicons (as of July 2019 at least). I can't fault you for thinking otherwise since the first page does remarkably little to convince the reader to keep on reading the story. It's a bit of a shame since the manga doesn't need an infatuated high school girl in the first place. It's plenty interesting enough without it. Just force yourself through the first few chapters and it'll get better.

STORY - 8
There's been remarkably little manga about work (probably since most readers want to be reminded of their childhood days, not the monotony of corporate life), but 29 to JK goes into deeper detail about various, actual work-related aspects of a call centre, more than you'd expect at first glance.

ART - 7
is ok

CHARACTERS - 6
The protagonist does feel a bit harem-y at times, which is quite often a good indicator of trash. Still, the manga is not littered with cardboard characters and the interactions between characters feel genuine enough, with some fun moments mixed in. As I've said, the romance aspect need not be there to make the manga interesting.

ENJOYMENT - 8
Despite hating any page that included the annoying existence that is Karen (the infatuated high school girl), I did enjoy the manga overall. This manga is at its core a manga about the corporate world, and if that suits your fancy, I'd recommend that you give it a try.

PS: I have not read the novel

For someone who is about to get involved with adulthood, I found 29 to JK to be really informational. Take notes that I still have not done reading this yet, so my review might be incomplete in a lot of ways.

Story : 9
The story is about workers at a call centre, that is under a car insurance company. To be honest, the manga shows how works there are done in great details. I really appreciated those details because they showed me how works are done in a company. Although, this is probably not exactly the same to the real world, it is still a great exposure to me because its intense story have so many lessons for me to be learnt from.

Edit: If you had read the synopsis, it is not all about the call centre. But to me, that is the main reason why I attracted to this manga.

Art : 7
At first, I degraded the art based on its cover, but it is actually clean and pleasant to look at.

Character : 10
The characters are great too, but my favourite is the protagonist himself. His character is potrayed very well as the story goes on. His decision making and opinions on certain matters, in my opinion, are great examples that can be learnt by those who are not yet exposed to adulthood. For example, his way of thinking such as adult's resposibility is something I never understood before I read the manga, even if I was told about it many times.

Enjoyment : 10
I really enjoyed this because it has so much things to learn. There is a moment when I wondered why some incidents happened, but I never thought on dropping this. Yet.

Overall : 9

So, who is this manga for? It is for people, like me, who lacks empathy and do not understand how adults are thinking. Though, you can also read it for fun because it really is!