“Nanisama” Ryo Asai (2012) Review | Unintentionally funny

Nanisama 
Ryo Asai, 2012 
何様
朝井リョウ
Japan
Read in 2025 .03
Not available in English


✔ Japanese society for teens and 20 somethings
✔ Mass employment culture 
✔ Akwardly funny


🔽 Review summary 🔽
★★★★☆ It's a collection of short stories of regular people in Japan, you know one or two of these people. So diligent, awkward and unintentionally funny. I should have read the previous book in the series though


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
My first time reading Ryo Asai.
6 short stories, but who know there was a book before this in the series, called Nanimono.
Both titles meaning something along the line with "who do you think you are"

It's mainly about job hunting, and in Japan they still mass recruit college students in their last year, so that if they successfully graduate, they can work directly from April of the year (if you don't get expected grades, they can cancel their offer)
In winter, you see all the 21, 22 year olds going around Japanese cities in their "recruitment suits" with the same hairstyles, same bags, same nervous faces, memorising the perfect answers to what they know their recruiters will ask.
Anyway so the protagonists are at the verge of new challenges; just got recruited, new start at college, instructor of recruitment.
Their struggles are so normal, they are awkward, but aren't we all a bit awkward?
You want to do thing correctly but end up unintentionally funny, loveable ordinary people.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

何様 Paperback Bunko Japanese Edition

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
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●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
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Not available but the prequal "Nanimono" is here;
Voglio essere qualcuno