Please note

This review is all subjective and my own personal opinion. You do not have to agree with it, nor am I asking you to. I hope that this just helps you get an idea of what the manga I am talking about is like and form a basic and general consensus on it. The ratings I give anime and manga are mostly my personal overall enjoyment. This review may contain some spoilers, but all of them will be hidden using the spoiler tag. There will be some images sourced from the manga, but they are all from chapter one. TL;DR will be at the bottom.

Introduction

Bonnouji (rough translation to Temple of Desires) is a manga written and illustrated by Eda Aki, depicting the story of Ozawa Michiyo, who has recently broken up with her boyfriend of five years. As she struggles to pick up the pieces, she comes across Oyamada Zenji who lives in the same apartment complex as her. His room is cluttered with random stuff that his compulsive shopper brother sends him. Ozawa takes an interest in all the things he has and soon their relationship starts to develop into something more...

Plot

Immediately at the beginning of the story we are introduced to the two main characters, Ozawa and Oyamada. The manga is quick to introduce both main characters and their situations. Whilst this may be a bit abrupt and fast, this allows the manga to not waste any time in getting the story off and running, in which it does. As the user thatjosiahburns said on their review on Bonnouji, it "[does not] wasted copious amounts of time on events and [have] characters that do not progress the story in any way". Overall, how the plot presents itself is fairly simple. The chapter has the main two characters (sometimes accompanied with a side character or two) featured, and the events play out. The events that play out vary between each chapter, making it harder to get bored. It was easy for the author of the manga to create all sorts of situations due to Oyamada's brother. His brother sends him all kind of things, ranging from toys to food, so you can never really know what just might be in the next box. These events themselves can simply described as fun. That is a word I am going to use repeatedly to describe this manga because well, it is just fun. The characters are fun, and they enjoy themselves throughout the story. I easily got swept up in the joy of it all. There are not many complications that arise in the plot (or I just cannot remember any), and there was not too much of a need for them. It just means that Eda Aki can focus more on the fun side of love, and the liveliness between Ozawa and Oyamada.

Pacing is important, especially for a manga that is not long. This manga has 36 chapters and the page count in each chapter is not that long. It is easier to make a long story, as you can drag things on and pace the development and plot to your liking. But when faced with a shorter chapter count, it is harder to pace things out properly. For the most part, this manga achieved that. The development was well thought out and paced effectively. The development both the characters and the plot go through were nice, albeit a bit predictable, possibly due to it being a romance. Predictability is not always a bad thing however; one could be spoiled of an entire series but still enjoy it. There were only two, perhaps three instances I can recall where the pacing felt rushed, or things were abrupt. I will discuss this, but under spoiler tags (I will be rambling a little).

Spoiler, click to view

The first instance I can recall of the pacing being off is the beginning, which I mentioned earlier. But this is not that bad, as it allows the story to get started quickly. This is more of a personal gripe if anything. The second instance I can recall is when Ozawa and Oyamada engage in sexual intercourse (yes, this actually happens). When I was reading it, there was some build up to it, but then it cut to them doing it. For me at least, it felt a little off in how it started and abrupt, but again, it is probably a personal issue at best. The last instance is at the very last chapter, where there is a two-year time skip. This means sadly that Ozawa and Oyamada's wedding was skipped (although luckily a small part of it is featured in an omake). Whilst this choice may have been wise, I still would have liked to see it myself. The time skip itself was quite abrupt, but I guess that is how most time skips are. With all of these instances I brought up, you could have no issues with them pacing wise at all, and I can easily see that. Even if it is an issue, these are only small moments in the wider picture, and do not detract from the overall reading experience. Now, I would like to touch on one more topic to finish off this segment in the review. Just before I mentioned that the two main characters engage in sexual intercourse. Now, sexual intercourse can be a fickle thing to execute well, where it be finding the right moment in the story to implement it in or providing actual meaning to the story. In most of the manga and anime I have come across where such scenes were present, their implementation was not always the best, either feeling out of place or feeling like it was just put in for the sake of it. In Bonnouji's case, fortunately this is not the case. The scene had actual placement in the story and had significance between Ozawa and Oyamada. The dialogue that happens in the scene is not just sex related, but has meaning between the two, and there is some development present. Usually, these kinds of scenes are not really my kind of thing, but I did not mind reading this one in particular. That said, you could skip this scene entirely and not miss out on much. It is in chapter 22 for those who want to know. There are other instances where Ozawa and Oyamada engage in intercourse, but these are implied.

Characters

Possibly due to the short chapter length, there are not many characters featured in this manga. There are the two main characters I have talked about earlier, and two notable side characters.

The first main character to talk about Ozawa Michiyo. She has the typical office desk job and is often seen working hard in her job. Outside of work, she is often cheery and she likes to drink too. Her personality is not anything unique, but that helps the reader better relate to Ozawa, which makes reading Bonnouji even better. She brings fun to any situations and is easy to like. Next to discuss is Oyamada. First impressions of him can be he is a introvert or shut in, given his appearance and his job (he works from home). In reality, he is more than that. He is not as outgoing as Ozawa, but he still shows kindness and care for her. He too, is easy to like and relate to. The contrasting personalities also help assist in making their relationship better. The relationship between the main two is one of the strongest points of the manga. It effectively drew me in and kept me reading. Their relationship as well as Oyamada and Ozawa was pretty cute as well. The development of the relationship as well as the main two was satisfying to read. There are two notable side characters featured in Bonnouji. They mainly serve to assist the main characters through the story. They were easily overshadowed by Ozawa and Oyamada, but that does not mean they were bad additions to the story. They brought extra personality and variety to the overall story.

Art

Compared to other manga, some could say the art style is simpler in regard. Even then, I still quite liked the art style, it was cute when it needed to be and the emotions of the characters were effectively conveyed through it. I personally liked the art style and is stands out from the other manga I have read.

Conclusion and TL;DR

Someone recommended this to me, and I am really glad they did. I usually do not read many heterosexual romances but this was a really good read. This is an easy recommendation to people who like to read romance manga. It is not a long read, and takes you in for a wonderful read while it has you. To summarise this long review:

• This manga wastes no time, quickly getting things started.
• A fun and enjoyable plot that is well paced for 36 chapters.
• Both the plot and characters' development is well thought out and paced.
• The characters are easy to like and are highly relatable.
• The art compliments the manga, being cute when it needs to be and the emotions of the characters are conveyed effectively.

Hopefully you were able to get something out of this review. If you did not like this review, then I apologise for wasting your time. I would like to thank Eda Aki for crafting such a wonderful story. And of course, thank you for reading this review. Hopefully you can enjoy this manga too.