10/27/2022:

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

Edited to represent my current feelings on the series. Some references to other series and some rants were deleted from the review. I did this because I don't care about this stuff very much anymore.

Spoilers...

I'm not a big fan of books wasting my time, this one doesn't.

Pretty much every romance manga you can read is like 70% stalling, kind of wack, a bit silly. Whether it be Komi, Nisekoi, or the eternal hellscape of fire and brimstone called Rent-a-girlfriend, all of these manga move at a pretty slow pace.

In a medium where interesting characters are put in seemingly endless stories, I would like to introduce a manga that does have an end in sight, one that doesn't waste you're time, where the characters, while not being the best ones out there, won't make you groan.

This manga is Bonnouji.

Bonnouji is a story starring two adults living in the same apartment complex, two floors apart from each other. One night Michiyo Ozawa stumbles into Zenji Oyamada's apartment after sorrow drinking due to a recent breakup with her boyfriend of 5 years. after recovering in the restroom, she exits to find a room filled with things ranging from otaku merchandise to baseball flags.

They then decide to open a box that has alcoholic beverages inside. They share a drink, which then starts a friendship, which later turns into something much more.

It has pretty great progression, no seriously, read it, you might be surprised.

The story is pretty chill, no big events or set pieces are present, but at least you wont be seeing the quadrillionth school festival arc.

The art is alright, it gets the job done, just looks sort of unpolished at times.

The characters are nice. there's the main characters who are Michiyo and Zenji, Michiyo is an office lady who often drinks and smokes, she also likes opening the boxes with Zenji, Zenji is a programmer guy who is sent boxes of random stuff from his brother, thus explaining all the stuff in the room, he's pretty laid back.
Some other minor characters do appear but don't really affect the story that much. (Except for one instance of Zenji's brother, he is rather integral to the story.)

This is my favorite manga, I like it a lot. And while yes, others may have higher highs, bonnouji never hits the lower lows, it is consistently high quality.

Overall I would recommend this to people who like short stories, but not to younger readers because it does have some nudity if that's something you care about.

9/10