Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? Volume 5

Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? volume 5 keeps the series, about finding young women the perfect apartment, fresh in two ways. Author MAKIHIROCHI continues to find different reasons and challenges for the house-hunters, while we see more about what the real estate agent twins are doing for their own living space.

The first chapter presents a young woman moving out on her own for the first time, accompanied by her mother, who finds fault with everything. Can the pushy sisters help her find an apartment that will make her happy?

Another client loves the flexibility of apartment living, refusing to be tied down to a house. She moves frequently and wants to avoid bad neighbors. But not every single woman is like that — another is settling in a house early to make her own place. The nature of “home” and the different things people are attracted to are thought-provoking.

The sisters, meanwhile, are living elsewhere while their family home is being renovated. The head of the project walks some visitors through, showing them, and the reader, all the different kinds of improvements that can be made to modernize.

There’s a subtext in several of the stories about how quickly things change in Kichijoji, and how it’s such a shame when local places shut down. That’s a feeling anyone interested in city life can empathize with. Popular places are expensive, and bigger companies have more money than small proprietors, but it’s the local specialities that give a neighborhood character.

I felt seen by one of the chapters, about a woman who works long hours and wants to live near fun places to do things. My job’s more reasonable than that, but the agents take her to a store with European board games and then to see pro wrestling. I also appreciated the chapter about a woman addicted to social media who winds up in a beach town.

Each new chapter of Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live?, about women finding out what’s important in their lives, gives me something new to think about. I’m so glad this digital manga is available.