History Manga / SkullFaceBooksellerHondaSan

''Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san'' (ガイコツ書店員本田さん ''Gaikotsu Shoten'in Honda-san''[[note]]lit. "Skeleton Bookstore Employee Honda"[[/note]]) is a semi-autobiographical Japanese comedy manga series by the titular Honda. It depicts Honda's [[SliceOfLife day-to-day life]] as an awkward bookstore employee... except [[SamusIsAGirl she portrays herself]] as a skeleton and protects all of her former coworkers' identities by drawing them with weird masks and other headgear.

''Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san'' (ガイコツ書店員本田さん ''Gaikotsu Shoten'in Honda-san''[[note]]lit. "Skeleton Bookstore Employee Honda"[[/note]]) is a semi-autobiographical Japanese comedy manga series by the titular Honda. It depicts Honda's [[SliceOfLife day-to-day life]] as an awkward bookstore employee... except Honda portrays themself as a skeleton and protects all of their coworkers' identities by drawing them with weird masks and other headgear.

* GratuitousEnglish: The bookstore is often visited by tourists from all around the world, and Honda says that they have a face that suggests that they know English, although they say they aren't very fluent in it. When they meet, this trope ensues:
** The entire conversation involving the handsome older man in the first chapter/episode. He comes in looking for a doujinshi for his daughter, clueless as to its subject matter. Honda can't speak much English, either. After spending a while mentally preparing an explanation of why the bookstore doesn't carry it, they simply blurt out, "Sorry, we don't have this one. It's...''Special YAOI book!''"
** In episode 5, Honda has to explain to a Brazilian tourist why Japanese manga are in black-and-white while Western comics are colorful. While Honda speaks, [[LampshadeHanging a banner reading "Let's! Bullshit English Time!" appears]]. Honda's explanation is grammatically correct, but it's clear Honda is having a hard time getting the words out.

* MediumAwareness: Honda is still working at the bookstore while Honda's writing the manga, which causes the two to blur together when Honda goes to a company ''nomikai'' for networking only to meet a colleague from another store who says that he doesn't find ''Skull-face Bookseller'' believable because the main character doesn't hate their wholeseller as much as he does. This prompts Honda to apologize, leaving the other employee dumbfounded once he realizes that he is speaking to ''the real'' Skull-face Bookseller, but that soon fades into a rant that Honda needs to be more demeaning towards his store's wholeseller, who we have already met earlier in the episode and who everyone at Honda's store likes as a friend and fellow nerd.

* RomanAClef: Aside from Honda themself (although "Honda" is obviously an [[PunnyName alias]]), every one of Honda's former bookstore coworkers is simply referred to by the mask Honda has drawn them wearing. Honda's editor, however, requests to be named "Azarashi" (Japanese for "seal"), and is drawn as an anthropomorphic seal.

* StylizedForTheViewer: The author portrays themself as a skeleton and their coworkers as wearing masks, but neither is literally the case, they're all humans that dress normally.

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: In the episode "Yaoi Girls from OVERSEAS!!!", a stereotypical {{Otaku}} celebrates finding the book she wanted very loudly in the middle of the crowded bookstore. Nobody bats an eye except for Honda-san.
* YaoiFangirl: "Yaoi Girls from OVERSEAS!!!" revolves around Honda-san dealing with a bunch of these, and his embarrassment at having to give them suggestions on what books to get.

''Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san'' (ガイコツ書店員本田さん ''Gaikotsu Shoten'in Honda-san''[[note]]lit. "Skeleton Bookstore Employee Honda"[[/note]]) is a semi-autobiographical Japanese comedy manga series by the titular Honda. It depicts his [[SliceOfLife day-to-day life]] as an awkward bookstore employee... except he portrays himself as a skeleton and protects all of his coworkers' identities by drawing them with weird masks and other headgear.

* GratuitousEnglish: The bookstore is often visited by tourists from all around the world, and Honda says that he has a face that suggests he knows English, although he says he isn't very fluent in it. When they meet, this trope ensues:
** The entire conversation involving the handsome older man in the first episode. He comes in looking for a doujinshi for his daughter, clueless as to its subject matter. Honda can't speak much English, either. After spending a while mentally preparing an explanation of why the bookstore doesn't carry it, he simply blurts out, "Sorry, we don't have this one. It's...''Special YAOI book!''"
** In episode 5, Honda has to explain to a Brazilian tourist why Japanese manga are in black-and-white while Western comics are colorful. While he speaks, [[LampshadeHanging a banner reading "Let's! Bullshit English Time!" appears]]. His explanation is grammatically correct, but it's clear Honda is having a hard time getting the words out.

* MediumAwareness: Honda is still working at the bookstore while he's writing the manga, which causes the two to blur together when he goes to a company ''nomikai'' for networking only to meet a colleague from another store who says that he doesn't find ''Skull-face Bookseller'' believable because the main character doesn't hate his wholeseller as much as he does. This prompts Honda to apologize, leaving the other employee dumbfounded once he realizes that he is speaking to ''the real'' Skull-face Bookseller, but that soon fades into a rant that Honda needs to be more demeaning towards his store's wholeseller, who we have already met earlier in the episode and who everyone at Honda's store likes as a friend and fellow nerd.

* RomanAClef: Aside from Honda himself (although "Honda" is obviously an [[PunnyName alias]]), every one of his former bookstore coworkers is simply referred to by the mask Honda has drawn them wearing. His editor, however, requests to be named "Azarashi" (Japanese for "seal"), and is drawn as an anthropomorphic seal.

* StylizedForTheViewer: The author portrays himself as a skeleton and his coworkers as wearing masks, but neither is literally the case, they're all humans that dress normally.

** Honda's depiction of trying to keep unsold stock hidden from publishers parodies the flashback scene in ''Anime/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'' where young Nausicaa tries to hide a baby Ohmu from her parents.

You can find the anime on {{Website/Crunchyroll}} [[https://www.crunchyroll.com/skull-face-bookseller-honda-san here]].

!!This anime provides examples of:
* [[ClumsyCopyrightCensorship Clumsy Trademark Cencorship]]:

** Honda immediately recognizes that the old guy is unknowingly looking for a ''{{Manga/Gintama}}'' doujinshi for his daughter.

* YaoiFangirl: "Yaoi Girls from OVERSEAS!!!" revolves around Honda-san dealing with a bunch of these, and his embarrassment at having to give them suggestions on what books to get.

!!This anime provides examples of
----

* StageNames: Aside from Honda himself (although "Honda" is obviously an [[PunnyName alias]]), every one of his former bookstore coworkers is simply referred to by the mask Honda has drawn them wearing. His editor, however, requests to be named "Azarashi" (Japanese for "seal"), and is drawn as an anthropomorphic seal.

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight:
** Nobody finds it unusual that their cashier is a skeleton, nor that the rest of the bookstore staff all wear masks. However, this is just how the author is portraying himself and his coworkers rather than ''actually'' being a skeleton or wearing masks.
** In the episode "Yaoi Girls from OVERSEAS!!!", a stereotypical {{Otaku}} celebrates finding the book she wanted very loudly in the middle of the crowded bookstore. Nobody bats an eye except for Honda-san.

** Honda immediately recognizes that the old guy is unknowingly looking for a ''{{Manga/Gintama}}'' doujinshi for his daughter. This only happens in the anime; in the original the exact manga was never mentioned.

''Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san'' (ガイコツ書店員本田さん ''Gaikotsu Shoten'in Honda-san''[[note]]lit. "Skeleton Bookstore Employee Honda"[[/note]]) is a semi-autobiographical Japanese comedy manga series by the titular Honda. It depicts his [[SliceOfLife day-to-day life]] as an awkward bookstore employee. Except he portrays himself as a skeleton and protects all of his coworkers identities by drawing them in weird masks and other headgear.

* GratuitousEnglish: The bookstore is often visited by tourists, Honda-san says that he has a face that suggests he knows English, although he says he isn't very fluent in it. When they meet, this trope ensues:

** In episode 5, Honda-san has to explain to a Brazilian tourist why Japanese manga are in black-and-white while Western comics are colorful. While he speaks, [[LampshadeHanging a banner reading "Let's! Bullshit English Time!" appears]]. His explanation is gramattically-correct, but it's clear Honda is having a hard time getting the words out.

** Episode 6 [[https://i.gyazo.com/04dd2b5f4709761c17116ebb19596e86.jpg has a black line over]] [[Manga/GeGeGeNoKitaro Daddy Eyeball]]'s namesake eye that doesn't cover it at all while talking about "Ki**ro".

** Episode 6 [[https://i.gyazo.com/04dd2b5f4709761c17116ebb19596e86.jpg has a black line over]] [[Manga/GeGeGeNoKitaro Daddy Eyeball]]'s namesake eye that doesn't cover it at all while talking about "K**ro".

** Episode 6 [[https://i.gyazo.com/04dd2b5f4709761c17116ebb19596e86.jpg has a black line over]] [[Manga/GeGeGeNoKitaro Daddy Eyeball]]'s namesake eye.

** Episode 6 has a black line over [[Manga/GeGeGeNoKitaro Daddy Eyeball]]'s namesake eye.

* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship:
** Book titles have only one or two letters censored in the subtitles, and the titles are covered by a scratching sound. It's still easy enough to guess what they're talking about, especially since in at least one case, the title had different letters censored each time it was spoken, so viewers could just fill in the blank letters with the ones from the other instance.

!This anime provides examples of

* ClusterFBomb: Honda briefly does a mental one when he starts panicking over his recommendations to the YaoiFangirls.

* ExpressiveSkull: Occasionally, but it's mostly drawn when Honda is thinking to himself.

* PunnyName: The "''hon''" in "Honda" is Japanese for "book".

* SilverFox: "The Handsome Guy is First in Line" revolves around a handsome gray-haired man trying to purchase [[{{Hentai}} a very inappropriate book]] for his daughter.

* CoolMask: All the bookstore staff aside from Honda are depicted with masks. They range from a kitsune, bōgu, bunny, robot, doll, knight, gas mask, welding helmet, plague doctor mask, Halloween pumpkin, mummy bandages, and a simple paper bag.

* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: Book titles have only one or two letters censored in the subtitles, and the titles are covered by a scratching sound. It's still easy enough to guess what they're talking about, especially since in at least one case, the title had different letters censored each time it was spoken, so viewers could just fill in the blank letters with the ones from the other instance.

** Honda immediately recognizes that the old guy is unknowingly looking for a ''{{Manga/Gintama}}'' doujinshi for his daughter. This only happens in the anime, [[invoked]][[ActorAllusion where Honda is voiced by]] Creator/DaisukeSakaguchi; in the original the exact manga was never mentioned.

** Honda immediately recognizes that the old guy is unknowingly looking for a ''{{Manga/Gintama}}'' doujinshi for his daughter.