Characters / Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san

Honda

Voiced by: Soma Saito

A rookie manga artist and author who for her day job works retail at a bookstore in Tokyo. Her section is foreign comics and oversize art books.

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• Author Avatar: The manga is an autobiographical essay based on the author's time as a retail worker at a large bookstore chain so this is in full effect. It just so happens that Honda decided to draw herself as an ambulatory skeleton.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Honda briefly does a mental one when she starts panicking over her recommendations to the Yaoi Fangirls.
• Dem Bones: Honda draws herself as a skeleton.
• Expressive Skull: Occasionally, but it's mostly drawn when Honda is thinking to herself.
• Extreme Doormat: Downplayed. Honda can't really say no to people because she thinks it's rude to do so - which her fellow employees chastise her for - but she's otherwise normal.
• Female Monster Surprise: Both the real Honda and the character are women, but the latter is drawn as a skeleton, which obscures any gendered features (and her work outfit is unisex). The anime makes this extra confusing by giving her the very male voice of Soma Saito. Honda was even amused that, because woman readers found her author avatar cute, the anime decided to change her apparent gender for the show.
• Friendly Skeleton: Though not a particularly jovial example.
• Gender Flip: Subverted in the anime; Honda is voiced by the male Soma Saito, but she is mentioned to still be a woman.
• Gratuitous English: What her English devolves to when she's speaking to foreign customers, especially when she's stressed.
• Irony: Despite her Gratuitous English, she's in charge of the foreign comics.
• Nice Guy: Honda is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. She's earnest about her work and does her best to help her customers, regardless of what they're looking for.
• Only Sane Man: By virtue of every employee being extremely quirky and hammy to a fault, Honda comes off as this.
• Punny Name: The "hon" in "Honda" is Japanese for "book".
• Ridiculously Average Guy: Honda is an otherwise completely normal person, other than being drawn as a skeleton.
• Skull for a Head: As the title says.

Kamibukuro

Voiced by: Yuko Sanpei

One of Honda's senior colleagues at the bookstore, and one of her closest friends amongst the sales staff. His section is the yonkoma manga shelf.

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• Brown Bag Mask: Presented as wearing a paper bag with eye holes.
• Gender Flip: Subverted. He gets voiced by Yuko Sanpei in the anime, who is obviously a woman, but he gets referred to as a guy nonetheless.
• Large Ham: Kamibukuro is very exuberant and is often yelling, probably due to panic.

Armor

Voiced by: Akemi Okamura

One of Honda's superiors at the bookstore in charge of the comics section. Her section is boys love comics.

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• Fangirl: Of male idols and yaoi books. She even takes some of her coworkers to see idol shows with her.
• Cool Mask: Her head's covered in a knight's helmet.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Since she's in charge of the BL section of the store, it's only natural that she'd be this. She's not overbearing about however, aside from the times that she gets a new BL book or attending idol concerts.

Bandage

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura

One of Honda's senior colleagues at the book store. Her section is the shojo manga shelf.

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• Cool Mask: Is drawn with a face covered in gauze bandages.

Ko-omote

Voiced by: Aya Endo

One of Honda's junior colleagues at the book store. Her section is the boys love and teen love manga shelf.

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• Cool Mask: The ko-omote mask represents beauty, cuteness and youth.

Full-Face

Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto

One of Honda's senior colleagues at the bookstore. His section is the Shogakukan shelf.

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• Cool Mask: Shown wearing a full face helmet, like a motorcycle racing helmet.
• Nice Guy: Soft-spoken and humble, and not only keeps his area well organized, but helps organize other employees' areas in the stock room without having to be asked. Even the cynical Gas Mask is appreciative.

Rabbit Head

Voiced by: Kazutomi Yamamoto

One of Honda's junior collagues at the book store. Her section is the gaming books shelf.

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• Cool Mask: Her head's covered in a rabbit mascot's head.

Lantern

Voiced by: Kimiko Saito

One of Honda's senior colleagues at the bookstore. She and Honda speak very informally to each other. Her section is the Shueisha shelf.

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• Pumpkin Person: Averted as it's just a stylized mask Honda chose to hide the real Lantern's identity.

Kendo

Voiced by: Kōtarō Nishiyama

One of Honda's colleagues at the bookstore. He originally worked in the distribution department before being transferred to comics.

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• Muscles Are Meaningless: Honda notes that despite being very slim, he's able to pick up and carry heavy loads of books without much effort. This is because he used to work in the distribution department, which involves a lot of heavy lifting.
• Nice Guy: He's incredibly nice and soft-spoken, which quickly wins over his new coworkers.

Okitsune

Voiced by: Shizuka Itō

One of Honda's senior colleagues at the bookstore in charge of the comics section. Her section is the Kodansha shelf.

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• Cool Mask: Her head's covered in a kitsune's mask.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She may come across as abrasive, but she's genuinely caring for her coworkers and will even get defensive when one of them is treated incorrectly.
• Lady Swears-a-Lot: Her language is foul and unprofessional, yet it supplies her with a unique charm.

Yōsetsu Mask

Voiced by: Toshiki Masuda

One of Honda's senior colleagues at the book store. His section is Light Novels.

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• Cool Mask: Is drawn wearing a welding helmet.

Gas Mask

Voiced by: Wataru Hatano

One of Honda's senior colleagues at the book store. His section is the Kadokawa manga shelf.

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• Meaningful Name: His head's covered in a Avon SF-10 respirator.
• Not So Stoic: Seems to be the grumpy, cynical, unflappable one at first... until a 5,000-yen discrepancy in the closing tills causes him to flip out and panic visibly in a manner that fits in with the rest of the staff's antics.
• Only Sane Man: His unflappable nature puts him as this compared to many of the other employees, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have his hammy moments every now and then.

Pest Mask

Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa

One of Honda's superiors at the bookstore. Her section is manga published by Hakusensha.

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• Cool Mask: Wears a distinctive plague doctor's beaked mask, also known as a pest mask.
• Plague Doctor: Has the mask, but also the large brimmed hat.

Majutsushi

Voiced by: Ryūsei Nakao

The chief of the distribution department at Honda's bookstore.

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• Cool Mask: He is drawn wearing a full hooded mask shaped like a wizard's cap.
• Crazy-Prepared: He often has a plan in place for whenever the bookstore's inventory seems to run out of something. Because of this, many of the employees respect him immensely.
• Meaningful Name: Honda chose to call her store's chief of distribution "sorceror" because no matter what seemed to happen with regards to their inventory, he will have already solved the issue before anyone else was aware, from extra orders of manga volumes to the sudden interest in esoteric subjects like the ebola virus due to current events.

Azarashi

Voiced by: Ayumu Murase

Honda's editor at Kadokawa. She asked to be drawn as a baby harp seal.

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• Gender Flip: Azarashi gets voiced by Ayumu Murase in the anime. Much like Honda's casting, the real editor is a woman. However, the anime does mention that she's a woman, making this subverted.
• Meaningful Name: Japanese for seal.
• Samus Is a Girl: Like Honda, Azarashi is drawn in a way that makes it impossible to tell the gender of the real person behind the "mask" until the manga shows her full body wearing a skirt.
• Visual Pun: The mangaka's editor, depicted as a Japanese spotted seal. As an editor, she has to review Honda's work and give it the green light, making her a Seal of Approval.

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