Manga Debuts: Tekiou Shougai de Kaisha wo Yameta Shinsotsu to Bocchi Haishinsha
Mental health problems are something that can affect everyone, but very rarely is it the main focus of mainstream manga series. However, that’s what makes Amai’s series Tekiou Shougai de Kaisha wo Yameta Shinsotsu to Bocchi Haishinsha (Day By Day, Two Lonely Hearts Learn to Carry On) for MANGA UP! stand out from the crowd. Volume 1 has recently been released in Japan, and Volume 2 is tentatively scheduled for a release in the summer.
The series has been serialised on MANGA UP! since December 2025 and, at the time of writing, has reached nine chapters. However, it is on hiatus due to Amai’s health and getting Volume 2 ready for publication. For language learners, Tekiou Shougai de Kaisha wo Yameta Shinsotsu to Bocchi Haishinsha doesn't have an excessive amount of dialogue, and there are a lot of daily life scenes, but there’s no furigana, and due to the subject matter, there’s likely to be vocabulary you haven’t encountered before. So, I’d recommend it for someone who is at an intermediate level and/or willing to look things up as needed.
The Premise
The story follows protagonist Kengo Murakami, who is struggling with adjustment disorder after the stress of his first job after graduation. Now he lives as a shut-in, unable to seek help and sleeping his days away in a messy apartment that never sees the light of day.
Except one day, he gets a notification for a streamer he’d followed on “Imasetagram” previously. The streamer is known as Apo, a college student who has social anxiety but wishes to share a meal with someone. Her loneliness led her to start the channel, and although she has no followers, she goes live every day at lunchtime. When Kengo happens to join her stream, Apo is overjoyed to have her first viewer.
Gradually, the two start a relationship resembling something like friendship. Through Apo’s encouragement, Kengo finally has some food that isn’t just a nutritional jelly, and as they keep talking, perhaps he will be able to start working on getting his life back on track. But his meeting with Apo is not an instant fix, and what I especially appreciate here is that mangaka Amai doesn’t pretend that it can or will be.
A Realistic Depiction of Mental Health
Amai doesn’t shy away from depicting the harsh realities of mental illness. The trauma Kengo goes through when memories of his situation are triggered is represented most often by pages depicting him drowning or being pushed underwater by his old colleagues. Similarly, there are instances where his vision is swimming, or the world is closing in around him. Even as someone who hasn’t been through what Kengo has, you can feel the weight this is putting on him mentally. But likewise, when he makes a little bit of progress in moving forward, you can see that the load is gradually lifting.
I also really liked a later scene where Kengo was depicted covered in labels, which was an interesting motif, for the fact that mental health problems come in so many forms, but often get boiled down to labels that are then stuck to the individual. And they have their own weight to them due to stigma, which doesn’t necessarily help anyone. And the opening colour pages also show the two in labels, but this time in a more general sense that reflects how society likes to put people in boxes depending on where they are in life.
Since Kengo is the protagonist, we don’t get to see Apo’s perspective as much, but her own struggles with her anxiety are still shown where appropriate. It’s clear she’s not in as bad a place as Kengo is, but Amai never makes light of her anxiety or makes her problems feel lesser, either, which is a careful balance to strike in a story like this. She is not a manic pixie girl here to save the day; she’s her own character with her own problems, and that is both novel and incredibly important for this story and genre.
In closing
Too many of these stories have resolutions that aren’t realistic, but I have faith that Amai won’t let us down that road with Tekiou Shougai de Kaisha wo Yameta Shinsotsu to Bocchi Haishinsha. Kengo and Apo both have to walk the path they’re on and hopefully find themselves in a better place at the end. They have to desire that, lean on one another, and make use of the mental health support around them. And by the end of Volume 1, I have gotten very much on board with following their story for the long run and would encourage you all to as well.
Tekiou Shougai de Kaisha wo Yameta Shinsotsu to Bocchi Haishinsha’s first chapter can be read for free on MANGA UP!’s website and in their dedicated app. Volume 1 is available in print and digitally, with #2 set to follow in the summer.
Images: ©Amai / Square Enix
