January certainly has felt like traveling down a highway at top speed. What do you mean we're already almost done with the first month of 2026?! With that in mind, it feels appropriate to slow down a little and save some cash by taking a slow bus over a fast Uber. Sakane Toyobashi has been putting around Shogakukan and Weekly Shonen Sunday for a little while. Now at long last, the bus known as a regular serialization has pulled up to their stop, and they've taken this opportunity to take a ride. Through this article, we'll take a look at their past itinerary that has led to a cute new rom-com, leaving the station to parts unknown.
The Author
Sakane Toyobashi
I wasn't able to find much personal information about Toyobashi, but, as mentioned above, they've been drawing manga for Shogakukan since at least about 2018. They are from Tokyo, and in 2018, they were 22 years old, so that makes them about 30 now. Like many artists, they have several oneshots on the Sunday Webry webpage for reading. In a bid to keep this concise, we won't go through each one; instead, let's examine the themes seen in their work and their artwork overall.
From the one-shot Meets Brave
I feel like I might have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: Oneshots uploaded to Sunday Webry reflect the date that they were added to the site, and not necessarily original publication. So the oneshot above has an upload date of 2021, but may have been drawn and published before that. That being said, Toyobashi's artwork was serialization-ready even five years ago. One would be forgiven going through their back catalog with the belief that Futari Bus couldn't be their first long series.
From the one-shot Oishi Kaerimichi.
Toyobashi's artwork is so immensely and immediately charming. I think that sums it up best, and it conveys their subject well -they're a big fan of the “boy-meets-girl” trope, be it in a fantasy setting or something like Oishi Kaerimichi (A delicious path back). Yet they're subtle about how they depict relationships between their characters. Simply writing them off as “love stories” or “rom-coms” is a surface-level look. Rather, even in oneshots, there's a sense of awkward, uncomfortable, and yet sweet youth in them. We'll examine this further in Futari Bus proper, but even in the above oneshot, sure love could be an interpretation of what the leads feel for each other, but that simultaneously comes off as too simplistic and perhaps too deep for them. Another point is how these relationships are depicted and begin. For Oishi Kaerimichi the two leads interact over passing the same vending machine on their way home. That's it. It's through that simple interaction (or despite it) that these stories feel more relatable. I think it's not a stretch to say we've had lifelong relationships (for better or worse) begin over as simple an impetus as seeing someone order the same thing at a restaurant or just happen to take the same bus home....hint, hint.
Before we go on to talking about the serial itself, it'd be a missed opportunity to not examine Toyobashi's omnibus oneshot series Jikan wari no soto, or “Outside the Timetable.” As an aside, I think more artists should be...not required, but I guess...it should be encouraged for them to write an omnibus series around a certain theme. I find that more interesting oneshots are born from when an artist examines a theme from different angles moreso than a single one-shot that tells a story once. That aside, the short series is about relationships “off the clock”. For example, one is about a boy who's teased by his friends (playfully) with an “18+” sticker you'd see on ahem, naughty books. Their horseplay accidentally gets what seems to be an innocent (and sort of nerdy) girl involved. The lead goes to apologize, believing the girl will think of him as a pervert, but she simply finds the design of the sticker cute and seemingly doesn't know what it means -until after class (Off the clock). Here, she reveals she knows way more than she lets on and might even be willing to talk to him more about it.
Maybe she's not so innocent...
Other stories involve a straight-laced student and a gyaru walking to school together and realizing they have more in common “off the clock” than not, and two students running into each other in a convenience store. Despite never talking in class, they trade favorite snack foods and see a whole new side to each other. Again, it's these simple triggers leading into significant developments that Toyobashi often depicts, and it's small wonder, as they're so good at it.
The Serial
Futari Bus
Starting in issue #49 of Weekly Shonen Sunday is Sakane Toyobashi's first long serial Futari Bus. The blurb says it's a series about two students who haven't talked in about a year having a conversation.
The Premise
I've alluded to it for a while in this article, but Toyobashi's strength is putting characters in what would be an otherwise mundane situation, adding a bit of youthful charm and awkwardness to it, and then drawing the results. Futari Bus is no different in that regard. In it Shunpei lives in a rural town of barely 3,000 people. Like most kids his age, he rides a bus to school. He shares this ride with once a close friend but now somewhat estranged acquaintance, An Takayagawa, who ended up going to a private middle school. Time has etched a chasm between the two to a point that even though they see each other every day, they haven't spoken, but one day...something changes.
And that thing is a vending machine that was once there, but is there no longer. Shunpei, who's become used to sorta just quietly existing in the same space as An reveals his shock at this development, and to his surprise, she (equally surprised) responds to his outburst with a “huh, guess so.” Little did they know this exchange would be the impetus for a new conversation to begin.
Yeah, that's it. That's the premise. In the hands of someone else, that'd make for a great oneshot and not much more, but Toyobashi's been sharpening their skills for the last five years and knows how to get the most out of this scenario. Shunpei is a country kid, and as such, his peers feel like An who's going to a snooty private school thinks of herself as better than them. But it's clear he's more disappointed that things ended up this way than feeling betrayed by An seemingly turning her back on their childhood memories. The implication of this is that he wants to speak to her again, maybe to find out what happened, maybe just to keep what they had before. Potentially because it'd be better than sitting in the bus in silence. Though due to the passage of a year, it's just...hard to. Though that's just the thing about relationships, we often make them harder than they need to be. I mean, all it took was remarking about a missing vending machine to begin to fill in a year-long gap.
An's reaction too is fun. In front of Shunpei she's understated, kind of cool. “Huh, I guess so” but once she gets off the bus, she chastises herself for her curt response. It's such a small thing, but reveals much about her as a person -she too has wanted to talk to Shunpei, but likely due to the time passing between them, just couldn't bring herself to. Or, she might just be aware of how their other friends see her as “forgetting the streets” since she's going to a private school, and figures they want nothing to do with her. So, even if they didn't know they wanted to, they do actually want to rekindle what they had before middle school.
Like some series featured in these articles, Futari Bus started with several chapters at once, opposed to an extra-long first chapter. Three chapters to be exact. I think this was a smart move, as even if these chapters could have been combined into one, having them separated does more for this deceptively simple premise. The passage of time is an important “character” in this plot, and seeing it unfurl over three initial chapters allows readers to really spend time with these characters and understand them. In fact, some chapters after the initial three are combined much like Komi Can't Communicate and Tonikaku Cawaii. I've praised the Sunday editorial for allowing authors space (or reducing it) to tell a story they feel is necessary for a chapter, rather than filling in pages to meet a quota, and that's on display with this work too.
It's only chapter two when Shinpei misses the bus (you had one job, dude), which again is an opportunity to talk, as the next day An asks Shinpei what happened to him. Shinpei had been feeling self-conscious about how the conversation (or lack thereof) went, so this serves to assuage his fears a bit, even if An still has a stand-offish vibe, understandable since it has been a year since the two talked, but hey, they manage to at least wave to each other when An gets off at her stop. That's the progress we like to see.
The Japanese Connection
The reception to Futari Bus is far less contentious than Aga Kimi Chiruramu, which is good. Most agree that the artwork is beautiful, and the awkward air between Shinpei and An slowly try to rekindle a friendship, is compelling. Though there are a few worries that the series doesn't have a whole lot to develop outside of that. I also saw two comments from readers not in Japan, which I haven't seen for any other series, which, well, obviously isn't a lot but worth noting. There are also a few jokes about the series being well-drawn NTR, which I'm not sure where that's coming from or if that's some kind of inside joke. (While yes, reading the relationship depicted in the series so far as romantic isn't off base, it's weird to jump all the way there.) I do understand the worry that the premise doesn't lend itself to much, but I trust Toyobashi to expand, or if needed, end the series before goodwill is lost. Though overall readers are receptive to the series, that seems to translate over to editorial expectations. I feel comfortable saying the series may be a moderate success at least as it's polled well in the magazine, and there are a ton of comments in most chapters asking when the books will be out, and an intent to support the series as soon as it releases.
The Verdict
If you've read this far, it's clear how I feel about Toyobashi and, by extension, this series. "Sundayesque" isn't a thing (I'm gonna try to make it one, call it a 2026 resolution!), but if it were, Toyobashi is the perfect embodiment of it. Subtle, charming, character development that at times feels like it's not moving, but to the initiated, they can see it. More than that is Toyobashi's skill as an artist and their intimate understanding of not just relationships but youth. Their manga is like a time capsule of memories we all collectively have and pull from whenever nostalgia tugs at us. To that effect, Futari Bus is a series that, despite one's background or experiences, speaks to everyone on equal terms because it's not quite a rom-com, but rather the spirit of wanting to connect or reconnect with someone, to bond over a shared experience. It is a celebration of the mundane and a reminder that youth comes and goes, and life changes, but the little things: friendship, understanding, and memories remain steadfast, and usually have modest origins. If Futari Bus is only a short stop in the overall trip, that is Weekly Shonen Sunday it's a stop that's worth purposely taking a detour over, and I hope readers worldwide will agree.
Comments
Post a Comment