I was drawn to pick up this manga after reading this Unshelved.com review; got this one at Barnes and Noble. It's a slice-of-life story about a young calligrapher who moves to a remote village to try and recharge his creative energies.

In this volume, Seishuu's settling in to village life - but of course things aren't going to go smoothly for long. There's an amusing bit in which the little kids get confused by a "protect our children" sign; an adopt-the-adorable-kitten story; a local girl who wants to be a manga artist and gets our hero to read her work (you can guess how well that goes, but it's very funny); another complication when manga-girl spots Seishuu responding to a perfectly-timed delivery of more ink from Hitoshi; and a rural version of a beach episode, with the gang splashing, diving, fishing, and having a great time, while giving Seishuu grey hairs with worry.

Oh, and there's a recipe in this one, for dried and pickled daikon radish, which sounds rather tasty!

It looks as if the next volume will add more excitement, as Seishuu's friend/agent is coming to visit, bringing with him a youth whom I imagine is the budding new talent who beat Seishuu in the last competition. I'm enjoying the series, and might try and catch the anime on Crunchyroll.

[There's a TV Tropes page on the series.]

See also Volume One.

I'm sending this book to BCer HI77 in Florida as part of a trade. Enjoy!

Like a crab cooking

at a very slow boil,
he suddenly gets red.