A review by readingunderadesk
Sketchy 1 by Makihirochi

5.0

I quite liked Makihirochi's other work, Is Kichijoji The Only Place To Live? so when I saw Sketchy pop up on NetGalley I went and requested it quickly! Hirochi has a great understanding and ease of communicating just, humans, humans living and working in the city and the little longings we all have.

In this work in particular, we meet several characters with chapters based around them and the inspiration of a surprisingly (to them) girls view on a new hobby, skateboarding: Kawasumi, a thirty-something who works in a dead-end job in a video rental store and dates her dead-end, no commitment boyfriend while everyone around her is getting married and hitting those life goalposts, her younger coworker Shiho who's not so satisfied in her own life after leaving behind a former career, and Takehana, a woman starting in a new department after a scandal. These three look as if they're going to be brought together at these skateboarding lessons, and between each chapter we get some deets on real life girl skateboarders! 

It's a neat work that definitely makes me feel some human emotions adjacent to loneliness and the desire to do something, anything, to feel inspired.

Thank you to Kodansha and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for review! I already have volume 2 on my watchlist.