Barakamon

ばらかもん

Manga8.413567 votes20 volumes · 150 chaptersFinished

ComedySlice of LifeChildcareIyashikeiVisual ArtsShounen

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About this title

Synopsis

Seishuu Handa is considered a prodigy in the calligraphy world. However, he is extremely narcissistic about his work, and when a senior curator dismisses his award-winning piece as conventional and bland, he loses his cool, leading to potentially career-ending repercussions. After seeing his son's immaturity, his father⁠—also a master calligrapher—sends Handa to a village in the Goto Islands as punishment. Deprived of city comforts, Handa moves into a house in the local village with the sole intention of spending his stay engrossed in calligraphy. However, the house he has moved into was previously the hideout for some rambunctious children, headed by Naru Kotoishi, who are unwilling to move out. Furthermore, the neighbors seem very interested in the calligrapher, who they see as an amusing oddity! Despite Handa having been uprooted from his comfortable lifestyle, his experiences with the village and its people will teach him things about himself, life, and calligraphy. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Publication notes

Barakamon has been published in English by Yen Press since October 28, 2014 and digitally since February 24, 2015. The manga was adapted into a live-action TV series in 2023.

Published

Feb 22, 2008 to Jul 12, 2023

Authors

Yoshino, Satsuki

External links

MyAnimeList page Official Site Official Site Wikipedia Wikipedia

MAL rank: #215
Members (MAL): 46,129
Favorites (MAL): 1,492

Related titles

Prequel

Handa-kun

Adaptation

Barakamon (anime)

Main characters

Naru Kotoishi3509 fan favorites
External profile
Age: 6-7 Birthday: August 14 A girl in first grade who lives on the Goto Islands. She lives alone with her grandfather and frequently hangs out at Handa's house. Her personality is cheerful, childish and hyper. She usually thinks after she does. Proved by the many times she disobeys Handa.
Sei Handa2692 fan favorites
External profile
Age: 23 Birthday: April 15 A calligrapher who disgraced himself by punching a director of an art gallery who criticized his calligraphy style heavily as "boring," "rigid," "academic," and "bland." He then leaves for the Goto Islands in Nagasaki at the suggestion of his famous calligrapher father to focus more on his calligraphy as he waits out his "exile." Along the way, he finds value in interactions with other people, in particular a tomboyish little girl named Naru, and finds his inspiration and own personal style. At first, Naru calls him "Junon Boy," referring to a particular magazine that features street pictures of male idols, suggesting (incorrectly) that he's a city-dwelling pretty boy of the kind that don't really exist in real life. Later on, she calls him, "Sensei." Sei Handa appears again in another manga titled Handa-kun, a prequel of sorts featuring Handa during his high school years. In the prequel, he is a well-regarded school idol and prodigy calligrapher who holds the hilariously mistaken belief that no one likes him and that the distantly worshipful actions of his peers is in fact bullying. This is apparently the fault of his best friend of both series, Kawafuji, who told him a lie that he was "hated" as a joke, which Handa mistook for the truth, and his friend never actually tried to correct because he found it funny and amusing.