【Yet the Town Keeps Going】A happy-go-lucky comedy story that will brighten up your days!!

Yet the Town Keeps Going (“Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru”, or more widely known among its fan as “Soremachi”) is a comedy/slice-of-life manga series written and illustrated by Ishiguro Masakazu. The manga was serialized in Young King OURs magazine from 2005 to 2016, with a total of 16 volumes.

The manga was awarded the Seiun Award for Best Comic in 2018 and the Excellence Award for the 17th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2013. Yet the Town Keeps Going was critically praised for its ability to convey drama, happy daily lives and connection between people.

In 2010, the manga was adapted into a 12-episode anime TV series by Shaft and was later licensed by Crunchyroll for oversea broadcast. The series follows Arashiyama Hotori and her classmates’ daily mishaps and encounters at the local maid café, with the occasionally appearance of aliens, ghosts and the paranormal to spice up the formular.

“There are no good or bad customers. There are only good and bad restaurants.” – those were the words of Martin B. Stone, framed and hung in the Maid Café Seaside.

16-year-old high school student Arashiyama Hotori was in her maid uniform, working on her shift at Maid Café Seaside. She approached Sanada, her classmate who was a usual customer at the café, when he was doing his math homework. He was the only customer at the store that evening, as always.

She sat beside him and asked if she could copy his homework. Sanada was a bit shy with Hotori sitting so close to him, but he took a deep breath while whispering to himself that he was blessed.

The following day at Otani High School, Hotori was having lunch with her friends Haribara and Tatsuno. They started talking about Hotori’s part-time job at the maid café.

Tatsuno who was a big fan of maid cafés asked if she could drop by to see Hotori in her uniform. Hotori happily invited the two over but warned them that they shouldn’t set their hopes too high.

After school, Tatsuno and Haribara followed Hotori’s instruction and arrived at the café. True to Hotori’s warning, the place in front of them was far from what a normal maid café should look like.

As the two of them entered the café, Hotori greeted them half-heartedly. All this had triggered Tatsuno, she flew into a rage and scolded Hotori that they were nowhere near the standard of a normal maid café.

Tatsuno showed them how a maid should properly greet her customer. “Welcome back, Master!” – the magical words flew out of Tatsuno’s mouth, in her silky voice. She dazzled both Haribara and Mrs. Uki, the owner. Uki immediately asked Tatsuno to work for her but was promptly refused.

Instead, Tatsuno agreed to give Hotori some basic training on how to be a proper maid. At that moment, the next-door dry cleaner – one of their regulars, entered the café. Just like how Tatsuno showed her, Hotori tried her best to replicate the maid greeting.

Even though she was too nervous and bit her tongue while saying the greetings, it was her clumsiness that touched the dry cleaner. He lost his senses and clinched onto Hotori. But she quickly knocked some senses into the guy and left him to cool down his head.

For the next step in her training course, Tatsuno wanted to use Hotori’s clumsiness to appeal to the customers even more. As Hotori was bringing coffee to a customer, Tatsuno signaled Haribara to use pepper on Hotori to make her sneeze. Hotori plunged her face into the hot coffee while she sneezed and burned her face.

Tatsuno quickly gave her a bucket and told her to clean up before Hotori got a chance to get mad. While Hotori rushed back to clean the mess, she tripped over Tatsuno’s trap and spectacularly fell and revealed her panties.

Hotori flew into a fit of rage and tried to yell at Tatsuno. However, at that exact moment, another regular customer of Seaside Maid Café came into the store. Sanada was surprised to see the café was unusually lively and Hotori was drenched in water.

Before Hotori could tell him what had happened, Tatsuno dragged her into the toilet and asked several questions about Sanada. She blushed when asking if Sanada came to the café often. Hotori replied that Sanada’s dad owned the nearby seafood store, so he would always come here after school.

After hearing that, Tatsuno suddenly switched and asked Mrs. Uki to hire her as a maid. Mrs. Uki happily accepted Tatsuno’s offer. It seemed like Café Seaside was one step closer to become a real maid café. Little did Sanada know, the blessed café that he loved so much was about to fall apart.

Continue to follow Hotori and her friends’ hilarious daily lives at Maid Café Seaside in the following chapters!