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The Great Passage Manga by Rakugo Shinju's Kumota Ends in 2nd Volume

Manga creator Haruko Kumota revealed last week that the second and final volume of her Fune o Amu (The Great Passage) manga adaptation will ship in November.

Kumota (Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju) began the series based on Shion Miura's novel in Kodansha's ITAN magazine in June 2016, and it is ongoing. The first volume (pictured right) shipped on July 7.

Miura's novel originally shipped in 2011, and it inspired a live-action film directed by Yuya Ishii that opened in Japan in 2013. The film won the Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year in 2013.

An anime adaptation that used Kumota's original character designs premiered on the Fuji TV network's Noitamina timeslot in October. The series streamed on Amazon Prime in some territories as it aired, but was not streamed in the United States until the launch of Anime Strike in January.

The story follows the employees at the Genbu Shobō publishing company. Araki, who is a veteran editor for the dictionary department, is looking for a successor now that he's approaching retirement age. After Majime Mitsuya — a salesman who's a poor talker — meets Masashi Nishioka — Araki's coworker who is sociable and frivolous — Araki overhears their conversation and decides to recruit Majime into the department. The story follows "the awkward humans" Majime and Masashi as they work together to compile a medium-sized Japanese dictionary titled "The Great Passage" (Daitokai).