The jobless siblings
"Just a little NEET-talk"
Hatarakanai Futari (The Jobless Siblings) is a comedy slice of life manga by Satoru Yoshida, which began serialization in Kurage Bunch in 2013. It follows the adventures of the Isshi siblings, the hikikomori Haruko and Mamoru the NEET. Both siblings usually waste away their days playing video games or learning useless hobbies, much to the rage of their mother, who is always coming with plots to turn them into normal people while their father seems fine with their lifestyle.— Mamoru
Despite the simple premise it features lots of character development, hidden depths and heartwarming moments by the main characters and their ever-growing cast of friends, the reason as to why they ended like that is still a mystery with only a few glimpses of their life before, despite that they still don't plan to get a job.
The Main characters are:
- Haruko: A young hikikomori woman who suffers from social anxiety. Thanks to her friends she is now able to go out and officially graduated into a NEET.
- Mamoru: The elder sibling. Unlike Haruko, he has friends and regularly goes out. Before turning into a NEET he used to travel around the world.
- Kuraki: A young woman who recently moved next door. She works as an office lady but is bored with her life, she found comfort in seeing the siblings laid back lifestyle. She initially "stalked" them from her window but later became friends with them.
- Maruyama: Mamoru's childhood friend. Later on he also befriends Haruko and Kuraki. Despite having a job he is considered an even bigger loser than the siblings and is usually the butt of all their jokes.
- Yuki: A tall and physically imposing young woman, she is the descendant of a family of martial artists and she was one of Haruko's few friends during high school. She is really shy and hates how her appearance makes people scared of her.
- Tomoharu: An attractive young man. Was one of Haruko’s few friends during high school, was ostracized as he was outed as gay after explaining to a schoolmate why he rejected her confession. Works at a cafe. Reconnected with Haruko, and becomes one of Mamoru’s friends for whom he often acts as the straight man for. Develops an interest in Maruyama but choses to never pursue it due incompatible orientation and is afraid of revealing himself to anyone after his highschool trauma.
- Togawa: A serious and deadpan young woman, who was introduced as working in the same company as the siblings’ father. Has a passion for writing and eventually quits her job to focus on her passion after meeting with Mamoru, for whom she develops an interest in due to their common love for literature.
- Takeda: Introduced later in the series as a new hire office lady in Maruyama’s company, is described as plain and with messy hair. Was unfavorably compared to the other new hire, Sakuraba who is a bitch in sheep’s clothing, and considered quitting until Maruyama took her under his wing.
- Akane: A beautiful and stylish young woman who works at a club. Haruko was her only friend in middle-school. Got plastic surgery and breast implants, and was disowned by her family. She reconnects with Haruko after hearing about her from Maruyama who happened to visit the club she works at with other salary men from his company.
Hatarakanai Futari provides examples of:
- Art Evolution: The manga started as an on-and-off serialization, thus there was time to add more detail to the first chapters. Since serialization started, the manga is now publishing chapters almost daily so the art has become more simple to keep up with the new schedule.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sakuraba, an office lady hired at the same time as Takeda is pretty and popular, she uses these assets to curry favors from her male co-workers and was willing to lead Maruyama on by inviting him for drink simply to get him to break his initial arrangement with Takeda to eat ramen. She is livid when Maruyama chooses ramen with Takeda instead.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mamoru is one, he has several gags involving his status as NEET which he says with a serious face.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Both the sibling's joke about their status as NEETs, but their mother is seriously worried about them.
- Anxiety Dreams: Several of the sibling's nightmares consist of them dreaming of getting a job.
- Eyes Always Averted: Haruko has problems maintaining eye contact with strangers and prefers to either close her eyes, look to the other side, or hide.
- Foreshadowing: As early as chapter 247 we are shown pictures of all the friends Haruko has made when she was still in school when Kuroki and her go through an old photo album : a class president type in 3rd grade, a gyaru-like girl in middle-school (later joined the main cast as Akane), a tall girl with bandages on her face and a pretty boy who Haruko says lost all his friends when it was discovered he likes guys (Yuki and Tomoharu respectively). This shows that she had a tendency to befriend social outcasts despite/because of her own social anxieties. As of posting the class president type has yet to join the main cast.
- Generation Xerox: All three Maruyama siblings look like their father and have the same tastes in women and porn.
- Meaningful Name: "Mamoru" means "protector", and it perfectly defines how he lives his life, as it's heavily implied Mamoru is a perfectly functional adult who has decided to keep his Hikikomori sister company, so it's not just her and her parents.
- "No Peeking!" Request: While trying to test if Mamoru is telepathic, Haruko demands him not to look while she draws things for him to guess.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Haruko and Mamoru, despite being NEETs who do nothing all day they still manage to sometimes help the people around them. Once during a festival Mamoru chased away a couple of thugs all by himself... by screaming and making a huge scene, Haruko thought that while heroic he still was lame.
