ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂にようこそ: 公式ガイドブック

Helpful guide if you're exploring the series

I had no idea what I was getting into when I bought this, so I'll list the contents of the book, when it's useful, and whether it's a spoiler. There are some sections tucked in the middle and back that are useful from the start, so I'm laying this all out for others to navigate it easier and with fewer worries about spoilers. If you are the type that wants to know nothing going into a book, though, don't buy this book or even look at the preview pages. Although imo the spoiling is very minor, you're bound to see images of characters and the shop that will surprise you. I personally found that very fun and it in no way ruined it when related events/characters appeared later. If that sounds like fun to you, I recommend buying this alongside reading the main books. I doubt it would be as fun after reading all the books.

1. Full color illustrations of the sweet shop inside/ outside (4 spreads) and main characters (2 spreads). The characters could be considered a bit spoilery, but I just don't read any descriptions for places / characters I haven't come across, and when a new character appears I guess which one it is and read it. I find it really fun to have visuals for everything and always enjoy passing this section when I open the book.

2. The main sweet atlas. This is about half the book and what I appreciate most about the book that gave it 5 stars. In this section there is a one page summary of the main sweet sold in each chapter and the character through book 14. It also has the instructions and warning. These are surprisingly helpful the further I get in because some characters reappear later and it's easy to reference. It's also a quick way to double check if I understood everything. The sketches are also really fun so you can see what the sweet looks like as that's not always in the main book. I recommend reading each one right after you read the corresponding chapter in the book but NOT before. Reading it later (after finishing the whole book) isn't really fun imo. So I'd say either read as you go or skip the whole book.

3. The minor sweet atlas. Don't miss this, it's fun! You can refer to this from volume 2 and it starts on p 88. This section starts after the main entries of the sweet atlas, and it is another similar atlas, showing sweets by book. It includes brief information on other sweets that may have been mentioned in the stories that were not the main sweet. This doesn't happen often, but starting from book 2 it adds detail not included in the main books, so it's fun to check.

4. The alternate sweet atlas. I'm giving this a vague name to avoid spoilers. This section isn't relevant until book 3. After you read the first story in book 3, you're ready for this section, which starts on p 93 with some description. Then the alternate sweets from book 3 start on p 101.

5. The second half of the book. This starts on p 106 and you can read these stories, manga, and short diary entries any time (for the most part) and in any order independent of the main books. The table of contents gives an overview: the first 3 entries being the additional stories in the same format as the main books, and you can just browse through the other whimsical world-building elements as you wish. If it has a connection to any other book that is mentioned up front so you can decide if you want to wait or not.

6. Indexes. These can be useful, so reference anytime you want to look up something up by: name of sweet (from p 186), and the year/amount of the coin used to pay (from p 188).

Regarding use of kanji and furigana: For the stories in the second half of this guide book, the furigana follows the same kanji strategy as in the main series books: there is no furigana on grade 1 and 2 kanji, for other kanji, furigana is shown on it's first appearance per page. Complicated kanji above a certain grade are in kana only. For the sweet atlas, though, after a kanji is shown with furigana, then the furigana might not appear again for that whole section again which is quite long (so not just by page). Therefore for this section in the guidebook there is less furigana than the main books. It's not a problem but I found it puzzling that the other reviewer mentioned they saw more furigana in the guidebook. So maybe there are different versions. I have the paper versions linked by Natively.

As the title says, it's a guidebook.

Since I've read 16 Zenitendou books so far, I initially loved how it explained the shop's interior and the characters in more detail. But, unfortunately, I ended up glossing over pages of stories I still remember or parts I found less interesting. This makes me feel guilty about saying I've "finished" reading it.

There is furigana in almost all the kanji, making it an easier read than the books themselves. All things considered, it is a fine alternative if you are curious about the enchanted sweets and don't want to invest in the series.