御不浄バトル

ブラック企業 x Toilets

This book contains a novella, 御不浄バトル, and a short story, 荒野サクセス. Both stories share a similar theme of new university graduates and ブラック企業 taking advantage of them, but from different points of view.

御不浄バトル is about Watanabe, a new graduate who has only worked at his company for a year and a half and is increasingly concerned with the legality of their product and sales methods. He feels trapped as he hasn’t worked at his company long enough to quit and successfully find a job elsewhere as a junior employee. So, to cope with it all, he spends a lot of time in the bathroom hiding from work, eating, pooping, and… a lot more. This story is extremely crude with a touch of absurdity, yet highly humorous. Only recommended if you enjoy potty humor and are ok with graphic descriptions of multiple bowel movements.

荒野サクセス was my personal favorite out of the two. It is a spinoff story featuring Sakata, a man with a host-like hairdo who Watanabe saw in the train station restroom every morning during one of his daily bowel movements. Sakata is an editor at a men’s fashion magazine that is trying to break new grounds and define trends in what is essentially host/チャラ男 fashion. He’s all about reading business books and dropping English buzzwords he doesn’t really understand the meaning of and giving new employees a hard time. The story is essentially an entertaining and satirical take on hustle culture and the life and times of a man who wears pointy enamel shoes. It complemented the first story, tying everything together nicely.

All in all, this was a fun and fairly short book that made me laugh out loud several times while reading it. If the topic resonates with you, give it a read!