椎名くんの鳥獣百科 1

An animal researcher focused on human relations

I really enjoyed this book! I'm usually a sucker for manga that exist to geek out over animals (see マグメル深海水族館、ディノサン、天地創造デザイン部, etc.), so I was a bit worried when this one didn't swing around to really focus on the birds the main characters were researching. It quickly became clear, however, that the focus would instead be one of a more human nature, mostly focusing around main character 椎名了（しいな・りょう）and his childhood friend 花（はな), who both work at the same university as researchers and teachers. 椎名 is an extremely serious, down-to-earth guy who has his heart set on one day discovering something totally new about something in the animal world; 花, seven years his elder, is a sickly, incredibly kind albino man.

The chapters generally have a main focus dealing with their research, their colleagues, and/or politics at the university they work for; the animals they study play a supporting role, but (at least in this volume) do not generally take center stage. 椎名's a believably serious guy just trying to make his way through life; he strives to be professional, even when his coworkers want to goof off, but isn't so inflexible to become a stereotype. His relationship with 花 is quite sweet, as 椎名, even now as adults, tries to take care of him and make sure he stays healthy. I wouldn't say they enter the realm of BL or bromance or anything like that; they're just friends who care for one another.

Full furigana is given throughout. Vocabulary doesn't tend to be too technical; there are some specific animal words and keigo used in certain scenes, but none of it should super stretch an intermediate learner, at least not for too long. One supporting character speaks entirely in Kansai-ben, but he's not too hard to understand even if you're not super familiar with the dialect.