Keijiro Tsubakimoto

Eighth entry of the anthology written by Bakarhythm: two new shorts: “Gradation” (Koji Yamamoto) and “Toilet Paper Race” (Nanase Nishino & Yosuke Asari), blend dream and reality, with Bakarhythm appearing as the surreal “window guide.”

"Non-rem sleep" means deep sleep. Are the three mysterious short stories that we broadcast this time a dream? Or is it real? Dreams and reality, reality and unreality ... The mysterious bakarhythm world that goes back and forth between them is the "non-rem window."

Nanako Hanada works as a manager of a bookstore. Her bookstore doesn’t have many customers, due to the rise of digital formats. Nanako Hanada and her husband Ken are also on the verge of divorcing. Her work life and personal life are equally in rough shape. One day, Nanako Hanada signs up for online dating site AU×AU and leaves one sentence in her profile, which is "I will recommend a book that suits you right now." Whenever she meets someone in person from the dating site AU×AU, she recommends a book to them.

Rinko Amaki is a successful 27-year-old woman who works at a busy wedding planning agency. She excels at her job to such an extent that she is promoted to lead her unit. She is popular, beautiful, and hard-working, but there is just one thing that frustrates her: Despite being surrounded by loved-up couples and romance all day at work for years, she is still single. And on top of that, she has never made love. She wants to lose her virginity, but has never found the right man. In a twist of fate, her male co-worker Gen Kamisaka, another wildly successful wedding planner is in the exact same predicament. Also aged 27, he has never had any intimate relations with a woman. The duo, having discovered they share the same “problem,” decides to do something about it. But they soon discover that work and physical intimacy are not easy to balance. And while they might have initially envisaged a quick and fuss-free fling, Cupid might have other plans for them...

A love story between a comic artist with no experience with romance and a popular, charismatic beautician.

Kanda Fuyuki is a world-famous pianist who has been keeping his life busy after his wife's death. One day, Fuyuki meets an unsold cat, Fukumaru, at a pet store. Fuyuki is not good with animals but decides to get Fukumaru after being attracted by it. Since then, Fuyuki's life changes as Fukumaru starts living with him.