Life begins at 40, whether you're ready for it or not.
This is the story of a forty-year-old salaryman who quits his job to pursue his dream of becoming a manga artist—and the family that has to put up with him. While not terribly unhappy, Shizuo Oguro can't fight the feeling that something in his life just isn't right, so he walks away from his stable (yet boring) day job to embark on a journey of self-discovery. Unfortunately for his family, this journey also involves playing video games all day while his teenage daughter and elderly father support him. Will Shizuo succeed in creating a true manga masterpiece, or will he be just another dropout living a life of slack?
Shizuo’s in trouble. At least, his father is convinced he is. In his ongoing campaign to convince his layabout, forty-something progeny to finally get his act together, Shizuo’s father suggests a new approach: maybe Shizuo should just treat manga as a hobby and do something else—anything else—so as to look like less of a reject to both his family and society at large. Can Shizuo’s burning desire to create manga triumph over his seemingly bottomless capacity for self-doubt and existential angst? Then again, maybe if Shizuo just comes up with a catchy pen name, everything will be golden and he’ll quickly find himself on the merry road to publication. Right?
