Manga Artist Showa no Zanto-chan Faces Surprising First Experience at a Happening Bar

Debut with a manga drawn after 25 years

“In the fall of 2023, all the men I was dating at the time ended up leaving my hometown. My boyfriend and three casual companions all four of them became unreachable at once, and I had no one to hang out with. That’s when I discovered I could draw using an iPad and an Apple Pencil, so I started drawing manga again after 25 years,”

says the manga artist Shōwa no Zantō-chan. Until December, she serialized “Ordinary OL Tries Going to a Happening Bar” in Bébé (Fusion Product). The raw, immersive reportage of happening bars gained attention. The digital comic version of this work was released on the 15th of this month.

By day, Zantō-chan works as a regular executive secretary at a company. What’s astonishing is that she only started seriously drawing manga two years ago, after turning 40. As a child and middle school student, she loved Jump and drew historical manga, but when she entered high school, she became interested in the gyaru fashion trend and stopped drawing. She hadn’t drawn since then.

Her path to debut was surprisingly smooth.

“I saw someone serializing a comic essay on Instagram and thought, ‘I want to try this.’ I love cosmetic surgery and aesthetic treatments, so I decided to write about them for a female audience. I posted my work on Instagram and the manga site pixiv, and soon the folks at Fusion Product contacted me, asking, ‘Would you like to serialize your manga with us?’ They were looking for someone who could draw beauty-related manga. I’ve been lucky with connections like that.

At first, it was supposed to be a one-shot story, but they asked, ‘Would you be okay with a full serialization?’ Since I hadn’t drawn manga in 25 years, they taught me a lot about the drawing process. I ended up serializing “Around 40 OL, Beauty Medical Report” for a year in both print and digital formats. The print volume will come out in February,”

says Shōwa no Zantō-chan (all following quotes are hers).

Surprisingly, everyone was just ordinary people

Zantō-chan says that her motivation for drawing manga is simple: “I just want to share with everyone the things I experienced that were wonderful.” Her debut work, a beauty-themed manga, was written to convey the enjoyment of becoming beautiful through cosmetic treatments and to show that some treatments are more cost-effective than cosmetics.

The same motivation applied to her second work about happening bars. She wanted to share her personal experience of visiting one. She first went to a happening bar on December 30, 2023, on a day off, on a whim, by herself.

“Of course, I was nervous. I thought there might be people like yakuza, maybe I’d be kidnapped, or that everyone would be completely naked right away. But when I walked in, I was surprised to find it was actually quite normal. There was a counter, and it felt more like a snack bar or dining bar.

The people there ranged from women who looked like they might do PTA activities to grounded or alternative-style girls, ordinary-looking salarymen like those at my company, even elderly men with white hair. The age range was from 20s to 60s. Everyone there seemed like they could be on the same train together—there was no sense of discomfort at all. I had imagined flashy, over-the-top people like those in nightlife, so it was quite a letdown in the best way.”

At that bar, the initial system required sitting next to a man at the counter. At first, Zantō-chan was nervous, but once she started talking, she realized he was a perfectly ordinary person, and the conversation flowed smoothly.

She was approached by several men in succession, and sometimes invited by someone who matched her type. To clarify, in a happening bar, if both parties agree, they can move to a separate room (a private space) to engage in sexual activity—hence the term happening.

“There was a somewhat attractive man, and I wondered what to do. But suddenly going into that kind of thing with someone I just met felt really uncomfortable. So I said, ‘It’s my first time today, so I’ll pass,’ and declined. I really felt a kind of barrier—I just couldn’t do it.”

Still, the experience of visiting a happening bar for the first time was profoundly stimulating for her.

This is what youth feels like

“In everyday life, you rarely encounter situations like this up close, right? But at the bar, a chubby woman in just a dress shirt came out from a back door with a half-naked older man, and I thought, ‘Did she change into a costume?’ Then I was told that they were actually doing that in one of the rooms.

Women in just their underwear were wandering around, and there were also small dimly lit private spaces just before the main rooms. You could even hear the intimate sounds coming from there—moans like ‘Ah… mm…’ and the wet, realistic noises.

I thought, ‘Wow, this really happens’, ‘So this is the world of happening bars.’ It was shocking, and honestly, it was a little overwhelming at first.”

Since then, Zantō-chan became hooked on happening bars and has been going about twice a month, documenting her experiences in her manga. When asked about the appeal of happening bars, she highlighted the sense of liberation that comes from being able to reveal a side of yourself that you can’t in daily life.

“I’ve always had a strong sexual curiosity, and I really love talking about erotic things. But in the real world—outside the bar—my friends are all pretty serious, both men and women. Many have families, and there aren’t really any friends I can talk about raunchy stuff with openly.

So having a place where I could say out loud, ‘This is what I want to do’ or ‘I like this’ was really exciting. It reminded me of the first time I explored this as a high schooler. And I thought, ‘This is youth.’ Not the blue spring of adolescence, but a spring of sexuality. It’s not just about lustful desire; it’s more about feeling free and bright, a liberated eroticism.

Another appeal is discovering aspects of myself I never realized before, through meeting people at the bar. That doesn’t happen often, you know? Finding a new side of yourself in your 40s. I thought I’d just keep fading away after 40, but I’ve realized there are still things I can experience—this place lets me see that.”

In the paid FRIDAY subscription edition, Zantō-chan’s detailed experiences at the happening bar and the continuation of her manga are featured.