Tatakau! Shoten Girl (2015)

Pegasus Bookshop is a bookstore of long standing as the rise of online bookstores make competition increasingly tougher. Kitamura Aki and Mita Takahiko are transferred to the Kichijoji branch where assistant store manager Nishioka Riko works. The fearless Aki has a great love for books and will express her opinions frankly no matter who the other party is. On the first day of work, she fiercely objects that Riko has assigned her to be in charge of comics instead of children’s books as she had wanted. While Riko welcomes the return of Takahiko, her former subordinate, she is taken aback by Aki’s attitude. Shibata, a publishing company’s sales representative comes to Aki with his deputy editor, Obata Nobumitsu. In truth, Riko has been secretly dating Shibata. She has not seen Shibata much because he has been busy lately. Just when she is feeling insecure, Shibata tells her, “I have something important to say to you,” and finally proposes. Riko becomes upset, and consults her colleague, Ozaki Shiho, about Shibata. Told by Tashiro Toshiyuki, a stranger who happens to be seated next to them at a restaurant that they frequent, “You’re lucky to get a proposal,” a drunken Riko ends up picking a quarrel with him. One day, Aki takes the cue from a customer’s words and calls for the use of point-of-purchase material more promotion of the books. Riko is dead set against this. The store’s policy is keep point-of-purchase materials to a minimum because it is more important to let customers choose for themselves rather than to recommend books. In the end, the store manager Nojima gives Aki special treatment and lines up handwritten point-of-purchase materials at the comics section. However, trouble develops. Aki is given a severe admonition by Riko and sheds tears of frustration and disappointment. The next day, Aki suggests doing an event with a popular effeminate male talent who has published a novel based on his own life, in an attempt to make up for her mistake. Although they have just a few days for preparation, she uses her connections, determines his schedule and forces the event through. As the book store staff are complaining one after another, Aki requests to change her afternoon shift despite the event being a day away. However, the next morning, Riko receives a phone call from Aki who says that she cannot come to work. Riko soothes the angry staff and everyone spends their time with preparations until late at night in order to make the event a reality. On the day of the event, when Aki goes to greet the male talent in the waiting room, he suddenly says, “Cancel the event!” … … Aki is a well-off girl who joined Pegasus Bookshop through connections. Riko has been through a lot of hard times and worked her way up only to belatedly realise that she has passed marriageable age. There is a generational gap between them as well as a difference in their circumstances. Because of their different personalities and experiences, their approaches to work and love are are not alike and they mix like oil and water. But when the branch is suddenly faced with the crisis of closure, these two females who have been saved by books, temporarily call a truce and stand united with all the staff in order to protect the store that they love.