Naoki Satou

Houkago Kitaku Biyori is a quiet, warm comedy about the simple joy of the walk home from school. It is based on a manga by Mai Matsuda, who both writes and draws it. The manga started in August 2023 in Manga Action, a magazine from the publisher Futabasha. By October 2026 it had reached seven book volumes. The anime was first announced in March 2025, inside the fourth volume of the manga. It is planned as a TV series on Nippon TV, set to start in April 2027. English readers can also find the manga on the Omoi service from KiraKira Media. In Japan, many high school students join a club after class, like a sports team or an art group. Students who join no club and leave as soon as class ends are jokingly called members of the "go-home club." This show takes that joke and turns it into a real club with real members. The main character is Shun Sato, a first-year student at Wasibiyama High School. Shun is very tall, so the sports clubs keep asking him to join them. But Shun has a reason to say no. In junior high he played soccer, and he was good at it. Then he got hurt, and the injury ended his time as a player. He can no longer play sports at all. Saying no to club after club makes him tired and a little sad. One day he lets slip that he just wants to leave and go home. A girl named Naoki Sato hears him. Naoki is the founder of a club with a very big name, the "Hyper Go-Home Club." Its only real activity is walking home after school. Her friends call her "Chokki-chan," a nickname that comes from her favorite line: she always says she wants to go home. Naoki pulls Shun into her club, and soon the two of them are walking home side by side every day. The heart of the story is in these small trips. The walk home becomes a time to talk, to notice the town, to stop for a snack, or to take a longer road just because it feels nice. For Shun, who lost the sport he loved, these walks give him a new and gentle way to spend his time. Little by little, the two grow close, and Shun starts to have feelings for Naoki. That slow, sweet change is the romance part of this romantic comedy. On AniList, the story is tagged as iyashikei, a Japanese word for calm "healing" stories that help the viewer relax. It is also tagged with school life, travel, and seinen, which means it was first made for adult readers. Fans of slow, cozy slice-of-life shows should feel at home here. There are no big battles or dark secrets, just two people enjoying the road home. The manga has also won attention from readers. It was nominated for the Next Manga Awards in 2025, where it won the Nichirei Prize, and it was nominated again in 2026, placing eighteenth.