Honestly, this book ended up being better than I expected. The individual stories weren't as good as 近畿地方のある場所について's and the wraparound plot had some really meandering moments, but the way things came together was pretty interesting and unique. I think 近畿地方's overarching narrative is probably inferior to this book's. I'll definitely be keeping up with Sesuji's work from now onward too - his character writing in this book wasn't amazing, but there was a lot of conceptual promise peeking throughout the entire thing.