The thought occurs to me... if I explained Achewood to someone leaving out the more fantastic details, would more people take my advice and read it? The cats and the *****s and the stuffed animals and the time travel and afterlife and so on.
Group of friends, nominally "lead" by a basically-well-meaning obscenely rich fellow who doesn't wanna accept that he isn't as deep as he thinks he is... who lets his socially anxious childhood best friend and his mainly-sensible girlfriend live with him just sort of on the momentum of childhood friendship.
The rest of the cast live in a nearby boarding-house-of-sorts... a world-worn older guy who is classy as hell and supports his English-style pub by churning out softcore pornography writings, a debauched drunk who's a pretty good cook when he's sober and fades in and out of the hardcore porn industry himself with the ebbs and flows of his sobriety, a basically-well-meaning vaguely nerdy dude who fancies himself a hipster and a chef and... a comically innocent young child, for some reason.
Much of the stories are about the characters following their whims, anxieties and blisses somewhere at the edge of popular in suburban Northern California... most of plots come out from and are resolved the rich guy's money.
Hm.
Makes it sound like a raunchier Bloom County and... while I loved Bloom County... the comparison ain't exactly apt.