Yotsuba&! Recommended

Publisher
ADV Manga
Writer
Kiyohiko Azuma
Artist
Kiyohiko Azuma
Country of origin
Japan
Year
2003

Yotsuba&! (Yotsubato) Volume 4

By David Rasmussen
16th Jun 07

How long has it been since ADVManga has last sent us something to review. I can’t remember when.
But after a long dry spell here we are again, and two titles I once talked about (and praised) are the topic of this review… too bad Aria isn’t one of them.
I guess while we’re waiting for Aria Volume 4 to come forth let’s review these other highly praised titles, this week we’re reviewing Yotsuba&! (aka Yotsubato) & next week it’s the touching, wretching, and oh so engrossing emotional rollercoaster known as Gunslinger Girl Volume 4.

Once upon a time I praised the series called Azumanga Daioh.
This series, the brainchild of one Kiyohiko Azuma, was the essential high school drama amongst high school dramas. With a lovable cast of eccentric characters, a finely written story seemingly about “nothing” (told in 4 panel format better known amongst American newspaper comic series in manga format, and a 3 year “journey” intermixed between revisions of the manga along with new content in the anime).

But this is not Azumanga Daioh. It’s Azuma’s next step in his career. Yotsubato (or Yotsuba&!, otherwise known as Yotsuba and Everything).

It’s been awhile since we’ve sat down and spoke of Yotsuba, she who looks like the clone of Chiyo-chan (only with more ponytails and no Osaka to attempt to pull them off Yotsuba’s head). Since we last spoke two volumes past Volume 1 printed, last volume being over a year and half ago last October 2005. A bit of time since we last sat down and spoke of the series, hasn’t it. Oh, and a certain killbot named Luna from the recently released Ratchet & Clank : Size Matters (for the PSP) recently was spotted sporting a Yotsuba hairstyle… kind of hard to miss it considering the look in question.

Maybe she’s sporting it because it’s a good look amongst the alien humanoid girl circuit.
After all, during Azumanga Daioh, Sakaki dreamed of an alien cat that was supposed to have been Chiyo-chan’s father… maybe she just got the girl wrong as to who’s daughter the alien cat was father to. Seems so since Yotsuba is abit alien in nature, not entirely grasping the basics of human life (which opens quite abit of strange adventures for her which has spanned to date up to three volumes).

In this volume, going on sale July 2007, Yotsuba returns (after a nearly 2 year hiatus) and life is as strange to her as it was when she took her break back in 2005 (Gunslinger Girl had a 2 year slumber since it‘s 3rd Volume came out in June of 2005).

As Volume 4 of Yotsuba&! opens we find Yotsuba and her father locked in Mortal Kombat, with a pot and a rolled up newspaper between them. Lots of whacks to the head occurs in a span of a few pages. Things get worst when rackets and a feathery “ball” is brought into “play”.

Been playing your Wii lately?
Did you actually FIND a Wii lately?
Short of Nintendo’s stranglehold over the Wii market have you been using your Wiimote to fish, be it in Zelda or Wii Play or that game that is just fishing… and did you harm yourself with the Wiimote while fishing? Did you?

Somehow that whole experience will probably less painful than what is about to transpire in this episode, “Yotsuba & Fishing”. Fish will be caught, prepared, and eaten… in that order.
Hmm…strange, after reading this I feel like fishing on Lake Hylia all of a sudden…. Guess I better finish this so I can get back to my Wii (to, you know, review Wii titles… like Zelda… where you can fish…)

When father forgets his wallet at home it looks like the duo are going to starve.
In “Yotsuba & Dinner” must Yotsuba beg for money from complete strangers to keep the duo from perishing in a sad starving incident… or maybe they can just put everything back, go home, get his wallet and come back and shop again… no?
Something happens because there’s a next story and nobody starved to death.
What? Fish for money? No, no, no, that only works in Animal Crossing.

Next Azuma uses his tried and true four panel format of storytelling from Azumanga Daioh for Yotsuba&!… sure, he could have done it for the whole series but it’s nice to at least see bits of it here and there in the series.

To wrap up the series Yotsuba ends up experiencing the heartbreak of love lost… someone else’s love lost (guess whose, hint… it’s one of her lovable neighbors who seems to end up being the victim of a lot of the plots of this series). Then Yotsuba experiences the dying art of the print media newspaper… yes, I am a bitter internet media employee…, morning exercises (but no Officer Cooper) and the mystery of the cicada (aka the “Tsukutsukuboshi”… why does Yotsuba’s picture of the boshi look like Link trapped in a tree? Is this the Legend of Yotsuba?)

Looks like this won’t be the last of Yotsuba. Now breaking the record set by Azumanga Daioh, Yotsubato reaches it’s 5th Volume (while A.D. ended it’s run on 4 Volumes) this coming October 2007... Hopefully not to be in conjunction to another 2 year slumber in hiatus.

Yotsuba&!, reviewed by IGN it is “Utterly Entrancing”… which is a simplistic way of calling it a good read. Azuma continues to impress by bringing out yet another impressive little jewel that not enough people are reading (which shows considering the nearly 2 year slumber that nobody seemed to mind much).
Makes me abit ashamed I’ve been missing out on Volume 2 and 3 for so darn long. I made a request for it for review, but if that can’t be done I’m going to order it myself. One way or another I’m going to review it for you, because I am so believing in it (from me to you).

A fine little treasure you should take the time to get in touch with, Yotsuba is an enjoyable read that should be on your collection list. Yotsuba is back, baby, and it’s time to enjoy it once again… now if only Aria would make it’s return sometime soon (or did it already and I missed it?!?)
Yotsubato gets nearly everything as Yotsuba&!, well, gets 4 fishing trips to Lake Hylia out of 5.
Now if you don’t mind, I’m going fishing… maybe stop by the Water Temple, pick up a Fused Shadow… make a day of it. Bye.

-- David Rasmussen 16th Jun 07