It’s been a while since I read Yotsuba&! Volume 2. There’s just something about reading stalled/canceled series that I don’t like. But Yotsuba&! is awesome, so I finally got around to it! Here’s my review of the last English volume of the manga.
Story:
Story? Yotsuba&! still doesn’t really have a story to speak of. Yotsuba is still crazy and gets into wacky adventures. In this volume, she plays with fireworks, rides the bus, gets a crapload of flowers, gives away a crapload of flowers, goes to the zoo, and goes to a hanabi festival, all for the first time. And that’s about it.
Analysis:
The entertainment value comes from Yotsuba’s innocence and weirdness. Like she’ll see some stranger and immediately yell “Who are you? Friend or foe!?” She believes everything that people tell her, so she’s really easy to manipulate, to great comedic results. I think any further analysis of Yotsuba&! would probably just decrease my actual enjoyment of the manga, so I’ll stop here.
Conclusion:
I really love this manga. It’s probably still my favorite comedy manga of all time. It’s just wonderfully cute, weird and enjoyable to read. I’m really peeved at ADV for canceling this series. I actually think they’ve stopped production on all of their manga period.
I think I’ll go ahead and buy the Japanese versions of Yotsubato so I can continue the series. I believe there’s 6 volumes released in Japan, so there’s plenty of Yotsuba adventures I haven’t read yet. It’ll probably be easier to read than say, School Rumble…
If you haven’t read any Yotsuba&! manga, do yourself a favor and buy it. Now.
ADV are still releasing manga, its just that they’ve slowed it down to a trickle rather than the flood of titles they released initially. I don’t think Yotsuba& was ever actually officially cancelled (unlike some titles they made very obvious were) – I suspect they’ll get back to actually releasing the rest of it eventually.
I hope, at least %%;
Don’t count on it… not a chance that they’d ever finish it, let alone releasing v4.
According to their website, it doesn’t even exist *wink* *wink*
http://www.advfilms.com/CatalogManga.asp?Cat=Y
Yeah, I saw that too. Apparently ADV-Manga hasn’t had a press release since like 2005 or so. I pronounce Yotsuba&! volume 4 vaporware (if it was software).
Yotsuba&! rocks
Yeah, Yotsuba&! is great.
I bet you guys know this already… but you might want to take a look at http://4chan.biz/
They do a pretty good job translating Yotsuba
I didn’t know that, actually! Thanks a ton nudelmampf! I’d bought the first 3 volumes ages ago, but then never saw any scanlations past that either, so I had no idea whether it was even still being released in Japan. Looks like I have some catching up to do. Stupid ADV, cancelling this *and* Aria as well… :/
Vol. 6 just recently came out in Japan. And it confirms Yotsuba is (in fact) only 5 years old (though she herself is a bit foggy on this point).
In this volume (I’m halfway through), she gets her own little bicycle — and learns (?) about recycling.
HEY Yotsuba&! volume 4 and 5 are avalable for pre-order at amazon.ca! They are coming in june and october! DON’T GIVE UP!
Nothing listed yet on any US sites (that I can find). Amazon.ca says ADV are releasing these, however.
I agree with you! Keep telling my buddies about it. Funny how I was just contemplating about the same thing!