Huge huge HUGE thanks to Yen Press for sending me this to review!!

About the Mangaka

Azuma Kiyohiko is the creator of Azumanga Daioh as well as Yotsuba&!, as well as other hentai manga as well. Due to the way he writes his name there has been debate over whether he was a guy or gal.

He has several websites, the first, is the website of studio. The second, is his personal website. Both are in japanese.

About the Manga

Yotsubav7

Another awesome volume that had me rolling with laughter almost from the first page.

The cover art for this volume was just funny as hell, Yotsuba being chased by sheep, something about it just had me laughing right away.

The next thing I noticed was the art. Having just recently read Azumanga it’s really staggering to see just how much his style has been polished from one series to the next.

As with the previous volumes we get some rather plain settings, though these are well drawn and well planed.

The thing I find really impressive is that Azuma takes a rather plain character design, and does it so well it has a totally new feel to it. This is proven in this volume as we have numerous support characters who are exceptionally well drawn.

The only thing I’d note about the art is that his character designs don’t have enough variety in them. Since he’s using a simple character design, I feel he should have done more to distinguish between the various characters. Especially when Ena’s teacher shows up in the mid part of the volume.

Sadly this volume also seems to be to fast. Several times I was expecting to see more than what we got. For example when Ena, Miura, and Yotsuba go to Ena’s school. Azuma introduces the perfect setting for some additional hilarity, Yotsuba learning to ride a unicycle. Unfortunately this never comes about, and when Miss Stake (Ena’s teacher) is brought in later on this lack is all the more evident, since Yotsuba is supposed to have met her when she was at the school.

Granted these are minor issues, but they did spoil this volume for me a bit, but not by much.

Azuma has a skill at taking a normal every day thing and forming a funny story about it, ranging from the string telephone and email (which I personally loved!!) to the visiting the farm. This last part (the farm) had me reeling with laughter as Yotsuba brings mayhem to the animals.

Asagi doesn’t make much of an appearance this volume, which I have to admit I miss, since I find her teasing of Yotsuba to be really funny.

As always Yen Press did a superb job  with this release, an awesome front and back cover. No colour pages this time (which I’m guessing means there was none in the original), No guttering to speak off, and excellent placement of the regionalised term translations and explanations. Some of them are a bit hard to read true, but given where they’re placed that was to be expected, and I personally prefer them being there rather than having them at the rear of the book in the glossary. Speaking of which, because the translations are placed in the spaces between the panels this volume there’s no glossary, in fact no nothing at the end of the volume.

Overall another exceptional volume that easily maintains it’s place on my Essential Read list. Sadly we now have to wait till April for the final volume *sobs*. I’m really going to miss this series when it’s over, I really want to see more volumes of Yotsuba’s antics.

Where to Buy

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