Home Archives for Kiyohiko Azuma
25 December 2013 17 Comments

Manga Giveaway: 4-Koma for You (Azumanga Daioh)

2013 may be nearing its end, but there’s still time for one more manga giveaway here at Experiments in Manga before the year is over! For December’s giveaway, you all have a chance to win a copy of the Yen Press omnibus edition of Kiyohiko Azuma’s yonkoma manga Azumanga Daioh. The entire series collected in one convenient volume! As always, the giveaway is open worldwide.

Azumanga Daioh Omnibus

If I recall correctly, Azumanga Daioh was the first yonkoma manga that I ever read. Yonkoma, or 4-koma, is a four-panel format frequently used for gag manga. I know several people who consider Azumanga Daioh to be one of the best examples of yonkoma manga currently available in English. Yonkoma tends to be fairly hit-or-miss for me, but I was consistently entertained by Azumanga Daioh—it’s a goofy yet charming series.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win a copy of the Azumanga Daioh omnibus?

1) In the comments below, tell me a little about a four-panel manga that you have read and why you did, or didn’t, like it. (Haven’t read any? You can simply mention that.)
2) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

And there you have it! Each person can earn up to two entries for this giveaway. As usual, there will be one week to submit comments. Entries may also be sent via e-mail to phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com and I will post them in your name. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on January 1, 2014. Good luck and a Happy New Year, everyone!

VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address, a link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.

Contest winner announced—Manga Giveaway: 4-Koma for You Winner

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25 July 2011 3 Comments

My Week in Manga: July 18-July 24, 2011

My News and Reviews

Well, I’m back from the beach, but I still have a couple of days to recuperate and do laundry before I head back to work. While I was vacationing last week, I posted two reviews. The first, as promised, was for Takako Shimura’s Wandering Son, Volume 1. This was actually a difficult manga for me to review since the subject matter hits so close to home for me. My review does it no justice, but the volume is a wonderful start to what I expect (and hope) to be a wonderful series. The second review was for Otsuichi’s award-winning light novel Goth. I had previously read the manga adaptation and liked it so well that I wanted to track down the source material. I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a very dark and disconcerting work, but very good. Finally, the Fruits Basket Manga Moveable Feast starts this week, so keep an eye out for some good stuff! (Unfortunately, I won’t be participating this time around.)

Quick Takes

Azumanga Daioh by Kiyohiko Azuma. I know a lot of people who adore Azumanga Daioh. While I enjoyed Yen Press’ omnibus edition, I wasn’t quite as taken with the series as most other people seem to be. If I had to choose, I prefer Azuma’s Yotsuba&! Still, I did find Azumanga Daioh to be amusing and some of the four panel strips even managed to make me laugh out loud. The series has a goofy sense of humor that depends a lot on the personalities of the characters. If you don’t like the girls, you won’t like the manga. Azumanga Daioh can get a bit repetitive, and maybe I shouldn’t have ploughed through the omnibus as quickly as I did, but I was fairly consistently entertained.

Clover by CLAMP. Although Clover is technically an unfinished series, Dark Horse’s omnibus collects the completed material in one gorgeous volume. In my opinion, the artwork is some of CLAMP’s best and the experimental nature of the manga is beautifully done. However, I did find the constant reuse of song lyrics to be tedious in the long run, to the point I wasn’t even really reading them anymore. The manga is wonderfully dark in tone and takes place in a dystopian future. We’ll probably never see the final two volumes released, which is unfortunate because I’d really like to read more of the manga. But despite some of its flaws and even given its incompleteness, Clover may actually be my favorite work by CLAMP that I’ve read so far.

Four Shōjo Stories by Keiko Nishi, Moto Hagio, and Shio Sato. Four Shōjo Stories shouldn’t exist. Viz put together and published the anthology without first securing the rights to do so and soon after were required to pull the books off the shelf. If you do come across a copy though, it’s worth picking up. The book collects four stories: “Promise” and “Since You’ve Been Gone” by Nishi, “They Were Eleven” by Hagio (the initial reason I tracked down the anthology), and “The Changeling” by Sato (perhaps my favorite). All four stories were translated by Matt Thorn, who also provides a nice introduction to the volume as a whole. The collection is an interesting mix of stories, but they are all very strong and I enjoyed each one.

Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms by Fumiyo Kouno. Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms is a critically acclaimed, award winning manga that well deserves its accolades. The manga is about a family that must deal with the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima for generations. It is a gentle story even if it is heartbreaking as the survivors and their descendants try to continue on with their lives. The manga is told as two interconnected stories, “Town of Evening Calm,” which is set in 1955, and “Country of Cherry Blossoms,” which takes place in 1987 and 2004. Kouno’s line work is simply lovely. Although some of the events portrayed are understandably terrible, the artwork is never really graphic but still remains very effective emotionally.

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24 December 2010 Leave a Comment

Library Love, Part 6

Support manga, support your library!

Here’s what I’ve been reading:

Banana Fish, Volumes 14-17 by Akimi Yoshida. Yoshida has really ratcheted up the action and plot with these four volumes. There are only two left in the series and I have no idea how she’s going to wrap everything up! I’ve really been enjoying Banana Fish; the deepening relationship between Ash and Eiji is simply fantastic. Things are getting really dangerous for them and their allies and it’s hard to see how they’re going to pull through. Eiji in particular is a very changed person, although he has had a significant influence on Ash as well. I want to see the both of them happy but it’s going to be difficult with multiple crime syndicates and mercenaries gunning for Ash.

Hikaru No Go, Volumes 4-7 written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. I really didn’t expect Hikaru to become as serious as his is now about Go. It’s fascinating to see him grow as both a person and a player. Sai is as adorable and earnest about the game as ever and is happy to see Hikaru take more interest. Although, it does mean he doesn’t get to play as much as he would like. More and more characters are being introduced as Hikaru moves on from his school’s Go club to being accepted as an insei, hoping one day to become a professional Go player. Even though it’s heading in a different direction than I originally thought, I’m loving this series and can’t wait to read more.

Real, Volumes 4-6 by Takehiko Inoue. Damn this series is good! It can be a little emotionally exhausting and intense at times. We get a bit more of Togawa’s back story, Nomiya’s struggle to find his direction in life, and Takahashi’s discord with his family. These are real people dealing with real issues that aren’t always pretty. The attention given to the un-idealized portrayal of disability, physical therapy, recovery and the effects they have on people is stunning. I highly recommend this series even if you’re not into sports manga because it really is about so much more than basketball. Real amazes me.

Yotsuba&!, Volumes 2-3 by Kiyohiko Azuma. Jumbo is still my favorite character and I love seeing the trio of him, Yotsuba, and her father hanging out together. Yotsuba still manages to be adorable without being annoying, completely confounding her friends and neighbors. I’m actually surprised by how much she manages to get away with; the others put up with her antics with amazing tolerance. Perhaps it’s just that she’s such a good-hearted kid even when she’s getting herself into trouble. It’s really a delight to watch as she experiences and enjoys things in life for the first time.

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4 October 2010 2 Comments

My Week in Manga: September 27-October 3, 2010

My News and Reviews

Congratulations again to PB, winner of my first ever manga giveaway, Crazy Karate Contest!

Other than that, this past week has been pretty slow for me news-wise. The only other post was the September 2010 Bookshelf Overload, which probably really isn’t that interesting to anyone other than myself. However, I’m currently working on a post about manga related podcasts and will be adding a podcast section to the Resources page. If you know of any podcasts, please let me know. I’ve also been collecting more links to add, but I haven’t actually gotten around to it yet.

Quick Takes

Neko Ramen, Volume 1: Hey! Order Up! by Kenji Sonishi. I kept hearing good things about this manga and so even though I was hesitant to pick it up, I finally read the first volume. And yeah, it’s pretty good. I haven’t read many four panel manga but I did enjoy Neko Ramen—it’s silly and it made me laugh out loud a number of times. I found the funniest bits to be the gags that remind the reader that Taishō is indeed a cat, albeit one that loves to make ramen. I don’t know if I’ll buy the next volume, but I just might.

Off*Beat!, Volumes 1-2 by Jen Lee Quick. This series is supposed to be at least three volumes long, but only two volumes have been published so far and the third one probably won’t be. This is really too bad since the Off*Beat! is an excellent original English manga, and I want the rest of the story! Tory’s obsession in his mysterious neighbor Colin is swiftly turning into a crush whether he’s aware of it or not. (Plus, he’s really cute when he blushes.) Colin finds himself strangely interested in Tory as well. Just as they start to work out their friendship the series prematurely ends, but it’s still worth the read. I really liked this one a lot.

Suppli, Volumes 1-5 by Mari Okazaki. I think there are ten volumes plus one volume of extras in this series. So far, five volumes have been released in English and I hope that the rest are as well. I’ve only read a few josei manga so I don’t have much to compare it to, but I liked Suppli. Okazaki has some beautiful page layouts and water imagery in her artwork. Fujii was dumped by her boyfriend of seven years and now she only has her work to keep her going. She loves her job, but it’s pretty depressing and stressful at times. And finding love in the workplace only complicates matters further. I’d really like to see her end up with Ishida, the only decent guy at the office who’s genuinely interested in her.

Yotsuba&!, Volume 1 by Kiyohiko Azuma. Okay, this manga is seriously cute. Jumbo is probably my favorite character so far, but really they’re all pretty great. I was worried that Yotsuba would annoy me—I am easily irritated by little kids and forced cuteness—but I ended up finding her to be quite adorable. Her interactions with the neighbors, Jumbo, and her adoptive father bring out the delight in living each day to it’s fullest. Yotsuba’s a strange child, much to the befuddlement of others; she brings out the kid in those around her. I liked this manga, it made me smile, and I’ll be picking up more of the volumes to read.

Kurau: Phantom Memory, Episodes 17-24. It’s been about a month since I’ve had the opportunity to watch Kurau, but I finally got around to finishing the series. I fell back into the anime easily and I still love the characters. Although the ending it more or less a happy one, it still felt very melancholy to me. Kurau, even with all of the science fiction and alien elements, speaks very much about human loneliness. It’s a wonderful anime series that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to those who like character driven science fiction. I am very glad that I picked it up.

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