Yotsuba&! Manga Volume 6 Review

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Every time I open up one of the Yotsuba&! manga volumes, I can’t help but immediately reread the whole thing. ^_^ Just such good stuff.

Things get started with Yotsuba paying a visit to Ena while Miura is over doing summer homework. In the process, Yotsuba learns about recycling and makes a shirt using trash around the Ayase home. This is one of those “meh” chapters for me since Azuma-sensei gets a little preachy.

Next up, Yotsuba and Koiwai-san go on a buy-purchasing expedition where Yotsuba gets her first bicycle. I loved how Azuma-sensei had Yotsuba horsing around on her dad as he laid there including a couple of flop-downs on him. *lol* Then later when they are at the bike shop, her panic over having pulled the bicycle seat out, thinking she broke it, reminded me of my own first bike and doing something similar. While I got the seat back in, I couldn’t get it to stay at the right height and thought I’d broken it. I hadn’t thought about that moment in who knows how many years — maybe thirty or more.

After buying the bike, its time for Yotsuba’s first bicycle lessons with training wheels. I don’t remember any accidents when I had a training-wheel bike, but I sure do remember them when my parents bought me a BMX dirt bike which had no training wheels. *lol* Skinned elbows and skinned knees to be sure.

Of course, one has to show off one’s new bike, which is where the story goes next as Yotsuba shows Asagi and Torako her new bike. I rather enjoyed Yotsuba’s sense of amazement when she saw Torako’s “transforming” bike (a bike that folds up for storage purposes). I laughed out loud when Asagi gripped the back of Yotsuba’s bike so that she couldn’t take off, all without letting Yotsuba see her do it. *lol*

Yotsuba gets into the work spirit after dreaming about it and has her father works, she makes signs for various things about the house. While doing this, she finds a couple of eclairs in the fridge, which her father says they can eat at three in the afternoon. At one fifteen in the afternoon, Yotsuba thinks it is three and proceeds to eat one of the eclairs, then the second before fleeing to the Ayase home. Fortunately, Mother Ayase takes Fuuka’s creme puff and gives it to Yotsuba to give to her father. THAT’s where the funny comes in when Koiwai-san tells his daughter that its time for the snack and she says she doesn’t want any. *lol* Azuma-sensei doesn’t go into what happens next, but we all pretty much can guess what happened afterward. ^_^;

The next story in the manga is a long one, where Koiwai-san buys some expensive bottled milk and Yotsbua shares a bottle with the Ayase family, only Fuuka gets left out (again). Since Yotsuba forgot to get another bottle for Fuuka, she is prevented from going to do so that night and decides to do so the next day, which means bicycling all the way to Fuuka’s high school. It is one of those incredible stories that rings true in that a kid with good intentions does something crazy and dangerous, like bike that far away from home all alone. I did laugh when Yotsuba got to the school and fell asleep on the stairs, leading the high school kids to wonder what to do with her. I couldn’t help but feel bad when her father had to punish her for disobeying but that’s what had to be done.

The final story (discounting the preview of volume 7) has Yotsuba helping Jumbo and her father build a shelving unit. I chuckled at Koiwai-san making a wood pendant that said “grounded” in Kanji. Since Yotsuba can’t read Kanji, she has no idea what she’s wearing and that’s what makes it funny. Yanda returns for a little more bickering with Yotsuba, which is amusing. I smiled when Yotsuba had her bicycle privileges returned to her at story’s end.

For some reason this volume, more than previous ones in my opinion, had a greater sense of flow when it came to story. That’s not to belittle previous volumes, but Azuma-sensei had events flow better here thanks to the introduction of Yotsuba’s bicycle. So much of the manga centered around Yotsuba and her bike so that even though stories changed, the bicycle element provided carryover material.

The thing that makes this manga so great is remembering my own childhood through the eyes of Yotsuba. That’s why if you haven’t done so already, pick up a copy. It almost doesn’t matter which volume (though starting from the beginning is usually best), but reading Yotsuba&! is a trip down memory lane, both from a child’s perspective as well as an adult’s perspective. It never fails to leave a smile on my face.