よつばと！
Yotsuba&! Manga Volume 8 Review

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Yotsuba, Yotsuba, Yotsuba. ^_^

***SPOILERS***

Things get started with the aftermath of the trip to the farm and Yotsuba pretending to be a farm person. She heads to the Ayase home with a souvenir and is given some pears in return. However, her distraction on the return home causes her to ruin the fruit. The fun here is Yotsuba basically doing what kids do — exploring. Of course when that ruins the fruit, well…*lol*

Next up is a trip to a restaurant to eat on what Yotsuba has deemed is “opposite day.” That gets forgotten when Yotsuba sees Tora in a Denny’s parody restaurant and leaves her dad to go inside. She remembers opposite day at the worst time, making it seem like she hates the food.

Its funny how Yotsuba manages to be somewhat manipulative and get her way. I love her coming up with her own term for the fried egg on a hamburger steak. Her playing the opposite game is something I think most kids play, and that still has a grin on my face remembering my siblings and myself doing that as kids.

For the next story, Yotsuba and Koiwai head to Fuuka’s school to attend the school festival. Yotsuba is all keyed up for the cake Fuuka’s class is selling, but is rather disappointed when she only gets a couple of slices of pound cake.

It is amazing how as a kid, we get such high expectations over something small so that when reality comes, it can’t help but be a major let down. I actually felt bad for Yotsuba, who wanted some fancy berry and cream cake and only got pound cake. I laughed at the Fuuka and fellow classmates attempting to cover by having Koiwai buy an entire pound cake, then buying Yotsuba the crepe from another class because it had berries and cream in it. As Yotsuba said though, “that’s not cake.” ^_^

One other thing I noted in this story is how Fuuka’s female classmates assumed that Koiwai is Fuuka’s older boyfriend. I wonder if that’s something that will be explored down the road.

A typhoon is the subject of the next story, where Yotsuba talks her dad into allowing her to go next door, where she gets soaked.

I remember my first experience with a hurricane when I was in kindergarten. Even though it was a school day, there was no school. Further, my dad stayed home too, which was even more unusual. Because of the storm, my parents had the TV on during the day, something they normally didn’t do (my mom preferred playing tunes from the radio, which is why I love so much music from the 60’s and 70’s on top of my own decade of the 80’s). There’s no way my parents would have allowed me to go next door to play and certainly the reason would be akin to what happened to Yotsuba at the end of this story.

However, Yotsuba did go next door and I did laugh at how she’d not gotten over the “bread” she was served instead of cake at Fuuka’s class. *lol*

In the next story, Jumbo babysits Yotsuba while Koiwai is away. Yanda comes by for a visit and when he learns that Jumbo is going to take Yotsuba for a beef bowl, he decides to come too.

This story picks up the thread of Jumbo being taken with Asagi but because Yotsuba is on his shoulders and pretending to be his head, he can’t really do anything. Yanda’s attempts to hit on Asagi made me chuckle since Jumbo does what he can to stop that.

The next story is the largest one, covering Yotsuba’s first town festival and her participation in it alongside Ena.

I love this chapter because it is so uniquely Japan. Despite that, there are elements that cross cultures, such as Yotsuba remarking on how they are getting to walk down the middle of the street, something she wouldn’t be allowed to do normally. There’s also Yotsuba’s working hard to pull the dashi (with the other kids) in order to get that promised candy at the end of the day. There’s Yotsuba’s attempts to be brave when the tengu comes up to them, then her attack of the “boss tengu” (Jumbo in the tengu mask) after it “attacks” her father. Then there’s the guy wearing the traditional fundoshi, which shows off the man’s butt and makes Yotsuba laugh. Finally, there was the rewarded candy, which reminded me of a kid looking at his candy haul at the end of a good night of trick-or-treating. ^_^

The last story of the manga has Yotsuba planning her candy eating strategy after learning she can only have one a day. Koiwai’s plan to run errands is interrupted when Yotsuba convinces him to gather acorns.

What is it about acorns that is so interesting to kids? I know we used gather them for fun as kids, though we never ate them. Weird.

So as usual, a volume of Yotsuba&! often results in my returning down memory lane to my own childhood. I really can’t recommend this manga enough and plan on getting some others hooked on it for Christmas. ^_^