Yotsuba&! Manga Volume 2 Review

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Having so thoroughly enjoyed volume 1 of Yotsuba&!, I eagerly jumped into volume 2. As before, Azuma-sensei has captured the wonders and innocence of being a child and all the adventures that have passed us adults by (some longer ago than others).

It is hard to know how to blog the series due to the nature of the stories, so I’ll focus on the ones that I really liked. First up is Yotsuba watching some drama on TV with her father and Jumbo where she sees someone get shot. So in true kid fashion, it is time to get the water gun and become an assassin. I smiled at how most everyone went along with being squirted by Yotsuba and I can understand how they’d do that, though my reaction might have been more like Fuuka’s — not amused. I loved it when Yotsuba asks the “slain” mother of Ena where Ena is. The rules of the game can change when one needs information and I remember doing something similar as a child. The other funny moment was when Yotsuba ran out of water and had to get Ena’s mother to give her a refill. *lol*

In the cake story, the mischievous Asagi gets one put on her when she tries to steal Yotsuba’s strawberry. That look on Yotsuba’s face was priceless to be sure.

The story of Yotsuba’s father having worked all night and needing to sleep during the day was cute but contained a very Japanese element with Yotsuba drawing on her father’s face with a magic marker. I’ve seen this come up a few times in anime but have never heard of it actually happening, at least in the U.S. Still, the best part of this story was Yotsuba’s laughter turning to fear when she realized that she’d get in trouble for what she’d done. I think we’ve all been in that position at some point or other in our childhood. Not a pleasant experience but hopefully something we can laugh or smile about as adults.

In the pool story, it was both cute and amusing to see that Yotsuba is such a good swimmer and her father, Jumbo, and Fuuka could not. The biggest laugh of the manga came from Jumbo tossing Yotsuba into the pool. ^_^ It is interesting that Azuma-sensei has Jumbo interested in Asagi though and being frustrated that she didn’t go to the pool. I wonder if that will be an element which will be picked up in future stories.

Yotsuba catching the giant frog made me smile for sure. I remember catching frogs, minnows, and crawdads back in my youth. Good times. Of course, we didn’t dare bring a frog into the house though. *lol* Then there was Miura scaring Yotsuba with the bird-scaring mask, whereby Azuma-sensei establishes a bit more continuity. The fight that broke out with Yotsuba beating the masked Miura made me smile too, especially when Ena’s bear got damaged. Poor Ena.

The first story with Yotsuba, Ena, and Miura drawing was fine, just nothing that hit me specifically. The last story centering around the Ena, Fuuka, Asagi, and their mother and Asagi distributing souvenir gifts wasn’t anything special, but nice just the same.

Learning with Yotsuba is certainly a joy that brings a big smile to my face when there aren’t laughs. Azuma-sensei certainly scores again in capturing the simple pleasures and adventures of a child. As such, I highly recommend this volume and the first volume as well.