よつばと! by あずまきよひこ (VOLUME 1)

Synopsis: YOTSUBATO! is a manga written and drawn by Azuma Kiyohiko.

This is the 1st Volume out of 15 up until today as it is still an ongoing series. The story revolves around the 5-year-old Yotsuba and her everyday adventures.

We met Yotsuba and her father around springtime. They are moving into a new house and soon they met the neighbouring girls; Fuuka, Ena and Asagi. As they try to settle in they encounter various household problems, such as broken locks and a heavy old TV. Yotsuba learns how to introduce herself in a polite way, she also learns about air conditioners and steps into a department store for the first time. We also get to meet her father’s friend Jumbo who teaches her and Ena how to catch cicadas. 

Structure: よつばと! has 7 chapters in total and 224 pages. It was easier to read than I thought as I consider myself a beginner-intermediate in Japanese, so definitely not someone who mastered many kanjis. Therefore I really needed to read something that I could actually handle, especially after my book choice in Spanish. Which was not bad but it felt like a marathon instead of a light jog. And I definitely prefer to jog. Or run with a steady speed if you know what I mean.

And now, I would like to ask for a standing ovation for the hero of the day; furigana. Yes please and thank you. Without these little hiragana folks besides the kanjis, I would have been lost like Bambi after a family reunion. They do help, and they help a lot. I actually ended up learning new kanjis thanks to it and this is something that I can definitely not get from watching animes or movies or listening to podcasts.

There were a few words that I had to look up, but most of the time the pictures aid me in the right direction. For example, I had a migraine over the word セミ捕り(semitori). When I was reading this chapter I was on a car trip in the middle of the Highlands in Scotland without any internet connection and I (obviously) didn’t pack my dictionary so there was no way for me to find out what セミ捕り meant. I knew that it was a bug and I kinda pictured it in my head just based on the time when I was in Tokyo and just from animes and mangas but I couldn’t be 100% sure. Until I got to that page when she actually gets her net out and Ena catches her first cicada.

The revelation came and the migraine left. 

My take on it: I wish I could go back to my childhood and just re-experience everything.

よつばと is heartwarming and nostalgic. It gives you the perfect summer aesthetic with the humming of cicadas and melting ice cream on a sunny day. That perfect sunset when you were a child and you were ready to watch your goodnight cartoon or listen to someone reading you a story before you went to sleep with that unshakeable revolution: Tomorrow is another day for adventures. 

I’m planning to keep on reading よつばと and definitely highly recommend it to anyone who would like to start to read in Japanese and doesn’t know where to start.

Don’t get disheartened just because the story itself seems like it is for children only. This manga is basically a meme collection. Funny and witty. If you like animes you will get the gist of it.