Azuma Kiyohiko - Yotsuba&!, vol. 05-08 + ch. 56-60

[oyceter]

I really needed cheering up, so I went through a reread of Yotsuba&! 1-4, along with basically staying up all night catching up, aided by lnhammer's extremely excellent chapter-by-chapter write ups. He notices a ton of details that I didn't, from the way the Koiwais' living room gradually changes to the drawings on the side of the Yotsubox.

As he notes, Yotsuba's characterization gradually changes, and by volume five, you no longer wonder if she's human or possibly alien, and she's a fairly normal (she's still Yotsuba, after all!) five-year-old girl who runs out of energy, has tantrums, loves cake, and figures out the world the way five-year-olds do. As such, there aren't moments quite as hilarious as Yotsuba clinging to a telephone pole pretending to be a cicada, but the humor flows more organically from the action.

These volumes cover Yotsuba's obsession with milk, acorns, cake, puddles, and bikes, and oh, it makes me smile just thinking back on them.

I'm not sure you can actually spoil the series, given that everything lies in the execution, but here's a cut anyway:

Spoilers

OMG! lnhammer! I got to the raincoat and the band-aids and they are SO CUTE! SO CUTE! I also love Dad's comment about Yotsuba: "I've never seen anyone so bad at using an umbrella before."

I'm not sure I can cover anything that wasn't in the write-ups linked above, so I'll just babble.

I'm sad the Ayases are back in school, although it means more Yotsuba & Dad episodes, which I love. I love the farm to pieces, particularly Dad and Jumbo backing Yotsuba up against the evil and mean Yanda. I think my favorite scene is when Yotsuba tells everyone to clap for the cow. And awwww, poor sick Yotsuba who doesn't get to go to the farm!

It's nice to see more of Ena and Asagi along with Fuka, and I like getting to see more of Mrs. Ayase as well.

Favorite moments (besides Yotsuba + raincoat and Yotsuba + band-aids):
- Festival! Happi!
- The fireworks were just lovely, especially Yotsuba's assorted interpretive dances.
- Bike!
- Yotsuba actually learning to apologize and 'fess up! Although she tries as hard as she can not to, since she is five, and I love the way her face gradually falls whenever Dad catches her in a lie.
- Yotsuba at a convenience store!
- Yotsuba and the typhoon! Yotsuba and Dad drenched in rain, and that awesome moment when Dad looks out the window to see Yotsuba trying to get the wind to lift her and her umbrella away. (I used to try that all the time as a kid. The umbrella, sadly, always turned inside-out before the wind did any lifting.)
- Yotsuba's teddy bear!

And just stuff like Yotsuba hunting for acorns, and the very obvious distinctions as to what makes one acorn better than another. It reminds me of the weird games I would play as a kid, from grinding down rocks to make "rice" to soaking flowers in water to make perfume (sticky and brown).

Comments

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

*flies past* If you ever have access to a GameCube or a Wii with appropriate adapter, you might find Chibi-Robo of interest. (I have the requisite Wii+thingy but don't own the game.) Something in your posts about Yotsuba& has reminded me about that game (http://reqfd.net/stack/2008/03/28/hello-ribbit/).

(E-mail reply forthcoming.)

[oyceter]

Oh, that sounds interesting! Also, it sounds like it requires about the level of hand-eye coordination that I have... I tried borrowing Okami from a friend and playing because it sounded so neat, but could not even get past the "learn how to fight" stage because I suck so much at the fighting.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes--I played a few hours of Okami, and then I watched darkforge push through the boss battles, since he's much more adept with a console controller. A couple of those battles went on for half an hour non-stop and benefited from a second pair of eyes (mine) calling out when certain activities were feasible. sigh. It's a gorgeous game, but I cannot deal with half-hour boss battles!

I've been looking for Chibi-Robo used and will let you know if I get hold of a copy. :)

[oyceter]

Ha, yeah! I am now trying to sic myself on my video-gaming friends so I can make them play games I want to watch but have no skill to play....

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I never found Yotsuba's behaviour so odd that she seemed alien. She just always seemed like a very imaginative little kid. There's definitely a progression towards "normality" in that as her exposure to the world outside of her dad and grandparents means every little thing isn't a huge surprise anymore, but she always seemed very realistic to me.

I loved the chapters with the farm so much! Also her shopping trip to the convenience store. And opposite day. And her utter disappointment at the cake cafe at Fuuka's school. And...everything!

[oyceter]

I never found Yotsuba's behaviour so odd that she seemed alien.

There were a few moments in v. 1 in which I wasn't quite sure, like when she didn't know what a school was, or what "moving" was, or what a doorbell was. The AC I sort of am skeptical about as well; even if her house didn't have one, did she never go into an air-conditioned store her entire life?

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

If she was living in the boonies I can totally buy that she never went into an air-conditioned shop. But even if she did, it's not going to be the same sort as a home AC.

[oyceter]

Yeah, definitely. It was just that she seemed so unfamiliar with the concept. And if it had just been the AC or the swing or something, I think I would have just handwaved, but all of them together in the first volume, coupled with the back cover copy ("Is she even from our planet?" or something) and the green hair made me start wondering.

[larryhammer]

I take the moments of supra-normal weirdness as exaggeration for comic effect. As funny as they are, though, I adore the comedy that comes from her more natural characterization.

---L.

[oyceter]

*nods* I think I got mislead by her green hair on the covers (no one has mentioned it in the series? unless I missed something) and the back cover copy about possibly not being from Earth. But yeah, I get more warm fuzzies when the humor is less exaggerated and more out of everyday life.

[larryhammer]

Circling back to this, no one ever directly comments on her green hair -- but more than once strangers assume she's a foreigner.

---L.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I love Yotsuba, though I kinda miss the "is she an alien?" moments.

[oyceter]

I kind of miss them, but on the other hand, I also really like the normal-five-year-old kid moments of ??? as well.

[larryhammer]

"I didn't cry!"

Yotsuba & Rain is (still) my favorite chapter. An umbrella really isn't, to her, something to keep off rain but something you carry when it's raining. (Even if rain isn't nearly as cool as a typhoon.)

One thing I've been noticing in the latest chapters, the ones that will go into volume 9, is that we've been spending less time in Yotsuba's POV, including more scenes where she isn't even present. I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but am willing to follow Azuma just about anywhere he takes us, at this point.

---L.

[oyceter]

Oh huh, I hadn't noticed that! Then again, I probably read those chapters around 6 in the morning, heh....

[larryhammer]

Clearly, you need to reread them. All of them.

---L.

[larryhammer]

So what did you think of Boxerman's recently introduced nemesis, Barebuttman?

---L.

[oyceter]

!!! I must have completely missed that! Clearly I need to buy all the vols and reread.

[larryhammer]

It's in the uncollected chapters that will become volume 9, one of the first chapters after the festival. Fuka overhears his introduction from her bedroom window.

---L.