Three “Slice Of Life” manga; Marmalade Boy #7, Marmalade Boy #8 and Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days…

… and two “cyberpunk”(I think) novels:  Heavy Weather, by Bruce Sterling, and Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.

As many times as I have seen the film Blade Runner , this is my first time reading Do Androids Dream…, the classic it was built on. I am about a chapter into it and I’m surprised at the startling differences between the two stories already.  I am also trying to read more of Bruce Sterling’s stuff because the man can seriously write some cyberpunk.  (He is @bruces on twitter if you wish to follow him).

I will prolly be reviewing these as I finish reading them :3.

Yotsuba&! focuses on the day-to-day life of a five-year-old adopted foreign girl named Yotsuba Koiwai. She has all sorts of seemingly normal, everyday encounters and adventures that constantly blow her mind. She discovers swings, learns about global warming, becomes a milkman, and obsessively absorbs every little thing that comes her way, forcing her excitement on her dad, her dad’s friend , Jumbo, the neighbors, and anyone else she happens to come across. Her enthusiasm is contagious!

Yen Press has also re-released the manga for Azumanga Daioh, my favorite anime. I haven’t read the manga yet because I’m not a fan of the “comic strip” style layout.

If you like cute, slice-of-life manga, check out Yotsuba&!.

I loved the Azumanga Daioh anime, so I searched around for more like it. I found out that the author of the manga wrote one called Yotsuba& as well. As it hadn’t been turned into an anime yet, I picked up the manga, and was instantly hooked. Each issue follows Yotsuba, a young girl, as she hilariously and bravely tries to understand the world through a series of seemingly mundane experiences. From learning how to swing on a swingset to fishing in a stream, catching cicadas to battling global warming, Yotsuba (mostly)fearlessly marches through life. It is innocent and awesome. Naturally, I searched around for more slice-of-life manga.

I don’t really get into the magical girl, mecha, space opera stuff. I don’t really like violence. I like reading about people living in Japan. I like seeing the manga-ka draw tables of traditional Japanese food, shelves of bentos at 7-11, market stalls full of vegetables, rice paddies, Tokyo… In addition, being a foodie and all, I love manga that deals with cooking, notably Yakitate Japan. Yakitate Japan is about a boy who is born with “Hands of the Sun”, the perfect temperature for kneading bread. He sets out to create a bread that will replace rice in the hearts and minds of the Japanese. There’s another cooking/romantic comedy manga called Mixed Vegetables which I really like. Mixed Vegetables doesn’t have nearly the depth of the others. It is about the daughter of a famous baker who wants to be a sushi chef and the sun of a famous sushi chef who wants to be a baker. Naturally, they want to hook up based on ulterior motives but I imagine, eventually, they will fall in love like everyone wants. Romantic comedy ensues, I assure you!

I started reading more romantic comedy/teen drama/high-school drama stuff. I absorbed Genshiken, a story about a bunch of otaku and general otaku culture. The artwork and story is fantastic, the characters are well rounded and evolve with the series, the end is satisfying, and I never once felt like I was reading ‘filler’. I would say Genshiken and Yotsuba& are currently tied as my favorites, but Genshiken has already ended after 9 issues and Yotsuba& is still going, so we shall see.

I have recently picked up Marmalade Boy again and I love it even more now. I’m also reading Strawberry Marshmallow, Sunshine Sketch, Yotsuba&, Train Man and Kujibiki Unbalance. There are a few classic manga titles that I want to read as well, like Nausicaa and Maison Ikkoku, but this is an expensive hobby, and I have enough to keep up with as it is.