まちカドまぞく
Author: 伊藤 いづも
Format: 4-koma manga
Summary
Japanese
15歳のある朝、封印されし魔族の力に目覚めた吉田優子の任務は、ご町内に住む「魔法少女」を倒すこと!? ツノと尻尾は生えたけど、力は普通の女の子以下な優子が「月4万円生活の呪い」解除めざして奮闘する、逆転マジカルヒロイン4コマ!
(there’s more in the Wikipedia あらすじ, but it definitely goes deeper into spoiler territory)
English (more detail than Japanese summary)
Yoshida Yuko was living a perfectly normal (if poverty-stricken) life, but at the age of fifteen, she suddenly sprouts demon horns and a tail! Her mother explains that she’s actually a demon named Shadow Mistress Yuko, once sealed away and cursed so that her family would remain poor for generations. Now Yuko can break that very curse if she defeats Chiyoda Momo, a magical girl who goes to her school…but Momo is stronger than she is, knows how to manage magical powers, and is so freaking nice that she’s actually helping Yuko out of scrapes. Yuko’s too weak and uncoordinated to straight-up kill Momo, even if she wanted to, but she can’t just be buddies with this generous magical girl, either–she has to break the curse on her family somehow. What’s a demon girl to do?
Length: 120 pages per volume (two volumes recommended for the book club)
Category: Fast
Natively link: まちカドまぞく 1 | L35 (yes, that’s level 35 on a manga)
Availability
CD Japan | Amazon
Bookwalker | Kindle (really poor quality)
Personal Opinion
Let’s switch things up and read another manga! This time a 4-koma, which I love but is a less popular format. Every chapter is around 8 pages, consisting of two 4 panel strips. Like most 4-koma, this is primarily a comedy. The intermediate manga club has read two 4-koma manga (from this same magazine Manga Time Kirara), but this one is a much higher level. A lot of the challenge (as far as I remember) comes from archaic language from one of the characters and the fact that the manga is pretty dense (even for a 4-koma). I struggled with the manga before due to the difficulty, but I think it’s just right for this club.
My recommendation for the club would be to read two volumes at about 3-4 chapters per week, for a total of 6-8 weeks.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Read something different from the usual
- Who doesn’t love demons and magical girls
- Won’t take long to blast through two volumes
Cons
- Some people don’t like 4-koma format or manga in general
- The digital scans on Kindle are abysmal (physical or alternate digital source recommended)
