To begin with, it’s a Kirara manga, and I’ve never met a Kirara manga I haven’t liked. It’s cute, and it’s funny, and right when it’s hooked you with the humour and cuteness, it punches you right in the gut. Slightly lower Natively level than the club was aiming for, but since it’s a yonkoma, and is quite wordy even for a yonkoma, it makes for a more solid read than you might otherwise expect from the level.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Story is complete, with seven published volumes plus an extra volume of side stories.
Funny, but also very serious. Solid plot arc throughout.
Cons
No furigana
Story is fairly heavily rooted in some moderate trigger concepts - Death, disease, decay, some unwilling body modification
It’s set in (what was at the time) the not-too-distant future of 2024. Yes, the blurb says 2010, but that’s all in the past for the characters - the manga’s “present day” story begins in 2024. And since it’s 2024 now, I thought it was somewhat topically relevant. It’s a story I’ve enjoyed enough that I’ve read it multiple times in English, and I’d like to give it a shot in Japanese too.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Realistic science-based slice-of-life manga.
Story is complete at 16 volumes
Also has an anime and a drama, but neither cover even close to the whole story
Cons
No furigana
Some trigger themes - death, parental death, some corporal punishment in a couple of chapters.
When adventurer Laois and his party are wiped out by a dragon in the depths, they lose everything - including a party member! Without their gear and coin, they must return and defeat the dragon before his sister is digested - but if they continue like this, they’re sure to starve along the way. Laois decides there’s only one thing to do: eat the monsters! Slimes, basilisks, mimics and dragon: is there anything these gourmand adventurers won’t chow down on?
I love Dungeon Meshi and hold it as one of my favourite manga; despite seeming like a gimmick manga, it’s a perfectly realised exercise in worldbuilding and storytelling, with incredibly solid, delicious-looking and clear art alongside writing that veers wildly between hilarious and morbid often in the same breath.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Gorgeous art and well thought-out worldbuilding
Funny, touching, and darkly morbid all at the same time
Studio Trigger anime currently airing on Netflix which really helps understanding
To promote the anime seems like a lot of sales going on at the moment across some of the stores
Actually complete story at 14 vols (+a guidebook and an artbook with omakes, but who’s counting)
Cons
No furigana and very wordy across three different domains (fantasy, cooking, and biology)
I think the first volume only really begins to hint at the complexity of the storytelling, would probably take until vol 4 to really kick in
so ridiculously popular everybody keeps dropping spoiler fanart on twitter
natively watchers may well malign me for my about face here but no furigana does make lookups markedly more annoying. I think we’ll all live though at around this level
I’ve only read one Kirara manga that I’ve actively disliked, but I have read several that I simply found boring! (This was one of them, but I think you know by now that this kind of manga just doesn’t fit my tastes, a little like Mushishi.)
Ha yeah. I may not nominate any of those unless someone expresses interest in one of them. I forgot how annoying it is to write up a nomination when I need to take pictures of my physical copies.
I wouldn’t worry about that as it’s not representative of the rest of the GochiUsa manga. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some kind of external (or internal) pressure for the first volume because someone felt it could help with sales. The manga isn’t like that in general.
ちびまる子ちゃん is a manga series written and illustrated by Momoko Sakura. The series depicts the simple, everyday life of Momoko Sakura, a young girl everyone calls Maruko, and her family in suburban Japan in the year 1974. Maruko is a troublemaker, and every episode recounts Maruko’s trouble and how she and her friends succeed in solving the situation. The series is set in the former Irie District (入江町), Shimizu, now part of Shizuoka City, birthplace of its author.
The author first began writing and submitting strips in her final year of senior high school, although Shueisha (the publisher of Ribon and Ribon Original) did not decide to run them until over a year later. The author’s intent was to write “essays in manga form”; many stories are inspired by incidents from her own life, and some characters are based on her family and friends. The nostalgic, honest and thoughtful tone of the strip led to its becoming popular among a wider audience.
ちびまる子ちゃん is a classic, and although its main character is a child I think the humor is equally appealing to adults (from my experience with the anime). I think reading this will provide a lot of cultural context while also being cute and fun.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Adorable, distinctive, expressive artwork.
Slice-of-life, so probably easy to jump in and out.
DENSE, but using probably mainly everyday vocabulary.
Occasional full pages in handwriting = lots of practice reading handwriting!
Cons
Slice-of-life so probably low on overarching plot developments.
A very fun way to learn Japanese history in Japanese!!
Story: This volume covers the 原始 (Prehistoric/Ancient Japan) and beginning of the 古墳 Kofun periods. Specifically it’s divided into 旧石器時代 (Paleolithic Era), 縄文時代 (Jōmon Era), 弥生時代 (Yayoi Era), and 古墳時代 (Kofun Era) periods. Each era has a unique story with new and distinct characters. It tells the story of Japan’s progression from the very first inhabitants; to developing stone, clay, metal tools; becoming more sedentary; creation/developing of Shinto practices; introducing rice cultivation, producing glass and silk, forming kingdoms with new architectural achievements, and finally consolidating into a larger empire, with the establishment of the Imperial Family. As the story and civilization progresses, you get diagrams and explanations of newly acquired/developed technology, rituals, construction patterns, etc.
This is the kind of book that I think is most fun and interesting when read with a book club! The level may sound a little low at 26, but I think the text density qualifies it for this club (especially as developments become more political or technical in nature).
Pros and Cons
Pros
Learn more about Japanese history, specifically what Japanese people learn about history as children.
Full furigana makes look-ups easy.
Could make a fun and educational spin-off club to read the rest of the series!
Cons
Full furigana makes kanji-heavy text feel cluttered.
Only the first 30-ish pages are in color. (On the other hand, that probably keeps the cost down.)
Defying the expectations of family and teachers, Yuugo Hachiken chooses to leave the city and enroll at Ooezo Agricultural High School. Having always been at the top of his class, Yuugo assumes a rural school will be a breeze, but mucking out stables, gathering eggs, and chasing errant calves takes a lot out of him-and fills him with something he’s never experienced before. Surrounded by endless fields and fresh air, Yuugo discovers a new connection to the land and to life…Springtime begins at Ezo AG!!
I’ve been interested in this series for a long time but never got around to reading it in English or Japanese. It’s by Hiromu Arakawa (creator of Fullmetal Alchemist) and has won several awards, so it’s almost guaranteed to be amazing quality! I might request FMA too if nobody else does, but I figured I’d start with Silver Spoon since it’s slice-of-life and seems to be pretty light-hearted. Personally, I’m also interested in learning about rural Japan, Hokkaido, and agriculture!
Pros and Cons
Pros
By the same mangaka as Fullmetal Alchemist
Along those lines, likely to be easier than FMA because it’s slice-of-life
Has won several awards, including the Japan Food Culture Contents Award for spreading awareness of Japanese food culture across the world — so it’s good quality as both a story and a cultural reference
likely to have a lot of rural vocab, which could be useful for those who want to visit / live in rural Japan
possibly Hokkaido dialect? Which may be a pro or a con
Cons
Iots of agriculture vocab, which might not be interesting / relevant to everyone
possibly Hokkaido dialect? Which may be a pro or a con
This reminds me of another farming in Hokkaido manga by Arakawa called “Hyakushou Kizoku.” However, its Natively level is quite high (34), so I’m hesitant to nominate it.
