Sunday, May 23, 2010

「Yotsuba&!」


Hi ^ ^
Today,I'll introduce you [Yotsuba&」( in Japanese, 「Yotsubato」) written by Kiyohiko Azuma.
This is one of the my favorite comics (●^o^●)♡
According to the wikipedia, this series is published in English , too. I didn't know it.
This is Japanese comedy comic. It's really funny and cute ♪
Then, I'll show you the summary of this comic.

This is the story about Yotsuba Koiwai 's dayly life. She is a five year-old adopted girl. She is really energetic , curious, and cheerful girl. Actually, her father calls her `strange`. Nobody knows where she is from. Her father said he picked up Yotsuba in an island located in south. When other's asked Yotsuba, `where are you from?`, she answered ` I came from the really far island where you have to take airplane to visit there`. And also, as you can see, she has green hair!!! Everybody have no idea where is she from.

This story begins with when Yotsuba and her adopt father move to new city with help of her father's best friend ,who is really tall man ,nicknamed `Jambo`. (The tallest man in the picture below)
In the first day, she encounters three girls, Asagi, Fuuka, and Ena. They are the daughters in the neighboring Ayase family. Yotsuba's new life began.
                           Ena   Fuuka    Asagi

Yotsuba is interested in everything near her. For example, in the first day, she is interested in a cicada and,,,,she pretended cicada by climbed to a utility pole. You can see how strange she is,,,right? kkk She is interested in everything, really. Actually, she doesn't know many things a child who is in her age are expected to know. For example, she doesn't know escalators, air conditioners, a playground's swing, and so on.

In daily life, Yotsuba discover's something everyday. Everyday is voyage for her. She can enjoy everything. For example, Yotsuba in rainy day,,,

She didn't use umbrella and getting wet,,,but laughing!! She really can enjoy everything. The man with Yotsuba is her adopt father. He is also really funny.kkk
Most of the story's title is 「Yotsuba and 〇〇〇」. So, this picture is from the story titled 「Yotsuba and rain」. This series focuses on Yotsuba and her surrounded people 's such a wonderful life.
I really like 「Yotsuba&!」(●^o^●)♡ This story makes me feel happy.
Actually, this comic is becoming popular.
This story doesn't have an attracted feature like other comics have. (ex. battle, love, etc.)
This story only shows about little child's daiily-life. However, it's really really interesting.
Yotsuba means four-leaf clover in Japanese. I think this name really suits her, because she brings happiness to everybody.
I'm sure Yotsuba will bring you happiness, too.
I really recommend you to read 「Yotsuba&!」(*^^)v
These sites show about this series in details.
http://www.yotuba.com/yotu_comics.html (This site shows 2 sample stories) (in Japanese)
Thank you )^o^(

Sunday, May 16, 2010

「Yonkoma manga」

( `Chibimaruko-chan` written by Momoko Sakura on Tokushima news paper)


(Peanuts comic written by Charles M. Schulz)

Hi )^o^( 
Today, I'll introduce you `Yonkoma manga`(a four-frame comic).
Do you know what this is?

Yonkoma manga,a comic-strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom. (They also sometimes run right-to-left horizontally or use a hybrid 2x2 style, depending on the layout requirements of the publication in which they appear.) Though the word yonkoma comes from the Japanese, the style also exists outside of Japan in other Asian countries as well as in the English-speaking market.
This is the traditional yonkoma layout. Traditionally, Yonkoma follow a structure known as Kishōtenketsu. This word is a compound formed from the following Chinese characters:

起 Ki: The first panel forms the basis of the story; it sets the scene.
承 Shō: The second panel develops upon the foundation of the story laid down in the first panel.
転 Ten: The third panel is the climax, in which an unforeseen development occurs.
結 Ketsu: The fourth panel is the conclusion, in which the effects of the third panel are seen.

These comic strips appear in almost all types of publications in Japan, including manga magazines, graphic novels, the comics section of newspapers, game magazines, cooking magazines, and so forth.

(I took all of the explanation above from wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonkoma )

Yonkoma manga is wonderful ! It is as funny as normal comic. .http://heppocology.fc2web.com/index.html
This is one of the Yonkoma mangas you can read on the internet. It's really interesting story!! I knew this yonkoma manga from one of my friends. Click `COMIC`, then you can read yonkoma manga. Sorry, it's written in Japanese...But I really recommend you to read this one ^^

Thank you (*^^)v

Thursday, May 13, 2010

My favorite post

Category: Entertainment
Title of the post `Japanese Comics are quite artistic!´

Hi!
In the last post, I promised to tell you the secret related to bookjacket of Japanese comics,,,right? So, today, I'll tell it to you^^


The secret is ,,,
when you take the bookjacket ・・・
you can find the picture which is different from the picture written on a cover !!Many of the Japanese comics have this secret. The content written on a cover is depends on comic. So, I'm always feel exciting when I take the bookjacket and look at a cover ♪
I'll show you some examples !(^^)!


1. 「D. Gray-man」 vol.15 , written by Katsura Hoshino.


Let's take the book jacket !!


Wow! There's an another short comic!! This short comic shows the process of
taking the picture which is used as a cover. It says , there's a trouble between the
characters before taking this picture . It was really funny !(^^)! And also, I felt as if I
had made a profit because I could read the story which is the people who didn't buy this
comic can not read. And the happiest thing was my most favorite character was the main character of this story ♡kkk
2. 「Black Butler」 vol.1 , written by Yana Toboso.


Let's take the book jacket !!


!?!?!? This picture is very simillar to the one on a cover , but his costume is different. And also, the title is changed to 「黒ホスト」. This means 「Brack Host」in Japanese. Like this, 「Black Butler」 always change the chalacter's costume and put an another title.As an example, 「Black Dancer」、「Black Golfer」 ,「Black Sushiya」,and so on. And also, on a buck cover , there's a summary of that story. This time, there's a summary of 「Black Host 」the author wrote by kidding. This series is popular among readers. All of the readers always looking forward to see next cosplay of character on a cover.


3. 「Kochira Katsusika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsujo」 vol.150, written by Osamu Akimoto.
Let's take the book jacket!

Oh! What a gorgeous cover!! It's because this comic achieved vol.150 .
It is congratuated by this cover . Can you see the letter 「祝」 at the above of 150?
「祝」 means 「Congratuation」 in Japanese. This comic is the one of the longest comics in Japan.
There's a statue of the main character 「Kankichi Ryotsu」 at the city that this comic takes place.


4. 「The prince of tennis」 vol.35, written by Takeshi Konomi.

This is the special one! This is different kinds of secret from others. But, I want to show you because this is rare one. It has a reversible cover!! Let's look at it.


Let's turn the cover the other way around !

Wow! His hair became shorter! Why?
It's because he played a game of tennis with the promise "the person lose has to cut own hair".
Year,,,he lost. But it was really good game!!
I have never seen such a revercible cover . It's really cool, isn't it?


● In addition, I'll show you the backbone of Japanese comics, too.
   This is 「The Detective Conan」, written by Gosyo Aoyama.

Look at the top of the backbone. You can see the small story,right?
Most of the Japanese comics have such a ingenuity.


In this post, I wanted to show you an attraction of Japanese comics.
They always try to entertain readers by not only the story , but also other things.
They have a lot of quite artistic ingenuity. Could you see those from this post?
I hope you became more interested in Japanese comics by this post.

Thank you ^^♪

「High School Debut」



Hi^^
Today, I`ll introduce you 「High School Debut」which is written by Kazune Kawahara.
This is a comic for girls which is popular in Japan. According to wikipedia, the series was adopted as a drama CD and as a series of six write novels.
And also, the comic is licenced in North America by Viz Media, which published English editions of all 13 volumes . ( the first picture above)
Then,I'll show you the summary of this comic.
Haruna Nagashima bellonged to the softball team when she was in junior high school. She gave her all to softball in junior high school. At that time, softball was everything for her and she didn't care other things. At that time, she had boyish haircut and didn't have opportunity to fall in love with someone. Now , she became high school student . Then, she has made her high school debut, she has decided to give her all for a new goal: getting a boyfriend and falling in love. However, she has one small problem—since she never paid any attention to fashion or trends in middle school, she has no idea what she has to do to achieve that goal. But a chance encounter when she met Yoh Komiyama who has really good looks and popular among girls. If he coaches her in how to become attractive, surely she can find herself a boyfriend. Therefore, she asked him to coach her. At first, he didn't accept because it seemed ridiculous. However, he changed his mind because he knew she is really hard worker. The second picture above is the scene hwen Yoh told Haruna that he can coach her. It's written in Japanese. So,I'll translate to English. It says ,,,
Yoh ` I can be your coach.`
Haruna ` Really,,,?`
Yoh ` It's just because I am inclined to do so. Don't cry. It's annoying.`

Yoh then agrees to coach Haruna after her great persistence, but he tells her she mustn't fall in love with him. He has had girlfriend when he was in junior high school. But, something happened and it became bad memory for Yoh. Since that time, he became feel lazy to have girlfriend. That love became trauma to him. That's why he told Haruna that she mustn't fall in love with him. At first, Haruna agreed it. However, little by littele, she is attracted by Yoh. The story from then follows Haruna as she debates whether she should confess to Yoh, or keep her secret to herself.

Yoh is really cool guy (><)♡
One of my friends loves this comic. She really loves Yoh . kkkkk
Haruna is active and honest girl. She tries really hard to succeed in her love.
I really recommend you to read 「High School Debut」.

Thank you (^^♪