A truly wonderful new entry in the beloved series!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kiyohiko Azuma
Translation: Stephen Paul
What They Say
Everyone’s favorite green-haired five-year-old is back! And this time, Yotsuba’s expanding her horizons by taking a trip to the big city with her dad! The giant amusement park of Tokyo–with all its trains to ride, neighborhoods to explore, and fancy lunches to eat–promises heartwarmingly hilarious adventures in this long-awaited volume!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
So, this time around we start off with a variety of charming standalone chapters. The first task for our adorable heroine is making bead necklaces with her dad and Jumbo. It’s of course just as cute and amusing as you’d expect, but I also particularly like the way that the continuity carries throughout the volume, with the necklaces just kind of sticking around. It’s a small but really amusing touch that just makes me smile. Then Yotsuba attends a yoga class and shows off the trademark flexibility of a child to great effect, before we get a chapter of Yotsuba being a princess in her own special way. That chapter’s the easy highlight of the book, as it’s just hilarious and perfect from beginning to end, encapsulating everything I love about the series.
We do get a bigger “arc” this time around though, which is Yotsuba and her dad taking a trip to Tokyo to pick up a car from Koharuko. And just as you’d expect, it’s all played wonderfully, taking advantage of both the lead-up and their actual time in Tokyo. I won’t spoil all the little happenings, but it really is fantastically set up, with some great use of callback jokes that play out over several chapters. My favorite of those is probably the bit with the “aliens” Yotsuba notices, which climaxes in such a wonderfully hilarious manner that I couldn’t stop laughing as I read it.
Anyway, just how will Yotsuba handle her time in the big city? Can she manage the grave responsibility of handling the tickets, or will it prove too much for her? And just how will she react to the fancy meal awaiting her?!
In Summary
This volume may have taken a good while to come out after the last one, but it sure is worth the wait. It’s just a truly wonderful book, full of hilarious jokes, beautiful panels, and a whole lot of adorableness. I want to make special note of how great the volume is with keeping little bits of continuity and recurring gags, which all end up paying off fantastically. It’s just a little something extra that only adds to how special this series is. All in all, this volume proves once again that even if it’s not exactly coming out fast, this really is a series that anyone and everyone should be reading, as I have a hard time imagining someone being disappointed with this book.
Content Grade: A+
Art Grade: A
Package Rating: B+
Text/Translation Rating: A-
Age Rating: All Ages
Released by: Yen Press
Release Date: November 13th, 2018
MSRP: $12.99
