Azumanga Daioh

Azumanga Daioh follows the day-to-day adventures of a group of Japanese high school girls. There is the brash and excitable Tomo Takino, the tall, soft-spoken cat lover Sakaki, the ten-year-old prodigy Chiyo Mihama, the Osakan transfer student Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga, and the straight man Yomi Mizuhara. Starting in the second year, this group is joined by the athletic Kagura. They are joined by their inattentive English teacher Yukari. The overall story, told in four volumes that are all collected in this omnibus, follows them through their three years of high school and everyday life. Unlike many others who probably read this after seeing the anime adaptation, I had only seen a few clips of the show on YouTube prior to giving this a read. Having gone into this mostly blind, I was pleasantly surprised by this manga and its humor. Azumanga Daioh originally ran in Japan from 1999 to 2002. At its core, it is a yonkoma-style manga which refers to a style of storytelling in which each strip is told in four panels. I found that the artwork in this book was quite good and worked well for the story it is telling. Certainly, the premise of the manga focusing on high school life means that the settings, characters, and backgrounds take on a rather pedestrian look, but it still comes off as good. I especially liked the artwork on the various characters. Befitting the comedy genre, many characters have over-the-top expressions that add to the humor. The great artwork really helps to add to the characterizations from the quiet and reserved nature of Sakaki to the loud-mouthed Tomo. The story and the characters in Azumanga Daioh are great. There is no particular overall story other than the overarching march of time as the girls go through high school over three years. Rather the format is more as a series of vignettes with the longest story arcs taking place over several strips. As stated above, most of this is just the stories of the ordinary with a healthy amount of goofiness. Some examples of the stories found in this include stressing over tests, Sakaki trying (and failing) to get along with the cats that she loves so much, school trips and vacations, and so on. The characters are another strong point with this manga as well. All of the characters are very likable and entertaining. While each of them has their own personality and quirks, they each have their own level of cluelessness to them which really adds to the humor of the story as they sometimes stumble through life. If it is not already obvious, the greatest strength of this manga is its sense of humor. It is a comedy series after all and I found this to be absolutely hilarious. The four-panel format is used very effectively throughout the series to tell rapid-fire jokes. I cannot even begin to count how many times I laughed out loud while reading through this. I was surprised at how many jokes are made while also not veering into, say, blatant fanservice at all. It really is the type of comedy that can be enjoyed by teens and adults for its general hilarity. Also included with this edition is a series of footnotes explaining some of the more cultural aspects that may not always be apparent to a non-Japanese reader. These work well to help the reader understand some Japanese cultural aspects that are inherent in the story. Overall, I found this manga to be an incredibly enjoyable read. It is certainly to be considered one of the defining works of the genre consisting of the everyday lives of schoolgirls and would go on to form one of the staples of anime. Even if you have never watched the anime, this is a great read for anyone that likes manga in particular and comics in general especially for those that like comedy works.

It provides a large amount of content, the most I have seen for being only 20 dollars. It is very funny, with its format like a funny comic. If you are looking for a funny/slice of life manga with lots of content, this is for you. Overall, great character, good value, one of my favorites.

A weird, but funny series. The book is surprisingly bulky, being all 3 volumes packed into 1 thick paper back book. The Addition of notes is also a great feature, which helps explain the terms and jokes that non Japanese readers may not understand. As one who watched the anime first, it was fun to see where the whole series started, and how similar yet different the manga was in comparison.

I honestly don't believe I could say anything that hasn't already been said by other reviewers. Really, go read them. Anyways, this manga could easily be summarized as "cute girls doing cute things", because that's all there is to it. Azumanga Daioh chronicles the life of a group of Japanese schoolgirls as they make their way through high school. Yomi, the straight man, Tomo, the hyper goofball, Sasaki, an intimidating girl who's outer appearance contains her sweet nature, Kagura, a competitive sportsman, Osaka, an airheaded transfer student, and Chiyo, a 10-year-old child prodigy, as well as their teachers the child-like Yukari, and their gym-teacher Nyamo. There's no overarching plot for the manga, as its delivered through gags in the form of yokoma, a 4-panel strip that could be compared to the Western Sunday Funnies. For the most part, Azumanga Daioh keeps a light-hearted humor that everyone can appreciate, although there might be times where it jumps into questionable territory, especially with the side-characters Kaorin, a girl with a huge crush on Sasaki, and Kimura, a teacher with an affinity for high school girls. Other stories include the bizarre dreams of our students. I have to warn anyone who buys this that a lot of the humor is intended for the Japanese, and although the translators did an amazing job at bringing this to the masses, some gags and jokes may simply go over our heads. This is properly handled, however, in that after each volume (the book is a compilation of 4 volumes), there's translator notes fully explaining the jokes and gags that Westerners may have a hard time understanding. Even if some of the humor doesn't get you, it's still worth going over eveyrthing, if only to appreciate the adorable and simplistic art-style Azumanga Daioh has to offer. As I said before, I may not be able to do this product justice, as the other reviewers have already done a great job at it. All I can say is that Azumanga Daioh is timeless, and it's an amusing read no matter how many times one goes through it. Due to it's plotless format, one can sit down, open any page, and get a kick out of it. From the moments you get introduced to our colorful characters, to the tear-jerking finale, Azumanga is a must-read for most, if not all, manga fans. I'm sure even people who have no interest in anime could learn to appreciate the book.

awesome book very funny very cute just as good as the anime also comes in good quality

I love Azumanga Daioh as a whole and got into it early last year. I didn’t know they sold the whole series on here so I bought it, surprisingly came super quick; in the span of a day. The cover was a bit messed up as shown in the first picture, however the rest of the book is in mint condition. I love this series and I cannot recommend it enough to anyone wanting to get into manga/anime, a 10/10 series.

Tutto bene.

Hello everynyan. How are you? Fine, thank you. Oh my gah 😧

Wydanie bez skazy, duży format i wydanie 4w1 jest co prawda dosyć spore i ciężkie lecz o dziwo nie przeszkadza to w czytaniu. Sam tytuł jest genialny i czyta się bardzo przyjemnie, polecam każdemu fanowi lekkich komedyjek.

Alles in einem Band! Die Abenteuer von Chio-chan, Osaka, ihren Freunden in und hoffentlich nach den letzten Schuljahren, Yukari-sensei und dem creepy "my waifu" Lehrer - komplett! Unbeschädigt erhalten, lediglich das doch sehr dicke Paperback-Format hält mich noch vom Lesen ab - den perfekt glatten Buchrücken zu erhalten, wird einiges an Sorgfalt verlangen.