Yotsuba&!, Vol. 2 [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The funny adventures of Yotsuba Koiwai continue in Kiyohiko Azuma's second manga series of the precocious little girl living with her single parent father and the fun she has with the gentle hyperthyroid Jumbo and the Ayase family next door, including the mother and the three daughters, the tall and attractive blonde Asagi, Fuka, the responsible daughter who often ends up the butt of Yotsuba's antics, and Ena.

Things start with Yotsuba, Ena, and her friend Miura going out drawing together, and the difficulty of being honest about how one draws (or can't draw) without hurting one's feelings. Ena is torn between her friendship with Miura and not wanting to hurt Yotsuba's feelings. In this case, it's the way Yotsuba draws, which is in outlines without detail. Hey, she's just a kid.

Things get funnier afterwards. After watching a gangster movie on TV with her father and Jumbo, the ever impressionable Yotsuba takes her water pistol after blasting them both, then makes her way to the Ayase household, causing all sorts of silly mayhem and speaking the gangster talk, and blasting everyone in sight. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Water came outta your nose, Fuka!" she says.

The most hilarious adventures involve Yotsuba and a magic marker. Yotsuba is minding the house while her father is taking a much needed nap. After drawing a picture of her father on her cardboard box of personal things, a.k.a. the Yotsubox, she includes a beard on the picture, and then, on her sleeping father!!! Her laughing expression upon her prank is just precious! Fearing she'll be scolded, she tries to erase it, but hey, they don't call'em magic markers for nothing, right? And since when is mayonnaise supposed to wipe off magic marker drawings?

"CAKE CAKE!" Playing house with Ena leads to Yotsuba getting a hankering for cake so she, Ena, and Miura go to the bakery, oddly named Mercredi (French for Wednesday). I've never seen Yotsuba more animated than here, from the delightful look on her face in the bakery, to eating it at the Ayases'. However, there is a reason why Ms. Ayase does not want Asagi to witness their cake eating.

Yotsuba and the gang have fun at the local pool. Jumbo's infatuation for Asagi is seen, as he brings some flowers, anticipating her joining them, but gets a bit upset when instead of Asagi, Fuka joins them. Nevertheless, the funniest moment has Jumbo tossing Yotsuba in the pool in sight of a scandalized Fuka. Ironically, Yotsuba is the only one who can swim, and she has the most fun, tipping over people resting in their lifesaver rafts to jumping off the lifeguard's chair.

While Yotsuba does not repeat the stunt of releasing cicadas inside the Ayases' house, she brings back a frog to show Ena. However, things get funnier when Miura, knowing of Yotsuba's fear of the giant balloon eyes that frighten birds, wears one of them, and goes to the Ayases. Now if Miura wore a hat, she'd be one of the Residents! And no, Boxerman does not return, but we see the silly Daddy Dance.

The last episode has to do with Asagi's return trip from Okinawa, where she brings all sorts of things, and the family wonders what it means for something to be Okinawan style. There are a few references from Azuma's previous manga series, Azumanga Daioh. Asagi's souvenirs from Okinawa include a toy shisaa, the lion-dog guardians of Okinawa and sata andagi, fried donut holes, which was what the teenagers in AD experienced during their school trip. And in the beginning, Fuka is seen wearing a T-shirt with the orange Azumanga Daioh cat, or Chiyo-chan's fantasy father.

I don't know what it'd be like being a parent or a neighbour of a girl like Yotsuba. Part of it would be thinking what she will do today, but the other part will think, boy, she's so full of energy and reminds one what it was like to be young. So donmai, donmai-(don't worry about it) This volume is a worthy followup to Azuma-san's series.

This the best volume of Yotsuba&! yet! It has my two favorite sequences in it: "Yotsuba & Revenge" and "Yotsuba & The Frog". The first one features our green-haired girl running around her neighbors' house with a squirt gun, spraying everyone in sight because of the 'murder' of her father. The second has her, her neighbor Ena, and Ena's friend Miura simultaneously freaking out. You have to read it to believe it! This volume is much funnier than the first and I highly recommend it!

A hyper-energetic little girl Yotsuba's story goes on, and the creator Kiyohiko Azuma's storytelling is getting even more reined with interesting and fleshed-out characters vividly portrayed with just the right amount of humor. And you know, no one hates a five-year-old girl with a green hair who turns everyday life into laughter.

The second volume starts with a new character, Miura Hayasaka, a brusque girl (and classmate of Ena), who could be sometimes very sensitive. Miura and Ena often appear (and play a major role) together in some of the comic's funniest chapters. One such example is this volume's Chapter 13, in which Miura, knowing that Yotsuba is really afraid of something (I don't name it), visits Yotsuba's house in disguise. Things take an unexpected and hilarious turn when Yotsuba also has got something that Miura doesn't want to see

The second installment also contains delightful episodes such as "shy" Jumbo (who obviously likes Asagi) using Yotsuba as a "bait." Also, the volume tells us that saving the strawberry for last may not be the best way to eat a strawberry cake.

Volume 2 of "Yotsuba&!" is as much fun as in the first volume, or probably more. Enjoy it.

The strange-looking creature printed on Fuka's shirt in the first chapter is Chiyo-chan's father, a character that appears in the same creator's previous work "Azumanga Daioh." It is a "cat."