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Oh, I think the only possible debate about Yotsuba&! is "Great comic, or greatest comic?"
I'm firmly in the latter camp. It's just astonishingly well-crafted—beautifully drawn, perfectly paced, with some of the best characterization I've ever sen in any medium; we know and recognize these people almost instantly, and there's never a moment of strain or overreaching. (Well, hardly ever; some of the bits with Jumbo are a bit broadly-drawn.)
What impresses me most, I think, is the unfailing generosity of spirit. It's not that the humor is particularly subtle—although sometimes it is—but that it's gentle, and sweet-natured. The standard (western) thinking on humor is that comedy = tragedy + time—that it is necessarily predicated on complication and frustration. Yotsuba&!, though, finds laughter in simple human goodness and affection. It's a neat trick.
(And it's a marked contrast to Azumanga Daioh, which crossed the line into "weird and slightly creepy" a little too often for my taste.)
Looking into the publication history, I find that Yotsuba&! was initially serialized in Dengeki Daioh, a shonen title—that is, in a magazine aimed primarily at schoolboys.
Is it just me, or does that seem a little... odd? I mean, yes, the desirable demographic audience for work this good, with such a broad appeal, is obviously "anyone who can read," but... I mean, can you imagine a strip like this running in, say, 2000 A.D.?
One last thought: I suspect that readers who do not have children of their own are taking away a slightly different reading experience than those of us who do. |
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