Yotsubato! Vol. 1 (Yotsubato!) (in Japanese) (Japanese Edition) Comic

It's a brand new book just received from Japan and I think it'll help with my Japanese. The pictures are very cute! I think I'll probably buy more from this series when I've finished this one.

Yotsubato (Yotsuba&) has deservedly been one of Japan's favourite comics for several years.The first few volumes were published in English by an American company, but some business trouble led to the suspension of publication. Fortunately though, Yen Press has taken up the rights and will publish the English editions starting in November 2009.Yotsuba is a 5-year old girl who moves to a small Japanese city with her stepfather, a young translator. Each chapter recounts some kind of adventure in daily life, as seen by a young child. Such everyday events as meeting the neighbours, visiting a department store, or buying some cakes, become comedy gold when Yotsuba is involved, thanks to her curiousity, energy and innocent naughtiness.The art style is realistic and consistent, the characters are well drawn and are attractive visually and as personalities. It is a great read for anyone with a heart. Highly recommended.

As a slice of life story there's nothing too plot heavy here, the story follows the everyday exploits of an amusing girl called Yotsuba. She's genuinely likable and often very amusing. Whilst this is obviously manga aimed at Japanese natives the language used is pretty simple, and this is certainly why it's a hit with learners of Japanese.There's kanji galore of course and most are common enough to not require high level WaniKani or similar, but a word of warning- the type face used can be very small at times and if you're looking to read the furigana then you'll be pressing your face to the page to decipher them such is their atom level size.One more thing, this is super expensive here on Amazon UK. If you scoot over to Amazon JP they're 600 yen a book (£3.60), and you can buy the entire series with shipping for about £70.