Azumanga Daioh

Azumanga Daioh / Kiyohiko Azuma.— The omnibus.— Houston : ADV Manga, c2007.

677 p. : chiefly ill. ; 23 cm.

Translated from the Japanese.

1. Female friendship – Japan – Comic books, strips, etc. 2. Graphic novels. 3. High school students – Japan – Comic books, strips, etc. 4. Teenage girls – Japan – Comic books, strips, etc.

741.5952

First let’s demystify the title. The author and illustrator added a syllable to his surname to make a personal brand of manga, to which he then added part of the title of Dengeki Daioh, the magazine where the strip was first published from 1999 to 2002. Azuman+ga+Daioh = Azumanga Daioh. The comics became the basis for an extremely popular anime series of the same title in 2002. The omnibus edition collects the entire print series in one volume.

It’s a humorous, episodic tale of a group of girls going through the trials, tribulations, and embarrassing moments of getting through three years of high school in Tokyo. The girls have very distinctive characteristics: the boisterous Tomo, her clear-headed friend and antagonist Yomi, the daydreaming Osaka, the athletically competitive Kagura, Chiyo, the prodigy, who enters the first year of high school at age ten, and the tall, shy and athletic Sakaki who adores cats, but is promptly bitten by nearly every feline she encounters. The biting cats are one of a number of running gags in the strip as are the obsessions of the girls’ teachers, Yomi’s passion for sweets, and Chiyo’s pigtails. Azumanga Daioh is not a collection of laugh out loud jokes. But the cumulative effect of Asuman’s off-beat humor quickly catches up with the reader making for a very enjoyable read.