Customer Reviews

Azumanga Daioh Omnibus Volume 1 (v. 1)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a fan of Azumanga Daioh (the animation), I've been interested in reading the original manga, but the price of collecting all four volumes (around $30) was a barrier. When I saw that this Omnibus was much cheaper, I decided to buy it.

The manga itself deserves 5 stars, as Azuma is hilarious in his writing and drawing. Some of the jokes that fell a bit flat in the animation really shine in written form. Content-wise, this manga is great.

Moreover, the Omnibus has some slight improvements over the original manga. Some of the glaring inconsistencies present in the original manga have been fixed (e.g., Yukari is now an English teacher from start to finish, and Osaka's accent has been toned down). Also, the Omnibus has slightly larger pages, making the text easier to read.

However, the Omnibus' packaging is somewhat lacking. It is entirely black and white (unlike the original manga books, which had color inserts). There are still no translator's notes for volumes 1 and 2. Moreover, the translator's notes for volumes 3 and 4 refer to the original page numbers (and not the pages in the Omnibus), so a note for "page 13" may actually refer to page 505.

In sum, if you're looking for an economical way to enjoy the manga, the omnibus is a good buy.

This is done by the same author of Yotsuba (and you know that it's going to be awesome). ADV decided to release all 4 volumes in one Omnibus edition and the paper is a larger print (a huge plus since I've owned omnibus edition that were the same size as a regular manga and it simply messes up the entire book). The price of all 4 volumes combined is around $40 but you can own all 4 in one book for around $20 and that's a great deal! (Unless you are the type of person who does not like hulling around a big book and would like to carry 4 small books instead).

The manga itself centers around 6 high school girls and their daily life in high school and pretty much that means your going to have a lot of funny moments. Of course the story does include high school teachers and other aspects of life other than life in high school, you will simply enjoy the life these characters go throughout the book. There has not been one panel (the book is written in a 4 panel comic strip) that I have found to be boring or redundant, although there were some panels that I didn't quite understand (simply because I am not very accustomed to Japanese culture). There will be some jokes that some may not understand because of the culture, but with this book you will be able to understand Japanese culture a lot more.

If you are a fan of the anime series, Yotsuba, or want a series that is light on content but very funny, pick up this series as you will not be disappointed.

If you love zany, madcap, & sometimes nonsensical humor, then this is the manga for you. If not, then you're better off looking elsewhere. The manga's delivery is in a day to day format, similar to a daily comic strip you'd find in the newspapers. In fact, that's pretty much how the manga was delivered in it's parent magazine, in one to two strip doses per magazine.

The manga surrounds a group of high school girls as they go through their day to day activities & social interactions. Most of the manga cliches are here, minus the romance. There's also the zany & strange, which also frequently pokes it's head into the series. Again, reading this all in one gulp isn't recommended. It's so strange & wierd at times that trying to read it all at once can get to be a bit of a chore! (I know, I tried.)

Overall, this big compilation is perfect for those who want to collect manga but are on a budget. The price is right, the manga is excellent, but... the layout of the book is somewhat wonky. This big brick of a book is a bit unwieldy to hold sometimes & makes me afraid for any future deterioration of the spine over time & future readings because of it's size. (Every time you open the book, the spine weakens. Over time the spine & glue will eventually break apart & pages will fall out. This is why so many large books have sewn in binding or remain in hardback.) Even so, it's still a deal at the price!

Manga: 4/5
Book layout: 3/5

i showed my best friend the first episode of the Azumanga DVDs and he said he didn't like it. My entire family, from my wife down to the smallest child went into collective shock - how is that possible? Perhaps i had made a poor choice in friends...

Azumanga is one of the best series ever. What makes it so fantastic. Easy, it's the... um... actually, i don't know. Some of it is specific to the anime, which we watched before getting the manga (the anime has the nonsensical "cooking can be fun" song, the "fluffy temptation of wheat" song and the Chiyo penguin costume, which looks best animated). Most of it is probably the characters, especially the dumb ones, although i think everyone's favorite is Osaka (especially when she tricks her teacher by banging a "pot" over her head). None of it is the action, plot or fight scenes - there really isn't any of that.

Azumanga is a series of (very) short stories about the things that happen in the daily lives of a group of highschool girls. They go on field trips, visit each others' houses, go to the beach, participate in athletic competitions and generally do incredibly boring, unremarkable things. Personally, i love ninjas and magic powers and fighting, so i shouldn't like this manga, but the characters are just so cute and annoying and ADHD that one can't help but love them. My kids spent months looking up YouTube videos for the characters. They draw Osaka fan art and order Chiyo dolls online. This book (this incredibly large, thick, heavy book) has been read more than any other book in the house, by every single person in the house.

So there you go. We like it. We don't know why, it doesn't seem like we should, pick any individual episode and you'll have a hard time seeing what's so special, but read it cover to cover and you'll have a hard time seeing how anyone could dislike it.

Azumanga Daioh follows a group of highschool girls through school. Each strip is self-contained, but there are over-arching themes like vacations, sports festivals, etc.

At first, it's hard to get the different characters separate because a few look the same in black and white, but eventually the girls' personalities come out through their action and dialog and makes it easier.

Reading and re-reading these strips always makes me crack a smile. It's cute, light-hearted fun.

My first time reading through this, I felt sad toward the end because I just didn't want the story to end.

Unlike most manga series, "Azumanga Daioh" doesn't have a real plot. Or chapters. Or anything major happening.

But despite those odd facts, this delightful little series is one of the few schoolcentric manga that I've read and enjoyed -- a comic exploration of the oddball lives of a gang of young high school girls and a few equally eccentric young teachers. "Azumanga Daioh" doesn't delve too deeply into characters' lives or anything non-fluffy -- Kiyohiko Azuma's stories charm just by being adorable and a little strange.

High school has begun, and there's a crop of new students -- among them is the quiet, tall cat-lover Sakaki, ten-year-old genius Chiyo-chan, the impulsive and freakishly energetic Tomo, the sensible Yomi, athletic Kagura, and a spacey transfer student from Osaka named Ayumu (but who is always called "Osaka" instead). The assorted teens are taught (I use the term loosely) by their immature, mildly bipolar teacher Yukari, and her exasperated gym-teacher buddy "Nyamo."

Over the next four years, the students and teachers must deal with all the normal stuff -- biting cats, contemplations of teen life, ball games, field trips, working at a thinly-disguised McDonald's, swimming woes, visits to Chiyo-chan's summer house and the beach, running for class president (Tomo nominated herself! Aiee!), footraces, the right way to separate chopsticks, random trivia, the Necoconeco, hiccups, Sakaki's secret vice, talking to foreigners, horrendous driving, Chiyo's massive dog, Mr. Kimura's creepy love for teen girls, a sports festival and a stuffed animal exhibit festival.

And to add to all the weirdness, we occasionally see inside their dreams -- think serving penguins, big weird cats, flying parasitic pigtails, and (most implausibly) Tomo getting better grades than Chiyo. "Hawk! Eggplant! Rise and shine!"

"Azumanga Daioh" isn't really like any other manga I've seen -- it has a couple of "normal" chapters, but most of the time it's rendered in vertical four-panel strips, like daily comic strips. It also has only a few running storylines (such as Sakaki and the little endangered cat), although it does have some fun running gags -- and though there are a spattering of male characters on the sidelines (including the ghoulish Mr Kimura and a horde of nameless boys), it's almost completely focused on young women.

But despite having pretty much no plot, "Azumanga Daioh" is adorable and charming fluff. Azuma takes the ordinary stuff of everyday life (like chatting at school) and gives it a delightfully offbeat twist (poor Chiyo having graphic flashbacks to Yukari's driving). She has a knack for finding the goofy stuff in fairly ordinary life (various methods of curing hiccups) and amplifying it just a little -- while inserting some sly jokes as well ("You just said that what we learn is meaningless after we graduate." "Shaddup. That's what we call 'education!'").

And the cast of characters is pretty fun -- Sakaki is especially endearing, since she seems imposing and distant, but is actually shy and sentimental (especially about cute stuff); Chiyo is endearing thanks to her short size and conscientious worrywartiness. And the insanely energetic Tomo and surreal-minded space cadet "Osaka" make nice accompaniments, as do Nyami and Yukari ("Mark my words... for some of you here, this trip will end in MISERY AND REGRET!"), who are sort of a Japanese educational Odd Couple. Except with pillow stealing and payday dances.

This omnibus -- which contains all of "Azumanga Daioh" -- is simple, fluffy, and all the more charming for being so. It's not so much a slice of life as a hundred delicious little crumbs.

the omnibus is loads of fun! great value, too. the whole series in one inexpensive volume.

The original Azumanga Daoih was written as comic strips, like the kinds of comics you'd see in a Sunday paper. So, that is the format for this manga. Well, most of the time, occasionally there is a full length chapter. If you aren't expecting to see comic strips, you might be a little surprised.

I had a hard time connecting with the characters in this format, and I much prefer the anime. If I was not familiar with the characters prior to reading this, I guarantee you, I would have been confused. The comic strip format allows for more confusion of what is going on also. While it does follow the anime, there are some parts that where left out, and that is what makes this book worthwhile to read. There are some instances where the jokes appear better as comics, but most of the time they aren't as funny as they are in the anime.

I would recommend this manga to anyone that has watched the anime first. Then, I think the manga would be more worthwhile to read. This is the Omnibus, meaning that it has all four volumes combined into one huge 677 pages + of great humor!