Manga Review: Yoshi no Zurikara: The Frog in the Well Does Not Know the Ocean Vol. 1

Mangaka Satsuki Yoshino is probably best known for her country comedy Barakamon. Now she’s back with yet another rustic flavored series: Yoshi no Zuikara: The Frog in the Well Does Not Know the Ocean. Read on for my review of Volume 1.

Back Cover Blurb

Thirty-two-year-old Tohno Naruhiko has been scraping by as a manga creator for ten years, and when his latest series gets canceled, he finds himself at a crossroads. Tohno’s always had his sights set on fantasy, but this time around, his editor’s got another idea—a slice-of-life story set in a remote village not unlike the one where he was born and raised. Could a return to his roots be exactly the change of pace our reclusive manga creator needs?

The Review

The opener of this book is a little confusing. It begins by introducing four modern teenage boys who live in an extremely out-of-the-way village in Japan. After seventy pages of learning about them and their lives on the backwater island of Tonoshima, we discover they aren’t actually the protagonists of Yoshi no Zurikara. Rather, they are the creations of thirty-two-year-old Naruhiko Tohno, a mangaka who is the series’ main character.

Tohno’s been drawing manga for ten years. Despite having written a couple of fantasy series, he’s never had major success in manga. In fact, it’s safe to say he’s only scraped by as a mangaka because he’s never moved away from home. After his latest series gets canceled, his editor suggests he try writing a slice of life manga set in a remote village similar to his own, and to his utter astonishment, this new series takes off.

Yoshi no Zurikara feels like a cross between Bakuman and Barakamon. Bakuman, because the main character’s a manga artist and the narrative often delves into the process of creating manga and the demands of the publishing business. Barakamon, because it has pretty much the same kind of rustic cast and island setting. In fact, it goes deeper into country culture because the main character isn’t a struggling artist who’s an outsider but a struggling artist who’s a local guy.

So if you’ve read Yoshino-sensei’s Barakamon and want more of the same, this series delivers. However, if you were hoping for fresh material from Yoshino-sensei, this might come off as stale. Yes, the ages and occupations of the characters are different, but Tohno’s pretty much the same kind of socially inept artist that Handa was. Tohno’s older by about ten years, but he lives in his grandmother’s house just behind his parents’ place and still relies on them for food. And instead of the energetic child Naru, we have the energetic, childlike manga assistant Toshibou. By the way, Yoshino-sensei doesn’t do a good job introducing Toshibou. He enters the story in Chapter 2 and has quite a bit of interaction with Tohno, but it’s not until Chapter 4 that the narrative clarifies that he is Tohno’s paid assistant.

Extras include translation notes and four-panel comic strips.

In Summary

It’s a slow mangaka life… That pretty much summarizes the series. Tohno is a manga artist in the sticks drawing a story about life in the sticks, so if you like rustic settings and characters, you get a double dose. The parallels between Tohno’s Wakkamon and Yoshino-sensei’s previous series Barakamon are bit blatant, but this manga definitely panders to Barakamon fans so maybe that’s the point.

First published at The Fandom Post.