Azumanga Daioh, Vol. 1

あずまんが大王 [Azumanga Daioh] #1

by Kiyohiko Azuma, あずま きよひこ

From Publishers Weekly:
It's tough to tell the difference between teacher and students in Azuma's comedy. Teacher Yukari Tanizaki is oblivious, immature, emotional and one of the people shaping young minds. Her students face difficulties in school that most never imagined. For example, as one pupil starts to ask a question, Miss Yukari cuts him off, stating she won't talk about her bra size. Another group of students are ready for their lessons, but instead of learning about social studies or science, they learn how Miss Yukari spent her weekend. Maybe that's not so bad, considering Miss Yukari's not the brightest bulb in the bunch and has her students correcting her on many technical points. Her students aren't sure how to react, but their bewilderment is half the charm of this manga. Like the 1980s TV series Head of the Class, Azu has an eclectic mix of pupils ranging from child geniuses to sports enthusiasts to tough girls; each possessing much more than meets the eye. The precocious child genius may be great at academic subjects, but she still draws like a little girl and has the emotions of a kid. The unemotional tough teen melts for tiny animals and longs to have a pet of her own, even if all of the creatures she comes in contact with seem to hate her. The art is simple and minimalistic, but adequately conveys the thought and emotion behind each strip. Azuma's cast has depth, dimension and character, and their story heartily entertains.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Humor, Graphic Novels, Comedy, Fiction, Slice Of Life

172 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2000

About the author

Kiyohiko Azuma (東清彦 or あずま きよひこ Azuma Kiyohiko) is a Japanese manga author and artist. His most well-known work is Azumanga Daioh. His current series is Yotsuba&!, which is serialized monthly in Dengeki Daioh magazine.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Azumanga Daioh is a Japanese yonkoma comedy manga series written and illustrated by Kiyohiko Azuma. The title comes from his last name and the magazine it was published in from 1999-2002. It was published for teen boys. Yonkoma means four panel style, which Azuma supposedly masters. The focus is on a group of girls we like and some secondary characters we don't like and a couple teachers, in an elementary school. Silly stories, mostly quick and disconnected gags, played almost exclusively for laughs. I thought it was okay. Was made into anime with some success.

[Jokoloyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a review for whole series.

This manga series has comic strips format and cute arts, promising a hilarious light stories. This series deliver that promise. Just by delivering the promise, the series is a solid 3 star.

Unexpectedly, this series has a timeline in the stories. The characters are getting older, and (some of) the characters are developing. The series is ended when the student characters finished the high school. So I was surprised with the seriousness of the bigger plots.

I don't give a 5 star because some of the strips/episodes confuse me, regarding some unexplained dreams in the story. I have no idea what is the function of the dreams for the story, but there are a lot dreams, too many to be ignored completely. I hope someone could explain the dreams in Azumanga Daioh to me.

[Artemy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I loved the Azumanga Daioh anime, and I knew I would love the manga, too. It's a hilarious, adorable high school comedy with some brilliantly funny characters. It doesn't have any big overarching plot, it's just situation comedy and slice of life kind of storytelling. I think the anime is a bit better — and that's not to say the manga is bad, it's just that the anime is simply amazing, and you can't dismiss the importance of color, voice acting and animation adding to the comedic effect. Still, I am more than happy to go back and meet all of my favorite characters all over again in the print form!

[V_murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Studying English Education at my university, I have a class called "Adolescent Lit," where we look at running themes and standards of literature geared towards 12-18 year olds. In order to give my professor a better scope of what good manga is, I gave her my omnibus of this entire series. That is how much faith I have in this series--that is is my absolute favorite, and that if I am going to attempt to get someone to appreciate manga, this will be it.

As the series progresses, you will find yourself still laughing at the gags, your heart warmed by the conflicts and growth, and I really, really cannot think about this series without thinking of all the warm, wonderful thoughts it brought me. This series is a hug and a cup of cocoa in the winter and a high-five and an ice cream cone in the summer.

Characters: The mains are flawless. The side characters aren't supposed to be flawless, and they aren't. And when I say flawless, I mean "I wouldn't change anything about you for the world." Since this is a slice-of-life gag-strip, the "story" isn't really the main concern, but there's never a time when I thought "You know, I am dissatisfied with this story."

Read this series, you fool.

[Danna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute! I watched the first episode of the anime, so I've decided to read the manga.
Not a well-built story (due to the format, basically).
I wish it weren't so random, but I liked it.

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute, and considering that the main characters are a bunch of giggly Japanese schoolgirls, the plots are quite innocent. I'd recommend this series to someone just starting to read manga, since it's mostly normal and never features naked people or fighting robots.

[Ichigo · Rating 3 out of 5]

i have no idea what any of this meant

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite manga simply because I've read it at least three times and the jokes still crack me up. It's a different kind of humor... understated, and as much endearing as it is funny.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it to bits! The setting for the manga is as ordinary a topic as any: day-to-day adventures of a couple of schoolgirls and the teachers involved, but the magic lies in the amount of relatability and wackiness conveyed in 4-panel strips.

Some of the jokes were cultural, so it was a bit hard to understand them, but for the most part, I loved the interactions between the homeroom teacher and her students, and each girl's unique personality and own set of charms. The humor ranged from slapstick to subtle, but there were a lot of endearing and crazy moments as well.

All in all, it was a packed and entertaining volume!

[Deena Hypothesis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read these years ago and absolutely loved them. Although I was familiar with Japanese culture, I do not think you have to be in order to find these funny. The editions I read all contained extra footnotes that I find quite helpful, and moreso, informative. They also explained how what concepts were translated from Japanese to English.

Regardless, Azumanga Daioh is hilarious. It's really about nothing- there's minimal significant plot, but in that way it's more true to real life. The girls do everyday things and anyone who's ever been to high school- anywhere- should feel some sort of connection to these students, and and their interactions.

Recommended. Absolutely. And read the notes.

[Gus · Rating 3 out of 5]

--- Azumanga Daioh 1-4 ---
Plot: Ok^^. Waktu berjalan dengan jelas.
Penokohan: Relatable/bukan //prak!
Gambar: Ok.








[7.7/10]

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and funny, but not as much as Yotsuba.

[Juniperus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read this series before when I was a kid, but revisiting it I think I have a lot greater appreciation for the subtleties of the humor now than then. There were a lot of parts of this that made me laugh super hard, and if I'm being honest most of them were Osaka's lines, I didn't remember anything about her character from the first read through but I think this time she was definitely the funniest, if not my favorite. It's kind of hard to keep track of the characters the first time around, cuz they all have the same face and so you basically have to use hairstyles to tell them apart, but that gives the series high re-read value cuz at this point I'm very familiar with all of them. Sakaki was always my favorite because she's so relatable, but honestly so much of this comic is so frank and candid about feminist topics i'm almost surprised it was written by a man. I say almost because the worst part of this were Mr Kimura's parts, I don't really think that he added anything and it's terrifying the way his character normalizes straight up pedophilia. So that's a MAJOR detractor from this series. To end on a positive note though, something I didn't remember as a kid was all the sapphic subtext (or more than subtext!!) between Ms. Yukari/Ms. Kurosawa, and Sakaki/Kaorin. It was cool how much of a non-issue it was, and I can't see books written in 2021 putting lesbian representation in without the author smugly patting themselves on the back for it. So that was absolutely a breath of fresh air! Reading this brought back so many nostalgic feelings and I'm excited to revisit the rest.

[Ladz · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the essential slice-of-life manga, I came into Azumanga Daioh by way of Pop Team Epic. Unlike Pop Team Epic, this manga is grounded in the experience of five high school girls and their two teachers, which things only being absurd enough to exagerate reality.

The entire cast is so charming, and so, so, so useless. Except for maybe Chiyo, but she’s ten years old and in high school, so make of that what you will. Everyone has their strengths, but its their weaknesses and differences where the humor really comes forth. Sasaki can’t make friends with cats, Osaka is the transfer student and that’s not even her real name.

The two teachers are a sapphic delight. Casually going on dates together, insisting on driving together, showing up at each other’s homes. It’s sweet and subtle, but fits right in with the other shenanigans going on around. I really liked the beach episode and that time they tried to adopt a kitten, and it just wasn’t having it.

Can’t wait to see what comes next.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

A while ago I decided to reread my mangas (since I used to love them). This time I picked Azumanga and it’s still as fun as I remembered it. These girls seem to have a better time at school than they should probably have, but I do remember loving all of them, specially Chiyo and Osaka, they make me laugh a lot. This is the kind of manga you could read in one sitting or just take your time with it, as it has a series of strips that, while following a logical sequence as the girls go through high school, each one is a comic strip on its own and could be read one a day easily. It’s very light, slice of life, regular fun, and cute.

[Niina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hauska, kuinka jo neljällä ruudulla saa kerrottua paljon tarinaa. Toki stripit liittyvät toisiinsa ja välillä useampi kuvasarja on suoraa jatkumoa toisille.

Vaikka jokaisella hahmolla on erilainen kampaus ja kärjistetysti yksi luonteen piirre (hölöttäjä, tunnollinen, herkkäuskoinen...), on heitä välillä vaikea erottaa toisistaan. Vain lukion aloittanut 10-vuotias lapsinero ja "kovis", joka kuitenkin salaa tykkää eläimistä (suosikkihahmoni) erottuvat selkeästi joukosta.

Yksi miesopettaja on todella puistattava.

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slice of life series that revolves around the daily shenanigans of a group of goofy girls doing all sorts of random and quirky wackiness. Almost every story is told in a single page, delivering quick puns, punchlines and witty one-liners. It's a fun little series, but the jokes do get repetitive and a little boring after a while.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hieman hankala aluksi lukea lopusta alkuun, mut lopulta oli ihan yhtä nopea lukea kuin tavan sarjakuva. Yllättävän hauska, vaikka en mangaa yleensä lue

[Aurora Fitzrovia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Kimura ist so ein ekliger creep, ich verstehe auch nicht, warum er überhaupt auftaucht. Es wäre so viel angenehmer und lustiger ohne ihn :/

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

this series has nice characters and funny wholesome stories! cons: too much image/diet talk for me and that one teacher's way too creepy to be funny most of the time.

[Ludwig Aczel · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.5/10
This title is the best known work by cartoonist Kiyohiko Azuma, most probably because it was turned into a successful anime.** It is composed of four-panel long strips. (Vertical strips, because it's Japan.) In most of the cases there is a certain continuity, so the strips add up to small comedic scenes. The manga follows a bunch of high school female pupils. Each of them represents an archetype of the 'school manga' genre. The author has a canovaccio of gags for each of these archetype girls.
Tomo is the 'constantly overexcited one'. The strips featuring her as a protagonist are either physically-oriented (although never falling into the slapstick), or based on the disruption of social norms - which are relatively rigid in Japan compared to the rest of the world, something that we should keep in mind in evaluating this kind of humour.
Osaka is my favourite of the lot. She is a 'the slow one'. Her role is to inject pure absurd in the manga.
Sakaki is the 'misunderstood one'. She is a tall, athletic, beautiful, strong girl, but she hides deep inside a tenderness and fragility that nobody is able to perceive. Her gags are all sewed around her inability of communicate, and although often very cute they can be quite repetitive.
Chiyo is the 'cute one'. She is only 10 year old, and find herself in a high school class only because she is some kind of genius. The gags revolving around her exploit her being out of place.
Yomi is the 'normal one', and in fact she is rarely the protagonist of a gag: she is rather used as Greek chorus/final commentary on the weirdness of the other characters.
Some other pivotal characters are two young teachers. Yukari-sensei is the best character in the whole thing. She is a big childish crazy girl, always ready to express her feelings and speak her mind, no matter how inappropriate the situation may be. Which is most often inappropriate, as the author is trying to make us laugh. Kurosawa-sensei is the voice of reason. Again, a 'normal' person, inserted to counter the general madness of the rest of the cast.
There is nothing particularly innovative in the way Azuma handle the strip format. Nor that he is even trying, since he forces himself into a very tight lay-out: fixed four panels of exact same size and shape. Nonetheless, the man uses this restricted cage quite well. It may be a bit repetitive, depending on how fast you ingest the series, but over all this stuff works well. You will not explode into laughing at every strip, sure, but sometimes you will! In any case, never once along this volume 1 (of four) I found myself thinking 'nah, this strip was just wrong'. Azuma is here exploring and learning the basics of humour cartooning. He will exploit them at best in the following series Yotsuba&!. The art is quite minimal, but in most instances it does a decent job in conveying the expressions on characters's faces. That also will improve in Yotsuba&!.
All in all, I feel conflicted about this comics. I cannot remember any memorable strip, which is quite a problem for a series composed of around 1200 strips. On the other hand, the manga has succeeded in infusing in me a form of attachment to all of its characters. From that perspective, it worked quite well.

[** Personally, I find the anime adaptation quite bland, though. The rhythm seemed a bit too slow to me for the kind of humour of the strips. And the animation did not add anything to what was already in the manga. As a comparison, Nichijou is a great example of a similar manga to which the cartoon adaptation added much more, although they clearly had a bigger budget.]

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laugh so hard every time I read another one of these books. Made up of four-panel comics that all tell a story together, with some normal manga sometimes, it's about a group of girls, Sakaki, Kagura, Chiyo, Tomo, Yumi and Osaka. Chiyo, or Chiyo-chan as everyone calls her, is ten years old and starting high school. Surprisingly, instead of being teased and harassed mercilessly by everyone for her size and age, she quickly makes friends with five other girls who are humbled by the fact that Chiyo-chan is smarter than all of them put together. The personalities of everyone compliment each other. There's:

Sakaki--A towering, intimidating girl who everyone assumes is some super-cool rough-and-tough tomboy, when she's actually very shy and loves cute things and cats, although cats don't like her.

Kagura--A girl who really IS a tomboy who acts super cool, and even though she idolizes Sakaki is her complete opposite. Loud and not the sharpest tool in the shed, she loves harassing others and calling people names for no apparent reason.

Chiyo--A sweet, smart little girl who loves cooking and helping others. Slightly ignorant at times since she's years younger than all of her friends, she is very responsible and has a dog big enough for her to ride around on named Mr. Yadakichi.

Tomo--A loud obnoxious girl very similar to Kagura, except she's not nearly as athletic and is obnoxious in slightly different ways. She has the same intelligence level as Kagura, too.

Yumi--The smartest in the bunch after Chiyo-chan, wears glasses and constantly obsesses about her weight. She, Sakaki and Chiyo-chan help keep the sanity level slightly normal. Usually.

Osaka--Not her real name, but even though it was mentioned multiple times in the first book I don't remember it because everyone calls her Osaka, since that's where she's from. She moved from Osaka to the place where the gang lives (I'm pretty sure it's Tokyo, but I'm not quite sure...) and has an accent, plus uses lots of Osakan dialect. Catchphrase: Fuhgeddaboutit!

They get into all sorts of wacky adventures, and the way they just bounce off each other WILL make you laugh out loud! The two teachers mentioned the most, Ms. Yukari and Ms. Kurosawa, just add to the hilarity. The art is simple but pleasing, the same with the character design. There's just the right amount of character developement, and the end of the series is satisfying.
Highly recommended. Highly recommended. Seriously, you can't claim to like reading manga without reading this series.

[jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because the author, Kiyohiko Azuma, wrote my favorite manga Yotsuba&!, Vol. 01 At first, I was a little disappointed because I didn't think this manga was as funny or as good as Yotsuba&! But I'm glad I kept reading because I found out: the more you get to know the characters, the funnier and better the story becomes. By the fourth and final volume, I was sorry to say good-bye to these girls and their teachers. The story is really just a series of interactions told in (mostly) four-paneled strips. Hilarious doesn't describe this series because it also gives you a warm happy feeling. It's a real pick-me-up when you're feeling down. Highly recommended to fans of Yotsuba&!

Edited to add: watch the anime too! It's weirdly adorable and funny :)

[Luis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compuesto casi exclusivamente de historias de 4 viñetas, Azumanga Daioh es un manga atípico pero con una humor difícil de superar.

A lo largo de la estructura conocemos a las chicas protagonistas de las historias, cada una con sus manías que serán recurrentes en el día a día. Aunque muchas veces nos riamos de los mismos chistes una y otra vez, Azumanga sabe cómo darnos la sorpresa a cada página con ocurrencias disparatadas que como poco nos sacarán una sonrisa. Y no es raro que uno se enamore de estas chicas a lo largo de las cuatro viñetas.

Un volumen muy sencillo de leer y que cualquiera puede disfrutar. En realidad, un acierto.

[Amanda Pearl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is pretty cute, but kind of weird. This is more like a series of semi related comic strips rather than one manga story. I really liked Sakaki and her love of cute cats. She is definitely my favorite character. Everything is pretty squee worthy except for a super creepy male teacher that pretty much killed my vibe. I do want to read the next volume, mostly for the cats =^.^=

[Megan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute artwork and very silly four-panel strips. The strips only sometimes have a connecting plot or theme, but they all have the same set of characters. However, sometimes the strips don't make much sense without a background knowledge of Japanese culture and education system, so the casual reader probably wouldn't enjoy this comic as much as someone familiar with Japan.

3/5 on here, 7/10 for myself

[Ernesto gutierrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite anime series. If you want a fun, brainless,random book this is for you. This is one of the few mangas that can make me laugh.The characters are really special and hilarious. Each character is unique and you will have a character that you love. This is my most highly recomende manga. Anyone that picks up this book will not be able to put it down.

[Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

A continuous series of little strips like old school Sunday comics. Not my favorite format, but an enjoyable cast of goofy characters. If the library had more, I'd read it. I'll look into the anime.

[The Crimson Fucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

love it! love it! love it!!! it's more of a western style comic strip than the rest! so perverted!!! my favorite part is when the students ask their teacher why he became a teacher... and he starts crying and yells "because of the teenager girls! i love em!!!" fucking brilliant!!!

[Natalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nunca ri tanto na minha vida, AMO a estória, sem dúvida o mangá mais bizarro que eu já li/vi <3