Kiyohiko Azuma

Explores the comedic lives and adventures of a group of high school friends and their teachers in Tokyo.

Azumanga Daioh

The best high school stories are simultaneously funny, warm, and endearing - but most importantly, the characters come alive on the page. Get to know the girls who set a new standard for the high school experience! Sakaki - strong and silent with a soft and fuzzy center Chiyo - a towering intellect wrapped in a ten-year-old package Tomo - The Mouth Yomi - should stop eating if she wants to lose weight Osaka - well, she's...different The original phenomenon from Kiyohiko Azuma, beloved creator of YOTSUBA&!, is collected in this deluxe edition and is an absolute necessity for any manga enthusiast's library!

Sarah Sammis

Last summer my husband started watching the Azumanga Daioh anime about a group of girls going through high school. The anime was an instant hit with both children. In fact it was our daughter who spotted the Azumanga Daioh Omnibus by Kiyohiko Azuma and insisted that Ian buy it.

This manga is a panel comic, more similar to the traditional North American comic strips. As it has a plot that changes over time, it's most like For Better or Worse. The Omnibus covers all four books, one book for each year of high school.

The youngest girl, the extremely gifted Chiyo-Chan, is elementary school aged but has been bumped to high school. She is by far our favorite character in the series. Along with the developing friendships, there is an on going rivalry between the English teacher and PE coach. There is tall Sakaki who wants nothing more than to befriend a neighborhood cat. Then there is a transfer student who is almost immediately nicknamed for her place of origin, Osaka. To show her distinct accent, she's given sort of a southern drawl in the translation (both the omnibus and anime).

Although the book is huge it's a quick read. The four panel format plays for gags and sometimes physical humor. It took me two days to read the book but I probably could have done it in one setting.

Ken Yuen

Loved it. Funny and cute, it's a must-read for fans of Yotsuba. Most of the comics are done yonkoma style, but there are some sections where they follow a story in a more traditional manga format.

The characters are all lovable and fun to be around. The author really nails the comic timing.

Only a couple issues. Since the manga is about girls going to school in Japan, some of the references/jokes don't really land when translated (there was one or two comics that I definitely would not have understood if I didn't know Japanese). Because of that, the translation notes become really important. However, instead of using footers, they use translation notes that are at the end of each of the chapters. And they format the notes in a way that reads page 2, page 1, page 3 if read right-to-left. Just an unfortunate decision on how to do it. But otherwise, the content is great and props to the translator for keeping the honorifics.

Andrea Pozo

Nora 

Mary Gillingham

Nat Welch

Alice Foster

Chronicles the adventures of a quirky group of girls and three of their teachers at a high school where the class genius is ten years old, English class may suddenly become physical education, and a shark may appear in the school pool.