Yotsuba&!, Vol. 2: Volume 2

This is the second book of a wonderful series. The special thing about Yostusba's perspective is she may be a 5 years old, but she's also a touch weird for a 5 year old. This opens the door for a lot of humor between her innocence and weird nature. When it's not being funny, it's downright sweet.

So funny! One of my best friends got me started on manga and the first one she let me read was Yotsuba. I haven't stopped laughing since. No matter which volume you get, you are guaranteed a laugh or two. You can't help but fall in love with her. This is definetly for the big-kids at heart.

I've written a review for volume 1 on how everyone should read this manga series. No need to tell you that again, but on with the review for volume 2. Yotsuba is already good friends with their next door neighbor and are spending a great deal of time together (especially with Ena and her friend). There are many new stories in this volume that are simply too funny, such as Yotsuba & Revenge (Yotsuba reenacts a scene from a TV show in real life with a water gun as a gun), Yotsuba & Pools is a story where Yotsuba invites Asagi to go to the pool (since Jumbo is too shy to ask) and turns out to be Fuka and Ena going instead. There is just too many funny stories and moments within this book to mention, so go ahead and get it, what are you waiting for?

This the best volume of Yotsuba & ! yet! It has my two favorite sequences in it: "Yotsuba & Revenge" and "Yotsuba & The Frog". The first one features our green-haired girl running around her neighbors' house with a squirt gun, spraying everyone in sight because of the 'murder' of her father. The second has her, her neighbor Ena, and Ena's friend Miura simultaneously freaking out. You have to read it to believe it! This volume is much funnier than the first and I highly recommend it!

The funny adventures of Yotsuba Koiwai continue in Kiyohiko Azuma's second manga series of the precocious little girl living with her single parent father and the fun she has with the gentle hyperthyroid Jumbo and the Ayase family next door, including the mother and the three daughters, the tall and attractive blonde Asagi, Fuka, the responsible daughter who often ends up the butt of Yotsuba's antics, and Ena. Things start with Yotsuba, Ena, and her friend Miura going out drawing together, and the difficulty of being honest about how one draws (or can't draw) without hurting one's feelings. Ena is torn between her friendship with Miura and not wanting to hurt Yotsuba's feelings. In this case, it's the way Yotsuba draws, which is in outlines without detail. Hey, she's just a kid. Things get funnier afterwards. After watching a gangster movie on TV with her father and Jumbo, the ever impressionable Yotsuba takes her water pistol after blasting them both, then makes her way to the Ayase household, causing all sorts of silly mayhem and speaking the gangster talk, and blasting everyone in sight. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Water came outta your nose, Fuka!" she says. The most hilarious adventures involve Yotsuba and a magic marker. Yotsuba is minding the house while her father is taking a much needed nap. After drawing a picture of her father on her cardboard box of personal things, a.k.a. the Yotsubox, she includes a beard on the picture, and then, on her sleeping father!!! Her laughing expression upon her prank is just precious! Fearing she'll be scolded, she tries to erase it, but hey, they don't call'em magic markers for nothing, right? And since when is mayonnaise supposed to wipe off magic marker drawings? "CAKE CAKE!" Playing house with Ena leads to Yotsuba getting a hankering for cake so she, Ena, and Miura go to the bakery, oddly named Mercredi (French for Wednesday). I've never seen Yotsuba more animated than here, from the delightful look on her face in the bakery, to eating it at the Ayases'. However, there is a reason why Ms. Ayase does not want Asagi to witness their cake eating. Yotsuba and the gang have fun at the local pool. Jumbo's infatuation for Asagi is seen, as he brings some flowers, anticipating her joining them, but gets a bit upset when instead of Asagi, Fuka joins them. Nevertheless, the funniest moment has Jumbo tossing Yotsuba in the pool in sight of a scandalized Fuka. Ironically, Yotsuba is the only one who can swim, and she has the most fun, tipping over people resting in their lifesaver rafts to jumping off the lifeguard's chair. While Yotsuba does not repeat the stunt of releasing cicadas inside the Ayases' house, she brings back a frog to show Ena. However, things get funnier when Miura, knowing of Yotsuba's fear of the giant balloon eyes that frighten birds, wears one of them, and goes to the Ayases. Now if Miura wore a hat, she'd be one of the Residents! And no, Boxerman does not return, but we see th