- Mangaka : Satsuki Yoshino
- Publisher : Yen Press
- Genre : Comedy, Slice of Life
- Published : September 2020
We always like reading manga about the life of mangakas or the process of making manga. It makes us see the manga we consume in another light. More so, we learn new things and appreciate the craft better. That said, it’s riveting to suddenly notice things we’ve never noticed before. It’s like getting our glasses for the first time and seeing the world in high definition. We also respect mangakas who tell stories about being mangakas since that often requires coming up with another one or more stories.
Contains Spoilers
Discussion Time
Yoshi no Zuikara follows the story of Tohno Naruhiko, a ten-year veteran mangaka from the country. He has just ended a long fantasy serialization, but it wasn’t really that popular. Despite his long career, he hasn’t made that much fortune or that much fame. He’s at that point where he has to come up with another story. As a fantasy writer, he immediately opted for an isekai, but it was passively shot down by his editor. Then, he’s recommended to try giving a shot to a country slice of life, which he coincidentally just made.
1. A Double Slice of Life?
Tohno’s story in itself can be considered a slice of life. His problems, albeit a bit hard to empathize with given his profession and character, are mundane and somewhat petty. Still, these problems are what make his story interesting. On that note, his new story, Wakkamondon, is also a slice of life following the story of a group of high school friends. What’s interesting about Yoshi no Zuikara, however, is that it just doesn’t gloss about the other manga. It literally takes the entire first chapter.
2. Quirky Set of Characters
From Tohno to his assistant, Toshibou, this series has quite a set of peculiarities. Tohno is good at drawing and has a wild imagination, but he’s the prime example of being an introvert. He hates any kind of human interaction, but doesn’t know how to actively avoid it. On the other hand, Toshibou is that happy go lucky type of person that seems like he always brings a ray of sunshine with him. He’s also quite the innocent type that dedicates himself to Tohno, professionally of course.
3. We Demand Getting More of Wakkamondon
As we stated earlier, the first chapter of this series is literally Wakkamondon. If we didn’t know any better, we would’ve been bummed that it wasn’t really about it. Yeah, Wakkamondon is that good! It’s about this group of four quirky high school students from the country. Their teacher went to another district. That’s when they decide to ask around to know how she was fairing, though their sweet memories slowly get tainted as they go along. Finally, they decided to dig up the time capsule they buried when they were a child, which turned out to contain letters of them professing their love to said teacher. Though inappropriate, pardon us on this one. LOL.
Final Thoughts
Reading Yoshi no Zuikara is like reading two manga at once, though the other is just one chapter. Still, it’s amazing how the author made it work. It’s both an interesting and entertaining read. There’s not much thinking needed, but you will definitely spend lots of time laughing. If you’re a big fan of slice of life like we are, then you should go grab yourself a copy of Yoshi no Zuikara!
Author: Christian Markle