atticmoth 's review for:

Azumanga Daioh, Vol. 1 by Kiyohiko Azuma

4.0

funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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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.