Title: ちびまる子ちゃん (Chibimaruko-chan) Vol. 1
Artist/Author: さくらももこ (Momoko Sakura)
Book Size/Pages: A-6, 256pp., w/o furigana
Volume: 1/9
Original Serialization: Monthly Ribon 8/86-2/88
First Printing: 10/22/03
Rating: 4/4

Kinokuniya doesn't wrap all their books, or at least in one of the stores. This re-release is a "bunko" comic, which means it's tiny (A-6 paper, postcard sized). I have a few novels of that size, but this is the first comic. Despite it's size, the paper quality is excellent. It's black and white, but man, the black ink is really black and the paper is really white.

Anyway, since it wasn't wrapped, I had a glance and I remembered seeing this as a cartoon somewhere, sometime ago, but can't remember when. However, I do remember the character so I picked this series up. When I was at Book-Off last weekend, I saw they had previous hardcover re-release of this series (so this is a re-re-release), but I like the paper in this one even though the hardcover version has some color pages.

There are a ton of little stories here, each of them disjoint but all deal with the life events of a fictional third grader, Chibimaru-ko. The character is named after the author herself and some of the stories are based on life experiences she had, but this is still fiction.

This book is what's been delaying me these past few days. This thing reads like a novel, despite all the pictures. In addition to the dialogue, there's a lot of exposition explaining things. However, I enjoyed this thoroughly as it deals with issues and situations that a real elementary school student might go through. What I related to most was the earthquake drill chapter. In the comic, Chibimaru is ever so anxious wondering when the drill will happen -- will it happen in math class? language? I remember having gone through the same feelings way back when (although it wasn't "class" it was math "hour").

Needless to say, reading all 9 books will keep me busy for a while.

Comments

(Comments are Closed)