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Reviewed by Barb Lien-Cooper There was a time, back when I was writing for comics websites, that I wouldn’t have admitted how much I love Yotsuba&! I wouldn’t have admitted it because I was overly concerned with what male comics fans thought of me. If I didn’t just read the toughest grim and gritty comics, I thought, I’d no longer be respected by fanboys. Then something happened that changed my mind. I got a condescending, ignorant, patronizing e-mail from a fanboy concerning my internet article, “Why I Read Manga.” Without addressing any of my article’s points (I doubt he even read the whole thing), he told me that as a female who read manga, I couldn’t help but be anything but ignorant concerning American comics. Manga was for girls, superhero comics were for guys, he reasoned. I read manga, so my opinions couldn’t possibly count. In short, I’d just been locked into the manga closet. Never mind how many comics I’ve read over the years, how big a fan I used to be of comics, or how much I’ve written about them on the internet, I was, just because I dared to say I read manga, a GIRL. Not a woman, a girl. A frilly-dressed, shoujo-loving, GIRL. Never mind that manga isn’t a genre, let alone one that only appeals to females, never mind how manga connects with the casual readership while most comics are intentionally designed to only appeal to hardcore comics fans, never mind how, if we must generalize, comics appeal to an aging readership, some of which loathe the untried and untested, while manga attracts adventurous readers of all ages, especially the young. You read manga and you’re female, you’re automatically rendered into an instant stereotype by some male comics readers. Seeing that my every attempt to show the androgynous nature of my mind over the years, as well as my love for hardboiled fiction of all kinds, now means nothing to the ignorant, I’m no longer afraid. My reputation in some fanboys’ eyes is suspect anyway just ‘coz I fill out a bra, so here goes nothing. I love Yotsuba. I don’t care if it’s a sweet, gentle, humorous comic for children, I don’t care if it’s about the little joys and troubles of an inventive young girl. I don’t care if it makes me out to be a total girly-girl, fit only to read shoujo for the rest of eternity. I’m tired. I’m tired of trying to get the approval of those who can’t see me as an individual, but only as primary and secondary gender characteristics. So, I’ll just say, Yotsuba is one of the best manga series out there. The art is clean and cute, as is the storytelling style. Fortunately, it never gets to be cutesy or childish. Instead, it is childlike in the same true, endearing ways that Pixar films or Miyazaki films are. I would give this to any kid, male or female. I’d give this to any teenager who ever had a brother or sister. I’d give this to any adult who ever knew and loved a kid. I’d give it to anyone who is interested in the finest in sequential storytelling, be it manga or comics. I’d give it to anyone who is on the side of art, entertainment, joy, and LIFE. The only people I wouldn’t give it to are the type of fanboys who think that manga is a genre and that reading anything but superhero comics will give them girl cooties. Those type of readers are too busy locking themselves into the small, cramped, dark closet of superhero comics. Not to mention, their own ignorance and sexism. Think you could have written a better review of Yotsuba&! v1? Write us and we'll probably let you give it a shot! --EiC PC |
24 November 2009
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