Yotsuba&! thoughts in the first month of my fandom
In about the last week, I have read vols. 3-5 of Yotsuba&! in the ADV edition (Javier Lopez's translation). Also an online scanslation of vol. 2. And found out about the Yen Press editions. After a good while of knowing Yotsuba only from the occasional clips in scans_daily, I'm in full fan mode.
So yeah, the new Greatest Thing Ever, & less ironic than I usually mean that.
And of course, as the first full volumes I read were ADV, I got used to that voice for Yotsuba. The way Lopez had her call Koiwai-san "Dad" instead of "Daddy" sounds right to me now. I could justify it, but it's just how I was introduced. Isn't her speech supposed to be a little-kid version of her father's masculine idiom?
Also, the first ADV volume jokingly suggests that Yotsuba may be from another planet. Then I read it. Oh, yeah, she could be. She's from "overseas." She has green hair. She swims like a fish, even though her father calls himself an "iron hammer." When the surf flipped her floaty-tube over at the beach, she was upside-down in the water for a moment, & seemed not to mind when she came out. And then there are lines the stargazing story which can be read to indicate that Koiwai got her somewhere other than Earth.
After the stargazing story ADV abandoned the translations. Did they finally decide this wasn't really about an alien after all, thus not kewl enough?
It's all ADV's fault ;)
Well, one thing that's not. I got the idea that Yotsuba was only 3 or 4 years old. See, I decided that Fuka was roughly 12-14, then Ena was enough smaller she might be 8. Then I started out thinking Yotsuba was maybe 6 (just a little younger than Ena). But Yotsuba was so much smaller, & not visibly in school, that I decided she might be younger. So yeah, I didn't know, but maybe 3-5. But she's six, I guess. At least, she says she's six at one point. And Fuka is sixteen. And Ena is...10?
Anyway, this is really cool. I recommend Yotsuba to practically everyone.
So yeah, the new Greatest Thing Ever, & less ironic than I usually mean that.
And of course, as the first full volumes I read were ADV, I got used to that voice for Yotsuba. The way Lopez had her call Koiwai-san "Dad" instead of "Daddy" sounds right to me now. I could justify it, but it's just how I was introduced. Isn't her speech supposed to be a little-kid version of her father's masculine idiom?
Also, the first ADV volume jokingly suggests that Yotsuba may be from another planet. Then I read it. Oh, yeah, she could be. She's from "overseas." She has green hair. She swims like a fish, even though her father calls himself an "iron hammer." When the surf flipped her floaty-tube over at the beach, she was upside-down in the water for a moment, & seemed not to mind when she came out. And then there are lines the stargazing story which can be read to indicate that Koiwai got her somewhere other than Earth.
After the stargazing story ADV abandoned the translations. Did they finally decide this wasn't really about an alien after all, thus not kewl enough?
It's all ADV's fault ;)
Well, one thing that's not. I got the idea that Yotsuba was only 3 or 4 years old. See, I decided that Fuka was roughly 12-14, then Ena was enough smaller she might be 8. Then I started out thinking Yotsuba was maybe 6 (just a little younger than Ena). But Yotsuba was so much smaller, & not visibly in school, that I decided she might be younger. So yeah, I didn't know, but maybe 3-5. But she's six, I guess. At least, she says she's six at one point. And Fuka is sixteen. And Ena is...10?
Anyway, this is really cool. I recommend Yotsuba to practically everyone.