It was only a few weeks ago that I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing ADV’s Azumanga Daioh Omnibus. Today, I have the pleasure of reviewing the Azumanga Daioh Omnibus by Yen Press! Reading this same collection twice in a short period of time has given me a completely different perspective on it.

Let’s take a few steps back before we start. Reading the ADV edition made me realize how far we’ve come with translation – and how far Azuma has come as an artist. The cleaned up art in this edition removes an obstacle to enjoyment. As a result, the story seems less rough this time around.

In this edition, Yen didn’t hesitate for a second – honorifics are in place, names remain unchanged. And you know what? It’s *still* not perfect! ^_^ I’ll get into why that is, in a moment.

Let’s first talk about the story itself. Like Azuma’s current hit, Yotsuba&!, Azumanga Daioh ran in Dengeki Daioh, a magazine for adult men. I mention that because as one reads this story of a group of girls moving through high school, it’s hard to avoid some really obvious issues that, when thought about a shade too long, make one feel creeped out. Chapters begin with alternating pictures of the main cast, some of them of a “pinup” sensibility. And there’s a character who represents the readership – an adult male who obsesses about young women inappropriately and who has no mental filter, so does not hesitate to say what he is thinking. This character, we are later told, is a nice man, but it’s hard to reconcile ourselves to that – unless you’re him. Which the original audience was. Nice guys – who just *happen* to be inappropriately obsessed with young girls = the original audience of Azumanga Daioh. I mention this in case you are not this audience and are reading this book thinking “who thinks this is funny?” The Kimura-senseis who were reading it, that’s who. ^_^;

Aside from this persistent creepiness, the story is pretty realistic. This group has a number of extreme characters, but Japanese comedy is largely made up of extremes. A good (legal, free!) example of this is the live-action Moyashimon, in which screaming and flailing make up a large part of the “comedy” every episode.)

Other people have noted that this is really the story of Chiyo-chan and the girls she befriends. Chiyo-chan is a genius at 10, and has been skipped up to high school. During her three years she meets and becomes friends with the rest of the cast, does school festivals and school trip and field days and other normal activities. Because she is an outsider, it makes sense that most of the people she gathers around her are also outsiders – quiet, serious Sakaki-san, loopy Osaka, hyper Tomo and her childhood friend, Yomi. So these normal, everyday activities are seen through the eyes of not-normal people and thus turned into comedy.

I said at the beginning that despite the skill of the translation it still wasn’t perfect. Here’s why. As you fix the really big things, it becomes easier for us to see the small things. ^_^ So, yes, we have honorifics and names and you did your best with the puns, but now we can see things like the problem with Osaka’s accent.

The problem with Osaka’s accent:

Osaka is a big city, with a lot of businesses and is well-known for being a “foodie” town. It’s not the political capital of Japan – it’s considered the business/finance capital of Japan. The people there speak very fast and very loud and are seen as being really wacky and money obsessed. If anything, Osaka sounds more like New York than anywhere else, IMHO. (And having been there for a total of like 2 hours, I’m obviously an expert. ^_^) I’d say that isn’t far off. I liked Osaka a great deal and I want to get back. So, the joke is that Ayumu, who comes from this crazy, energetic, loud, wacky, busy city is kinda loopy and slow and not at all like “an Osakan.” Got that?

When they brought Ayumu over to America, they translated the *wrong part of the joke.* Yes, Ayumu is slow and laconic. But her accent isn’t. The joke is not that she’s slow and loopy – it’s that she’s from *Osaka* and is slow and loopy. Imagine you’re a kid in Iowa and the teacher says, “Hey, we have a transfer student from New York City” and everyone panics because they’ll be CRAZY and probably pack heat and deal drugs and graffiti and gangs and OMG!!!! And then they walk in and they are like, “Hi….my…name…is….Terry.” and they sort of wander off in the middle of their sentence. That’s Osaka.

By giving Osaka a Southern accent Yen has blown that joke completely to hell, thanks. But, hey, we’re all still working on this translation thing, so I give them credit for trying. Just – get a comedian on staff, okay? You’re obviously all too literal. ^_^

Other than that one thing – I have no complaints at all. This book looks and feels good. It made me laugh and got me a little sniffly at the end, like it was supposed to. It has the one of two cats I can stand in manga (The cat in What’s Michael? is the other) and I still grin and say “heh” in my head upon breaking chopsticks evenly.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4
Service – 4

Overall – 9

My sincere thanks to Yen Press for supplying this copy (and a copy of Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime, which I am now reading and really, really enjoying to my utter shock! I may manufacture a reason to review it, just because it is really original so far.)

And FYI – this books *totally* passes the Bechdel Test.

It’s a funny book, the new edition is solid and despite my little discussion of the accent issue, it’s still a very excellent read. I’ll be donating this copy to the AnimeNEXT traveling Manga Library, so if you can’t buy it or get it at a library near you, look for it at an anime show in your neighborhood! If your library has a Graphic Novel section, why not buy this read it and donate it? It’s a great book to share with others. Then they’ll laugh when they break chopsticks evenly, too.

I swear to you that this is true. Last week I said to myself – y’know, I haven’t read Azumanga Daioh in forever, let’s crack open the old Japanese editions and re-read them. And that afternoon, the English-language Azumanga Daioh Omnibus was delivered.

Do you know, I have never read the English edition of Azumanga Daioh? Well, not entirely true – I scanned the first volume when it first came out, shuddered with distaste, and didn’t buy it. I understood why ADV made the choices it did. And in many ways, I agreed with those choices, as they made the manga more accessible to a wider audience outside the core fandom. By calling Yukari-sensei “Miss Yukari” and when the students called her Yukari-chan, “Yukari baby,” they would make it easier for a non-manga fan to follow the comic. I never disagreed with their choice. I just didn’t enjoy it for myself.

Once again, allow me to clarify – I do not believe that fans want “literal” translations. What we want is an authentic reading experience. This is a subtle, but critical difference.

A literal translation of an idiom won’t kill us (unless it’s a particularly bizarre or obscure idiom. For example,  try thinking of a cute way to translate “pig in a poke” to another language.) It doesn’t really matter if you write “staring off into the middle distance” or “staring off into the day after tomorrow.” Readers will get it, whichever way you chose.

However, Kaorin is a nickname,  and therefore doesn’t really need to be translated. It’s more authentic just to leave it. We have nicknames – we get it.

Why honorifics? Because Yukari-sensei, Yukari,  and Yukari-chan all mean completely different things. It’s perfectly respectable for her mother to call her Yukari-chan and perfectly not respectable (or respectful) at all for her students to do so. As ADV learned, when we all wrote to tell them so. And they listened, as we can see with the lovely translators’ notes, explaining the choices made (and the personal touch they provide) for later volumes.

Azumanga Daioh manga was the first real battlefield where this particular war was fought. The fans have mostly won this now, although there are still pockets of resistance among publishers. Ironically, one of the few instances left that *really* bugs me is in Yotsuba, by the exact same author. “Miss Stake” would only have been good localization if the character’s name was “Chigau.” “Shimau” is a form of the verb “shimasu” and as a result, the choice of translation is irrelevant and annoying. But not to the mythical people who read manga who know nothing about it, might potentially walk in off the street and grab Yotsuba off the shelf because it’s cute. They won’t, because they don’t exist and Yotsuba, which is wonderful and deservedly won all sorts of award nominations, is buried on the far right bottom corner of manga shelves because manga is shelved alphabetically by title, where no one who isn’t looking for it will ever find it.

Ahem.

I digress.

So, anyway, ADV caved and as a result, later volumes of the English adaptation were much less irksome. And, interestingly, as ADV was carving a tighter niche in translation/localization, the artist was doing the same thing with his art.

As a result, reading the omnibus volume of Azumanga Daioh, the manga, is like a little historical retrospective of both ADV’s learning curve and Azuma Kiyohiko’s.

I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Many times I find myself laughing out loud – at 4-koma comics? Is it possible? Yes – possible and probable in this series. I can say just about anything and it’ll make you smile – “Get out of the way, Oji-san!” or mention an iriomote cat named Maya or anything Osaka ever says or, heck, just hold out two evenly broken chopsticks and say, “hehhh.” And you’ll laugh.

Because where most 4-koma comics are amusing, Azumanga Daioh is *funny.*

The absolute best part of this volume is that I cannot *wait* to donate it to my local library. I hope that many people will take it out and enjoy Chiyo-chan in a penguin costume and The Red Raccoon Dogs in gakuran and the Morons.

Oh wait – that’s the second best thing about this volume, The number one best thing is that we have a new Okazu Hero to add to our list. Thanks Kevin R. for your support of Okazu and sponsorship of today’s review! Email me so I can send you your Okazu hero’s badge and my thanks to you personally.^_^

Ratings:

Art – starts 5 evolves to 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4
Service – 4

Overall – 9

The manga industry has come a really long way since Azumanga Daioh and so has Azuma’s work. But it’s still hard to top this series for belly laughs.