Yotsuba to!
Yotsuba&!

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Yotsuba& is a manga that's embedded its way into my heart and will stay there until i fade away from this earth.

I wish everyone can experience this manga and enjoy it like i did when i first read it, i cannot put into words how happy it makes me to read about Yotsuba and her adventures, her experiencing new things and having fun with her family and friends. Enjoying the simplest things life can offer.

Reading Yotsuba has altered the way i think about everything and the things that i do in my everyday life, i almost yearn i could've had a childhood like hers and ... a father like Mr. Koiwai. The artwork makes me feel like im visiting an old family home, and it'll never get old when i scroll through the pages sometimes just to admire the art over and over again. To say this manga is charming would be understatement.

I did not grow up in a happy family life, but this manga made me realize that i can be loved wherever i go, and that i should return the same amount of love.

Even if you do not like slice of life, please consider reading this, it's the loveliest thing. ♪(´▽｀)

this review is not to sell anything to you, it is rather a note from my heart about this beautiful piece of art

"art saves people" "art changes a person" "art heals people" some of these sound corny until you stumble across such art and you're a changed man or...perhaps a healed man
Yotsuba &! is about this 5 year old girl who finds joy in everything, everything is an adventure in her life and when you learn how she lives her daily life surrounding her family and friends you feel this deep hollowness about how you wish you had a childhood like that but seeing her ... happy, seeing them live a simple lovely life makes you feel maybe you can too...maybe you can live a life without feeling this constant need to achieve something, overcome something, and so on.

Kowai-san (Yotsuba's daddy) is also learning things alongside Yotsuba, he is such a delightful father - you almost wish you had one like him growing up.

the little things that make Yotsuba happy really make you wonder, why are we always so critical with our happiness, why not let ourselves smile a little, that little girl's antics are hilarious and heartwarming.
i wish every child gets a childhood like her
i wish everyone of us feel the joy of life as her
i wish everyone can feel beautiful about themselves like she does

Are we deadass right now?

I'm not quite the intended audience for this manga, I find slice of life horribly boring (too shounen brained as I've heard it put) and I despise children, but despite my better judgement I gave this manga a shot because of its absurdly high rating on MAL. After reading four volumes of this I think I can safely say Yotsuba is not for me.

I might just be some sort of grinch who hates sunshine and joy, but Yotsuba just being happy and enjoying herself wasn't enough to keep me coming back, especially when the humor felt very one note and ... repetitive, she misunderstands something because she's a dumbass, overreacts and that's about it. Yotsuba being an stupid little kid who overreacts constantly might be realistic, kids are awful after all, but it never really feels like anything was changing. The cast grows but it feels like Yotsuba at the start would be identical to the Yotsuba at the end as she doesn't grown in any meaningful way physically or mentally. This felt a bit off to me as growing is really the only thing kids are good at.

The aspects that keep this from being a not recommended for me are the side characters and art, I really enjoy the interactions between the supporting cast, it feels like a nice reprieve from the generally mind numbing content of this manga. The art too, while not stunningly beautiful like many of the manga it somehow manages to rank above on MAL (😡😡) is very charming and holds up a lot better than many of the other manga releasing during the same time period. Not just that, from what I've seen in the later chapters it's grown a fair bit (though Yotsuba does kind of look out of place sometimes, I mean look at this: https://i.imgur.com/xP6yTbt.png).