Nankoku Tom Sawyer

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It is a shame this manga appears only to be in japanese and french, but I do recommend it to anyone who can pick it up. This manga is essentially a breath of fresh air, you start reading it and are swept away in a very rural setting where kids run around on adventures, riding on manta rays and exploring caves. The characters are very likable and have layers to them. The story is very realistic and offers bites of interesting culture, but it can be pretty wild at times, as shown with how a character claims she can speak to god through her cellphone! ... A very fun and lovable gimmick might I add, since this god exclusively communicates through emotes.
It’s a manga I read in my childhood which is very dear to me, and very unique in many ways. The story is not some shocking masterpiece, but it’s very good at what it does: chill you out and make you embark on an adventure, learning the ways of the island along the main character. Not many mangas capture this warm islander feel, and as someone who loves mangas about fishing and other such things this manga offers that same kind of atmosphere and comfort. It will make you learn a decent bit about science stuff as well. It reminds me of nostalgia and summer days, and it is something it does well.

I should reread it to offer a more thorough review, but a summary review like this works well for this series I think; it’s the sort of manga that you have a nice time reading and that stays with you with warm hazy memories, and that you may like to revisit some times. I will translate some french reviews listed on the wikipedia article for this manga for convenience below:

In France, the first volume is considered by 9emeart.fr as: « pleasant to read » : « With the story of a Tokyoite landing on a small Japanese island, we inevitably think of Barakamon. And if the tone, the rhythm, and the themes addressed in this manga are very different, we find in any case this very soft, a little contemplative way of setting up the story, and this affectionate look at the Japanese countryside ». For Frederico Anzalone from BoDoï, « closer, in truth, to a mix between Silver Spoon and Amanchu! than The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – the link is rather the symbols of independence and of sincerity of childhood –, the series by UME is a dive color turquoise blue, invigorating, into an unprecedented space of Japanese culture. Between folklore, manta rays and island daily life, the authors of Tokyo Toybox teach us, present to us the happiness and difficulties of a people who know the most beautiful heights of the thermometer, with a lot of humor, kindness and accuracy in human relations ».