Holiday HijinksSeki Claus doesn’t care if you are naughty or nice, cause he’ll be making a stop in his classroom to quietly make reindeer games. But if Rumi Yokoi gets her holiday wish he might get caught in the process.
You'd think Morishige would start to run out of ideas seven volumes in, but I think this had some of the most involved and highest effort Seki hijinks of the series and that's a pretty high bar to surpass. Seki's acorn marketing scheme is an new all time favorite and I loved the author's reminiscence at the end about the time sharpening pieces of obsidian somehow became the trendy thing to do at his school. I like that the textbook thief became a recurring bit as well, who knows if we'll see him again, but I'd love to see how he messes up other books.
Language-wise this was slightly trickier than volume six because the games are a bit more involved and some of the topics are back to being pretty weird. The toughest bit for me in this one was the first chapter, where the joke is that Seki's current game is being narrated in the style of a melodramatic samurai movie, and the narration is written in squiggly handwriting rather than the usual typeface. That was the only bit where I really had to give up and check a translated version, but for the other games I'm at a point where I'm able to look at the fan translation and be pissed at how they killed one of the jokes, so that's progress I guess!
Another entertaining addition to the series. Though there are more call-backs to prior scenarios (e.g. the robot family, Thief X), the comics always continue to feel fresh and creative. There is also more definite direct interaction between Rumi and Seki, and not just Rumi stealthily interfering with his play.
Seki is at his same antics again, but of course a different variety. Rumi tries her hardest to stay focused on class, but she's being pulled into his distracted world. These two are a hoot and I'm always awaiting the next distraction Seki will come up.
I hope this series never ends. It just gets even more silly as it goes on. I love that Yokoi has become enamored with the Robot Family. I put it up there with Yotsuba in terms of fun silliness.
I really like the fact that she get in on the games too, even though he's luring her in. His dart board on his neighbors back was awesome and the return of the art thief was funny.
I liked this volume better than some of the previous ones, but still rated it a 3. My excuse is that I have 9 volumes of Yotsuba&! ready to be read and if I rate this book a 4, I'll have to figure out how to rate them as 17.
I've decided that this is the Japanese incarnation of Richard Scarry books.
If you're not familiar with Richard Scarry's work, there is almost no story, but a lot of pictures of objects, animals, etc. with the names of the items in close juxtaposition to them. I used to hate reading Richard Scarry books to my kids -- you point at the item and say the name. There is no reward for the adult.
One of the chapters in this volume even supported my Richard Scarry theory above in a strange way. The chapter involved several famous paintings: Mona Lisa, Guernica, and others. A bit more sophisticated than Richard Scarry, but a similar outcome, nonetheless.
Still fun, but the joke is starting to wear thin in the seventh volume. No new characters are introduced and there are no changes to the status quo. The gag stories are sort of like the old "Spy vs. Spy" comic strips, and like those strips, these would be better read in a monthly magazine like Mad mixed amongst other strips rather than in a collected volume. That said, I admire how the creator keeps managing to find new concepts to explore chapter after chapter.
*3 or more is good for comics, manga or graphic novels. I never really know how to rate some of these. There are some where I'm totally in love, know automatically it is a 5 star, but then some I am just not sure about in the first couple volumes.*
I love the series as a whole, it is cute and funny, but by the 7th, it really does start seeming repetitive. I wish he would talk to her or something, or they would go somewhere else.
I realized I've not been adding the subsequent volumes to my read list...but I have been reading these pretty much as they come out. It's still really cute and just earnestly happy. There are so few things that are committed to being positive, and it's nice to see that it doesn't have to be grimdark to be good art.
Lebih segar dibandingkan beberapa nomor sebelumnya. Kali ini si Seki dibalas sama teman yang duduk di depannya (yang badannya besar sampai bisa menghalangi Seki yang lagi main).
*tapi kalau boleh jujur, semakin ke sini, Seki-kun ini makin membosankan, sih.
Wooaaaaaaaah~~~!!! Bab terakhir itu loooh!! Akhirnya si Rumi berhasil ngalahin Seki!!! Dengan telak!!! Ahahahahaha!!! I laughed soooo much when I read this xDD
The "haunted house" was really fun, and I continue to love Rumi's obsession with the robot family. Is it just me or did the two of them interact more this volume?