What do you think?
Rate this book
Tamamo-chan’s a Fox! #4
Tamamo-chan's a Fox! Vol. 4
WINTER IS COMING—FUR REAL!
Tamamo, the transfer student from Kyoto, is actually a fox guardian from the Fushimi Inari Shrine. She thinks she's managed to keep this fact hidden, but everybody knows. Now winter's coming, and with it comes Tamamo's fluffy winter coat. Get ready for tons of excitement, including Tamamo's first part-time job at a cafe!
Tamamo, the transfer student from Kyoto, is actually a fox guardian from the Fushimi Inari Shrine. She thinks she's managed to keep this fact hidden, but everybody knows. Now winter's coming, and with it comes Tamamo's fluffy winter coat. Get ready for tons of excitement, including Tamamo's first part-time job at a cafe!
146 pages, Paperback
First published October 26, 2019
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 27, 2022
With the world's most strained Resident Evil joke, the level of school spirit for Tama-chan and her friends is officially out of control. Of course, outside of the school, amidst part-time jobs and mall walking, things might not be much better...
Charmful and harmless is about the best way to describe the ongoing saga of Tama-chan and her attempts to fool the world around her and enjoy her best fox-as-human life. And once again this story does a lot of good with its vignettes while being accessible to both the layman and the hardcore folklorist alike.
By far the standout chapter is the one where Tamamo's friend Nakki gets bitten by the former during an innocuous Pocky incident and here come the aforementioned Resident Evil jokes and the lycanthropy gags. Tons of zingers are flying during this part as Nakki starts to get used to the idea of being a spirit until the reality of her situation sets in. If you thought all the boys at school were furries because of Tamamo, expect that hypothesis to be confirmed and then some (the story continues its welcome throughline that teenage boys are idiots).
The cafe visit when Tamamo gets a part-time job is also a good laugh, since the whole family turns out to be in the area and her incredibly clutzy sister turns out to have a secret power after she accidentally gets drunk (this might be one of the few times the faux-drunk manga trope has ever made me laugh). The ending of this section has a brilliant twist too.
It also bleeds into the mall chapter, which is both very silly (turns out shrine spirits can bless arcade machines) and an incredibly sweet message of friendship, which also has some interesting long-term implications. There are worse things to celebrate than your friends though.
Throw in some fun with random possession, the surprisingly goofy graduation surveys, a nail-biter of a class president election (or not, do your homework, kids), recognition of the fact that all the teachers at the school are total degenerates, plus lots and lots of weasel and raccoon/tanuki/whatever antics (the latter gets a brilliant tsundere joke where the boys are, as expected, utterly useless) and you have a full volume that hits way more than it misses.
Compared to a lot of 4-koma, this series smartly left itself with a massive field of ideas to play in and it knows how to use them to its best advantage. Tamamo turning into a literal stone cold fox is a good running gag that's never overused but put to best use as sparingly as possible so it's always a treat when it shows up (the mall is a stand-out example), especially when it starts sweating.
Having some good characters, some great jokes, fun storylines, that stuff all adds up. A lot of books like this can't quite make it all come together and, while this one doesn't get it completely right, this series has a really high win ratio for its jokes. Yes, gonna put it out there again that they need to lay off the weight jokes with Mikki, she's not even that big for pity's sake, but fortunately that's not the only thing she's used for and they don't dip into that well that often.
4 stars - a very cozy series that always has a couple of belters each volume and frequently winds up with a lot of them. And when it doesn't, the general sense of fun carries it a long way. You could do much, much worse for a good read about friendship and gods goofing around and, boy, am I ever looking forward to the next volume after that cliffhanger...
Charmful and harmless is about the best way to describe the ongoing saga of Tama-chan and her attempts to fool the world around her and enjoy her best fox-as-human life. And once again this story does a lot of good with its vignettes while being accessible to both the layman and the hardcore folklorist alike.
By far the standout chapter is the one where Tamamo's friend Nakki gets bitten by the former during an innocuous Pocky incident and here come the aforementioned Resident Evil jokes and the lycanthropy gags. Tons of zingers are flying during this part as Nakki starts to get used to the idea of being a spirit until the reality of her situation sets in. If you thought all the boys at school were furries because of Tamamo, expect that hypothesis to be confirmed and then some (the story continues its welcome throughline that teenage boys are idiots).
The cafe visit when Tamamo gets a part-time job is also a good laugh, since the whole family turns out to be in the area and her incredibly clutzy sister turns out to have a secret power after she accidentally gets drunk (this might be one of the few times the faux-drunk manga trope has ever made me laugh). The ending of this section has a brilliant twist too.
It also bleeds into the mall chapter, which is both very silly (turns out shrine spirits can bless arcade machines) and an incredibly sweet message of friendship, which also has some interesting long-term implications. There are worse things to celebrate than your friends though.
Throw in some fun with random possession, the surprisingly goofy graduation surveys, a nail-biter of a class president election (or not, do your homework, kids), recognition of the fact that all the teachers at the school are total degenerates, plus lots and lots of weasel and raccoon/tanuki/whatever antics (the latter gets a brilliant tsundere joke where the boys are, as expected, utterly useless) and you have a full volume that hits way more than it misses.
Compared to a lot of 4-koma, this series smartly left itself with a massive field of ideas to play in and it knows how to use them to its best advantage. Tamamo turning into a literal stone cold fox is a good running gag that's never overused but put to best use as sparingly as possible so it's always a treat when it shows up (the mall is a stand-out example), especially when it starts sweating.
Having some good characters, some great jokes, fun storylines, that stuff all adds up. A lot of books like this can't quite make it all come together and, while this one doesn't get it completely right, this series has a really high win ratio for its jokes. Yes, gonna put it out there again that they need to lay off the weight jokes with Mikki, she's not even that big for pity's sake, but fortunately that's not the only thing she's used for and they don't dip into that well that often.
4 stars - a very cozy series that always has a couple of belters each volume and frequently winds up with a lot of them. And when it doesn't, the general sense of fun carries it a long way. You could do much, much worse for a good read about friendship and gods goofing around and, boy, am I ever looking forward to the next volume after that cliffhanger...
April 6, 2023
Winter and the end of the first year at high school. The cold comes with fur and clothing. The end of the school year with deciding on your future and parent teacher meetings. The season also get Tamamo-chan to become friends with the weasel and raccoon while babysitting a kid in the park who lost their mother. Fun characters, entertaining short arcs and progress in time make an entertaining read. Up to the next volume.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews