(L) Hidamari Sketch Yon-komi manga (Sunshine Sketch)

[yezhanquan]

Well, for the DS game, best bet is to have a dictionary-translator next to you (helps with your other anime interests as well. Make sure that it does kanji.)

I'm waiting for volume 4 as well, the Mandarin version that is.

[fict_ticious]

Originally Posted by yezhanquan

Well, for the DS game, best bet is to have a dictionary-translator next to you (helps with your other anime interests as well. Make sure that it does kanji.)

Yeah, in-game I just try to avoid those ones completely. The karaoke minigame is mind-shatteringly adorable.

[Vexx]

I picked up the first 4 volumes of this the other day was quite surprised... the manga is quite funny and even snappier with the quick-witted jokes (whereas the anime was more often "sweet" than punchy). Good stuff in here.

[Haesslich]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I picked up the first 4 volumes of this the other day was quite surprised... the manga is quite funny and even snappier with the quick-witted jokes (whereas the anime was more often "sweet" than punchy). Good stuff in here.

SHAFT is SHAFT - they usually adapt stories, rather than tell them faithfully. Volume 5 got released in Japan early this year, IIRC, so hopefully we'll get more of the rest of them... and there are a few 'raunchy' bits in there too. Well, as raunchy as it'll ever get.

[Vexx]

yeah, I'm not dinging the anime (loved all the seasons)... but I feel like I got a bonus moment with the manga and glad to hear the manga is still rolling...

[Vexx]

Basically, both studios (Shaft and Staff) have had "win" or "lose" moments with different series. For example, I like Tsukuyomi Moon Phase the anime quite a bit. Then I read the manga.... very different feel, but also very good. End result - I like both the anime and the manga but for different reasons.

Rather than list them... lets just say I don't think either studio being assigned to a project is automatic "win" or "lose" assessment.

Finished all 4 existing volumes.... which the 3 anime seasons seem to have covered timeline-wise in abbreviated form. I assume there will be a 5th volume and perhaps more which will also hopefully be animated.

[Haesslich]

Fifth volume came out this year, as noted. Whether it'll be animated depends on others. It's ongoing.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Haesslich

Fifth volume came out this year, as noted. Whether it'll be animated depends on others. It's ongoing.

Hmmm, guess I need to check with the english publisher and see if they've got volume 5 on their to-do list.

[Zeross]

does someone know where i could buy the 4th book of the yenpress release of this serie? (ISBN: 978-0-316-08112-2).

it look out of print and out of stock on every amazon, i looked on ebay and didnt find it either. as i buy all my manga from amazon.fr usualy i don't know a lot of other site that could sell them and than can ship items to france.

[teja208]

In season 4 anime thread, a lot people were discussing about what would happen after Hiro and Sae graduated, so I was wondering if they've graduated yet in the latest manga chapter. Any sign manga ending soon?

[teja208]

Originally Posted by teja208

In season 4 anime thread, a lot people were discussing about what would happen after Hiro and Sae graduated, so I was wondering if they've graduated yet in the latest manga chapter. Any sign manga ending soon?

Okey, can't believe I'm answering to myself here but whatever. It's not ending and we got a new girl (not two but better than none). it didn't take her long (compared to Nori and Nazuna) for her to get to know her senpais and she already had a sleepover at Yuno's place.

Still, need some time getting used to the series w/o Sae and Hiro and the fact that Yuno is already a third year.

[AP24]

The series is still a long way from ending. It took 4-5 years to cover one year of the story so if it's also going to take that long to cover Yuno's 3rd year then the series won't end until at least 2017.

[Michael Hopcroft]

I just got through binge-reading the released volumes. Amazon's Kindle app on my phone makes it too darned easy to buy books.

There are some really brilliant moments throughout the series. The feel is different because most four-panel sets end with a gag (which makes things interesting when they don't).

Spoiler for In case you're not ready to meet the new girl yet.,:

Matsuri. Oh boy, Matsuri. I love her already. Very girly-girl, and she loves the idea of being an eccentric artist. I wonder if the very reason she got into art is because she's bored to death as a bureacrat's daughter.

And I didn't realize until the later volumes just how poor Miyako really is. There really are very few things she can buy for herself. Even her masculine dress is the result of her poverty:

Spoiler for Explaining something that might have been mis-interpreted:

She is never able to buy her own clothes and has to rely on hand-me-downs from her older brothers. A chapter is built around her finally getting to buy a dress, and she really isn't a tomboy type at all.

I hope Yen will in fact be releasing Volume 9 sometime in 2016.

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by Michael Hopcroft

And I didn't realize until the later volumes just how poor Miyako really is. There really are very few things she can buy for herself. Even her masculine dress is the result of her poverty:

Spoiler for Explaining something that might have been mis-interpreted:

She is never able to buy her own clothes and has to rely on hand-me-downs from her older brothers. A chapter is built around her finally getting to buy a dress, and she really isn't a tomboy type at all.

These latter volumes (in particular volumes 5 and 6) are the main reason why I found the Honeycomb season of Hidamari Sketch to be disappointing IMO.

There's a lot of great material in these volumes that I would have love to have seen adapted in anime form. Yet, a good chunk of it ends up being skipped over in order to get the graduation of Hiro and Sae out of the way (with a few of these stories only being hinted at in the OP). Some examples of the material that I would have love to have seen adapted in anime form:

Spoiler for Hidamari manga-only content:

• The girls going to a local arcade;
• Yuno and Nakayama doing a nude sketch;
• Nazuna having a case of homesickness when some swallows nest at the Hidamari Apartments;
• The girls petsitting Mami's dog;
• The girls going to an expy of Tokyo Disneyland.

[Michael Hopcroft]

That's all great stuff. There is also a different attitude to the manga a lot of the time. Some of Miyako's jokes really wouldn't fly in anime, the drunken-Yuno scene is completely written out in the anime (along with the suggestion that Hiro might have deliberately bought that "juice" for herself), and so forth.

Spoiler for Festa-san goodness (?):

Does anyone else eho's read Volume 8 suspect a sort of "triangular friendship" going on among the underclassmen, with Matsuri a sort of third wheel standing between Nori and Nazuna? For the most part, Nazuna virtually heroine-worships Nori, then here comes Matsuri being utterly shameless in terms of showing her rapidly-developing affections. I'd like to see what happens next with them.

[Kuroageha]

Shaft is pretty bad at picking what to adapt, just look at Zetsubou Sensei third season.

[Michael Hopcroft]

I would like to see more about Yuno's decision-making process as a senior. As we all know, Yuno is terrible at deciding pretty much anything. You probably don't want to take her out to dinner because she'll spend an hour looking at the menu and cogitating every possible angle before making her order (and usually getting it wrong anyway, as she did with that espresso).

Anyway, she has the whole of her life in front of her. How can she possibly decide what she wants to do? I also wonder if she will ever realize that while she keeps winning competitions at Yamabuki, Miyako is creating works of genius that go above everyone's head. Yuno is great technically, but Miyako has the unteachable trait of a great artist -- imagination. (Does Miyako even realize just how good she actually is?)

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

Shaft is pretty bad at picking what to adapt, just look at Zetsubou Sensei third season.

Not to mention the second set of Negima OAV's (I would have skipped the "Let's Separate the Crow" portion of the "Magic World Arc", save for Yue's story, and had the OAV's focus on the parts between the Ala Alba vs. Fate's group fight and the fight between Negi and Raken).

[Michael Hopcroft]

Weird -- the more I learn about the girls the more heroic they look. Doing what Miyako did -- getting into the prestigious school despite her poverty, living alone as she does, making art compulsively and commanding you attention as she foes it -- takes a surprising amount of courage. That she is such a strong sujpport for her friends and loved ones makes it even clearer just how heroic a figure Miyako is. Behind that ditzy exterior is a young woman with guts.

[Michael Hopcroft]

The semi-insanity of fan life -- I have ordered a doll of Yuno from a Northwest maker of such things running a business known as Fandolls. They mostly make dolls from american media, like superheroes -- at the Geek Craft Expo I met her at she got a commission for the Marvel character Squirrel Girl which she finished by the end of the show,

I was afraid the Yamabuki school uniforms would be so complicated it would give her problems, but she said she could do it and I am eagerly awaiting the results.

Since Yuno without Miyako would be incongruous, I'm thinking of ordering her too.