Two manga recommendations: Chii's Sweet Home and The Heavenly Dog Stories

[nenena]

Chii's Sweet Home

This is a story about a kitten, narrated from the kitten's point of view. AND IT IS AWESOME. Not only is it ridiculously awesome, but it's done in full color, too.

I literally do not have words to describe how amazingly addictive and fun this manga is, so I will let a chapter speak for itself. Click any of these scans for a larger, more readable version:











This is a manga that once I started, I literally could not put it down. There's something utterly hypnotic about it. I really can't describe it.

The manga has also been turned into an anime series, that's composed entirely of short three-minute "episodes." IMHO the anime isn't that great. For one thing, it's just a panel-by-panel adaptation of the manga, with no new material added - and that's kind of boring. For another thing, despite being a faithful panel-by-panel adaptation of the manga, it somehow manages to lose a lot of the manga's indescribable charm in the transition from one media to another.

Meh. Cute, but I'll stick with the manga.

Availability: There are scanslations of the manga all over the internet. It's not hard to find. If you can afford it, however, the Japanese tankouban are worth the purchase. They're quite lovely, printed in bright full colors on thick, good-quality paper. And they each come with an adorable bookmark! Also, for Japanese learners: This manga is very very easy to read. That's because it's a manga written from a kitten's point of view, and Chii happens to have the functional vocabulary of a toddler. It's probably the only manga series in Japan that's published in an adult manga anthology (Morning), yet written mostly at a first-grade reading level.

The Heavenly Dog Stories (Tengoku no Inu Monogatari)

So. This is a series of short, largely unconnected stories about dogs. It also happens to be a continuation of a slightly older manga series, which I've never read. But anyway. These are the two volumes of the "new" series released so far:



The stories in this series encompass a wide variety of topics, and feature (yay!) a huge variety of breeds of dog. For example: A dog saves his master's life. A dog brings a fueding couple back together. A pigeon befriends a doomed dog. A girl copes with the death of her dog. A girl lost in the woods is saved by a stray dog. Okay, so those summaries seem overly simple, but actually, a lot of the stories are twisty, complicated, and multi-layered. Plus the artwork is clean and appealing, even if a little bit rough around the edges. And there's a lot of, you know, DOGS.


Click for bigger version.

This being a dog manga, of course, it means that there will be emotionally devastating stories... And the second volume of the manga, in between a few funny and comical stories, features quite a few of the rip-your-heart-out kind of stories. So consider this a fair warning: Do not read without a hanky at hand.

Availability: There's a scanslation of volume 01 of the "old" series floating around on the internet, but so far nothing from the new series. Anyway, the Japanese manga is pretty easy to find, using either sasugabooks.com, or Amazon, or yahoo auctions, or whatever. The reading level is about fifth- or sixth-grade. There's furigana for every kanji, so it's not that hard to read.

Comments

[lost-angelwings.livejournal.com]

Awwwww the kitten story IS SO ADORABLEEEEE :DDD It reminds me of Owly in that it makes me happy and stuff and I get what's going on even if there are no words I understand :D

Dog stories are always sad and emotionally devestating :( It needs more cats... and owl(y)s :D

[(Anonymous)]

I've been watching the Chi's Sweet Home anime and I love it! =^.^= Looking at those scans of the manga however makes me want to read it too. Reading it raw will probably be good practice for my (limited) Japanese skills. I'll try and look for it next time I'm in the bookstore at Little Tokyo (or whenever I go back to Japan) =)

---Yumeka
http://animeyume.com

[evil-authoress.livejournal.com]

Re: Chii's Sweet Home. Kittens and Japanese practice? I'll take it.

[miss-breeziness.livejournal.com]

Awwwww that kitty manga is soooooo cute!

Its portrayal of how cats act is realistic too! :)

[kalium-kx.livejournal.com]

I wanna see that kitty scanlation TAT..

[orthoflame.livejournal.com]

I personally think the Chii's Sweet Home anime is charming, though that might be because I saw it before reading the manga. Anyhow, I agree that it's a great series.

Awesome, a dog-centric manga! I like how the artist drew the dogs, and it sounds like interesting. I might pick it up when I get some extra smackaroos.

[atelierjoh.livejournal.com]

Oh KYOOT! May I steal a couple of those scans for icons?

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Go ahead! :)

[redplasticglass.livejournal.com]

Aaaah yesssss. Chii's Sweet Home. Someone had dropped it on the floor at Bookoff, which of course meant my foot would end up in the area and I'd go falling on my face.

The result was my walking out the store with a $1, addictive, disgustingly sweet book ever. So solidly drawn and painted. Such a lovely, tactile matte cover. *pats it*