Intro to 4-koma (Yonkoma) Manga! Top 3 to read! | Sarah

Hi readers! I’ll introduce you to a new genre of manga today! This specific format is called Yonkoma (4コマ漫画), also known as 4-koma. And yon stands for the number four in Japanese (よん). This style consists of four equal-sized panels that stack on top of each other vertically. Sometimes they may arrange a right-to-left and 2x2 horizontal display, with each column containing the traditional four strips.

⇐ This is the common Yonkoma style that you’ll encounter. Remember to read from

the top to bottom!

This is the 2x2 horizontal display. Make sure you ⇒ start from the right to left! Don’t read in the wrong way!

3: Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun

Alternative: 月刊少女野崎くん | 月刊少女野崎君 | Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun

Author / Artist: Tsubaki Izumi

Genres: Comedy, Romance, Slice-of-Life, School, Shounen

Release Date: August 25, 2011

Status: Ongoing

Nozaki is the manga creator of popular shoujo manga, and he’s inexperienced and dense in love. So when Sakura Chiyo confesses to him, he mistakes her as a fan and gives her his photography! Unable to convey her love, what will happen when Nozaki invites her to his house to help? This manga has an anime adaptation and it’s pretty good! But I prefer the manga because there’s more to the ending in the adaptation.

To be honest, the beginning is somewhat boring, but when you reach the firework + confession part, it gets really cute and hilarious to read!

2: Tomo-Chan Wa Onnanoko!

Alternative: トモちゃんは女の子! | Tomo-chan wa Onna no Ko! | Tomo-chan is a girl!

Author / Artist: Yanagida Fumita

Genres: Comedy, Romance, Slice-of-Life, School Life, Shounen

Release Date: September 11, 2018

Status: Completed

Tomo-chan Wa Onnanoko talks about a girl, Tomo-chan, who’s often mistaken for a boy because of her boylike essence. She’s friends with Jun since they were children, and they are really good buddies. However, Tomo has a one-sided love for Jun and she can’t get him to think of her as a girl! This hilarious story revolves around the changing Tomo (from boyish to girly), and other ridiculous love stories of her friends.

The only I don’t like about this manga is the least possible amount of love scenes between Tomo and Jun! They’re the main characters! I genuinely hope there’re extras, but sadly, there’s nothing yet.

1: Tsurezure Children

Alternative: 徒然チルドレン | Tsuredure Children

Author / Artist: Wakabayashi Toshiya

Genres: Comedy, Romance, Slice-of-Life, School Life, Shounen

Release Date: December 2012

Status: Completed

Tsurezure Children “shows us a series of 4-koma manga depicting various scenarios of young love.” This manga ranges from high school students to teachers, every kind you can expect is drawn here. The story starts with Kanda, who’s invited Takase (the boy she likes) to confess. However, she’s too embarrassed to say it if Takase doesn’t like her... On the other hand, we have Minagawa, a class representation who likes Furuya. Although she’s confessed many times, the boy thinks she doesn’t take it seriously. And there we have another hilarious and cute love story between the class representation and a normal student. And this manga offers the reversed version too! Instead of the class representation, this character has advanced to the student council president. He’s trying to make a delinquent, Ryouko, to fall in love with him. If I have to cover every single story, it would take me ages! I will provide a detailed character/relationship chart in my next post.

This manga also has an anime adaptation and I watched that first. When I read the manga, I absolutely love it! It’s very light-hearted and cute (and heart-warming) to read. For readers who’ve never read Tsurezure Children yet, I suggest that you watch the anime first! That’s because the characters in the manga look very similar! It’s very hard to distinguish them at first glance. But the anime version actually has color to their hair and clothing, which is way easier to tell the difference.

Another thing is that I got quite sad in the end because the author decided to finish the manga! I was actually hoping to read more of it, but it didn’t come out the way I wanted. Although it has a sad ending, I would still strongly recommend you to read it!

Enjoy the manga!!!