My Neighbor Seki 1

by Takuma Morishige

Overview

Toshinari Seki takes goofing off to new heights. Every day, on or around his school desk, he masterfully creates his own little worlds of wonder, often hidden to most of his classmates. Unfortunately for Rumi Yokoi, his neighbor at the back of their homeroom, his many games, dioramas, and projects are often way too interesting to ignore; even when they are hurting her grades.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781939130969
Publisher:	Kodansha USA
Publication date:	01/13/2015
Series:	My Neighbor Seki , #1
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	443,625
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

About the Author

Takuma Morishige was born in Miyazaki prefecture back in 1978. A professional comic artist, he earned an engineering degree from the University of Hiroshima. While Morishige has been working as a comic artist since 2001, he is best known for his work on My Neighbor Seki and for being the brother to the award-winning comic artist Akiko Higashimura. Morishige even appears as a character in Higashimura's autobiographical comic Himawari...

In 2000 Morishige's debut project, Life Arts, was a finalist selection for the Chiba Tetsuya Comic Award. He would then turn his attention towards manga creation full-time in 2001. He has since developed six series, most of them being comedies.

Editorial Reviews

07/06/2015
This compilation, an older kid's version of Yotsuba&!, collects vignettes that worked better in their original setting: as short, fun page-filler in a magazine of longer serials. Seki sits at the back of the classroom and is constantly goofing off in elaborate ways. His seat neighbor, a studious and straitlaced firecracker of a girl named Yokai, does her best to avoid his antics, but her active imagination often leads her to be more involved in the stories than he is. Eventually, Yokai starts striking back at Seki's folly, and growing more confident in the process, though her resolve doesn't mature into permitting a conversation between them. The artwork, like the story, is simple but clean, professionally polished and easy to read. The layout delivers the humor succinctly, and the translation is sharp. Morishige is known for later works in the seinen and horror categories, but this 2010 work helped launch his career. The content palpably captures the frustration and whimsy of the age it depicts, but in the end is still a simple, episodic comedy that will sell best once the anime based on the comic debuts in the U.S. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly