CITY 1

A Comedy Manga (Japanese comic where the panel speech-bubbles are read in order from right-to-left top to bottom) by Keiichi Arawi. (For those familiar with Nichijou, see a more comparative review lower down)The humor focuses on a trio of characters comedic interactions with the everyday events in a city that's anything but ordinary, where the normal turns absurdist/surreal at the drop of a hat. While I wouldn't recommend this for someone's first manga (that would be either "Fullmetal Alchemist, hands down.) I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wanted to explore the comedic side of Manga, along with Nichijou (another work by Arawi) and Gintama by Hideaki Sorachi. Keiichi Arawi likes to have his manga set in a modern day setting where the characters are "normal humans" going about their everyday life, but in the most absurd/eccentric ways. For me, the characters meshed as well as those from the sitcom Seinfeld, with the chemistry of the main trio being great. I certainly didn't regret purchasing it!///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////Below is the review for those Familiar with Keiichi Arawi's other work, "Nichijou", and the anime that sprung off of it.Let me start off by saying I absolutely love Nichijou (also known as "My Ordinary Life"), own the Complete Anime Series and all nine volumes of the manga, but setting all of that aside, I would say that Keiichi Arawi has gotten even better since Nichijou finished.CITY feels like a town in the Nichijou universe, but with enough distance between it and Nichijou's geographical location to not have characters crossover. The characters are more varied since the story is unshackled from the "High school kids" setting, and the manga is better for it. The eccentric/surrealist comedy returns, with great chemistry between the main trio (three college students, though they never seem to be in class), and overall I would 100% recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Nichijou for anything other than "Hakase Moe" scenes (not to say there isn't Moe, but it is certainly more toned back). I actually think the main trio works better with all three of them "on stage" at the same time, while Yuuko, Mio and Mai always were usually one short of a trio most skits, usually being either YuukoXMio or YuukoXMai.

I really enjoyed Keiichi Arawi's "Nichijou" and while I have to be in the mood for it, I also enjoy "Helvetica Standard" as well. Arawi's style is weird humor. Not gross humor but just absurdist humor that have an odd way of seeming familiar in spite of the weirdness. Characters have a sliding scale of morals and use that flexibility to get out of scraps only to find that the scraps still catch up with you.So it is with "City, vol 1." Nagumo is an young adult just barely out of her teens. She's restless and reckless and in the first chapter, she's ditched her apartment to avoid the landlady who has come for the rent. Her flight from her landlady takes her through streets of her city where we are introduced to characters who will play a role in the comedy series. Nagumo's friend, Niikura, who knows Nagumo's tricks. The security officer, Mr Officer, who is new to the store fronts but earnest in his job. Izumi, the girl with a hat, who pops up randomly. The restaurant owner who likes to use the security office's bathroom. His son, Takewaku, who works at the restaurant and ends up making Nagumo a part-time worker which wasn't really her plan.That's just in the first chapter. It is an opening volume so the pace is brisk. I ended up having to re-read because I felt like I might have missed something. I do like the cast as they are fairly familiar if one has read or watched "Nichijou." So far, there is no super annoying character like the Professor in "Nichijou" but I have a feeling that character will show up at some point. Overall, it is a promising start and I look forward to the next volume.

Another great novel from Keiichi Arawi. If you know and love Nichijou, this will be equally enjoyable. Funny and adorable cast, surreal and unexpected humor, and already building up to some great moments to expect from future volumes, this is an easy pick for any Slice of Life fan.

This is about what you would expect from the author of Nichijou (read that manga if you haven't already), weird off-the-wall happenings from a variety of people in the town, apparently, named City. The influence from Nichijou is obvious and the wide variety of characters gives a wider variety of weird stuff that can happen. This book did start out a little slow but it starts to pick up near the end and really picks up in volume 2. Bottom line, if you liked Nichijou you will like City, Keiichi Arawi has a knack for finding the hilariously absurd in the everyday lives of his varied characters.

Was skeptical if Arawi-sensei could pull off a more story-focused series, and so far he's proven himself! His art is as good as ever, I'm interested to see what stories will follow to develop the characters involved. Also the small reference to Nichijou was nice!!

Love the silliness of this manga, the characters in it are hilarious, the art style is great too.

I love this artist so much. Plenty of great chuckles to be had. Really good if you are a fan of nichijou.

Hilarious

Si vous aimez Nichijou, vous adorerez City. En terme de qualité, ce sont les mêmes éditeurs que pour Nichijou, le format et la qualité globale sont similaires à ce qu'ils ont fait pour Nichijou.

Muy bueno, y llegó en tiempo