Are you a comic-reader? When I was in 5th or 6th grade elementary school, almost my entire class was reading Archie and Friends. We would buy and after reading loan it to others. It was a great system because we got to read a lot more! But of course the disadvantage is by the time your book comes back to you, it’ll be dog-eared (Ouch! The pain just resurfaced again :p).
As a way to interest me in Mandarin, my mum introduced me to Doraemon manga that was in Chinese. I remember wishing I owned this awesome cat with a bottomless pocket full of amazing gadgets (I still wish so)! But I’m not sure how much it did to improve my Mandarin because I’ll simply skip the word if I can’t figure it out. I also recall reading a few Beano when I was a much younger. That was about it. Basically after 6th grade, I pretty much stopped reaching comics.
Then I got to know Chibi Maruko chan (!), a series of semi-autobiographical manga by Momoko Sakura (Miki Mura), which was later adapted into an anime. Set in mid-seventies Japan, it depicts the simple, everyday life of a 9 year old girl nicknamed Maruko. Like most kids, she is lazy, dreads homework, is wildly imaginative, squabbles with her older prim and proper sister and takes advantage of her grandfather who always gives in to her.
As a way to interest me in Mandarin, my mum introduced me to Doraemon manga that was in Chinese. I remember wishing I owned this awesome cat with a bottomless pocket full of amazing gadgets (I still wish so)! But I’m not sure how much it did to improve my Mandarin because I’ll simply skip the word if I can’t figure it out. I also recall reading a few Beano when I was a much younger. That was about it. Basically after 6th grade, I pretty much stopped reaching comics.
Then I got to know Chibi Maruko chan (!), a series of semi-autobiographical manga by Momoko Sakura (Miki Mura), which was later adapted into an anime. Set in mid-seventies Japan, it depicts the simple, everyday life of a 9 year old girl nicknamed Maruko. Like most kids, she is lazy, dreads homework, is wildly imaginative, squabbles with her older prim and proper sister and takes advantage of her grandfather who always gives in to her.
With her best friend, Tamae
Motley crew of classmates
She makes me laugh with her numerous facial expressions!
Other than then humour and that Maruko is kawaii, there is something nostalgic and representative of the lost innocence that I really love about this series.Do/did you read comics too?
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I'm a sporadic comic fan over the years. From Doraemon (the Malay version) to Archie (oh, did you know that Archie proposed to Veronica already?) in my primary school years, to Calvin & Hobbes (I'm still eyeing that complete box set from Kino) in my secondary school years, and now that I've ended up with a comic geek, I'm reading selected Marvel and DC comics like Amazing Spiderman, Powers and Invincible.
ReplyDeleteLil Maruko Chan looks so cute! I'm gonna have to make a lookout for it :)
Chibi Maruko chan series is one of my favorite too! It's so great to see her here! Have a lovely merry happy day and love to yoU!
ReplyDeletejacqueline
http://jqlinesocuteithurts.typepad.com/
Yes!I'm back,see you soon!!
ReplyDeletehave a good day!
Here it's the first day of school...
Kids are so exciting!
bye!
Maruko is really kawaii! I remember reading Archie Comics too, and the lending system my friends and I had, which wasn't a good system at all since I lost two issues *sniff*. Nowadays whenever I'm bored or sick I read a lot of manga, something that I never thought I would do a few years ago!
ReplyDeleteOh, I still remember... I used to watch chibimaruko chan and I liked it very much! The girl is so funny, isn't she? xox
ReplyDeletei love it...
ReplyDeleteI love mangas & anime. I used to watch Maruko-chan when I was 8 or 9 with my siblings (I'm 28 now)in arabic. Just recently my little sister and I baught a Maruko-chan DVD set but only upto the 30th episode. We're still waiting for the 2nd set to arrive. My little sister and her friends used to do that trading archie thing hehehe
ReplyDeleteVisit me: nooranoor.blogspot.com