Canned Dogs

Hitsugi katsugi no Kuro (Amazon link) is a 4koma manga by Kiyuduki Satoko that is currently running in Manga time kirara. The author Kiyuduki Satoko is known for her work on the 4koma manga GA Art department art design class and also as the character designer for the GBA game Yggdra Union.

The story is about a traveller called “Kuro” who carries a coffin on her back while travelling from place to place together with a bat called “Sen” in search of a black witch. Travelling with them is a pair of twins called “Nijyuku” and “Sanjyu” who are looking for “Hakase”.

As the title Hitsugi katsugi no Kuro suggests, the story has a kinda dark theme although the majority of the story is a heartwarming story about their travels and the people they meet. Each chapter is a self-contained story most of the time, though the story can also span for two chapters.

It’s a story 4koma and many of the strips do not end with a punch line or “ochi”. Though it does have an “ochi” at the end of every strip, it’s just that they’re not the traditional type of “ochi”. This isn’t exactly a new concept with modern day 4koma, but Hitsugi katsugi no Kuro does a very good job of keeping the story going at a consistent pace even while having an “ochi” in every strip.

Also I have a feeling the above paragraph makes no sense to some people because I have no idea how I can write about the concept of ochi in English.

So yeah I like this manga. Personally I hated the mess of “moe” 4koma popping up ever since the success of Azumanga in 1999 that are just 4koma for the sake of it rather than actually making use of the characteristics of the format to strengthen their comic.

Hitsugi katsugi no Kuro vol 2 was also voted as the most amazing 4koma manga that was released over the past year in a poll.

The tankoubon has 2~4 colour pages for every chapter too, which is why it costs 860 yen.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 3:29 am and is filed under Manga, Not-Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.