4-Koma manga Master list & Discussion

[Damius]

Originally Posted by einhorn303

I have the first two volumes by VIZ. Between the two, there's only a 4 page 4koma story about a trip to hot springs; less than some random 4koma omake in a regular manga series, really. Though I can't speak for the others.

Well, I don't think that is enough to put them on the list, unless someone says otherwise.

[Suwako Moriya]

The fun part is how some strips are hybrids. One yet to be licensed example is "Nichijou". Which I thought was just a normal strip and as of chapter 13, it still seems that way.

Yet, apparently it's actually supposed to be a mixture of normal strips and 4-Koma. Not sure where the 4-Koma stuff starts, but I guess it's supposed to start eventually.

And for the record, it's a manga I have an interest in seeing come out here. As it fits with my warped tastes and such.

[Suwako Moriya]

Originally Posted by Doom86

Pani Poni Dash is 4-Koma from what I've heard, and I'd definitely love to see it licensed.

There are occasional 4-Koma segments, but a lot of it seems to be of the normal type. I guess you consider it a hybrid that leans towards "normal"? To be fair, the ratio may change later.

On a related subject since Pani Poni is a good example, I have noticed something about certain manga. Which is this. While they're not exactly 4-Koma, they're still in some ways like comics.

Or to put it another way. They have panels. It's just that instead of 4 going in a vertical line, you might get a varying number of panels in varying patterns. It kind of makes me think of some Sunday strips.

Although sometimes with these panels, you'll get an outside image. Just as sometimes 4-Koma includes artwork images either above or on the side.


There is a spin-off manga series called Maro-Mayu that according to one site is 4-Koma. It's a series starring Kurumi as a shop waitress.

There is another spin-off manga called Shin Kankaku Iyashikei Mahou Shoujo Behoimi-chan starring Behoimi, but for the record it's not 4-Koma. As far as I know anyway.

[Damius]

Originally Posted by Suwako Moriya

The fun part is how some strips are hybrids. One yet to be licensed example is "Nichijou". Which I thought was just a normal strip and as of chapter 13, it still seems that way.

Yet, apparently it's actually supposed to be a mixture of normal strips and 4-Koma. Not sure where the 4-Koma stuff starts, but I guess it's supposed to start eventually.

And for the record, it's a manga I have an interest in seeing come out here. As it fits with my warped tastes and such.

Originally Posted by Suwako Moriya

There are occasional 4-Koma segments, but a lot of it seems to be of the normal type. I guess you consider it a hybrid that leans towards "normal"? To be fair, the ratio may change later.

On a related subject since Pani Poni is a good example, I have noticed something about certain manga. Which is this. While they're not exactly 4-Koma, they're still in some ways like comics.

Or to put it another way. They have panels. It's just that instead of 4 going in a vertical line, you might get a varying number of panels in varying patterns. It kind of makes me think of some Sunday strips.

Although sometimes with these panels, you'll get an outside image. Just as sometimes 4-Koma includes artwork images either above or on the side.


There is a spin-off manga series called Maro-Mayu that according to one site is 4-Koma. It's a series starring Kurumi as a shop waitress.

There is another spin-off manga called Shin Kankaku Iyashikei Mahou Shoujo Behoimi-chan starring Behoimi, but for the record it's not 4-Koma. As far as I know anyway.

So, should we include titles like these to the lists? I mean we can note them like this:

Nichijou *Hybrid*
Pani Poni Dash *Hybrid*

And perhaps explain what Hybrid is.

Hybrid = Mixture of normal strips and 4-Koma

or should we not include them since the ration of 4-koma may be to low?

[Suwako Moriya]

Originally Posted by Damius

So, should we include titles like these to the lists? I mean we can note them like this:

Nichijou *Hybrid*
Pani Poni Dash *Hybrid*

And perhaps explain what Hybrid is.

Hybrid = Mixture of normal strips and 4-Koma

or should we not include them since the ration of 4-koma may be to low?

If we were to exclude strips because the ratio of 4-Koma is too low, we'd have to decide first how high that ratio has to be. Which can be kind of tricky to be honest.

Especially since the ratio could fluctuate volume to volume. That being said, I'd lean towards this. Let's use a single volume example and assume 100 pages it were.

If only 20 pages are 4-Koma, I might still include it as hybrid. Even if it skews heavily towards normal. However let's say you have a manga where only a single page has a 4-Koma strip. In that case, it would be hard to justify.


In any case, I'd include both under hybrid. I'd use the explanation you came up. I'd also note that the fraction that is 4-Koma will vary from hybrid to hybrid. It could be high or low.

[Damius]

Originally Posted by Suwako Moriya

If we were to exclude strips because the ratio of 4-Koma is too low, we'd have to decide first how high that ratio has to be. Which can be kind of tricky to be honest.

Especially since the ratio could fluctuate volume to volume. That being said, I'd lean towards this. Let's use a single volume example and assume 100 pages it were.

If only 20 pages are 4-Koma, I might still include it as hybrid. Even if it skews heavily towards normal. However let's say you have a manga where only a single page has a 4-Koma strip. In that case, it would be hard to justify.


In any case, I'd include both under hybrid. I'd use the explanation you came up. I'd also note that the fraction that is 4-Koma will vary from hybrid to hybrid. It could be high or low.

Perfect, update is done. I will still note Hetalia for example as *mostly 4-koma* since the ratio is really high.

[Suwako Moriya]

I suppose it may be a good idea to on occasion to talk about why stuff in the Wishlist may be of interest. So we'll start with....


Kill Me Baby

Here we have a familiar set up. You have a pair of students. One of them has a special occupation that effects the said student's personality and interaction with the other student.

This time around both students are girls. Sonya being the one with the special occupation. As she's supposed to be an assassin. The other girl being Yasuna who tries to be friends with her.

What's nice about this is that both of them are "strange". Ie in a set up like this, you'd expect Yasuna to be the normal one suffering through the oddness of Sonya.

Except Yasuna is not exactly normal either and in fact may be even stranger than Sonya. By allowing both of them to have their quirks, it allows for things to flow better than it would.

In addition to these two you have a girl that just might be a ninja. Although in the end, it's mostly about Yasuna and Sonya interacting with each other. And if we're lucky eventually falling in love. What? feel like pairing them up just because.

[Suwako Moriya]

Originally Posted by Damius

I will still note Hetalia for example as *mostly 4-koma* since the ratio is really high.

Having titles such as that listed as "mostly 4-Koma" would be for the best. Either way it gets the point across.

[Noodle]

Originally Posted by Damius

DMP

[/b]Great Place High School - Student Council *mostly 4-koma* *Adult*

Nitpick: FYI, Great Place High School is actually not the same thing as Great Place High School - Student Council. Same series, more or less, but not the same book.

[kijakusai]

Originally Posted by Doom86

Pani Poni Dash is 4-Koma from what I've heard, and I'd definitely love to see it licensed.

　
I read Pani Poni, too, in the original. Actually, the title of the manga by Hikawa Hekiru, which the anime Pani Poni Dash is based on, is Pani Poni. Not Pani Poni Dash. Since NHK had already broadcast an anime titled Paniponi in 1998, the anime version of the manga by Hikawa was named Pani Poni Dash in order to avoid a collision between two anime with the same title.
　
And, as Suwako Moriya too suggested, actually, technically Pani Poni is not a 4-koma manga proper. Basically Pani Poni is a so-called 1-page manga. For the most part, each of Pani Poni's segments is 1 page, and the page is drawn in the standard manga format, rather than in the 4-koma format. For example, the 'Sports Becky' segment in Volume 5 of Pani Poni consists of 9 koma. Pani Poni also has some '1 story segment consists of plural pages drawn in the standard manga format' parts.
Occasionally Pani Poni has 4-koma parts, though. For example, Volume 11 of Pani Poni has a 'Mesousa Fight Galaxy' 4-koma section (But the 4-koma section is 6 pages, whilst Pani Poni Vol.11 is a book 130 pages long. Most parts of the book are not 4-koma manga).
Since each of Pani Poni's segments is 1 page and it is short, some people think that Pani Poni is a somewhat distant relative to 4-koma manga, however. In fact, in a Japanese manga book guide, Pani Poni is dealt with in the chapter mainly about 4-koma manga. The writer of the book guide wrote that he also dealt with relatves to 4-koma manga in the chapter and noted that Pani Poni was a 1-page manga, rather than a 4-koma manga, though.
　
　

Originally Posted by Damius

So, should we include titles like these to the lists? I mean we can note them like this:
　
...Pani Poni Dash *Hybrid*

　
It may not be a bad idea that you add a note like 'a 1-page manga' or 'a relative to 4-koma manga' to the Pani Poni entry.