宇宙ファラオ☆パトラちゃん 1巻

(Read in Japanese) Another fun two-parter from Yukio, the creator of Jashin-Chan Dropkick and as with God-Chans there is a connection to that series, though this one's crossover is a bit more explicit since Patra-chan has a lot of direct cameo's in the main Jashin-Chan series.

I was actually kind of surprised by what sort of series this ended up being. There's a running gag in Jashin-Chan where this character, Patra-Chan, is the subject of a number of cartoons and toys. Lierre is obsessed with the Patra-Chan show on TV and whenever we see a glimpse of it, the scenes always involve Patra being subjected to some horrific medieval torture, which Lierre sees as the height of comedy, and the gag is that this obviously disturbing show is being presented as children's entertainment, to the point where the WcDonald's Unhappy Meal toys are figures of Patra-chan being burned at the stake.

Knowing Yuko's deranged sense of humor, I was somewhat expecting it to be like how it's presented in Jashin-Chan but much to my surprise, the real Patra-chan manga is actually devoid of Yukio's usual debauchery and actually is a basically kid friendly spin on his usual set-up of "Supernatural being gets stranded on earth".

Patra-chan is a space alien version of Cleopatra from a planet that culturally is more or less on the level of Ancient Egypt. She decides she's going to take over earth as her summer vacation project for school, quickly gets distracted by earthly amusements and loses both her powers and her ability to get back to her home planet, so she ends up making the most of it living with two sisters and their mom who take her under their wing. Finally seeing the actual backstory of this character makes Lierre's obsession with it in Jashin-Chan a lot funnier too, since Lierre (who is basically god) has a similar setup of coming to Earth to decide if humanity deserves a second flood, only to get distracted by childish things. I'd have to look exactly when this series started vs. when Lierre's first appearance is, but in some ways Patra feels a bit like a dry-run for Lierre.

While it the descriptions might make it sound very similar to a lot of what happens in Yukio's other manga, it's the execution that makes it feel like a fresh spin on his common topics and themes. The supernatural being getting stranded is usually played for comedy in Jashin-Chan, but here the stress and loneliness Patra Patra feels from being stranded are actually played for their emotional weight which brings a lot of heart. Even though she wants to take over the world, it's pretty clear she's basically a child in way over her head and while she does cause problems at times, she is grateful to her found family and tries to make it through Earth life as best she can.

The language is definitely a few notches easier than Jashin-chan or God-Chans and I feel like I am finally hitting that zone of "if you read a lot of an author's works they become easier" since a lot of words and phrases that Yukio specifically uses more than some other authors, like 猛烈 and だって are finally really clicking for me. It was fun to actually crank out a chapter or two with no or near to no lookups so this was perfect for my level and a lot of fun in general. I think Yukio is kind of just becoming my guy since I've really clicked with everything of his I've read and this had all the charms that I usually enjoy from his work.