からめる

Just as fantastic as I expected

For those of you who don't know, からめる is a Twitter + YouTube animator who does absurd slapstick comedy often featuring a white cat-like creature and friends. This manga is, well, an original manga by からめる.

So here's the thing. Entertainment-wise, the unfortunate reality is that while the art itself is excellent and does a great job at conveying the humor, some of the actual punch lines require Japanese cultural knowledge to understand, not just language skills (e.g. 通勤快速、次は津田沼). It is also worth mentioning that this manga is actually text-heavy compared to the animations (where voice acting is often not present at all), though still not that difficult.

My recommendation is to first check out the creator's YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@purinharumaki_karameru) or Twitter/X (https://x.com/purinharumaki) - if you like what you see and enjoy the type of unpredictable comedy that からめる is known for, just buy this book regardless of your Japanese ability - it is just as fun as you'd expect it to be.

With regards to the type of language, this is not particularly text-heavy and most of the language is fairly simple, but when the kanji do appear, it is not limited to Joyo Kanji. But the amount is fairly small, so you can easily enjoy the manga without needing a dictionary.