Comics / Manga

Crayon Shinchan: Volume 1

By Leroy Douresseaux
March 6, 2008 - 19:29

Sometimes a cartoonist hits the right note with a particular work, and suddenly that creation seems like the thing he was born to do.  Manga-ka Yoshito Usui seems to have found perfection with his uproarious manga series, Crayon Shinchan.

Neither shojo (girls’ comics) or shonen (boys’ comics), Crayon Shinchan, Vol. 1 follows the hellish comic antics of 5-year-old Shinnosuke Nohara, better known as Shinchan.  A master of the inappropriate comment (refers to his mother’s pubic hair as a beard), he has his home under siege, tormenting his poor stay-at-home mother, Mitzi, and leaving his browbeaten father, Hiro, at the bottom of the rung at home the way he is at work.

Rude and crude, Shinchan is obsessed with body parts, which leads him to expose his private parts, and also with bodily functions, which he manifests by peeing in public when he’s not announcing out loud the need to “poo.”  His outbursts and insults, his feigned ignorance, and his disingenuous kindergarten innocence leave no one safe, especially his mother, as she learns in the multi-chapter “Mom and I are Best Friends.”

I’m not familiar with the anime which is based upon the Crayon Shinchan manga, but this first volume is the funniest manga I’ve ever read, by far, and certainly one of the funniest comics I’ve ever read.  Shinchan is a mixture of Stewie Griffin (from the FOX animated series, “Family Guy”), Bart Simpson (“The Simpsons), Dennis the Menace, with a spicy touch of Hot Stuff, the Little Devil Boy.  He’d fit right in with the “South Park” children, who would find him hilarious and scary.  The stars of the early 90’s animated flick (and creation of the late comedian Robin Harris), Bebe’s Kids would run from him.

Lethally sharp, treacherously edgy, and terrifyingly funny, Crayon Shinchan is a must-have for those who want a funny comic book.  DC/CMX has said that they will publish this series in all its original “uncensored glory, which means that they find it so funny that it would be a sin to publish it any other way.

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Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12