'The Fox & Little Tanuki, Volume Two' with story and art by Mi Tagawa, is the second manga edition in the series about a fox charged with training a tiny tanuki spirit.

Manpachi, the tanuki, has gone missing, thanks to trickery by a deceptive badger named Momoji. Manpachi is deceived to think that his birth family who rejected him at birth, wants him back. Senzhou is stuck trying to find him, which doesn’t please the fox at all.

The story was still good this time and a little less confusing when the character/transformations happened. I continue to like the art,

*I received an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

This series continues to be really cute and lovely. Adorable artwork and characters. It is difficult not to fall in love with the characters. I swear I had a smile on my face the entire time I was reading.

This continues to be a great series. The art is very good. The characters are great. I love the interactions between them and how they grow. I look forward to seeing more.

I'm just gonna start with this: what's with the super abrupt cliffhangers?!? I mean, I know there will be a cliffhanger, I'm not naive, but dang!
Every thing is still filled with warm fuzzy moments, this time mixed with some foreboding, ominous feels more than teary-eyed feels. There are some funny moments too- omg, could Tachibana be any more adorable? Could Senzou's crotchety-old-man-who's-secretly-a-big-softy routine be any more endearing? The tone is definitely getting darker, though- something's up in Bakemonoland, and it's carrying over into the human world. The author teases out the story well, creating suspense while giving us some fun asides as well. I'm enjoying getting to know the various characters better, and the little comic bits at the end were super cute. Imma say it again, though- these cliffhangers are crazy! It's like a door slammed in your face! Where's the third volume, I need to know who that was dagnabbit!

#TheFoxtheLittleTanukiVolume2 #NetGalley

<i>A huge thank you to NetGalley and Edelweiss for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!</i>

I just can't get enough of this series, and the wait for volume 2 already killed me. Who knows what the wait for volume 3 will do to me???

This series captured my heart in no time and it continues to hold it close throughout this second volume. We learn a bit more about Senzou and about Manpachi's powers, we meet more characters (who make me wonder what is coming; surely they're introduced for a reason???), and Tachibana is the adorable as always.

As is Manpachi of course. I just want to protect him from all harm. Senzou, too, but I'm sure he won't appreciate me trying.

Once again, the only reason this isn't 5 stars is because of the fact that some panels are so hard for me to make out; I have no clue what is happening in them, and it's so frustrating it keeps pulling me out of the story. Luckily it's only a few panels, but it still has its impact on my enjoyment. Also the new storylines were a bit much and therefore confusing, so I am really hoping they will pay off in the long run!

Definitely still recommend this series 100%!

Beautiful artwork, a fun story and good next edition in the franchise. Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for giving me this one!

Earlier this spring, I read Vol 1 in this series about a curmudgeonly black fox spirit who must mind and train an absolutely adorable little tanuki in order to get his powers back. The curmudgeon character is popular right in fiction now and Senzou is as cantankerous as you can get. The only thing keeping him on his assigned job is the necklace placed on him which lights him up like a shock collar whenever he tries to leave. Manpatchi the tanuki is a pawful to look after and as Vol 1 ended (on a definite cliffhanger), he looked to be getting himself into another mess. I was interested in reading Vol 2 as the first one ended so abruptly.

The book is read from front to back but the panels are arranged to read from right to left. There is a sample page at the end of the book (to warn seasoned manga readers) with directions and example panels (for manga newbies) to explain this. The action in Vol 2 picks up where the first volume stopped.

Once again I love the artwork for these volumes. But I was totally lost in long sections of the story as to what the heck was going on. For me, in this volume it was much more difficult at times to figure out who was speaking. And even though I still want to pluck the little tanuki up and snuggle him, the “feel” of the story seemed much darker. The ending isn’t quite as abrupt but I’m not sure I will continue reading this series. C

I read the Fox & the Little Tanuki Vol. 1 some time ago and I didn’t remember too much from it, except that I liked it and thought it was very cute. I was looking forward to reading it, but in the beginning I was a little bit overwhelmed by the story. The first volume ended on a cliff hanger (some might say the book just stopped at a certain moment) and the second volumes just picks up the story exactly where we left it. Since details were a bit fuzzy, this was a little confusing.

However, once I had sorted these things out it was once again really cute. The Fox and the Tanuki are very cute together and the drawings are nice as well. The story seemed to be getting darker over time, but once again, I will need the next volume to get some sort of closure.

Nevertheless looking forward to it!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

<i>arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review</i>

This series is just so much and so adorable to read. I love the bond that is growing between Senzou and Manpachi. It’s super interesting to see a big bad villain slowly start to change his ways and learn how to not be so evil anymore, especially because he’s tasked to help out this super powerful kid. Manpachi is literally the cutest, purest little character!

All of the shapeshifting was hilarious and entertaining. I’m excited to see where the next volume goes after that cliffhanger of an ending!

4/5 🌟

ARC Copy...felt very much I came late to the party and so was abit lost in terms of plot but I found the protagonist especially the tanuki to cute and funny.

The Fox & the Little Tanuki series is amazing! In this second volume Senzou has to go save Manpachi (once again) and Manpachi learns to turn into a human. Of course at the same time Senzou turns into a one too and this opens up interesting possibilities for the future. Mostly the manga deepens the relationship of the characters, gives them more persona and presents new characters. There's also a cliffhanger at the end, haha. This is such a heartwarming series and funny and profound. Manpachi is slightly annoying, but it doesn't bother me all that much, which is actually a miracle! The characters are well built and very humane and the whole bakemono thing works so wonderfully fine. This is truly one of the best animal series out there and I hope many people will read this.

The art is wonderful and so cute, but still quite realistic. So, no chibi stuff. Tagawa knows how to draw and makes animals have facial expressions, which is hard in itself. I'm not a fan of animal series and I love this! This isn't a series for kids though, but for adults really. I hope this finds its readers, since wow!

This is a quick read with five star art! If your favorite tropes include “the grouchy one is soft for the sunshine one,” then you are in luck with this one.

The plotting is kind of all over the place, but the visuals do a lot of the heavy lifting to make up for it. (For example, one panel features Manpachi while transformed as a human, and showcases the world’s most adorable paw prints on the soles of his sneakers)

There are a few individual scenes that make this volume worth the read all on their own—for me it was Hagiri and his cat skull—but at times the pacing and wording come across as stilted, especially in the first handful of pages. Though to be fair, that may simply be a fault of the translation more than anything else.

The end of the volume features a selection of one off comics featuring the characters, many of which are delightful.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this ebook!

Recommended: yes!!
For more heartwarming moments, for a volume looking at some of the other characters in depth, for an interesting addition in the world we see them all in

Thoughts:
Well, the cliffhanger from Volume 1 is no longer hanging over my head, thank goodness! I was so excited to come back to this story in Volume 2. As ever, the art perfectly complements the story style, in how it's able to carry so many different kinds of meaning effortlessly. Everything from the funny moments, to the painful moments, to the crying-because-it's-beautiful moments: the art style is adaptable to all of them.

And yes, no worries: this volume is just as hilarious and cute as the previous, despite it's darker tones as well. What I loved most about this one was being able to learn more about the characters besides the Senzou and Manpachi. Though we do still have stories with them, we also get to see more about some of the wolves and even about our frenemy the badger. Personally I loved this, in part because the relationship between the wolves are so delightful in their contrasting personality that it was enlightening to see how they each got that way.

We also get to see them in their human forms a bit more, which was a shocker but also a fantastic addition. Their interactions in the human world were still perfectly in character and added a twist element to the plot moving forward. I expect we'll see a bit more of this weaving between worlds in future volumes as well.

One extra bonus at the end that I loved was the inclusion of some short one-off comics with the characters that were translated into English. Some of these comics have been posted on the author's social media pages in Japanese, so here I finally got the English versions! And let me tell you, they did not disappoint. It's always hard to end one of these volumes because I adore the characters so much and want to see more, so it made it a little easier to accept. 😁 Can't wait for the next volume!

Thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

After finishing the first volume, I quickly came to the conclusion that this is now one of my favourite manga series and that Mi Tagawa is an author that I plan to follow. And after finishing the second volume in this series, my feelings remain the same.

This volume continues Senzou’s task: raise Manpachi, a young tanuki (or bakedanuki), to become a servant of the gods. In this volume, however, Senzou’s past and emotions are further fleshed out and he becomes even more relatable and likeable despite his cold and distant personality. This volume adds a variety of new gods/goddesses and bakemono to the story, and successfully brings out character and charm in each of them. The plot is moved forward by the various missions that the gods give to Senzou and Manpachi and their interactions with the various beings they meet along the way.

Again, the trope of pairing a softie/sweetheart/optimistic type with a grumpy/pessimist/baddie type is done <i>so<i> perfectly here. In this volume I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Tachibana and Mikumo—too cute! As mentioned in my review of Volume 1, the artwork is visually stunning and the characters are really brought to life throughout. In this volume, the majority of the characters were shown in their human form, which was executed perfectly and was so adorable. I can’t wait for the next volume!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tokyopop for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I appreciated the action and intrigue, as well as the engaging story in this graphic novel. Ideal for middle grades readers.

A super cute and funny story! I absolutely adored it. It was hilarious and so sweet. I can't wait to read the next book! The art style is also amazing!