Series page has a sync date in 2024, so I must have just failed to find it in the search (probably I searched for “Collectors” rather than コレクターズ, since that’s the bigger title on the cover).
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I’m fairly sure I have added it in 2024
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I just remembered that there’s a single standalone two page Collectors manga in the middle of that ユリイカ magazine, by the way, so you already own a sample…
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I bucked the trend btw - 4, 4, 3. But to be fair I did consider 4, 3, 2 as well. Could honestly have stopped after vol 2, and not missed anything of significance.
On the bright side, it was an easy and relaxing 4-koma with pretty good humor most of the time
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I don’t dislike them, but generally prefer other formats more. I think mostly because they’re too short for me to really get into the story. If I like the scenario, I want to read more than a single strip about it. I enjoy them more if it’s multiple connected strips.
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There’s a lot of 4-koma stuff that doesn’t stick to the 1 strip thing. NEW GAME! | L25 or ぼっち・ざ・ろっく! | L30 for example will keep the scene going over multiple pages, without a break (unlike the one I just finished that kept the scene going over multiple pages, but also stuck to the 1 strip beats)
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I’m also a little confused by this. Nearly every 4-koma I’ve read has multiple connected strips. The ones I’ve read are primarily 8 pages / 15 strips per chapter that tell a continuous story. It is true that often a single strip will act as setup through to punchline for a joke, but it’s usually still to further the story for that chapter.
ご注文はうさぎですか? | L24 (my favorite 4-koma manga) has chapter stories as well as a long term story that shows the characters growing and getting older throughout the series.
紡ぐ乙女と大正の月 | L29 and こみっくがーるず | L24 are two more with prominent long term stories, beyond the ones that @暁のルナ already mentioned.
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This i think is the closest thing to my complaint (if you can call it that) about 4 koma. I feel like the layout feels more like a comic strip/webcomic than a manga. There are webcomics that have great stories and all of that, but they do have the same beats (bc they’re stuck in the 4 panels).
Also, they tend to be hard, lol
But according to this thread there are a lot of anime that I like that came from 4 koma manga so I imagine there are more in my future than I had expected. 
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You’re not wrong. I describe them as classic comic strips to people outside the Japanese learning community. As I said above, most do have overarching stories like any other manga (at the chapter level, if not the series level), but at the page level they are basically comic strips.
There is that. My second manga was ご注文はうさぎですか because it was one of my favorite anime and reading it was like bashing my head against the wall. Once you learn enough kanji and get used to the format, they’re not nearly as difficult, but that can take a while. (In my case, between volume 2 and 3 of ご注文はうさぎですか I read 2 kids books and 15+ other manga volumes, and I found volume 3 much easier.)
If you like any cgdct anime, there’s a fairly high chance it’s from a Manga Time Kirara 4-koma manga. 
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I think it’s more that many - the wide ones particularly(?) - tend to follow the this format:
- Ki (起): The first panel forms the basis of the story; it sets the scene.
- Shō (承): The second panel develops upon the foundation of the story laid down in the first panel.
- Ten (転): The third panel is the climax, in which an unforeseen development occurs.
- Ketsu (結): The fourth panel is the conclusion, in which the effects of the third panel are seen.
Which stuff like New Game etc doesn’t strictly stick to. Instead there the scenes flow more like normal manga scenes that just happen to be paneled in 2 columns of 4. Compare to Tomo-chan or シスコンお姉ちゃんと気にしない妹 1 (MFC キューン) | L22 for example
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I think it’s common in the two column manga as well. Here’s one of my favorites which follows that 起承転結 format.
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I clicked on a lot of “something else please explain” in the poll, so here is my explanation!
I guess for me I haven’t divided the manga world into 4 koma vs not 4 koma, so I had a hard time answering the questions, because I have a pretty neutral stance. I wouldn’t specifically seek them out, but if there was something I wanted to read and it was 4 koma, that wouldn’t affect my decision, I would still read it. So I would join a club here if the chosen manga looked like something I would enjoy.
I haven’t read manga very widely. Natively tells me I’ve read 21 manga across 9 series, and 4 volumes of Harta magazine (within each issue, I’m only following about 6-8 series plus one-shots so far).
That said...
So by chance, I’ve only tried two 4-koma manga, both in Harta magazine - and both in the middle of the series. I tried them in the context of taste testing the series in Harta (from the first digital issue ハルタ 2020-JUNE volume 75 | L31), and my strategy was any series that had previously started (before the issue I was reading) that didn’t immediately capture my attention, I skipped (because there are 30+ running series). So perhaps I would have liked those 4-koma manga and understood them if I’d seen them from the start! But in both cases, the art and story didn’t capture my attention, so I just moved on. I have to say - despite understanding all the words in the strips I explored, I didn’t get them at all. But I don’t know if I should put that down to not having the background from previous chapters or if the 4-koma format itself was proving impenetrable.
The two series were: はなやっこ | L24?? and 紙一重りんちゃん | L24?? which haven’t had any readers/reviewers on Natively - so maybe someone’s future favorite 4-koma 
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Oh, はなやっこ was recently recommended to me, but it didn’t quite click from the preview. I was trying to find physical manga to buy and it was out of stock anyway.
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That reminds me of when I started reading コミック百合姫 last year (tho even their longest have less than 30 series). I tried to read (almost) everything at first, to justify buying the physical magazine. Then I’ve I found the ones I like, I had to do a lot of reading to catch up. At this point I only read the ones I really want to though
はなやっこ is on my list as well
I’d guess the former. I know I’ve had trouble even with easy series, if I tried to read from the middle. The preview for はなやっこ seems ok to me though
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Tangentially there’s a 4-koma column in the back of コミック百合姫 that I’ve generally skipped in the past, but decided to read now. Last month’s is describing English 百合界隈 slang terms to JP readers:
- Useless lesbian/disaster lesbian
- gay panic
- handholding
- gals being pals
- kissing cousins
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I don’t like them. I find them difficult to read. Although maybe it’s just that Japanese is difficult. Or because I read digital.
The two main . I’ve read are ひとりぼっちの○○生活 | L21 and NEW GAME! 1 | L25
Hitori Bocchi is excellent and I have nothing negative to say about it.
I liked New Game! in terms of the story and characters. But I remember I found it frustrating because of the format.
I just took a look again at both Hitori Bocchi and New Game! and Hitori Bocchi is much lighter on detail and very focused and lightweight, whereas New Game is very heavy on detail, very full panels with backgrounds, crowds, etc. I think Bocchi works great. But New Game would have been if it weren’t 4-koma.
I’ve also read all of 徒然チルドレン and one volume of 川柳少女 in Japanese. And all of Azumanga Daioh and some swap<=>swap and some 乙女男子に恋する乙女 in translation.
I wanted to continue まちカドまぞく | L35 from the anime. But then there is this one creature who speaks in an archaic form of Japanese, with a warped font, cramped inside a tiny 4-koma panel, with the low resolution that’s sadly standard for official digital manga. And I just don’t hate myself enough to read that.
Anima Yell is also something I wanted to read after watching the anime, but never got around to it.
I also own most of 恋愛ラボ | L28?? but didn’t get around to reading it. I liked the anime. But the combination of it being 4-koma and “having” to read all the stuff I know from the anime when I really want to know how the story continues has put me off.
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So @seanblue when are you starting a book club for まちカドまぞく 3 | L35 ?
Also assuming you wanted to do it specifically for book 3, any idea where that is in the anime?
No pressure of course - I just remember you mentioning it in the Physical Media Thread
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I nominated it over at the WaniKani Advanced Book Club for now. I wouldn’t want that to be the first 4-koma book club here because it’s so difficult and I don’t want to scare people off from the format in general. If it never wins there I’ll probably try it here eventually, starting from volume one.
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I think you’re maybe overthinking it on the scaring ppl off thing - like it’s clearly marked L35, but gotcha. If you want, update us when it comes voting time over there, and I’ll probably vote for it
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It says a lot about me that that woulsnt even be in the top 10 of the worst things I’ve read in the past month.
You read ONE series about Twins and then the Bookwalker 読み放題 recommendations get filled with filth.
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