Books featuring beloved characters are always popular, and surely this will be no exception. Animal Crossing is popular amongst all ages, so this will surely be a pick for parents and kids.

Absolutely charming little vignettes of all of my favourite Animal Crossing characters! Fun read for all ages with fab illustrations.

Sadly this did not interest me. I have been playing Animal Crossing with my daughter and was hoping to enjoy this graphic novel. Maybe a kid will find something about it that I missed.

A cute entry into the 'video games to manga' trend; a fun series of vignettes which showcase the different villagers and characters in the game. Do wish that the protagonist wasn't male.

This title is good for fans of the Animal Crossing game series and for young manga fans. The humor is fun and the character bios add to the experience. Some jokes may need explaining to younger readers however.

Let’s get one thing clear: I think this manga is great for younger audiences that can’t get enough Animal Crossing. The team of four human villagers is a fun way to frame the stories, and there’s lots of family-friendly antics. That said, there isn’t much substance for those looking for a deeper Animal Crossing manga.

Like the previous volume, Deserted Island Diary chronicles the adventures of four human characters. You have hot-blooded Coroyuki, the academic and not-at-all street smart BenBen, the lavishly pampered Himepoyo, and the chronically sleepy Guchan. These four wreak havoc on Tom Nook’s plans to create an idyllic island, and a bunch of zany hijinks follow afterwards.

The manga also includes other NPCs from the game, including fan-favorites like Raymond and Dom. The problem is that other than the event characters (like CJ or Redd), the animal villagers are underutilized. It doesn’t help that the episodic structure makes scenarios feel shallow as well. The art style is still a treat, but for anyone not a kid, it’s a chore to read.

In the second volume of this series, the cute antics of the characters continue as readers are introduced to even more of the world of New Horizons. Loved this as an Animal Crossing player. I think new players would really benefit from reading this as they all of the story shorts in some way tie into an activity possible to complete in the game! Rated all ages, this manga is best suited for a younger audience--some teens may find this too simplistic.

Thank you, VIZ, for this copy to review. :)

Animal Crossing New Horizons Deserted Island Diary Volume Two continues to adapt the videogame into a manga featuring some of the iconic characters.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Deserted Island Diary Volume Two
Written by: KOKONASU RUMBA
Publisher: Shogakukan
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: March 8, 2022

This volume of the manga continues to introduce the reader to characters that are found in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons videogame. In the first chapter, we are introduced to CJ, a beaver who is a fish collector. He claims to be a fisherman, but he expects others to catch the fish for him while CJ focuses on his social media. In the manga, CJ is introduced when he’s captured by a ribbon eel as he’s trying to take a picture of it. Before he arrives, though, we see the human characters pulling weeds in order to make money, but it’s obvious that they’re bored after a while. CJ’s arrival shakes things up a little bit, but the kids really don’t get the concept of fishing. For what was previously established in the first volume of the series, what happens here works, although CJ becomes the “butt” of a joke at the very end. But considering his attitude during this chapter, perhaps he kind of deserved it. But my favorite part of the chapter was seeing it incorporate the weeding that needs to be done on the island and the fact that players can make money by selling weeds to Timmy and Tommy at Nook’s Cranny.

The character that is introduced in the next chapter is Pascal, a red sea otter who is philosophical and likes scallops. The entire chapter focuses on Pascal sharing his “wisdom” with his sayings. The human kids try to come up with their own sayings, but they really aren’t that good. Unfortunately, Pascal is one of the characters that I have never interacted with when I play Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so I didn’t have the same kind of recognition that I do for the other characters from the game that have appeared up to this point. Between the lack of recognition and the concept of the chapter, I personally found this one to be kind of boring.

The next chapter brings Isabelle onto the island, and her first job is to inform the islanders that their island has a rating of minus five stars. But when you see the condition of the island, it’s easy to see how it got that rating… although, in the actual game, you can’t get lower than a one-star rating. Tom Nook encourages the kids to clean up the island and to find out what the visitors want in order to increase the island’s rating. The kids talk to a couple of the islanders but misinterpret what it is that they want. But even with these mishaps, the kids still manage to eke out a decent rating for the island. I don’t know, though… after reading this chapter, I can’t see how they managed to get the rating that they did. In the actual game, I had to do a lot more for my island to get that particular rating. I know the manga is supposed to be exaggerated, but as a player of the game, I found this exaggeration a little hard to accept.

Daisy Mae, the turnip seller, makes her appearance in the next chapter. For those not familiar with the game, buying and selling turnips is equivalent to playing the stock market in the real world. One of the kids makes a lot of money off of their turnips, but in the end, their ignorance on how the turnip trade works causes them financial hardships. While I applaud the fact that the manga incorporated this element from the game, I found that I didn’t care much for how the story was depicted in the manga.

Redd the fox is the next character to make an appearance. In the game, he’s notorious for trying to sell fake versions of famous artwork to residents of the island. This is certainly emphasized here, and the fact that the human kids aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed works in his favor. Although in this telling, he recruits one of the kids to join in on his scheme by creating some of the fake paintings.

The next chapter introduces a character that’s exclusive to the manga, because I don’t recognize him from the game. A prince named Ribbitine XIII, from Ribbitine Island, has come for a vacation. Unfortunately, he knows nothing about camping or “roughing it,” so Tom Nook has to help him out. Overall, I didn’t really care much for this chapter, because I didn’t like the prince. He was especially annoying when he was trying to protect one of the characters from the scorpions.

There’s also a Halloween chapter that introduces Jack Pumpkin, as well as the Halloween event in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons game. The best thing about this chapter, though, is seeing the return of Lucky, and the twist that happens at the end of the chapter because of him.

When it comes to the actual manga itself, I have to say that I realized after reading this volume that the character of Guchan (the kid that’s always sleeping and spells words out with his snot bubbles) really isn’t necessary. He hardly does anything and is just kind of “there.” To be honest, I think the series would be a slight bit stronger without him in it. The panels he appears in basically feel like a waste of space.

There’s a bonus diary that showcases some of the new characters that were introduced in this volume. There is also another “RUMBA’s ACNH Game Diary,” and this has the author sharing a story about an experience she had in a game with doing bamboo DIY projects. I honestly thought it was kind of “meh.”

Animal Crossing New Horizons Deserted Island Diary is definitely being aimed at a child audience, so it can make it a little harder for older readers to get into the series. I understand that the child characters are included so the kids can have human characters they can relate to, but I think I would have preferred a manga that either focused on storylines that just involved the animal characters or had limited the number of human characters that are introduced. I can only truly recommend this manga to young readers or to fans of the Animal Crossing videogame franchise that want to consume all the media associated with it.

very nice addition! a relaxing, light read. just what i would expect from animal crossing. plain at times, but i still enjoyed it. it would be nice if we could get some new content in nintendo's game though.

Such a cute and fun sequel! Loved the first volume of this manga so was really happy when I got sent the second to read and review.
This series is perfect for anyone who cannot get enough of the animal crossing world.
Animal crossing meets manga, what more could you ask for?

Animal Crossing is not my game of choice. This manga gives short stories with all the main characters from the video game. While I liked some of the chapters, I did not find much to connect the stories. I did like the one about art and the sketchy art dealers.

I did feel a little out of place by not knowing all the characters well nor the background of the world.

The humor was on a kids' level and I feel like the younger generation would connect to this manga better than I did. Since the game is all the rage, I think Vol. 1 maybe a contender for my middle school manga madness collection.

Kokonasu Rumba's Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Vol 2 is an enjoyable light read, perfect for fans of the video game series. The humor is simple and fun, and the expressive cartooning makes it a nice reading experience. I picked up the first volume, and I'm excited to recommend this second volume to friends as well.

Story and Art: Kokonasu Rumba
Translation and Adaptation: Caleb Cook
Touch-Up Art and Lettering: Sara Linsley
Design: Shawn Carrico
Editor: Nancy Thistlethwaite

As an Animal Crossing fan, I was excited to see a manga based on it. I love it! The stories are so cute and I love the art. The facial expressions are a meme farm. If you're a fan of Animal Crossing, you'll love this manga.

This was an odd book. There’s no plot. It’s just a bunch of happenings in an odd town. A lot of the comic boxes are also out of order, which makes it so you have to reread certain parts. Also, has no color.

This is a cute little series based off of the newest Animal Crossing game. I liked how all the humans on the island reflected potential different play styles in the game. The chapters with special characters also provided fun little hints for the game, too! Good for younger readers or fans in general!

A cute continuation of the series. It was great seeing the addition of more familiar faces from the game. A great read for younger audiences and fans of the series alike.

A great story for lovers of animal crossing! There are bits on info that lovers of the game will find funny and useful.

Funny, wacky, zany. It has all the charm of the video game. I think this is a great example of manga/graphic novels for children. Clean humor and a relevant, timely topic