This manga is simply difficult not to love. Its joy is infectious. The stunning art work will instantly transport you back to your childhood, everything being grand and intriguing. A bright summer day being exiting every time it happens. The manga never tries to convince you that childhood is actually that happy, it is simply that Yotsuba perceives her pretty average life with the joy that only a young child could posses.
To reiterate, the artwork is some of the best you'll seen in manga. And I do not mean that its filled with detailed spreads or whatever. Every panel is drawn with love. And the panelling is key here. The type of comedy that this series relies on is very coy and visual, therefore getting the pacing between panels right makes the manga. You have likely seen an out of context page of Yotsuba doing something silly. If any of those reposts made you giggle or even painted a smile across your face, you will simply love the actual manga.
Yotsuba herself is a very interesting character. She is a depiction of a child, and anyone who has had to take care of children would probably say that Yotsuba is the idealised version of what its like to have a kid. But this isn't to say that she is unrealistic or that this is simply a wish fulfilment manga for women without kids (points at myself), but this wouldn't really be accurate. I would compare it more so to taking care of your nephew or niece. You do not have to struggle with the everyday issues of raising a child, you just get to play with them for a bit before the fall asleep in the middle of the garden once they run out of energy. And Yotsuba herself isn't always a perfect child. She gets lost, throws tantrums about something silly, has an irrational hatred for a random friend of her dad. But through the virtue of not having to actually deal with it, the manga still retains the light mood and humour. The manga is episodic, but there is continuity and progression of time.
You really get to feel like you're watching a real person grow. Simple things like learning to ride a bike or entering school for the first time become events that make me cry. It is a little silly to admit that I did genuinely cry at points. There is a subtle undercurrent of melancholy running through the series. Yotsuba is being raised by a single father. An incredibly attractive, hardworking, responsible, dreamy, funny… sorry… got a little distracted. She does not have women in her life at first, but her new neighbours quickly fill in the role of older sisters and a mom for her. As the series goes on you can really tell that she beings to consider the neighbouring family as her a part of her own. Her seeing the neighbouring woman as a mother figure is one of the things that brought me to tears. The woman already has three daughters, so it makes sense why she would have such skill in handling Yotsuba and helping out her father when he is busy with work. There is a type of blurring of the lines of what constitutes as a family. I remember when I was a kid both of my parents having to work a lot, and their friends helping to raise me. I didn't hesitate to call them aunties, but that's also decently normal where I am from, but nevertheless I saw them as my family. Everyone in this manga plays an important role in the childhood development of Yotsuba, actin as her friends, mentors, role-models, and teachers. It is simply impossible that you won't feel like your heart is expanding when you read this manga. A perfect slice-of-life.