You and Me
Back in the prehistory of the '80s, I was taking Japanese classes and attempting to translate Kimagure Orange Road, Maison Ikkoku, and... You and Me. It was (and is) a gag comedy with a strong sense of story and real heart, and it lampoons everything - absolutely everything. Nobody can pull a comic switch on you faster than Hiroshi Aro (Futaba-kun Change!), and You and Me is where he does it the best.
Studio Ironcat's English adaptation is both faithful and too faithful to the Japanese. It seems hampered by fan expectations: fans don't want a pun in English, they want the original joke explained. And because of that, some of the hilarity and inventiveness of You and Me will be lost on the English-reading manga fans. My other quibble with Studio Ironcat's presentation is that Hiroshi Aro's name is never mentioned anywhere except the fine print of the copyright notice. Hopefully later issues will fix this.
However, the heart of You and Me is in Hiroshi Aro's characterizations, and that's where the faithfulness of Studio Ironcat's adaptation shines. Yuu is the mild-mannered main character, Mii is an energetic, somewhat shameless ghost, Ai is the classic shonen-romance heroine - who also has super-strength, Maiko is the pea-brain cutie with a secret, and the other tenants of the Yaninariso boarding house are farther off-the-wall than even Maison Ikkoku can boast. The characters are what will keep you coming back, and it's those characters that make You and Me a manga classic.
Bill Flannagan