4 koma manga, which are 4 paneled comics are now slowly turning heads of many manga readers, with the success of titles like K-ON!, Lucky Star and Hetalia all being adapted to anime.
The premise of these successful 4 koma are pretty simple: cute people doing cute things, topped with lots of geekiness and fanservice. The story is admittedly not all that stellar, but the very simple plot is its strength because the plot is easy to digest and its easy for casual readers to get into. Lucky Star is a perfect example of this.
Could the 4 koma be the future of manga?
Kuro's anime ramble blog 
As much as I love my manga and the 4-koma concept (Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh and so on), I still really prefer the more traditional format. I don’t even want to imagine my favorite shounen battle manga in that format. Though I wonder if that wouldn’t help Bleach. X^P
Traditional format of manga is still very much in, thanks to the Shonen Trinity (One Piece, Naruto, Bleach), though I often wonder what’s next for the traditional format once the trinity is over.
I actually was thinking about writing an entry about 4-koma manga and its appeal. I mean: a lot of these series have gone on to make it big, ESPECIALLY K-On!
If you think about it, I wonder why “4” panels exactly. The number “4” means misfortune to the Japanese.
You just reminded me that the Japanese hated going out on groups on 4 because 4 is unlucky. I’m not also sure why its 4 panels either. Maybe the rise of 4 koma manga means that the Japanese have already moved on from their superstitious belief regarding the number 4.