Graphic Novel Review: Gudetama: Love for the Lazy by Wook Jin Clark is a Must-Read for Valentine's Day

One Egg's Lazy Love Advice

By Ghia Vitale

Gudetama, the famous Sanrio character/lazy egg, is back in book form to help you with dating and relationships! Gudetama: Love for the Lazy by Wook Jin Clark had me howling with laughter within the first few pages. Reading this graphic novel is the perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day or Galentine’s Day.

If you haven’t met Gudetama, you’re missing out. Gudetama is a cute Sanrio character who makes apathy look more adorable than ever. The name “Gudetama” is a mixture of the Japanese phrase “gude gude” which means lazy and “tama,” a Japanese word for egg, ultimately translating to “lazy egg” in English. According to the Gudetama Wikipedia page, because this character is an anthropomorphized unfertilized egg, it doesn’t have a gender. Its body is an egg yolk that flops around on an egg white, often exposing its butt in the process. It frequently cradles itself in a broken piece of eggshell and sleeps underneath a strip of bacon. Clearly, this is the kind of egg you should turn to for love advice! The official Sanrio website has an “Ask Me Anything” section for Gudetama that answers yes or no questions, but why stop there?

Fortunately, Oni Press and Sanrio collaborated to publish Gudetama: Love for the Lazy and satisfy the world’s demand for lazy love advice that's provided by a true eggxpert. After all, Gudetama is the most chill egg in eggxistence. In our fast-paced world, we could all stand to learn something from it. Wook Jin Clark truly did the world a solid favor by writing and illustrating this graphic novel.just in time for Valentine’s Day!

Much like season 2 of Aggretsuko, this graphic novel focuses on relationships. Throughout this book, Gudetama helps human characters solve their love and relationship problems. The characters eagerly approach our chillaxing egg for advice that deals with navigating everything from dating apps to getting dumped and ghosted. Gudetama is still its usual lazy self in the face of their anxious energy, but its lazy perspective allows it to give creative love advice you’ve never heard elsewhere. Its laziness either helps or hinders the advice it gives⁠—Sometimes, its love advice is spot-on while at other times, it completely misses the mark. Nonetheless, the comics are exceptionally entertaining from start to finish.

I found this graphic novel to be especially pleasing to the eye. I attribute this aesthetic appeal to Clark’s fantastic art skills as well as how the panels are organized. I appreciate how the panels are arranged in a way helps the reading process flow better. Furthermore, I appreciated how this book exposed me to a side of Gudetama I wasn’t aware of prior to reading it. This graphic novel has an original concept and shows how Gudetama’s personality translates into how it gives love advice.

Another thing I appreciate about this graphic novel is how it’s more inclusive than a lot of other books are. Not only are there some queer relationships, but I even read a character as non-binary. Another character used the pronoun “they” while describing a love interest. Queer representation in a Sanrio context is exactly what the world needs more of!

Overall, I highly recommend reading this graphic novel, especially if you’re a fan of Gudetama, Sanrio, or even just kawaii vibes in general.

Why stop at getting chocolates for your valentine? Make this Galentine’s Day or Valentine’s Day special by ordering Gudetama: Love for the Lazy through Amazon. If you buy it through the aforementioned affiliate link or the one below, Quail Bell Magazine will get a portion of the profit. That means you’ll make your loved one’s heart gush like egg yolk while supporting creatives all at once! Better yet, treat yourself to the graphic novel. You deserve it. <3

Have a happy Valentine’s Day and a joyous Galentine's Day!