On safari in Australia, a wealthy traveler meets a talking wallaby who loves Japan and never thought he'd get a chance to visit. It turns out this traveler is also the principal of a private school in Japan, and before the little wallaby knows it, he's been whisked away to the land of the rising sun and plunked in front of a class full of students as a substitute teacher! Mr. Wallaby will need all the courage in his footlong frame to take responsibility for all these kids—and they may just find his cuteness too distracting to learn anything, too!

Say Hello to Mr. Wallaby! has story and art by Marume Goshika. English translation is done by Matt Treyvaud and lettering by Arbash Mughal. Published by Kodansha Comics (September 8, 2026). Rated 10+.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

In all sincerity, Say Hello to Mr. Wallaby! only has one weakness. It is in every way exactly what it seems—a ridiculously cute sit-com about a talking quokka from Australia who becomes a teacher in Japan.

On an Australia outback holiday, Principal Shibasaki meets a talking quokka named Taro Wallaby. It is love at first sight for Principal Shibasaki, who also happens to need a replacement homeroom teacher. Mr. Wallaby has always admired Japan—and since he's Australian, he speaks English, so Mr. Wallaby is born.

The comedy here is exactly as you might imagine. Mr. Wallaby is fat, round and furry, he falls asleep often and eats constantly. His especial favorites are warabi dango and ketchup. The kids in the class adore him instantly in his little suit jacket. Mr. Wallaby is a walking, talking gag-making machine since he is, I will remind you, a quokka.

Once these key elements are established, the school year proceeds as normal, with summer fun, and a quokka in a kimono watching fireworks, eating dango at the food stands, and the culture festival—where the class, unable to say no to Mr. Wallaby's love of dango creates a frankenfood, special for him. Culture festival, New Years', etc., etc. A visit to a hot spring, so Mr. Wallaby can be scolded by a monkey for running and other endearing scenes.

It's all very silly and charming. There's no “but” in that sentence. The story and art are full of little chuckles and soft “awwws” as Mr. Wallaby is about the same level of tension as Winnie The Pooh: Commentary on everyday life, cute mammals wearing human clothing, eating food that probably would kill them in that quantity. And that's the story. Your questions about Mr. Wallaby will not be answered, unless one of those questions is how to spell Taro Wallaby in Japanese. If your questions had ore to do with how a quokka speaks or reads…forget it. Please look at this darling picture of a quokka in clothes snuggled up for a nap in the middle of … something. Piles of sports balls perhaps. Awww.

By now you may be aware of the one problem in this manga. Mr. Wallaby is, not, in fact, a wallaby, he is a quokka. Why does he call himself Wallaby? I do not know, nor will you by the end of this volume, but I suspect it is merely for the sake of the pun about one of his favorite foods. In any case, this is an adorable, silly manga that was fun to read.