Botchan

A headstrong Tokyoite takes a post teaching mathematics at a middle school in Shikoku. Redshirt, Clown, Porcupine, Hubbard Squash: he hands out nicknames, and then collides with every one of them, telling the whole thing himself at speed.

Because it is all in one voice from beginning to end, it suits narration unusually well. Lines that run away with you on the page turn comic when they are spoken. Watching that cast of nicknames line up in bubbles is its own pleasure.