volume 1 – Anime QandA

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volume One – 20 Question Manga Review

A 20 Question Manga Review for Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, Volume 1

What’s the manga? Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, Volume One.

“Hot Springs” huh? At what point do you just admit that this entire blog is just reviews of harems and cute girls shows? I know you’re being intentionally standoffish but when it comes to manga they cost a lot more than anime so I have to be pretty selective about the ones I buy and so a safe bet for me is my favourite genres, maybe when I get a job I’ll be able to expand my manga horizons but until then it’s all harem and cute girls!

Eh, fair enough I suppose. So what’s this one about? It’s about Kogarashi, a homeless high-school boy and casual ghost-hunter. After rescuing an old couple from a prankster ghost, they let him know of a deal that’s too good to be true, a room at a hot springs for rent only 1000 yen (~$10US) a month! The only catch, it may or may not be haunted.

Of course it is. And the ghost in question? The titular Yuuna (pun intended) is a ghost who’s stuck haunting the hot springs after her death, she’s a happy but clumsy and easily flustered girl who gets Kogarashi into all sorts of awkward predicaments. And speaking of awkward predicaments Kogarashi finds himself torn between his ghost-busting duties—and the reward of free food and rent for life for ‘exorcising’ her—and his growing friendship and attraction to the ghostly girl.

You’ve mentioned the protagonist is a ‘ghost hunter’ or ‘ghost buster’, how does he perform these duties? Well he punches ghosts.

“ONE PUUUUUUUNCH!” oh wait wrong series…

He… punches ghosts? Yes, it’s his chosen method of exorcism, he can punch even the most powerful of undead spirits and down them in one hit. Which is also another reason why he doesn’t immediately exorcise Yuuna on their first meeting, because he doesn’t want to hit a girl.

Some ghost hunter he is if 50% of his exorcism targets he doesn’t even deal with. Well I guess he’s a gentleman, but yeah, probably explains a part of the reason he’s been homeless if he refuses half his exorcism jobs.

So what’s the manga’s plot? The central plot is Yuuna’s “unfinished business” which is the reason her ghost is tethered to this world, she wants to be able to “move on” but can’t until they find out what exactly is the thing keeping her from moving on but that’s going to prove difficult as she doesn’t remember anything from being alive.

I’m guessing you have some ideas though? Well, it’s either going to be that she’s never had a boyfriend or that she’s never had sex. I’m still not sure which though, I guess it depends how ~lewd~ this manga wants to get with the idea.

Uh-huh, speaking of “lewd”, this is a harem manga correct? I can’t help but realise you’ve only mentioned one girl so far though. It’s a harem, in that the other inhabitants of the hot springs inn are all attractive girls/women and there’s the usual kinds of harem shenanigans such as accidentally walking in on the girls in various states of undress, etc. But right now, none of the girls show any interest in Kogarashi. In fact some of them barely tolerate his presence.

And why is that? Because of a particularly embarassing situation early on they’ve all branded him a pervert.

Right… and is he? As far as harem protagonists go, not only is he considerably respectful of women and not much of a pervert at all but he’s actually ~interesting~ which is especially rare—at least for harem protagonists, he’s got back-story and personality and a sense of humour.

I guess it’s hard for something that’s incorporeal to hide convincingly.

And what about the other girls, you kinda glossed over them? Well it’s only because they get hardly any page-time (is that the book equivilent of screen-time?) in this first volume. You get a vague idea about their personality types not to mention their ‘special abilites’ but the majority of the time is spent with Yuuna and Kogarashi.

Wait, what’s these ‘special abilities’ you’re speaking of? You can’t just drop something like that and move on so quickly! Well there’s Chitose the inn’s caretaker who has the power to change people’s fortunes (it’s complicated). Super serious Sagiri, a ninja (tsun). Yaya, a cute and shy girl who’s the earthly vessel of a cat god (meaning cat ears and a tail, of course). And Nonoka, a boisterous alcoholic mangaka who’s also an oni (ogre) and whose oni powers get more powerful the more she drinks.

I see… any other characters I should know about? Well he attends high school, and due to Yuuna’s ghostly interferences ends up making a bad impression on the first day, except with Chisaki, a popular girl who’s having troubles with her soft toy collection being haunted. They form an unlikely friendship which will no doubt progress to some ~stronger~ feelings in future volumes.

So you’ve talked a lot about the manga’s plot and characters but I haven’t really gotten a sense of what you think of the manga? It’s very good, seldom do I find myself immediately attaching to a harem manga like I did here, it’s usually a couple of volumes before I’m really invested in the characters, but Yuuna—as clumsy as she is, has an endearing spirit (no pun intended) and while her amnesia kind of robs her of any tangiable back-story she never lets that get in the way with her interactions with other people. I think the fact we spend so much time with Yuuna and because Yuuna and Kogarashi share a room together means we get a lot more exposure to her (again, no pun intended) than you’d get in a similar manga that would maybe spread the pages of the first volume between a lot of supporting characters early on.

Sagiri is a badass ninja. Actually all the girls are pretty capable at fighting!

They share a room together? That’s very forward thinking… Well the reason Kogarashi’s room is so cheap is because it’s perpetually haunted by Yuuna and despite being a ghost she still needs a place to sleep. Them being so close in proximity allows them to get close to each other in more ways than one.

‘Shenanigans?’ You know it!

So final score and recommendation for Yunna and the Haunted Hot Springs, Volume 1? While this manga is unlikely to change people’s opinions on the harem and ecchi genre I honestly think series shows great promise, at least with regards to its characterisation. It’s fun and light-hearted at times but there’s the overarching mystery of Yuuna’s death and her ‘unfinished business’ as well as Kogarashi’s back-story and his ghost-punching abilitis add much needed variety to the formula. The art is crisply drawn and detailed and the character designs are distinctive enough. Things are getting steamy in this hot springs; 85 out of 100.

Oh and isn’t it going to be adapted into an anime soon too? Yes! July 2018 there’s going to be a Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs anime, I think it’ll make a great series and I’m looking forward to it!

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To LOVE-Ru Darkness Volume One – 20 Question Manga Review

A 20 Question Manga Review for To LOVE-Ru Darkness Volume One.

What’s the manga? To LOVE-Ru Darkness, Volume One.

Uh-huh, and what’s that mean? Stop asking me what titles mean, sometimes things don’t need to mean anything!

It says here on Reddit that the title is a pun? Please, get off Reddit. Also fine yes it’s a pun, it’s “To-Ra-Bu-Ru” which if you’re speaking Japanese kinda sounds like “Trouble” but also sounds like “To Love You”—remember the Japanese have trouble with their L-sounds. Also they like to add extra vowels to English words to fit their alphabet.

‘Kay. So “love”, huh? Is it a romance manga? I mean maybe… if you’re idea of romance is a 3+ person harem involving alien girls who look exactly like normal (anime) girls and who frequently disrobe in front of the protagonist for seemingly no discernible reason.

Oh, so it’s one of those kinds of manga, yeah? I’m not sure quite what you’re insinuating but it is a fan-service heavy harem manga, yes.

*sigh* why are we reviewing this? What’s there to say about this that hasn’t been said a hundred times before in similar reviews of this kind of content? Not exactly reinventing the wheel here! Did I mention this manga is actually a sequel of a series that ran 18 previous volumes and that not only have I read precisely ~zero~ of the previous manga series’ I’d also seen only TWO episodes of the anime adaptation when I read this.

That’s uh… that’s… why did you do that?! That seems just insane?! I can tell you the “why” of the matter later, the more interesting point to me is how I kept up with a plot I’d barely touched upon all these many books later.

I know you’re trying to bait me so fine… GOLLY, HOW ON EARTH DID YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT WAS GOING ON? It’s literally the same as it was in those first two episodes just with added girls and a bit of backstory. There, I saved you from reading 18 volumes or 30+ episode of the anime adaptation of To LOVE-Ru.

Can you be sure though? Oh I’m sure there’s some To LOVE-Ru aficionado out there tearing his hair out at my sacrilegious statements but really I didn’t feel like I missed anything at all by skipping from the very first episodes of the original to the very first pages of this “sequel”.

I suppose it could be argued that a good sequel allows a viewer (or in this case reader) to go in and still follow the story without the need for copious recaps. Yeah, maybe—if this was a 2 hour movie—but an 18 volume manga series? I can’t imagine reading all that and feeling fulfilled by the experience, especially when it seems like so little has changed since the beginning. With the exception of the forging of some relationships of course.

So we’ve just badmouthed the previous series for half the blog without so much as discussing the content itself! What’s it about? Rito is a very ordinary high-school boy who suddenly finds himself as the top candidate to be the King of planet Deviluke (and by extension King of the universe) and with his newly bequeathed position comes a beautiful fiance by the name of Lala, not to mention a bunch of other girls who are keen to win his affections.

Of course it does. So what actually happens in Volume 1 of this sequel series, can we have a fair and balanced review perhaps? Well this volume starts by vaguely recounting the events of the previous chapter, namely that Rito confessed his feelings to his long-time childhood crush Haruna, only to immediately backpedal because he’s an idiot and this series has to keep going.

What happened to ‘fair and balanced’? I never agreed to that. But fine. So basically there’s three main girls in Rito’s life, the aforementioned childhood crush Haruna, his alien fiance Lala and Lala’s little sister Momo. Rito—being a typical male and hormonal teenager can’t decide if he wants to be with Haurna or Lala. But here’s where things get ~interesting~, Momo’s fallen for Rito and fallen hard. So knowing full well she’s third pick at best at being his best girl she decides rather than directly compete with these girls for his sole attention to build a harem around him in the hopes she’ll get just a little bit of Rito’s affection.

That’s… that’s awful! I mean, yeah… if you’re approaching this with the idea that any of this is even supposed to be taken vaguely seriously. But it’s not, it’s a sitcom plot, albeit a sitcom with the nudity cranked up to HBO standards.

I shudder to ask you to elaborate but do elaborate, please. It’s impeccably drawn soft core pornography, so much so that it got the attention of the Japanese government for being too explicit. Though they ultimately decided, while revealing didn’t ~actually~ break any laws…

Right… so this is basically just a girl trying to tempt a guy into having more women in his life so she gets to be a small part of his love life? Well when you put it like that it sounds bad. But it’s really not.

You keep protesting but I’ve yet to see as much as a hint that this series is anything other than pandering to an absurd male fantasy. Rito may be a pretty dull protagonist but he’s still acutely aware of his actions, and he may not understand why he’s suddenly so desirable to so many attractive women but he at least knows not to take advantage of them or treat them wrong.

Why are you defending this guy? Why are you defending this series? I feel like all you do is bring up more and more issues with it only to brush them aside for facile reasons. If the genders were reversed and we were dealing with a kind of air-headed but well-meaning female protagonist surrounded by sexy shirtless men who dote on her unquestioningly we wouldn’t nearly be as critical of the series? Or maybe I’m just speaking now to the female portion of my readers who’ve sat rolling their eyes at my approval of this manga. I’m not going to pretend like this is some high-art or even top-notch quality entertainment, this is soft core pornography with vaguely interesting characters.

A truly ringing endorsement if ever I’ve seen one *rolls eyes* You mock but for some people this is all they need out of their manga.

Ugh. Okay, whatever. “Benefit of the doubt” and all that. So final score and recommendation? Reading To LOVE-Ru Darkness felt like being a high-schooler again and discovering Internet pornography for the first time. No, it’s nowhere near as explicit as all that, but what it is is teenage escapism, it’s (mostly) harmless nonsense. Yes it instills some sense of depth but really it’s just an excuse to look at attractive, willing girls in various states of undress. There’s plenty of harem-centric anime and manga that have a story to tell or characters to develop or allegory to… allegor? But this series seems content to tell a superficial story but tell it well. Throw in some likeable characters, humorous scenarios and sexy shenanigans and what you have is a rollicking good time for anyone willing to submit to its shallow charms.

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Though You May Burn To Ash Volume One – 20 Question Manga Review

A 20 Question Manga Review for Though You May Burn To Ash, Volume 1.

Warning: This review contains graphic violent/gory imagery, reader discretion is advised.

What’s the manga? Though You May Burn To Ash, Volume One.

And what’s it about? D’you ever buy a manga based solely on it’s cover without nary a glance at it’s plot synopsis?

I’ve never even read a manga, let alone bought one… Alright, fine, you ever watch a movie or read a book based on the cover image alone?

Err, I imagine so, I mean that’s what covers are there for to entice the reader/watcher? Why? Is that what happened here? Yes. Yes it is.

And was that a bad decision on your part? Yes. Yes it was.

Oh dear… well let’s go through this step-by-step, what exactly went wrong here? Well I saw a cute girl with a stupidly suggestive and revealing maid-costume cum angel get up and my fucking neanderthal brain added the manga to my cart and bought it before I could barely read a word of the synopsis.

And where’s the problem (aside from the obvious)? This manga isn’t sexy at all! It’s deeply ~problematic~ and it makes me want to throw it in the bin.

Yikes! Care to elaborate? Well not really, but since I’ve already gone this far I might as well commit. So this manga at least has an interesting premise, it’s about a doting brother trying to raise enough money to save his terminally ill sister from a certain death. See she needs a super expensive experimental overseas operation to save her life except he’s kind of a screw up and they have no other family than each other so it’s literally down to him to save her. One day, while returning from the hospital the brother is visited by a mysterious being who asks how far he would be willing to go to get a shit-ton of money to which his grief addled mind replies he’d not only kill someone, he’d sacrifice his own life and soul to get what he needs to save his sister.

Next minute? Next minute he’s dead and in a sort of limbo-esque existence except now instead of being a plain 20-something year old dude he’s a cute high-school girl surrounded by a bunch of other cute high-school aged girls and they’ve all been brought together by a sadistic “angel” who’s offering them billions of Yen as a prize to winning her twisted game.

Uh-huh… And what’s the game? Basically it’s a dice-style ‘odd or even’ betting game with an element of bluffing and calling out other people’s bluffs in order to win more money. It’s a pretty interesting concept and it’s well-executed, but did I mention this manga is problematic as all heck and I kinda hate it?!

Yes, you did mention that… Why? If you’re not familiar with the term ‘ero guro’ or simply ‘guro’ allow me to ~educate~ you, it’s violent/gory content that’s coupled with erotic content.

Oh… I see “problematic” indeed. Listen, I’m not trying to kink-shame anyone here, this is—after all—just pictures, but I am so not having a good time with this. Like gore on it’s own I can generally deal with, I mean I read Murcielago and loved it and that had people being torn in half and entrails being ripped out and what not. So it’s not the gore itself I have a problem with, it’s that the gore is being coupled with ~erotic~ content that makes me feel especially uncomfortable.

Let’s not even mention what part of her is disintegrating between her legs…

So is there a lot of it then? No and that’s what makes me so unsure of whether this even is a ‘guro’ manga, I mean obviously the only thing I have to compare it to is erotic doujin’s I’ve unfortunately stumbled across in my times and it’s not anywhere near as sexual as those, but that stuff was explicitly porn. Where as this is more “mainstream”, this is a manga produced by a publishing company, they can’t go as far with the sexual content, but I do feel like the intent is still there.

“Intent”? To show high-school girls being brutally tortured and murdered while also leaning heavily into the sexualised nature of the characters for the purposes of arousing those are inclined to this sort of thing.

Don’t worry there’s only 4 more pages of her losing each of her fingers, just in case you didn’t catch it the first time.

Isn’t that just an assumption? Yeah of course, but I mean there is literally no reason given for all the characters suddenly being high-school aged girls in cute uniforms so I have to draw that conclusion.

Right. So imagine instead the characters aren’t all sexualised anime high-school girls, does that make it better? Maybe, I don’t know. There’s a lot of a compelling story-telling here, the sadistic angel character is pretty funny and crazy at times plus there’s some genuine depth and emotion to the protagonist and his relationship with his sister. It’s very dark but it’s very well written.

Can’t you just skip the violent and gory bits and enjoy the story and characters? I mean, possibly. I just don’t know if I want to support a product like this though, it is interesting enough to keep reading but I can only assume it gets more graphic and more sexualised from here on out, that’s generally how these type of things go. Unless…

Unless what? Well I mean maybe I’m completely wrong and this isn’t ‘guro’ at all! I’m not an expert after all! But even if this is only ~softcore~ guro it’s still pretty unappealing to me. And this isn’t even a ‘cute girl being killed’ issue or a ‘pointless death’ issue it’s that this is someone’s fetish and I don’t get it at all.

There’s actually a lot of interesting strategy to this game.

#notkinkshaming Yes, #notkinkshaming.

So final score and recommendation? *sigh* This is a tough one to give a score to, on the one hand there’s a perfectly competent story going on here, it’s well-written for the most part, is populated with interesting and flawed characters and the ‘odd or even’ style dice game is well implemented, thoroughly explained and pretty easy to follow. But, the fact that ALL the characters look like cute high-school girls even if they weren’t cute high-school girls (or even girls) in their previous life is an ‘interesting’ choice—or it would have been if the only reason they were all turned into cute high-school girls wasn’t just to make their gory deaths and violent tortures all the more appealing to people who like that! As it is, the highest score I can give it is a 62 out of 100, even if the story and characters are deserving of a much higher score.

Why? Because that’s what sells more books.

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How To Build A Dungeon: Book of the Demon King Volume One – 20 Question Manga Review

A 20 Question Manga Review for How To Build A Dungeon: Book of the Demon King, Volume 1.

Warning: This review may contain content and imagery that may offend.

What’s the manga? How To Build A Dungeon: Book of the Demon King, Volume One.

I’m guessing this isn’t an instructional manual on how to actually build a dungeon? Well, I mean it certainly goes into a lot of detail, but unless you actually possess magical powers, no it will not be of any practical use on how to build a dungeon.

Right. What it might help you with is show an example of how to write a character who is unambiguously a ‘bad guy’ but imbue him with enough positive traits that despite some of his actions—which range from questionable to downright dastardly—you still are able to root for him in a way that you might a ‘hero’ in another story.

So he’s an anti-hero, then? I’d say that’s fairly accurate, the only thing that’s difficult to qualify is whether an anti-hero can exist in this kind of story.

What do you mean? What kind of story is it? Well, it’s almost like one of those building simulation/management video games where you have to build something, whether it be a theme park or a hospital or even more specifically an actual dungeon like in ‘Dungeon Keeper’ or ‘War for the Overworld’ (neither of which I’ve personally played but have seen played).

Right, so how’s that work in manga format? Well the protagonist, Aur, wants a dungeon to call his own, fill it with powerful monsters and raiders, and deadly traps and spells. So he summons a Succubus to be his right hand woman, basically she’s his construction manager and he delegates tasks to her, who she in turn delegates to lower life forms to help build the dungeon.

I’m still kind of confused what kind of manga this… I hasten to call it this, but I’m having trouble picking a better descriptor, it’s basically a slice of life, except rather than light-hearted and cute, it’s sinister, brutal and very erotic.

I beg your pardon? Oh did I fail to mention this is an erotic manga?

It’s hard to find sex scenes in this manga that *don’t* have nudity.

Um… yeah! You did manage to let that little tidbit of information slip! So this is porn, we’re reviewing porn now? No, no, no… well not exactly. It’s not like an erotic doujin, it’s… softcore? I suppose you’d call it, there’s no genitals on display, but having said that it’s pretty much only a couple a couple of additional lines from being full fledged hardcore material.

This isn’t going to devolve into another low-brow review is it? I promise not to talk about boobs for too long! Besides, there’s far more at play here than a litany of pointless titillation.

Mmhmm… Quit judging me!

Fine, who are the characters? Well as previously mentioned there’s the titular would-be demon king Aur, he’s cocky and kinda arrogant but he’s also intelligent and cunning. And maybe attractive? I don’t usually go in for his type but I could see why some people might be attracted to him. He’s also got a wealth of mana which is like magical currency, so that’s something that makes him alluring to certain people, such as Lilu—the succubus he summons. He’s only known her all of 15 minutes before they’re having sex so I mean at least this isn’t some long-winded ‘will they won’t they’ harem manga with a protagonist who’s sexually inert.

I guess that’s good… if you’re into that kind of thing… Ain’t nothing wrong with a bit of sexy times!

And the others? Some time later an adventurer named Yunis comes wandering into the dungeon to defeat Aur, but she is outmatched by his abilities. Her induction into his burgeoning dungeon harem is decidedly ~problematic~ if only because her consent to his sexual advances only comes after Lilu has used her succubus wiles on her and there’s an element of coercion to the whole thing. But, not only does it fit with the whole anti-hero thing he’s got going on but she later saves her from her own village who goes full ‘angry mob’ on her. So she’s got at least some element of respect for him and isn’t completely without free-will.

Find a partner who can make you “Squelch” and “Slursh” too.

Uh-huh. What?

No, nothing. Do go on… Hmm, okay. And the final (for Volume 1) addition to his harem comes from an interesting side-plot. One of the neighbouring villages, who have pledged their fealty to Aur; in exchange for protection and a supply of mana to help the crops grow has to offer a female virgin to him. The only “acceptable” virgin they have however, is 5 year old Mary, now Aur might be a bad-guy but he’s not a lolicon. He insists on someone older and the only other one in the village who fits this description is a young woman with an unsightly disfigurement. See she disfigured herself with hot oil in order to protect herself from rapists who were invading the village some years ago.

Her backstory is the most tragic thus far.

Yikes, that’s dark. Indeed. So Aur meets with her and sees enormous potential in her and so takes her and the 5 year old, and says the village doesn’t have to provide another human offering for 10 more years.

Okay, so what’s his angle? Well he sees a darkness in her that’s even intimidating to him and he wants to help cultivate this dark potential and so gives her the choice to remain a disfigured human with no future, or to becomes his unholy apprentice and grow powerful in order to smite all those who’ve wronged her since. She gladly accepts and comes to be known as Spina henceforth. Also, conveniently for everyone the ritual to make her his apprentice gets rid of all disfigurements and leaves her with a trendy piece of face jewellery instead.

Right, so I haven’t really gotten a solid idea about Aur’s character and what makes him as you early said: “unambiguously a ‘bad guy’,” and also “able to root for him”. Good question, so obviously his actions are self-motivated, he is thoroughly aligned to a side of darkness in this fantasy universe, but he’s never needlessly cruel, he’s strict and unforgiving if pushed but he never punishes anyone undeserving and is willing to listen to reason. He’s got a kind side, he doesn’t disrespect women or mistreat children and while he is very sexual active with I think as many as ten different women throughout this one volume, he never leads them on or hurts them in any way.

The gentlemen demon lord, sure why not. So final score and recommendation? I loved this book, I liked that it was so different from a lot of other harem style manga out there and not just because of how sexually active the protagonist was. It’s also darkly comical and occasionally just plain goofy, which is a much needed change of pace from some of the more serious subject matter. For fans of erotic-oriented manga and protagonists of questionable moral alignment; 87 out of 100.

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The Elder Sister Like One Volume 1 – 20 Question Manga Review

A 20 Question Manga Review for The Elder Sister Like One Volume 1.

What’s the manga? The Elder Sister Like One, Volume 1.

Oh no, ‘sister’? Are we in siscon territory again? Eehh~ not exactly.

What do you mean by “not exactly”? Well, if you’d have asked me what it was about instead of going straight into judgmental mode maybe you’d have found out by now!

Fine… what’s it about? It’s about an introverted 14-year-old orphan boy by the name of Yuu, who after being bounced from various unreceptive and plain cruel relatives ends up with a distant uncle who only has one rule, ‘don’t go into my studio’. After his uncle is hospitalised with a heart-attack, Yuu ventures into the studio to look for his insurance information and discovers a gorgeous and voluptuous woman who he quickly discovers is actually the Eldritch deity Shub-Niggurath or ‘The Black Goat of the Woods with A Thousand Young’!

O…kay. That’s… unexpected… Indeed!

So what kind of manga is it? I was going to ask if it’s horror, given the Eldritch connection, but seeing as it’s you and you mentioned a ‘gorgeous and voluptuous woman’ I’m guessing it’s something perverted. Unfortunately not! Well not as much as I was hoping…

*sigh* Listen, I’m not saying I wanted to read a super perverted story about a 14 year old boy and an eldritch god in the form of big breasted woman, but I was expecting it, so it just meant I had to adjust my expectations.

Then what is it then? Well, young Yuu only wants one thing in life, and that’s a real family, after his own died in a tragic accident. Specifically he wants a big sister, and because Yuu is the first person to ever treat ‘her’ with any measure of kindness and openness he grants his “wish” and decides to be his big sister.

Well that’s nice of her, I mean considering she’s an Eldritch deity, I’m not too well versed in my Lovecraftian lore but I didn’t think they were traditionally so kind and accomodating. I kinda get it, it’s like here’s a creature that’s probably been alive for centuries if not since the dawn of time itself, time probably doesn’t even mean anything to a creature like this so being a human’s ‘big sister’ for a couple of decades would be nothing for a creature that’s been alive so long.

True, I guess, but is that said in the text or are you just assuming? There’s a passing mention to her “having been alive for so long” but it’s not really explicit. And that’s my biggest problem with this manga is that there’s such a wealth of weird and wonderful things they could have done with this premise and with Eldritch lore in general but they don’t really do anything with it, aside from have her tentacle like feelers (which can shrink down to the width of a hair) clean the boy’s earwax and massage his brain so he can have a very odd brain-gasm.

I thought you said it wasn’t perverted! For the most part it’s not, I mean she is unaware of a lot of social norms and so there’s the usual “a big sister shouldn’t do that!” type stuff when she walks around naked or has him grope her chest to feel her heartbeat but you get that kind of stuff a lot in these kinds of stories. But yeah the whole ear cleaning thing was like, so the opposite of anything I find erotic that I was just left uncomfortable for that part of the chapter.

Uh-huh… Hey, I didn’t write it!

But you’re reading it! Well someone has to.

True, but still, I have to react to what you tell me. She’s really damn sexy though. I mean I know why he “wished” for to be his sister, but he really missed a beat not “wishing” for her to be his girlfriend…

Why didn’t he? I guess because that’s what he wanted in his heart of hearts, he is quite a ‘pure’ young boy. Though, by the end of the first volume I feel like even he is questioning his decision to make her his sister and not something more.

Are there any other characters aside from the ones you’ve mentioned? No, not really. And that’s something that feels quite different about this manga, in other shows I feel like they’d be at least teasing other girls by now, even if it wasn’t a harem (and I don’t even know if this one ends up being one) but there would be at least be like a childhood friend or some other female interest in the main character by now, but here it’s an entire manga of just Yuu and Chiyo.

Her name’s Chiyo? Yes, she names herself when learning his name is Yuu.

You’re going to have to explain this to me because I have no idea? His name is derived from Yuugure which means “Dusk” so she names herself Chiyo which means “a thousand endless nights”.

Poetic. Yeah, and that’s something I think that could easily be overlooked when giving this manga a cursory look it is legitimately poetic at times and very well written (at least in regards to some of the dialogue and internal monologues) and there’s some very cool ideas it’s just it falls into a lot of predictable traps early on that I worry it’s not going to be as challenging and interesting as it could be!

Fair enough, so final score and recommendation? It’s hard because I wanted this to be so much better than it was, but if you compare it to a lot of the mediocre trash that is out there then it is better! It’s just I was expecting more from a premise that invoked something as dark and twisted as Eldritch and Lovecraftian lore. But what’s here is by no means a slouch, it’s occasionally dark and original, it’s got a good bit of character depth and it’s pretty sexy from time to time. I need to see where it goes in Volume 2 before I’m willing to make a definitive decision but I will continue with it for now as it’s at least more original than a lot of the school based harems I’ve been reading. This volume scores; 79 out of 100.

Mononoke Sharing Volume One – 20 Question Manga Review

A 20 Question Manga Review for Mononoke Sharing Volume One.

***WARNING – the following review contains sexual references that may offend***

What’s the manga? Mononoke Sharing – Volume One.

And what’s it about? Boobs! Just boobs, just great big boobs all up in your face—

Okay stop. What?

If you’re not going to take this seriously, I’ll leave. No more mentioning of “boobs”, okay? Guh, fine…

So who’s this manga written by, someone famous in the manga world if my notes are correct? You have notes?! Oh and yes, it’s written by Coolkyousinnjya (Coolkyoushinja/Cool-Kyou Shinsha??).

That rings a bell… Indeed! It’s the man responsible for the very popular series Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid!

Uh-huh. And it won a bunch of ‘Anime Awards’ too didn’t it? Yes, but nobody cares about that—

—Fine then! With that all out of the way, what’s the manga actually about? Breasts, anime tiddies, sweater melons, nice oppai.

What did I say?! You said “no more mentioning boobs,” I didn’t mention “boobs”.

Why are you like this? I’m just trying to contribute to an accurate review of this manga… As am I, if you don’t believe me then just read the author’s afterword at the end of volume one!

Part of the afterword; very illuminating look into the mind of this man.

Too many panels to read! Summarise it for me! Inundated with work offers after the runaway success of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, author and artist Coolkyoushinja turns down many high profile but potentially high stress offers to do ‘legitimate’ work with large publishers until he’s offered a niche pitch about ‘big breasted monster girls just hanging out in lounge wear with a flat chested human roommate’ and suddenly he’s inspired to write again!

Ugh, he sounds like more of a pervert than you… Now now, let’s not say things we can’t take back!

There’s a pool chapter *and* a bath chapter, for those wondering.

So what am I supposed to do with this information? I’m still trying to figure out what this manga is about? Here’s the deal, I could have just copy/pasted the ‘official’ synopsis from the web, spun some creative licence with regard to the content, but I wanted to be as honest with this as possible because, even though I know it’s unlikely someone would go out and buy something just because I said something positive about it I wanted to make sure that those who were inclined to do so knew exactly what they were getting into when it came to this manga. The publisher’s can write ‘From the creator of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid’ all they like; it doesn’t change the fact that is for a different audience then the wide(r) appeal of that aforementioned title.

In what way exactly? Well in case it wasn’t abundantly obvious this is a much more adult title than you might be expecting, this isn’t “cute and wholesome with a touch of naughtiness” like Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, this is the author’s fetishes put to paper, within the first half dozen pages we’re introduced to one of the main character’s monster roommates, a promiscuous fox girl whose idea of ‘cleaning up after herself’ is licking the semen out from condoms from her having sex with men.

For reference they are discussing issues with trash, the condoms were visible inside the trash bags which in Japan are left in clear bags on street corners the night before collection, hence the “problem”.

Wh—what?! And I’m all for it! Fucking get bawdy and lewd and liberated up in here please, too often Japanese manga falls into the same tired tropes to the point you can pretty much guess what’s coming before it comes (no pun intended) but at least here it’s the kind of unfiltered debauchery that’s usually reserved for fan fiction!

That still doesn’t sound like a good thing. And that’s why I’m warning you, for some—nay—for a lot of people this will be “disgusting” and “perverse” and “unnecessary” but for some of us, this is exactly the kind of subversive and honest content we’re wanting, even if it is just the author airing his fetishes to the world.

I’m almost afraid to ask, but what other fetishes are we talking about? Breast milk.

This was the only mildly SFW scene involving breast milk. Also, these ‘Just Because Monster Awards’ seperate the chapters and feature a panel from the previous chapter.

O-kay! So um, is it too late to ask about the characters? Well technically yes, we’re nearly at the end of this review, but since you’ve put up with this I’ll entertain the notion. So first there’s our protagonist, Yata, a normal human high-school girl whose main hang-ups are her ‘angry eyes’ and flat chest. Then there’s Momi an Oni (horned ogre) with massive oppai who’s a bit of a shut-in. There’s Mizuchi who’s a Kappa (still not sure even after Googling) and kind of the mother of the house, if only for her cleaning and how scary she can be. There’s Youko, the previous mentioned promiscuous fox spirit. And Kuro who is a Rokurokubi (I think that’s like a Yokai, she seems similar to the main girl in Yokai Girls) whose main ‘feature’ is her ability to stretch her neck, also she fancies herself as a bit of a comedian. And last but not least is Yuki, a snow woman (yes like from Interviews With Monster Girls) who falls madly in love with our protagonist and is also very forgetful about her powers.

Seems like there’s a lot to this book when you lay it out like that! Yeah… except it’s kinda just all about boobs and fetishes and being lewd in a familiar slice of life format.

Right, got it, so final score and recommendation? This is simple; if you’re a fan of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, don’t read this manga. But, if you’re a fan of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and are also a huge goddamn pervert then do I have the book for you! 85 out of 100.

Murcielago Volume 1 – 20 Question Manga Review

A 20 Question Manga Review for Murcielago Volume 1.

What’s the manga? Murcielago – Volume 1.

Oh? Sounds exotic. You’re a straight white dude; everything remotely foreign sounds exotic to you.

Quiet you! What’s it about? Well first of all, let’s get a big ol’ TRIGGER WARNING up there, because I know it’s bound to trigger someone, cause it sure as heck did me! (Note: For the sake of a more pleasant reading experience for all, images of extreme gore or sexuality are not imbedded in this post.)

You? Triggered by something? Wait, don’t tell me, was it sport? No! Trigger Warnings are about content not genres.

‘Kay, so what is it about?! So Kuroko is a serial killer, she’s got 715 names to her belt to date, so what’s a girl on death row to do? Why join the Japanese Police Force as a ruthless hired assassin, to clean up the worst filth on the streets, yes worse than herself! She’s partnered with bright and bubbly Hinako, a driver who gets where she needs to go by any means necessary.

She’ll get where she needs to be no matter what it takes or how improbable!

Serial killer who kills serial killers, huh? Sounds a bit ‘Dexter’, yeah? I don’t know what that is.

Well anyway this certainly seems like a change of pace from the things you’re usually into. Don’t you hate violence in anime and manga? I don’t hate violence, I just don’t really care for it. And this manga is no exception to that, well except…

Murcielago1 — I cut this panel short for a good reason, you don’t want to see the state of the dude she’s talking to…

Except what? Kuroko is just so f**king cool! Like I know its in our stupid f**king DNA as a species to idolise serial killers for some dumb reason, but seriously Kuroko is one of my favourite main characters in anything ever.

Elaborate. Well, she’s a deranged serial killer but she has a sense of right and wrong, she’s got a twisted sense of humour, she’s unconventionally attractive like a Tim Burton heroine on steroids and she’s smart and savvy to boot. Oh, and did I forget to mention she’s a perverted, horny lesbian who’s super into cute girls?!

Even in the middle of high speed pursuits of ‘bad guys’ she still takes the time to chat up cute girls!

So basically she’s you except not a serial killer and also not a girl. This manga made me want to be a fictional cute girl just so I’d get the chance to be in the same room as her.

In the same room and doing? *blush* a lady never tells!

Okay that’s weird, even for you. Judge all you want! Your words are but scuffs in my armor!

Hinako provides an accurate incident report to her superiors.

Right, so enough of this creepy hero-worship. What’s the manga like? What kind of things happen in the first volume. Have you ever seen the movie ‘Crank: High Voltage’?

Uh, I don’t know, probably not, more importantly—why—have you?! The why’s not important, but basically take that film in all its cartoonish, gory violence, its rampant libido, its fast-paced story and its off-kilter humour and supplant Jason Statham for a Kuroko, a lesbian, sex-obsessed, serial killer!

Just casually discussing what to do after work while chasing down a subway carriage. No biggie!

O…kay then? So what about that trigger warning you gave to yourself and others like you? I take it’s not related to the sexual content of this manga. As much as I love this manga, some of the violence and gore is just relentlessly confronting. Maybe I’ve just got too much empathy but even seeing a nameless background character torn in half with their intestines spooling out behind them was enough for me to need to take a breather occasionally.

That bad, huh? It’s graphic and unforgiving, but I kinda get what they were going for, it’s the whole ‘it takes a monster to defeat a monster’ kind of thing.

Murcielago2 — Her facial expressions are gold.

So how do you go about recommending something like this? It seems dependent on the individual’s tastes a lot. Yeah, I mean there will be those who are the opposite of me, for whom the gore is no problem but the sexual content is too confronting, there’s all sorts out there, but I think in this particular instance the setting and situations and especially the characters make it an easy sell, as long as you’re in the mood for something very subversive. In fact, just so you know what you’re getting into I’ve prepared some super NSFW images from the manga below, click at your own risk!

CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLE OF THE GORE IN MURCIELAGO

CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLE OF THE SEX IN MURCIELAGO

Should we be worried about conflating sex and violence like this? There’s already so many troubles in the world. Disclaimer: This is a product intended for adult audiences only; if you are young and impressionable do not read Murcielago.

Yeah… that’ll work… Well what do you expect me to say, this a review for entertainment purposes, I’m not responsible for what susceptible individuals make of someone else’s content.

Meeting girls online is tough. If you clicked the ‘sex’ link above this was about 2 pages *before* they did the deed.

Fair ‘nuff, so final score and recommendation? If graphic, disturbing and explicit violent and sexual content is not your thing, then this isn’t the manga for you. If, however you like things a little more wild, a little more dangerous and yes, a little more perverse, then Murcielago may be just the book for you! Personally, despite being “triggered” a couple of times due to the violent content, I was enraptured by this world, this story and especially the protagonist Kuroko who is the perfect anti-hero. 91 out of 100.

Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary Volume 1 – 20 Question Manga Review

A 20 Question Manga Review for Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary Volume 1.

What is this? It’s like an anime except it’s not moving? It’s called a manga; it’s the book version a lot of anime’s are based off!

Oh? So I imagine just as with book to movie adaptations there’s a lot of people saying “oh but the manga was better than the anime”? Haha, probably, but that’s not really what we’re here to discuss. Mostly I’ll be featuring manga that hasn’t yet gotten an anime adaptation, I figured that’s more fun anyway…

Yeah I guess so. So what’s the manga (heh that’s so weird to say!) It’s Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary Volume 1.

Nurse? Monster? Is this perhaps about monster girls? Maaaaybeee…

You really have a thing for monster girls don’t you? I have my reasons!

Sure sure, let’s not go down that dark avenue and instead focus on the matter at hand, what’s it about? Nurse Hitomi is busty one eyed school nurse, who with the aid of her spriggan assistant helps the monster students of her high school deal with the various issues that come about from their burgeoning “monster” traits, which like puberty seem to be manifesting in their mid teenage years.

Probably good advice, even if it’s strangely put.

So it’s a slice of life manga? I guess so! The closest thing I can compare it to is ‘Interviews With Monster Girls’ a fantastic anime that I’ve yet to review on the site, but it’s a show that’s less about situation as it is more about character and relationships, while still ostensibly being a ‘slice of life’. Except, unlike ‘Interviews With Monster Girls’ in Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary there’s a clear divide between the faculty life and the student life, in some ways its more mature in that respect because there’s whole chapters that are set away from the school and are focused on her social and romantic life.

But? Well it might be all about the adult teachers but it is very immature and inappropriate at times.

Sounds right up your alley! Quiet you.

So what do you mean exactly by ‘immature?’ I mean some of Nurse Hitomi’s advice to her students is the kind of thing you’d see in an issue of Penthouse magazine. It’s half genuinely sincere and half sitcom shenanigans.

Is that a detriment to the series? Not yet, I imagine it’s going to get more serious as it goes along, the adult characters all have various flaws which make them a lot more interesting than expected, and that’s in addition to the various monster traits.

So who are the other characters? Well of the faculty there’s Moji, who’s basically Chewbacca except he speaks perfect English (Japanese?). Then there’s Tatara who is four-armed cigarette smoking “cool” dude, who Hitomi has had a crush on since they were kids but it’s unreturned because he’s into loli.

And he’s a teacher?! Yeah but I don’t think the book’s going to go there, I think it’s just used as an excuse to have the ‘will they/won’t they’ dynamic between him and Hitomi.

He’s a bit of a douche to be honest but I’m sure they’ll work to soften his character in future volumes.

Fair enough, I guess… So how’s an average issue go? Well I’ve read 2 volumes so far and have bought the 7 that are currently available, so I can confirm that each book after the first volume see’s Nurse Hitomi and her assistant see three different monster students, help them through their various monster related hang-ups and interspersed with some chapters about her social life.

The first book is different then? Well she see’s 5 different monster students in volume one, they are kind of like self contained stories, and depending on the student they can varying tones which makes for a very entertaining read. The first volume sees Hitomi dealing with a girl with a 300cm long tongue, a zombie girl who’s prone to misplacing body parts, a very tall girl, a very small girl and an invisible girl. The story with the invisible girl is particularly touching.

The five monster students featured in volume one.

Interesting, so it’s got some depth to it too. I did already say that, it’s almost like you don’t believe me.

Well when it comes to monster girls it’s hard to know if there’s not bias in your review. Of course there’s bias! I mean it’s not like this manga is a must read for everyone but if you’re into this kind of thing, well… you’re probably already reading it.

She’s fine, really. It happens all the time!

So your recommendation is for people who’ve probably already read it… great first manga review! This is sure to catch on! Shut up, I’m still working out all the kinks.

Oh I know all too well about your “kinks”. Hey! Leave the witty wordplay to me!

Right. So what’s the final verdict on Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary Volume 1? It’s cute, it’s sexy, it’s funny, it’s charming, it’s got an art-style I adore and if you’re a fan of monster girl related manga and haven’t already checked it out then your missing a quality read. For everyone else, you might enjoy the messages about body positivity and equality that come with Nurse Hitomi’s advice to her monster students but honestly the book knows its niche and plays to it well. Take my temperature Hitomi-chan, I’m running a fever! 90 out of 100.

***This is my first 20 Question Manga Review! I hoped you enjoyed it, it was a lot more work than the anime reviews (though it’s certainly quicker to read a single manga than watch a whole season of an anime!) If you have any feedback or suggestions let me know and whether your interested this to continue!***