(Seven Seas 2012)

Story & Art by Okayado

Storyline Ongoing

Summary: It’s every day life with Monster Girls in this ecchi comedy, telling the harrowing tale of a young man named Kimihito Kurusu who builds a harem of young, attractive girls with animalistic features. From a Lamia (half-snake, half human) to a Centaur (half-horse, half-human) and more.

In this world, a new law has passed allowing for the co-habitation of these “monster races” and humans, and but some races are still in need of human contact before things become truly normal. Thus Kimihito is unwillingly thrown into the role of “host family” for these girls – sort of like exchange students; whether he likes it or not.

[SPOILER WARNING!!]

Review: Overall the MON Festival arc has been slammin’. With chapter 42 we get the final installment to Kimihito’s episodic soiree’s with the MON girls. This time it’s Manako the shy sharp-shooting cyclops.

Manako is the most innocent of the MON gals. She’s timid and tries very hard to stay out of the way of humans for fear of being judged by others for her singular eye. And that’s actually the main topic this chapter focuses on as Kimihito is asked to come over by Zombina and Tio in hopes of helping Manako get over her fears.

Though the trio have to trick Manako into letting them help her we do get the reveal early on that she herself has been trying to work on overcoming her fears. Albeit in a very unsuccessful and admittedly freaky way: covering her room with human eyes staring at her. In order to mentally overcome their staring.

She relates to them a tale of two gentlemen who work at their agency who actively tried to look away from her in the hallway at work a few days early which triggered her recent depression. The gang then attempts to giver her flattering new looks that will allow her to go out in public with new confidence but it doesn’t go over so well.

It does however give us some great shots of Manako in cosplay. There’s also only one ecchi shot in this entire chapter as well you don’t ever see Manako’s boobs. One thing I have noticed about this series is that if the character’s have flat chests Okayado doesn’t actively showcase them. Probably because he doesn’t want to run the risk of them looking like nude children. Which I totally get.

I know we haven’t seen Doppel’s boobs, I don’t think we’ve seen Manako’s or Papi’s officially. Either way the main point of bringing that up was to spell out how sort of refreshing it was to get a chapter that didn’t overly sexualize the character’s for parts of the chapter. It allowed us to just take Manako in for personality.

The crescendo of the chapter is two fold with Manako wearing a Kitsune mask in order to conceal her eye for one normal day out the local festival and interacting with humans on a human level. As well as Doppel rounding up the guys who refused to look at Manako in the hallway only to discover they did so because she’s so freaking cute and they both love her.

Which is adorable.

The chapter ends with Manako not completely cured of her fear of being judged, but she’s one small step closer to becoming the confident monster girl she wants to be. It’s very clear by the end of the chapter that she has grown some through the kindness of her friends and I think that’s incredibly realistic way to handle a situation of mental health such as this.

Kudos to you Okayado. Doin’ it right.

Finally we get a teaser for the next arc to come featuring some truly powerful and evil looking monsters rolling into town. They probably won’t be nearly as scary as the final page paints them to be. This is a comedy series most of all. But I’m still super pumped to see what happens.

Final Score: 5 Cosplaying Cyclops out of 5

Derrick is a born and raised otaku with a love for comics, anime, manga and movies. The full list is pretty long, but that’s just the basics. Stories set in space are his bread and butter.

You can find more of his writing at IndieComix.net

@KazekunForever