76 replies to this topic

[svines85]

o_o

Monster girls? Well.....sweet, "shoujo" style monster girls that is. So far this is a very interesting seinen story, a fantasy/slice of life that's cute and also has an engaging, unique story line that creates interest in the characters and their day to day lives in a world populated by various fantasy type creatures.

Three volumes have already been released in Japan and it's currently an ongoing work. Thanks to Futari wa Pretty Anon for the scanlation work to bring this to all of us and hopefully everyone can enjoy discussing it.

[Sebastian De Los Angeles]

Right now, my feeling is that the series is getting darker by the minute, but when I think a little about it, it's a lot like the usual tone of dark we get in our dairy lives. It surely looks like the country they live in is a police state with all those soldiers and even some tank, however, military police it's not that strange, for example MP's are the main police force in Brazil. It also reminds me a lot of the military dictatorships that happened in the 60's and 70'sin South America, (to be more precise it looks a lot like the onewe had here in Uruguay until 1984): common people who didn't meddle too much into politics often lived quite peaceful lives despite the lack of freedoms.

[svines85]

Right now, my feeling is that the series is getting darker by the minute, but when I think a little about it, it's a lot like the usual tone of dark we get in our dairy lives. It surely looks like the country they live in is a police state with all those soldiers and even some tank, however, military police it's not that strange, for example MP's are the main police force in Brazil. It also reminds me a lot of the military dictatorships that happened in the 60's and 70'sin South America, (to be more precise it looks a lot like the onewe had here in Uruguay until 1984): common people who didn't meddle too much into politics often lived quite peaceful lives despite the lack of freedoms.

I'm not too sure I don't agree with you. The whole of chp 8.5 had a dark, unpleasant feel to it, and for that matter chp 8 wasn't exactly a ray of sunshine with the hostage situation and the bystander/vigilante justice. This manga as a whole is a very different type of story. But all the girls were still cute, you've got to give it credit for that at least.

[Purple Library Guy]

I find it interesting the way dark situations like the hostage bit are dealt with in such an oddly matter-of-fact way. Like, the whole hostage-taking was treated as important largely to the extent it helped Hime get over her stage fright.
8.5 was definitely on the dark side, (and of course clearly Alice-inspired) but my only real problem with it was difficulty figuring out what was going on. I mean, OK, there was the "clearly dreamscape" stuff, and some "reading aloud turning into dreamscape" stuff, but then there was some "apparently real" stuff that didn't seem to follow or relate to other bits; there's the threat against the dog girl and then tension as the older girl falls asleep and I worry that the nasty b**** on the phone will come home and bad stuff will ensue, and maybe that's about to happen, and then suddenly the girl's in the hospital but the dog girl seems fine . . . wha? Maybe I'm dim here, but I can't piece some of it together.

[svines85]

I find it interesting the way dark situations like the hostage bit are dealt with in such an oddly matter-of-fact way. Like, the whole hostage-taking was treated as important largely to the extent it helped Hime get over her stage fright.
8.5 was definitely on the dark side, (and of course clearly Alice-inspired) but my only real problem with it was difficulty figuring out what was going on. I mean, OK, there was the "clearly dreamscape" stuff, and some "reading aloud turning into dreamscape" stuff, but then there was some "apparently real" stuff that didn't seem to follow or relate to other bits; there's the threat against the dog girl and then tension as the older girl falls asleep and I worry that the nasty b**** on the phone will come home and bad stuff will ensue, and maybe that's about to happen, and then suddenly the girl's in the hospital but the dog girl seems fine . . . wha? Maybe I'm dim here, but I can't piece some of it together.

I know what you mean, I've thought there were some odd skips in the main story as well......just the writing style I suppose, it kind of goes along with how different this manga is as a whole. Entertaining and interesting with some neat art work also......but quite different.

[Sol Falling]

The reason the girl "fell asleep" was due to starvation/hunger. The mother basically just stuffed some supply of pizza in the fridge, and abandoned the girl (with her dog) alone. The mother's neglect was to such an extent that she (the girl) eventually ran out of food, and because the mother said "don't leave the house", she eventually fainted drinking water.

I thought ch. 8.5 was pretty damn freakin' brilliant. Despite the creepiness of the dog, I was more struck by the rest of the story. It was quite an experience in understated storytelling, at least for me.

[svines85]

The reason the girl "fell asleep" was due to starvation/hunger. The mother basically just stuffed some supply of pizza in the fridge, and abandoned the girl (with her dog) alone. The mother's neglect was to such an extent that she (the girl) eventually ran out of food, and because the mother said "don't leave the house", she eventually fainted drinking water.

I thought ch. 8.5 was pretty damn freakin' brilliant. Despite the creepiness of the dog, I was more struck by the rest of the story. It was quite an experience in understated storytelling, at least for me.

Yup, agreed, the girl in 8.5 passed out at the end and was in need of medical attention due to being essentially abandoned and left to suffer from hunger. And yeah, not a bad side story, just much more overtly dark than the rest of the work so far I thought.

[Purple Library Guy]

I didn't think the dog herself was creepy at all. I thought she was really cute.
But OK, that seems like a plausible story line . . . I'll have to reread with that in mind and see how it hangs together.

Added rather later: Oh, yeah, it all makes sense now. OK, good story.

Edited by Purple Library Guy, 14 October 2012 - 07:21 AM.

[svines85]

I notice Hime is back to having longer hair in chps 9 and 10, there must have been more people that liked her with her long flowing hair. Chp 10 was super cute........though my favorite part was seeing one more person learning the important life lesson of NEVER JUST STAND AROUND BEHIND A HORSE!!! (centaur..horse....you know what i mean)

[shengar]

Glad the depressive tone of chapter 8.5 got cured by the amount dawww and cuteness of chapter 10
I noticed that Centaur in this manga look like....bit smaller from normal horse. Probably 0.75 times of real horse size?

[svines85]

Glad the depressive tone of chapter 8.5 got cured by the amount dawww and cuteness of chapter 10
I noticed that Centaur in this manga look like....bit smaller from normal horse. Probably 0.75 times of real horse size?

Yeah you're right, they seem more along the lines of ponies rather than full sized horses like I've seen featured in other sci-fi works. I guess to a degree it makes sense in order to keep the "human" portion the same size as compared to the other people / "human" like creatures. Full sized horses are freaking huge, if it was a full sized horse / person creature the person part would probably be a lot bigger than normal sized.

[svines85]

Chapter 12 was really good, very sweet.......though I've got to admit I haven't got a clue what species half the characters are anymore. And a centaur in a bikini......I've seen it all now.

[svines85]

Ssssnake girl is cute, in a strange, creepy sort of way.......weird how there's is the only species that seems to have the head of a creature unlike all the rest of the characters.

[Sebastian De Los Angeles]

So much info on the antarcticans!! Our newest class member came prepared to give lectures about her people!!

[shengar]

Yeah you're right, they seem more along the lines of ponies rather than full sized horses like I've seen featured in other sci-fi works. I guess to a degree it makes sense in order to keep the "human" portion the same size as compared to the other people / "human" like creatures. Full sized horses are freaking huge, if it was a full sized horse / person creature the person part would probably be a lot bigger than normal sized.

Yeah, that'll explain how centaurs manage to "drive" a car O_o
It make them less monster and more "human" though

So much info on the antarcticans!! Our newest class member came prepared to give lectures about her people!!

The mangaka manage to pull some interesting things again after some quite boring chapter for awhile
These antartican......I crave to see more of them

[svines85]

Yeah, that'll explain how centaurs manage to "drive" a car O_o
It make them less monster and more "human" though

Haha!! True, centaurs driving a car.......oh man, that's right up there with a horse wearing pants........I still find that one amazing. xD

And yeah, less "monster like" is probably the idea I suppose.........my earliest memories of centaurs in Sci-Fi come from this

Spoiler

where the centaurs were actually full-sized horse size........and yeah, in order for that to work the "human" part had to be much bigger. Sooooo.......... they were monsters in comparison to the totally "human" species. Probably not what the author wanted in this work.

[svines85]

Hah!! Monster baseball, I loved that chapter! Hilarious stuff...........and her brother's name is Naraku, made me think of Inuyasha. Man, some of the art in this really amazes me, the detail that's in a lot of the characters is really something.

[Purple Library Guy]

I was wondering about the centaurs and baseball (among other sports). I mean, centaurs should seriously kick tail in any sport that involves running (and tackling--lordy, centaurs in rugby or American football?! Unstoppable). It hardly seems fair, you'd think they'd need separate leagues. Like trying to beat a mermaid at the 100 meter breaststroke.

Meanwhile, I found the little serpent-people get-together a bit odd. While it was happening I thought the new Antarctican character was coming on to the girl we know (and clearly getting the brush-off). Then afterwards I realize it's a friend of hers who is also a girl and think, maybe not? And then I'm like, well, no matter how I look at it it still seems like a come-on . . . yuri snake-girl romance? Doubly forbidden in that they apparently don't normally do that stuff at all, let alone same-sex. Poor other snake girl, her fledgling attempt at feelings dashed . . .
Unless I'm way off base. What did other people think was going on there?

[Liar]

Hey there PLG, it's your good friend, Liar, that is here to bring you my own explanation!

Now, we have to consider the Antarticans and their characteristics. They are described to follow more closely to logic and reasoning other than emotions. From my understanding, it appears that both Antartican characters are in Japan in order to learn more about the world outside of Antartica. Thus, the two of them delve into topics with great enthusiasm, and sharing what they know about what they experienced so far.

It appears that the new Antartican is into the more fictional elements of being in Japan, but Suu-chan explains what is reality and what is not. For example, it's like having two people coming to live in Japan. One is a regular, average guy, and the other is an otaku. I know some people who go to Japan expecting things to be like in manga or anime, and thus their enthusiasm is based on that as they try to mimic the culture around them (as shown by the friend's attempt of using those normal greetings in the beginning).

Well, at least that is what I think.

[svines85]

Haha! Yeah, the snake-people chapter was pretty odd.........almost no dialogue except for the "coffee please" and the two waitress commenting on what language they were speaking.....until our character was back with her girlfriends.

And yeah, Liar makes some good observations, that makes some sense given some of the pantomime we were seeing, might well be just what was going on.