#kaibutsu shoujo zoukan

[animehouse-moe]

The Illustrated Guide To Monster Girls Volume 1: Humorous Horror

Monsters, school girls, and outright dumb humor. What could go wrong? Surprisingly, not too much. Straddling the edge of being a "too simple" concept, The Illustrated Guide To Monster Girls offers a solid twist on the day-to-day humor featured in many comedy series, giving me quite a bit to chat about thankfully.

So, where to begin? Maybe an explanation? This is a manga following a group of monster girls at the bottom of the ladder in Monster school: Class Z. The group is headed up by the Jiangshi (featured front and center on the cover) Ichika. Together, the class struggles to keep it together each day and not cave into their own shenanigans.

It's a fun concept, but might seem a little narrow at first like I had said, yeah?

Well, believe it or not there is a story-slash-goal to this series: pass school.... finally. Not anything grand by any means, but it gives the story a direction, and allows Suzu to introduce some well needed variance down the road. After all, there's only so many girls in class Z.

Speaking on that, let's talk about the girls. They're fun, varied, and creative. The existence of a straight man in the humor isn't guaranteed, so the skits can easily veer out of control and really stretch the fabric of itself. Definitely not a bad thing, and it's a solid idea to compartmentalize the approaches to humor within the various girls. Being a small class, it allows them to explore funny moments on a more granular scale where you can pair up characters to create different vibes as they lead the classroom on an unsanctioned adventure, or a duo off.... enjoying a break from class.

Well, I've made it this far without mentioning art, but I'm going to do it now. It's... alright. It's inoffensive. It's sharp. It's unique. But it doesn't have much life in most scenes. The characters very often come out stiff, and it feels like their range of facial expressions is rather narrow. It's like Zombieland Saga but VTubers almost. Which is quite the shame when the mangaka can really turn it on in certain moments to drive home the horror of the monster girls. It's far more expressive and detailed, making the gap between it and the usual style that much more apparent.

Just take a look at this page, the creepy parts come out with so much more life than what Ichika's expression and pose can offer in comparison.

And then this spread from the volume as well. The difference between these and the usual moments is just so night and day that it can hamper your enjoyment/perception of the usual art.

If I was to provide a single remark or statement for the art/paneling/etc, it's that there's undeniable potential. Suzu certainly has an eye for horror so I'd be interested to see how they'd do with it, but they really need to work on the stiffness of their usual designs, and potentially put some more effort into layouts. But still, largely speaking it's good. It's just that those great moments may start to make you think otherwise.

So what's the deal, is it good? I'd probably say so, yeah. If you want a humorous series and think exploring the potential comedy involving monster girls is something you might be interested in, you'll probably like it. It's not a smash hit from the first page, but it's surprisingly consistent with getting a laugh out of readers.