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hotwaterandmilk · 1 month ago

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Sometimes you come across a series that isn’t objectively great, but something about it still hooks you. Despite the flaws in the first two volumes (available in English from Tokyopop), I still found myself enjoying my time with the leads in this series.

Kusuri no Mamono no Kaiko Riyuu (My Contract With the Apothecary Monster) by Sakuraze Ayaka and Manmaru Ino

My Contract With the Apothecary Monster is an isekai manga starring Nea, an unassuming human from our world who accidentally stumbles into the magical land of Weem, a place where fairies roam and monsters form contracts with humans, granting wishes in exchange for years of their lifespan. Nea, a practical and headstrong Englishwoman, only wants to survive and enjoy life's little pleasures, yet she’s roped into becoming the “Songbearer” and entering a contract with a powerful, enigmatic monster named Dino.

Rather than demanding she sacrifice her lifespan as part of their contract, he longs for something else…

Despite the gorgeous art by Manmaru Ino, My Contract With the Apothecary Monster is a tough sell. Its premise feels familiar, especially for anyone who’s dipped a toe into the oversaturated world of isekai and light novel-based manga. The writing, originally by Sakuraze Ayaka, is extremely stilted and is one of the more obvious examples of novel-based manga regurgitating paragraphs without adding a whole lot to them. The result is a lot of telling and not nearly enough showing, particularly in the worldbuilding and among the side characters who struggle to leave any impression.

Nea and Dino, however, are the exceptions, and the main reason I'm still reading. Their dynamic is oddly compelling: Nea, grounded and blunt, has no fear of Dino initially because she doesn’t understand the stakes (and eventually because she does shy away from them).

Dino, meanwhile, is immensely powerful but submissive—literally. He’s a masochist who delights in Nea’s disregard for his fearsome reputation. She headbutts him, stomps his toes, sits on him, and generally treats him like a nuisance, and he adores her for it. Nea may not reciprocate in a D/S sense, but her no-nonsense attitude and total lack of reverence make her the only one capable of “controlling” him.

This twist on the dominant-monster trope is played mostly for laughs, but there’s an undercurrent of danger in Dino’s possessiveness, he could easily veer into yandere territory if things go awry. He’s a being with immense destructive potential, yet he’s fixated on the one woman who can handle him. It’s a fantasy that echoes certain billionaire romance tropes, albeit filtered through the lens of monster fiction and dark comedy.

Within these first two volumes (the third volume hits shelves in Japan next month) the plot around Nea and Dino’s assigned task, seeking the mysterious Grimmdoll Chain, has barely moved. There’s plenty of potential in a world like this which borrows from the fae and the idea of these two teaming up to go on missions, but the story spends more time explaining than exploring. That said, Nea and Dino remain engaging enough to keep me interested, for now, but the third volume really is going to need to give me something fresh to keep my interest going forward.

It’s frustrating when a series doesn’t live up to its potential. The art by Manmaru Ino is genuinely beautiful, full of delicate detail in the hair, costumes, and atmosphere that suit the fantasy setting perfectly. However, Sakuraze Ayaka's original writing is flat and even with Manmaru's attention to detail the writing lets things down. Katie Kimura’s translation in the Tokyopop release smooths out some of the stiffness found in the original Japanese (at least to my admittedly intermediate reading level), but overall the story suffers from being boxed in by the original text.

I'm not sure I could call this review a recommendation for My Contract With the Apothecary Monster per se. While it’s certainly amusing at times and the main duo has a fun, subversive dynamic, the worldbuilding and overarching plot have offered little to no real payoff. After two volumes, I expected more depth and momentum. Some sign that the story was building toward something beyond the quirky monster/human relationship.

The premise has potential, and it does play with familiar tropes, but the first two volumes don’t do enough to make the series feel like it’s going anywhere. Nea and Dino are great, but if they’re just going to drift through a static world that doesn't open itself to us, the charm won’t last. Which would be a real shame, because there’s a lot here to like — but right now, it amounts to a whole lot of nothing.

Fingers crossed for volume three to build on these initial volumes and make the next arc a truly memorable one.

#kusuri no mamono no kaiko riyuu #my contract with the apothecary monster #薬の魔物の解雇理由 #random manga i recommend #?#sakuraze ayaka #ayaka sakuraze #manmaru ino #ino manmaru #shoujo manga #shoujo #shojo manga #shojo #isekai #this was a series i randomly spotted at kinokuniya when doing the rounds the other week #i decided to buy it digitally to conserve space and i think that was an appropriate decision #i'm not sure i need to own this one physically #my interest in it isn't THAT strong #but i do have the acrylic stands on order tho so maybe i'm just weird

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