pudgetronHELLO EVERYNYAN! HOW ARE YOU? FINE, THANK YOU. I WISH I WERE A BIRD.
And on that bombshell, let’s get down to business.
Tadashi Kodomo no Tsukurikata! is a new series telling the story of an agent, Raito, sent back in time from the future in order to insure the survival of the human race. The future has been ravaged by a deadly virus, killing off the majority of us, and will soon make fairly quick work of the rest, so Raito is sent back to stop the virus at it’s source: a high school student named Tanaka Yuu. Yuu supposedly has the virus locked away in his genes and, when combined with most other humans, the virus will become viable, and start killing humanity and stuff. Raito’s mission is to get Yuu to have children with his long time neighbour and childhood friend, as she is the only person on the planet whose genes will render the virus inert in their offspring, a quality that will be passed on to subsequent generations. Unfortunately, Raito’s was not the only mission dispatched from the future, as there are many people who have made massive profits due to the virus, and they’re looking to protect their assets, so they send an agent of their own to make sure Yuu has children with somebody other than his neighbour.
Given that the entire premise of this manga is centred around sex, this one is pretty low key up to this point. I enjoy the uniqueness of the story, something best described as The Terminator mixed with Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan. It has potential to go into some very dark moral territory, arguably it already has, with the methodology that Raito has taken to complete his mission; not to mention the opposing agent, who literally hypnotizes girls at Yuu’s school to rape him. This is certainly an odd one of questionable morals, but they have so far managed to play it for laughs and will be something at least I will be keeping my eye on.
Everybody wears a mask to cover up what they’re true desires, a wolf in sheep’s clothing if you will, and Douchinji Youichi is no exception. He is constantly daydreaming about things that he wants to say or do, but never acts on his desires. Until one evening, on his way home from school, he looks up to see the moon has turned blood red and then a girl comes out of nowhere and punches him right in the face with silver knuckles. When he wakes up the next morning, he writes it off as a weird dream, but when there’s a new transfer student in his class, Akatsuki Ayame, he can’t help but think he’s seen her somewhere, though he can’t put his finger on it. He discovers that evening that Ayame was indeed the face-punching girl, and she reveals that her silver knuckles draw out the “wolf”- a person’s hidden desires- out from the “sheep”- the mask worn to keep the wolf in check. When the wolf grows too large for the sheep, the person can see the world of the red moon, a realm where rampaging wolves dwell in the form of monsters. Ayame informs Youichi that she doesn’t have a sheep, her thoughts and desires are laid bare all the time, and enlists him to stand in as her sheep.
At its most base form, Kurenai no Ookami to Ashikase no Hitsuji is a supernatural monster fighting manga, but it adds a psychological edge to what would normally be a bland, run-of-the-mill series. Not to mention the art and writing have been phenomenal so far (as of this writing, it is only one chapter in, albeit a 65 page one). This is certainly a manga that I want to do well, and will be waiting with bated breath for the next chapter to be released.
In the future, an energy source called “Life” has become extremely important. There are special individuals that are able to synchronize with devices called Sai in order to extract and manipulate Life to give themselves superhuman abilities; these are the Sai Takers. Even rarer are the Original Takers, people who contract with magical artefacts, absorb life directly into their bodies without the use of Sai and, as long as they have a supply of Life, are unkillable, though if they ever run out, they die instantly. This is the world of Sai Taker: Futari no Artemis.
After the death of his parents Nanase Kyouya, was taken in by Igarashi Kyouka and Yuma. Yuma is a Sai Taker, and Kyouka is an Original Taker, but Nanase, despite being physically normal, seems to have zero compatibility with Sai. One day, while viewing tests on a new artificial magical artefact, there is a terrorist attack on the facility, and Nanase is mortally wounded. In a desperate attempt to save his life, Kyouka contracts him to the prototype artefact, Artemis, despite its untested nature and possible side effects. Fortunately for Nanase, the device saves his life and transforms him into an Original Taker to boot. Unfortunately, however, it transformed him into the form of a girl. All issues with suddenly changing your gender aside, he/she must never remove the Artemis device lest his/her life begin to drain rapidly. As Original Takers are encouraged to keep their identities secret, Nanase must now attend the training academy for Sai Takers and attempt to maintain his guise, and also, you know, not die.
As some of you may have guessed from the artwork, this is a series from the creator of Freezing, IM Dal-Young, built on wacky comedic hijinks, something that many of his previous works are not. At all. Never having seen a comedy from the author is by no means a reason to reject this right away, but certainly a reason to temper your expectations. Within the first couple chapters, you already have bloody injuries and death, so I wouldn’t expect the rest of the series to be bright and cheery. However, the artwork is pristine, the writing is polished, and there is definitely a solid groundwork down for a gender bender harem comedy to come out of this, so check it out and let me know what you think. I’m honestly not sure what to make of this.
Well. That got a little bleak at the end, didn’t it? Here’s a funny video:
Awesome work again.