Shinryakumono De Manga (シンリャクモノデ)

February 9th, 2014

I discovered Takemoto Izumi first with his pin-up super spy series, Transistor Ni Venus. (For which I even wrote a fanfic, I was so charmed.) I then spent some time puzzling over his series Sakura no Kiwa, completely befuddled as to why I didn’t hate it. ^_^: Takemoto-sensei has been churning out ever so many series for a number of different publishers, but something about this series totally hit my funny bone. And so, here we are at Volume 1 of Shinryakumono De  (シンリャクモノデ).

The title can be translated as “Invaders” or “Aggressors,” but as is completely typical of Takemoto-sensei’s work, his idea of “aggression” is sillier, more random and fluffier than most people’s.

The story takes place on an Earth-like planet, we shall say, and every chapter begins with a reminder that we have been invaded throughout time. Each chapter follows an “invasion” that varies widely. In one case, a lizard detective and his human assistants track down ghosts in a haunted house, or a high school student watches as the sky rips open and giant seed appears on the school grounds. The seed opens to allow a sheep to wander out, and is replaced with another  seed that contains a giant hairy monster, which, when told to go away, does. A third seed appears and an alien girl comes out, not to invade, per se, but to apologize and lay a kiss on the heroine of the story.

This alien appears again later, in a story in which a high school girl, who is much admired by her female schoolmates, finds her bedroom invaded by cat-sized animal-eared girls. The alien appears once more to apologize for the inconvenience, retrieve the “invaders” and bestow a kiss.

Another “invader” is a species of ivy…a chapter with which I really sympathized. We have ivy on the house. It really does invade. A tentacle monster “invades” a beach party, but its only act of aggression is to repeatedly move the girls’ luggage to the beach across the bay. In the final story a girl awakens to her memories and powers of being a god, sorta, kinda.

Ratings:

Art – If you like his goofy art style, 9, if not, less
Story – Variable, I’d say it averages at 8. Perfect bedtime reading for me
Characters – Sadly, there’s not much chance to really get to know them, since the volume is all shorts
Yuri – Mild, the alien girl and the girls crushing on Yuki. Let’s say 3
Service – Some light “pretty girls are pretty” service, but his is not a truly service-y art style

Overall – 8

The entire thing is enjoyably wtf.

4 Responses

  1. Mara says:

    Yay another Takemoto Izumi book. Although this reminds me that I have yet to find a few Transistor Ni Venus books yet. If anyone knows were one can find a copy of volumes 3 or 4 do not keep quiet about it.

    It is nice to hear that Shinryakumono De keeps to the tradition of being the antithesis of ‘This is Serious Business’ stories that get way too po-faced for my liking. Also it is nice to see in this book that Takemoto’s lizard person design will be a good guy and not a jerk like in their other stories.

  2. Bruce P. says:

    I’m looking forward to getting my copy of this. Takemoto Izumi is happily mad. Dali had clocks; Takemoto-sensei has girls, aliens, and cats. This one sounds particularly fun.

    Mara – I happen to have an extra copy of TnV Volume 4 that you are welcome to. If you could let me know through Erica your mailing address I’d be happy to send it to you.

Leave a Reply to Bruce P.