Kouga is a woman who wants to make a difference. She wants to be part of the elite Special Hazardous Waste Disposal team – the team that fights the Dynamis, an inhuman form of mental and physical pollution.  Kouga joins Sawada, a tough as nails supervisor and eventually, they are joined by their American counterpart, Leone, Leo to her friends. Kouga is likable, Sawada’s the jaded veteran, Leo is a study in contrasts.

In Volume 1 of SHWD, by sono.N, the monsters are huge, but the women are large, strong and up to the task.

The details of what, specifically, the Dynamis are, is wholly unimportant to me at this point. If they become more interesting, along the order of Silent Mobius‘s Lucifer Hawks, that’s fine, but right now they are those inhuman baddies that poison human minds.

This is a series that gives us something we rarely see, even in action series – beefy, large, muscular women. When we meet Sawada, she’s doing one-armed pushups on a dumbbell. Kouga out-masses her by a lot. She, Leo and Sawada are large-bodied, large-chested, large-muscled women who fight to save people from an enemy that drives them mad. In this volume, we get a single page back story on Kouga, and instantly understand her issue with the Dynamis is personal. And we do see Kouga take her enemy head on – along with Sawada’s knife skills and Leo’s marksmanship – with a giant fucking ax. ^_^ 

There’s a fair dollop of love for the women’s bodies in this series, and a bathing scene, so we can appreciate them up close and personal. None of this is done coyly – this series is a love letter to huge, muscular woman. I really enjoy the heck out of it, from the very first time I encountered it at Comitia as doujinshi series, to this collected volume.

Clearly we’re going to get more of Sawada’s story and Kouga’s experiences. There’s no Yuri here in Volume 1, but I can see Sawada and Kouga going there eventually… .I peeked at the next chapter last night and yep. Kouga’s really cute about it, too. ^_^ Here in V1, the extended backstory we get is Leo’s.

Where this book is likely to go, I’m not sure, but I hope it takes us somewhere fun. In the meantime, you can read the original doujinshi this series is from in English from Lilyka! So if you’re looking for women with shoulders big enough to handle the burden of the task ahead of them, talk a look at the first 5 doujinshi, the 1st year anniversary and the Sports Day Edition of SHWD on Lilyka or, if you want to check it out in Japanese, take a look at the Comic Ruelle & Comic Jardin site where new chapters can be sampled.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Honestly great, despite kind of being exaggerated in a bunch of different ways.
Story – 7 Solid action story storytelling
Characters – 8 Also exaggerated, but fun.
Service – 5 Yep No nipples or genitalia, but lots of nekkid women with massive shoulders.
Yuri – Not yet, but shortly.

Overall – 8

I picked this and a few other Yuri series from up Comic Ruelle & Comic Jardin when they ran what they labeled their Heterdox Yuri Festival, including Sal Jiang’s Black & White, which I adored. This promotional name has absolutely delighted me, so I kept all of the inserts in all the books, just because they make me smile. ^_^ Yay for Yuri that bucks the trends and gives us strong women who look like they can lift you with one hand.

Bet on Sawada’s backstory being that her partner/lover was polluted by the Dynamis and attacked Sawada, so she had to kill her?  ^_^