It has been a while since we discussed this series. In 2021, I read and guest reviewer Mariko Shinobu reviewed Kaijuu-iro Shima, a mood, folkloric story that takes place on a small island of the Japanese archipelago in which two young women meet and their pasts and present merge.
This year I had the chance to review Monster-Colored Island, Volume 1 for ANN’s Fall manga guide and was interested once again in this tone-poem of a Yuri manga.
Kon is an island resident who has spent her life alone. Mostly invisible to the other residents, and rejected by the few other children, she lives an “othered” life from the rest of the community. When outsider Furuka shows up, they instantly connect, although neither really knows why. We don’t get much detail in this volume – we don’t really know whether the island’s monster exists, or is Kon is, as she seems to be, the sacrifice to it, or if it is all symbolic. But it doesn’t truly matter, as we do learn that Furuka and Kon have always known they were different from everyone around them in ways that many queer readers will understand and resonate to.
There are some odd handwaves, especially Furuka and Kon “forgetting” how intimate they were, but these plot contrivances serve to heighten the mystery of these two girls and their meeting. It all feels very fated, and possibly more complicated than they know.
I called this a tone poem of a manga. Yes, there is a story, but each scene is more evocative or a feeling, a sensation, rather than telling a linear tale. If you’re enjoying the heavy emotional impact of This Monster Wants To Eat Me, you might find this story to be similar in feel, if not in depth.
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Service – There is, yes
Yuri – 9
Overall – 8
I’m interested to see if this story goes somewhere specific or not.
Thank you to Yen Press and ANN for the review copy for this!
I bought the first volume of this series on the strength of your ANN review, and agree with the bulk of what you say here. The series is a bit of a relief after *This monster wants to eat me*. Maybe.
The dialogue is spare, and in Japanese it’s largely in hiragana with extensive furigana — a pretty quick read. I’m saying this, because I was too impatient to wait for Yen Press to release the next volume, and I got it from Bookwalker.
The second volume gets more complicated, with the involvement of more characters — Furuka’s aunt may have a connection to the island kaiju much like Kon, making the meeting betwen Kon and Furuka yet more fated.
Now I am impatient for volume three, as are, I expect, many Japanese fans.