Hinako’s family died in a tragic accident. Most of what she remembers is falling into the deep, deep ocean. So when, one day, she stops to look at the sea, she feels profound emotions. As something bubbles up from below, a girl with eyes the color of the ocean gains her attention.  The next time she walks by the water, that something rises. A sea creature attempts to drag Hinako down, but the girl shows up again and explains that she is not human. As scales and claws appear on her, she fights off the creature, then tells Hinako that she will protect her, until Hinako has matured….and then she will eat Hinako.

The next day that girl appears as transfer student in her class. Oumi Shiori, explains to Hinako that her flesh is – or will be – exceptionally delicious and she has claimed it for herself. She can see that Hinako wants to die, but she won’t let that happen…yet.

Watashi o Tabetai, Hito de Nashi, Volume 1 (私を喰べたい、ひとでなし) is a millefeuille of a school-life drama wrapped around a dark story of depression and loss, wrapped around a subversion of the Japanese fairytale of mermaids, whose flesh, if eaten, is delicious and brings immortality; wrapped in a youkai story. And in a mere 162 pages, Naekawa Sai hits the nail on every one of these. This story is as tight and dry as a drum-head.

If you ask me if I like horror, I will vociferously tell you that I do not. I don’t enjoy being startled (adrenaline and I have a long, unpleasant history) and I don’t care to be grossed out. But there is a note of psychological horror I don’t mind, monsters are fine and, above all, good writing can make a heck of a difference. The end of this volume contains a scene so creepy and violent that I ought to have been both startled and a little grossed out, but both art and story work so beautifully that it was merely a breathtakingly excellent scene.

So, if you do like horror, I hope you will give this series a try and I’ll can shake to see if anyone at Yen might consider licensing this, because, honestly, it is damn good and dark.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Solid, but really favors blood-spatter on Shiori’s face
Story – 8 Intriguing and dark in different ways
Characters – 7 We hardly know them, yet. I feel like there’s a lot left to learn
Service – Blood. Violence. Monsters From the Deep. Secrets.
Yuri – Hinako’s BFF is possessive, Shiori is infatuating

Overall – 8

I’m hooked. (This is an entirely inappropriate fish pun.) You can get Volume 1 and Volume 2 in print and digital now. I think you should.

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?  ^_^

Nao saw a stage performance when she was in middle school and she was simply blown away by it. Now, a first-year in college, she very much wants to be an actress. Haruka, a second-year college student has just decided to quit acting. Unbeknownst to both, their lives will be bound together in Kimi ni Tsumugu Boukaku, Volume 1 ( 君に紡ぐ傍白).

This full-color manga by Yasaka Syu is a surprisingly gentle meeting of two people going in opposite directions past the same goal. It will probably not surprise anyone when it turns out that Haruka was the performer who so influenced Nao, but it did surprise me that their differences are not particularly a source of conflict. Haruka supports Nao’s choices and is happy for her when she gets the role. Nao is sad she won’t see Haruka perform again, but understands how that goes. And all of that is secondary to the relationship, the friendship into more, that is building between them.

Because there is so little conflict, I’d recommend this series for a nice girl-meets-girl story, but for one thing. The art is much too moe for my taste, the character look that timelessly infantile that simplified art style favors. I’d vastly prefer this story if it were graced with an art style that captured the actual ages of the characters as we are told them. If you like the uncomplicated facial features (and accompanying lack of facial gesture and expression of the oeuvre,) then you will probably enjoy this. I felt that it robs the concept of “acting” right out of the middle of the story, to be honest. They can’t “act”…they have only simplified faces.

What did honestly surprise me was that the series is not a one-and-done; this volume pretty much ends when it ends. I’m not put off by it, but I have to imagine that the story must shift away from meet cute /mate cute to something more substantial in Volume 2, which has been out since March, and Volume 3 which will be out next month.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Adequate, but not a style I feel suits the story
Story – 7 Pleasant girl meets girl
Characters – 7 Earnest
Service – 1? Bathing, some mild, partial nudity
Yuri – 8

Overall – 7

You will be able to tell me what you think in February 2022, when this series comes out in English from Seven Seas as Monologue Woven For You, Volume 1! (I’m still waiting on links from Bookwalker and RightStuf and will add them as they become available, but pre-order is up on Amazon.)