"Inside Mari" Review

(Before we get started, YES, I know this is the visual for the cover of Vol. 2, but this was the most reasonably-sized "Inside Mari"-related image that Google Images could get me.)

That being said, we now come to our final manga review of the year, for Shuzo Oshimi's "Inside Mari".

This creator has already given us the psychological horror greats of "Happiness" and "The Flowers of Evil", so this reviewer came into this series with slightly-higher expectations than usual.

The blurbs made it sound like this would be just another body-swap manga, but, then again, this is Shuzo Oshimi we're talking about; surely it can't be that simple.

And it isn't.

Our ostensible hero Isao Komori is a college dropout NEET who yearns for a chance to go back and build himself a better life from back in high school.  And, speaking of high school, he has also gotten into the habit of noticing a certain high school girl at the local mini-mart now and then.

And here we have the first point where we begin to deviate from the formula.

Isao, for all his faults, is not a pervert (at least, not yet, anyway).  He does not lust after this girl, this Mari Yoshizaki.  He does not desire her physically or even approach or talk to her.  He knows how this could be misconstrued and how any physical attraction he might feel towards her would be wrong.  And, when he does find himself in her body the next day, he makes no attempt to look at her naked or watch her body urinate or in the bathtub or anything like that.

Normally, any male character in a body-swap manga would be doing exactly those things (to a degree), which is quite refreshing, given the "played for horror" perverted nature of Oshimi's male protagonist back in "The Flowers of Evil".

And another deviation is that, when Isao in Mari's body confronts his own former body at the mini-mart, it is NOT Mari inside!  We don't exactly know who it is, but whoever it is does not react like the body-stolen Mari-turned-Isao would react.

Mari.  Is.  Gone.

And thus begins the main conflict of the story: navigating a strange new social landscape in a new body, while keeping a secret, while trying to find out what happened to the soul/mind/spirit of the real Mari Yoshizaki.

That's right-this change between bodies isn't a body-swap.  It's an outright takeover!

This series moves about as slowly as "The Flowers of Evil" did, but that's a small price to pay for an interesting twist on the body-swap story, not to mention Oshimi's usual artistic flair and horror writing style.

Volumes One through at least Three are out in English now at your local bookstore, so here's another shining review from yours truly!

Have a great rest of the year!

Ain't She Cute?

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Ms. Kuroe Akaishi, the heroine of today's reviewed manga "Kaiju Girl Carmelise".

But don't let her looks fool you-she can transform into a massive, city-destroying beast.

And I'm not talking figuratively!

You see, for some unknown reason, whenever she becomes stressed, Kuroe here begins a slow transformation into a giant, scaly, Godzilla-esque monster.

Sadly, when Kuroe was little, she confessed her feelings to another little boy and her hands turned into claws, leaving both her and the boy in question with serious trauma.

Since then, she has become a bitter and lonely shell, "Psycho-tan" to her classmates.  In this respect, she reminds me very much of Tomoko Kuroki, the socially-awkward heroine of "Watamote".  But all of this changes one day when she catches the attention of local high school modelling pretty boy Minami Arata.

Minami used to be overweight back in the day, so he knows how it can feel to be judged solely on the outside.  He, naturally, sees into the broken heart of Kuroe Akaishi and begins to arouse certain feelings within her.

You can see where this is going...

This series was written and drawn by the great Spica Aoki, creator of "Beasts of Abigaile", another great series I liked.  But this series has its share of differences to her previous work.

For example, as of the end of Vol. 1, Kuroe (or "Harugon", as her monster form is known, because the location it first appeared was Harumi Town or the Harumi river, I forget which) seems to be the only person in the world at this time with such a problem.  There is no community of other non-human monsters here for Kuroe to find solidarity and support with.

There is also a tad more humor present in Kaiju Girl Carmelise, from the oblivious Kuroe, caught up in her own lovey-dovey world of imagining Arata-kun, accidentally destroying buildings and getting shot by the army (and not knowing!) to the crazy kaiju fangirl Manatsu, in love with "Harugon", who even sleeps in a bag shaped like Mothra's larva form.

When she/it first appears, Kuroe worries that she/it has come to do battle with her!

And, for those pervs out there like me, we get a lot more fanservice here than we did in "Beasts of Abigaile", Kuroe's clothes never coming along for the ride when she transforms.  And her clothing still runs the risk of damage whenever she transforms, not only when she goes full kaiju.

For example, when she grows a tail she has to hide, we get a gorgeous glimpse of her naked butt cheeks when it sucks back into her, having ruined her gym shorts.

While the series thus far does seem to be running a little thin on plot, such is almost beside the point at this point.

Long story short, for all its well-written characters, its unique premise, and, yes, even the fanservice, Kaiju Girl Carmelise is the first manga series in a long while that I not only want to follow, but actively want to own!  It's in my Amazon Shopping Cart!

But is it in yours?  Let me know!