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Happy Sugar Life
High-schooler Matsuzaka Satou has a reputation for being easy, but one day her lifestyle of sleeping with one boy after another comes to an end. It happens when she meets the child Shio, for whom she is convinced she feels true love for the first time. Satou may seem sweet and innocent, but there is nothing she won’t do to protect their life together, including committing murder. But from where did she acquire the little girl, and how long can their “Happy Sugar Life” together last?
This is a story about love. But not in the sense of “Let’s get married and live our lives together” but more along the lines of “I will stalk you and watch you as you sleep at night, breathing heavily.” This story is about Yanderes and it certainly has them of all kinds and sizes. What you are going to get out of this depends on whether you like dark stories like myself. In this case everyone in this story is messed up in some way or another and it brings some great twists to the table. If you watched Mirai Nikki and thought that it would have been more interesting if it focused primarily on Yuno then this is the manga for you. Admittedly the main characters preaching on other characters “Love” is somewhat grating and this does depend a lot on it’s shock value. Still I think it has merit in that there are so few of these kinds of stories pulled off this well.
Jigokukoi; Death Life
Another series by the author of Jigokuren ~Love in Hell~. Set in the same world as Love in Hell but with all new characters.
A love comedy in hell you say? Well this isn’t necessarily a new title as the author has used this setting before in a similarly titled manga. But damn if it isn’t an interesting setting. Basically our protagonist dies and goes to hell. Hell in this universe happens to be everything you expect it to be besides the cute demon girls as it is their job to torture their subject in order to gain some level of status and money. Oh and by torture I really mean that in every sense of the word. If you are not a fan of gore you would do better to stay away from this as it does not hold back with it’s artwork. There’s people getting skinned alive, having their intestines nailed to a wall and even chopping off…yeah that’s too painful for me to even type. Regardless of the damage inflicted, once a person dies they just revert back to their old selves and thus the torture can begin anew. Despite how dark the subject material sounds this is actually more of a dark comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I would recommend reading the prequel to this as I am not too fond of the new characters dynamic. The best comparison i could make for this is that it’s like Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan.
Niehime to Kemono no Ou
Saliphie, the 99th sacrifice to the terrifying demon king, learns two secrets about the king: The first, that he has been letting the sacrifices go in secret. The second, that half of his blood is that of a human. She gets to know the king’s kindness and sorrow, and then it’s announced that the king has taken Saliphie, who wishes to become a source of energy for the king, as his queen, and…?
Well it’s beauty and the beast without the stockholm syndrome. This is an odd choice for me as I generally don’t go for these kinds of stories. However I must admit that their is something rather charming about this one. Maybe I just like the Dynamic between the king and the sacrifice girl as he tends to act menacingly while the girl just sees right through him. Plus i really love the design of the king and the setting of the monster kingdom. Of course there may be those of you being put off by the fact that the King is a lion and that this story looks like beastitly. Don’t worry, the king has a human form and their relationship is not sexual. I am not exactly crazy about this one but I admit that I rather enjoy reading it. It’s a very warm and fuzzy love story.
Canaria-tachi no Fune
Yuri is just a normal girl in high school: she loves hanging out with her friends, she has dreams, and she has worries. But one day, she wakes up in a strange forest she’s never seen before beside a man named Chihiro. As the two of them learn more about the place they suddenly find themselves in, and the oddly real dream they had of being abducted by aliens, the dark secret of where they are and what has happened to them will begin to unfold.
A man and a girl find themselves on an Alien planet without any real knowledge of why they are there. Once again this is a pretty dark story as the two come to terms with their alien surroundings. Artwork is great and so far the story has had some interesting turns. Might need a bit more time to show where it really is going but the general mental breakdown of the protagonists is enough to keep me intrigued.
Kangoku Jikken
Eyama Aito, a high school student, is the victim of daily bullying. One day a strange letter arrives inviting him to a “captivity game.” He may choose one person to hold captive for one month with a chance at winning a large amount of money. He chooses the ringleader of his bullies, Aya Kirishima, and the only rule of the game is to not kill her. Everything else is fair game. Eyama’s revenge begins!
Another dark concept to add to the mix. The bully and bullied which places when a boy enters the girl that torments him in a game. The rules of the game are simple, enter a name and that person will be abducted and held in a facility for one month. In that one month the one who entered the name can do absolutely anything to the victim. As long as it doesn’t kill the victim or remove their ability to speak then anything is fair game. However at the end of each week the victim is given an opportunity to guess the name of their capturer. If they guess right they get 10 million yen paid by capturers pocket. If they fail to guess the name in that month then the victim pay the capturer 10 million yen. What makes this one interesting is that their are others in the game as well who take part for different reasons.Our protagonist looks to be someone who is a potential sadist and has at least some degree of intelligence. I am hoping it doesn’t pull the rape card as that would be cheap however so far it looks like it’s sticking to just physical and psychological abuse. It might need some time before we can really see where it goes but for now I am rather fascinated.
Other Notable New works
Goblin Slayer
Shinyaku Marchen
Wombs
Bokura no Fushidara
Unbalance School Life
Kami-sama, Ki-sama o Koroshitai
Escaflowne’s art came to mind.
Thank you for the reviews. I was just hunting for some new and interesting manga! Now I have found some because of you. It seems like we have similar taste. I am looking forward to more of your “Manga Spotlight” articles!