Maigo no Kemonotachi

[MangaDex]

 

[Pokari]

This is actually pretty dark in places, for all that it's bubbly brainless shoujo stuff a lot of the rest of the time.

Spoiler

The protagonist's best friend dies horribly in the first chapter, off-screen though we get to see her corpse, though her ghost or something like it is around in the second chapter—it amounts to some bizzare mood whiplash.

Somehow I sort of like it, though. The strange mood-shifts are sort of interesting in their own way. It's like being in one of those dreams where all the emotions don't seem to match up with the facts, yet it seems to make sense at the time.

_{(I don't think this effect is intentional, though; it feels much more like lazy writing from an author who was torn between their love of feel-good nonsense and their love of melodrama and the result is just sort of interesting)}

 

[yukiwa]

This is actually really cute, and the art style is cute too. But is it bad that I enjoyed the side story in chapter 4 WAY more? ^^; Read chapter 4 even if you ignore the rest, it's cute and funny. (Ps: the female partner in the harmless Team Rocket-esque "villains" in ch.4 is 100% a Minako/Sailor Venus expy, even down to the bow... And acts just like her hyper 90's anime version. Makes it so much better lol.)

Ed: now available for Kindle here https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/aw/d/B01C8FZPTU/

 

[WestieHana]

Short and sweet read, if you have the time I definitely rec reading it!