With more people reading manga and Webtoons (aka vertical scroll comics) than ever before, Beat’s Bizarre Adventure gives three writers an opportunity each week to recommend some of their favorite books and series from Japan, Korea, and elsewhere. This week we have maids, monsters girls, and, of course, matchmaking.
Maid Sama!
Writer/Artist: Hiro Fujiwara
English Adaptation: Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane
Translation: JN Productions
Touch-Up Art and Lettering: Joanna Estep
Design: Yukiko Whitley
Editor: Amy Yu
Publisher: VIZ
Time to cover a manga that was all the rage back in 2010 when the anime adaptation came out, and whose male lead ranks at the top of many fans’ lists of handsome faces. That’s right: we’re talking about Maid Sama!
Seika High was once an all-boys school. While it’s now co-ed, not many girls attend since the rowdy boys terrify them. Misaki Ayuzawa, the first female president, is determined to make the school a better place for girls. She rules with an iron fist and studies hard so that she’s at the top of her class both academically and athletically. Unbeknownst to everyone at school, she works part-time at a maid cafe to support her mother and sister after her father left them in debt and abandoned them. That is, until she’s spotted on shift by popular top student Takumi Usui.
Misaki is an assertive and strong female character, which I like. Push her around and she pushes back harder. She’s also a diligent worker. Although her hatred towards men can be extreme, she cares above all for creating a school environment safe for girls to attend. (Later, this evolves into creating a place where everyone wants to go.)
As for Usui, he’s a typical handsome male lead with a mysterious past. As cliche as he is, though, the artist Hiro Fujiwara imbues enough vulnerability into his characterization that he is easy to like. I’ll admit, though, that the scenes where Usui’s sexual harassment of Misaki are brushed off as comic relief haven’t aged well.
Nonetheless, the story is enjoyable with the constant use of chibi characters and Usui’s blunt, alien-like humor. The first few arcs of Maid Sama! are the strongest, where Misaki slowly starts learning to trust Usui and later falls in love with him. While the side characters aren’t as fleshed out as the two main characters, they’re so lovable that it’s not a huge detriment to the story.
If you’re seeking out a high school romcom with a strong female protagonist, give Maid Sama! a try. The anime’s worth a watch, too! — Hilary Leung
Version 1.0.0Monster Musume: Everyday Life With Monster Girls
Writer/Artist: Okayado
Translation: Ryan Peterson
Lettering: M. Victoria Robado
Publisher: Seven Seas
I seem to write about harem manga as much as I do Junji Ito. Yeesh. Regardless, Monster Musume is a fun and funny comedy series by Okayado where monsters—who are mostly women—interact with the human world via an “exchange program.” The lead male character, Kurusu, houses multiple monster girls all of whom fall for him in some fashion through various shenanigans.
His first guests are Mia the lamia (snake-woman), Centorea the centaur and Papi the harpy. As the series goes on, a slime girl, a mermaid, an arachnid and even a headless dullahan are added to the mix. The supporting cast also grows exponentially larger; we even meet monster girls that aren’t part of the main crew once in a while.
Okayado strikes a good balance between comedy and character. With such a large cast you’d think someone would get left behind, but every character is given their own focused arcs and mini-subplots that keep them front and center. Kurusu is perhaps the least developed, but that’s because he’s the kind-hearted reader surrogate who just wants to take care of his friends.
While the monsters pine after Kurusu, he does not pine after them, which makes for an interesting dynamic. No matter how much he tries to stay neutral, the women surrounding him keep teasing him, making him awkward and flustered.
Okayado’s art style is bouncy and has a good rhythm. His character designs are fun too. Yes, they’re sexy and nice to look at as well, which is part of the book’s appeal. But that’s not the full package. I like this series a lot and I have no problem recommending it. Monster girls are great! — Derrick Crow
Miss Pendleton
Originally Created By: Yu Hyemin
Artist: kkomak
Platform: WEBTOON
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a well-read romance fan must be in want of their faves ending up together. The tension between the leads is what keeps them alive after all. Thus, one could say that Ms. Pendleton is living a romance fan’s dream. She is a well-known and highly regarded matchmaker in London. Despite being in servitude to the romantic endeavors of others, she lives with her grandmother and steers clear of entanglements herself.
Then Mr. Fairfax, a close acquaintance, asks for a favor: that she accompany his dear friend Ian Dalton during his stay in London. Ian’s older sister and Fairfax desire to see this taciturn and glass-half-empty type of man find someone who can melt his face of ice. That’s where Ms. Pendleton comes in!
Miss Pendleton appeared as a recommendation at the end of another webtoon I was reading. I thought, “Well, why not,” not expecting anything out of it. I was not ready to be swept off my feet, but I was.
A lot of female romantic leads say they aren’t “like other girls,” when what that means is that they are cross for the sake of it. Laura Pendleton though is a smart and perceptive character, more so than most of the noble men. She doesn’t match people for her own self-satisfaction, and she extends her full support to women looking for a way to exist outside the context of marriage or family.
So far, the misunderstandings in this series aren’t too on the nose yet and Laura’s budding friendship with Ian is so fulfilling to read. The only shortcoming of Miss Pendleton is that there are currently only 12 chapters available to read, which is criminally low. I need more!
If you’re chasing the Jane Austen movie adaptation feeling, you cannot go wrong with Miss Pendleton. It’s soft, witty and pretty inside and out, just like Laura herself. — Merve Giray
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