Ranked #1253

Love Monster (Manga)

Love Monster is a shoujo that left me with bitter memories. I was expecting to find something interesting since it had some good ratings out there and it was recommended to me after reading the brilliant Midnight Secretary.


STORY SECTION;

We have Hiyo, a typical stupid girl who is about to attend to the first grade of High-School. Upon her arrival, she realize that the new school she is attending to, is not a normal school and apparently all of the students are monsters. Of course, monsters in Love Monster means to be a bishie or a bishoujo, mixed with some kind of animal like in Tokyo Mew Mew. So, a bishie with the name Kurou appears in front of her, he has black wings and he says that she is his fiancee.

And the stupidity begins.

Story. What story? All we see is a bunch of random events where Hiyo is doing silly things. In these episodic chapters you will see,

- Hiyo being chased by guys who are trying to rape her.
- Hiyo being always saved by her fiance like the Mary Sue she is.
- Hiyo befriending the guys who tried to rape her and she tries to help them.
- Hiyo being molested by her mega-perverted fiance.
- The popular-pretty girl hating Hiyo.
- Everyone talking about Hiyo's special power.

At first I thought it would be a dark shoujo and I didn't let the artwork to fool me. But no, it turned out to be a light silly shoujo, mainly directed towards middle-school students. And don't expect any smutty scenes; The first volumes has some soft ecchi and that is all. The chapters are all random and they do not serve to proceed to the main 'plot' at all.

While the first part is totally silly and random, the second part is trying to reach more serious levels but it fails again. It seems that the author wanted to make things more melodramatic and add some serious elements. The first part introduced us monsters who apparently look like humans. In the second part, we get to know vampires and deities and the new setting looks similar to China which it was totally random. Also the typical cliche of "The one I love is looking at some other girl" could not be missing. The manga is full of cliches that will annoy you. (Although not always cliches are bad, it's just that Love Monster is bad). So in the end, the goal of this story is for the 'bad guys' to get Hiyo because she has a special power and eventually to rape her.

The romance is quite shallow. Do not expect anything deep, ex. Bride of the Water God. Of course, since it is light, the romance is portrayed with comical elements. Kurou is saying some sweet words whenever, but it will annoy you when he constantly saves the helpless Hiyo.


CHARACTERS SECTION;

All of the characters are typical for the usual shoujo genre. Hiyo is your cute girl with the big eyes who looks like a middle-schooler. She will annoy you because she constantly needs help and she is too naive and loud. She is doing a lot of silly things, like getting on good terms with the guys who try to rape her or daydreaming like million times. If you are familiar with Karin from Kamichama Karin; She is something like that.

I would say the same about Kouro, he doesn't differ from the typical, mysterious main lead for shoujo manga. While he portrays an arrogant and rude personality, you can see him that he is very devoted to Hiyo. And apparently he has girls who want him and they hate Hiyo because he loves her. But he will always save her, how boring. Kouro has 2 good friends who seems more interesting than Hiyo and himself but they barely get any development. They are just there.

Through all the chapters, many characters are introduced and eventually you forget about their names and them. They aren't developed either and they just serve for some idiotic purpose in those episodic chapters.
And now you wonder about the villains. Well, the villains do not look like villains because they are not 'evil' enough if you get what I mean. They are so comical and their objective is always the same and gets tiring. Once again, originality=zero.


ARTWORK SECTION;

The artwork is decent but nothing great. If it was smut like I was informed, it would not match but since it is a light shoujo it is fine. You will see almost every girl having huge eyes, every guy having the typical bishie appearance and so on. There is some nudity but it is not graphical at all.


If you are 12-13 years old, I suppose you will love this shoujo. The older audience will find it ridiculous like me. read more

Love Monster was a great shoujo manga. If you like the romance type, with funny characters, and a serious plot on the side then you're gonna love this manga. The story revolves around a girl named Hiyo who goes to a school for monsters where you meet Kurou who is one of the leading monsters in the monster society because he is a crow. One of my favorite parts about the manga was learning all about his past with Hiyo and seeing their relationship evolve into something much, much bigger than the two of them.

Later in the series you find out what their destiny and the fates that they're meant to follow and it honestly just kind of melts your heart when you see how much they truly love each other.I would have liked to see a little more character developement from some of the characters especially Hiyo, but I loved all of them just as much with or without it. What can I say? I'm a sucker for love. -_-"

The ending is one of the cheesiest I've seen in a shoujo manga, but you really love it because it fits with the whole story. It's completely cute and adorable so I recommend this series for anyone who just wants to feel all warm and fuzzy inside at the end. ^^ read more