Mar 13, 2024
For those who've read/watched Call of the Night (aka Yofukashi no Uta), this manga is literally just that same plot done again but swap the vampires with ogres, put it in a college setting, spice it up with some yuri, throw in a stupidly vast showcase of different alcoholic beverages for good measure and you got yourself 'Alcohol and Ogre-girls'. All jokes aside this manga is nothing less than adorable.
The dynamic between the two lead girls is executed brilliantly. They're both plunged into the ironic power dynamic where Hinata Ibuki, the all-powerful ogre-girl and social butterfly, is solely reliant upon Naori Shida to provide her
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sustenance, who's a weak human and is extremely introverted in comparison. In this world, ogres can only feed off of alcohol that is willingly offered by a human, so Naori who happens to be an alcohol otaku, appoints herself to keep Hinata's identity as an ogre a secret whilst acting as her personal bartender. The story puts a lot of focus on subverting the initial presumptions one could make on these two characters. This means giving a lot of moments for Naori the meek human, to show off her courage and on the contrary moments for Hinata the seemingly invincible ogre-girl to reveal her insecurities. This creates a much appreciated depth to both characters and their dynamic of the two of them relying on one another in order to improve themselves is just perfect.
At first, the alcohol aspects felt like a lazy tack on, I for one thought that the plot didn't need alcohol to be the gimmick and that just having ogre-girls sufficed on its own, but strangely enough the random remarks about any given alcoholic beverage of a chapter becomes something to be expected and thus, something to look forward to. It's almost like the checkpoint in a chapter and seeing the characters expressive reactions to drinking them is always cute to see and the love for the hobby from the characters is infectious.
My only major complaint would be that new characters are just coming and going. As of writing, we're getting introduced to a lot of new characters in a pretty short span of chapters. Before the manga has the chance to flesh any of these new characters out, they're suddenly sidelined for newer characters to take their place; the story feels like it lost a lot of its focus because of this. The story on its own is not bad but its nothing to write home about either. It started off as pretty basic but it's slowly unraveling into something more interesting as the plot becomes more ambitious with new plot points and new characters piling up on each other. The manga is still in its early infancy as a series so I'd still give it the benefit of the doubt.
To add additional remarks, the art style is very soft and pleasing to look at while still managing to still look dramatic when it needs to be. However, for a series where alcohol is a prominent theme and is in the name, I expected the drinks to be (for the lack of a better word) more animated in the panels. Most of them are just a solid colour of liquid with a single condiment added which I think is kinda underwhelming, they definitely could've been presented to look a lot more visually appealing. Overall, 'Alcohol and Ogre-girls' is an enjoyable read. It has some mature themes told in a rather wholesome and light-hearted tone (For the most part). I'd recommend anyone whose even remotely interested to go give it a shot* (pun was not intended).
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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