My Beloved Lady

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The other reviewer obviously didn't grasp what they were reading, even a little, and their assessment that the piece was empty of meaning or value or merit is incredibly unfair. Even calling it hentai at all simply because it has sexual content at its core proves the reviewer's failure to understand the author's intent or even the genre of the work.

To be clear: this is a work of SURREALIST HORROR. The sexual content isn't meant to arouse, it's not "sick and twisted" out of some extreme fetish --the effect on the reader of making them feel disturbed and disgusted is fully intentional. Much like the ... legendary H.R Giger, who also worked in the surrealist horror genre and made extensive use of sexual imagery, the point is to assault the reader's sense of the natural order and well-being through vulnerable vectors like sexuality and gore in order to induce intense visceral reactions.

The work is crafted to use shock and revulsion and insane levels of outrageous strangeness to shake the reader's sense of reality and normality and orientation within a world that makes sense. It's not meant to be a pleasant experience, quite the opposite it's meant to assault your mind with disorienting violations of the fundamentals of reality in order to leave you in a profoundly disturbed state akin to vertigo. The more messed up you feel after reading it, the more effectively the author / artist has done his job.

Surrealist horror is certainly not a genre for everyone, especially when it's as extreme as this. This is the very outer fringe of an already niche genre, and so it's only suitable for those who want and are prepared for that kind of content and the intense experience it provides.

If you are one of those surrealist horror junkies for whom too much is never enough, or just curious about how crazy it can get on the ragged fringe of the darkest corners of the human imagination, then step right up you are in for one hell of a ride. Everyone else, I very much suggest heeding the content disclaimers and look for something a bit milder than the equivalent of ghost pepper salsa.

Every so often, you happen across a manga that breaks all conventions of the medium and creates something that will be remembered fondly for years to come. Unfortunately, My Beloved Lady is NOT one of those mangas. Instead, it's one of the many obscure one-shot mangas that reinforces the stereotype that Japan is a land of cringe-inducing fetishes and pure, unadulterated weirdness.

STORY

The story follows a young woman who's kicked out of her family because she's pregnant even though she's a virgin. As it would turn out, there's an interdimensional wormhole in her vagina that causes her to give birth to the babies that another incarnation ... of herself is having because she's a complete and total slut. So she embarks upon a journey through her clownhole just to chase down this other incarnation just to stop her from having so much sex. All the while, other incarnations of herself from alternate universes are chasing them down as well for some bizarre reason. All of this leads to a war between these her and these other versions of herself that goes on for 100 years. All of this happens within the span of 19 pages, by the way.

Before you say anything, I just want you to know that I'm NOT making any of this up. You must wonder what kind of demented mind even bothered to spawn this worthless one-shot in the first place. You wanna know the kicker? I've read Gantz and I'm pretty sure that not even Hiroya Oku would ever come up with something this outrageously bizarre. There is no forethought whatsoever, no logic to any of these actions, or anything of the sort. There is nothing salvageable about this plot whatsoever.

CHARACTERS

Did you honestly expect good characters (or anything remotely passable) to come out of a hentai one-shot? This one-shot fails completely at basic characterisation. Say what you will about hentai, but at least the bulk of hentai on the market manages to tell us *something* of significance about the characters (even if they are just gonna spend 10+ pages fucking). I can't even believe that our protagonist is a good girl to *some* remote degree, it's just one of those traits that we're informed about and are expected to roll with.

ARTWORK

It should be common knowledge by now that hentai can be enjoyable even if it has absolutely nothing in the way of story and characters provided that the actual artwork is pleasing. Guess what? We don't even have so much as that. Nothing is visually appealing about this manga whatsoever and there's not even anything gut-wrenchingly appalling about the artwork either. Character models are bizarrely proportioned, if that's anything worth mentioning.

ENJOYMENT

There is no joy to be found reading My Beloved Lady. This is not a one-shot that's so bad that it's actually funny, it's just plain weird. There is nothing of merit for one to enjoy, nor is there anything gut-wrenchingly appalling for anyone to be viscerally offended by to the point of writing thesis papers on the subject. It's worthless to the core.

OVERALL

One-shots (especailly one-shots that are only one chapter long) are some of the hardest things to write because of the fact that you're trying write a self-contained story within such a short span of time. It takes a lot of time and effort just to make a one-shot, so it completely baffles me as to why there are people out there who decide to spend all of that time just to make something that's completely worthless. Do yourself a favour and just stay away from this one-shot (and other such one-shots of its ilk). Every minute of your life counts. Do you really want to waste precious time reading something like this? I think not. Anyway, that's all for now. Feedback is always welcome so with that, I'm out. Peace :)