Gleipnir

What does one consider to be a monster? A horrible bloodsucking vampire? Frankenstein's creation? Shuichi Kagaya has a secret. Other than having great grades and being skilled at sports, he isn’t what one would call normal. In fact, Shuichi cannot even be considered human.

One fateful morning, he woke up as a monster. With brute strength, an abnormally strong sense of smell, big fluffy paws, and the depression and self-hate that comes after losing one's humanity, his life was suddenly flipped upside down. Claire Aoki, the girl he had decided to save, now holds his secret over his head. Claire is a sadistic and utterly twisted girl, with no sense of empathy toward the lives of others. Before meeting Shuichi, she was in the search of monsters, hoping to find her monster sister. Despite becoming a monster, Shuichi naively continues to hold onto his human morals, but how long can one last in this insufferable way of living?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Gleipnir has been published in English by Kodansha USA since March 19, 2019.

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Gleipnir

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Characters

Aoki, Clair

Main

Kagaya, Shuuichi

Main

Yoshioka, Chihiro

Supporting

Aoki, Elena

Supporting

Alien

Supporting

Mifune, Nana

Supporting

Sanbe, Tadanori

Supporting

Hikawa

Supporting

Koyanagi, Sayaka

Supporting

Subaru

Supporting

Reviews

Dec 4, 2018

Akride

Recommended

Preliminary (30/88 eps)

I see a lot of people being mad about the ambiance, the pantyshots, the "hentaiborder", Claire's weird character etc...
But in the end, the manga is all about that uneasy feeling. You can either accept it and love it, or hate it. You can't rate a manga based on your preferences only. The art is great the synopsis is good (a little cliché i'll give you that) and the writing sometimes gets out of control but it's weird. Most masterpieces are weird. The mainstream ones sure are familyfriendly, but evangelion, made in abyss, ergo proxy etc... it's their aura that made them so good.

"It just works"
...

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Oct 7, 2017

SovietWeeb

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (22/88 eps)

A very eh story with an interesting idea. That fails on multiple levels of some of the most basic stuff.

~~GOOD~~
Monster designs tend to be creative and interesting.
First couple chapters are fairly interesting.
Some decent comedy.

~~ BAD~~
Characters don't act like regular people.
...

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Sep 16, 2016

deadoptimist

Not Recommended

Preliminary (12/88 eps)

In the short span of 12 chapters this manga got my hopes up and died in my eyes, both at the hands of its fanservice. Where I once believed there isn’t a way this can flop, I am left to wonder what I liked in the first place.

Thinking back, it was probably the tension, the ambitious idea, the body horror, the nice reversal of gender tropes and shounen tropes: Gleipnir is structured as shounen, but it’s darker and more cynical, focused on the street brawl “by what means we have” philosophy. I was on board with the raunchy, sketchy art. I even enjoyed the weird ... fanservice, slightly scary, slightly ugly, more sweaty bodies and flapping meat than the usual abstract balloon tits. And all of it was wrapped in a delicious urban legend setting, something with the logic of, say - you find an artifact on a scrapyard, and it works, it’s miraculous, but you probably should not pick it up. *sigh* …yeah, I guess it was a tall task to juggle so much.

So it fell – an overflow of fanservice washed away the magic. In addition to the unusual pandering, and partly instead of it, the author also added the usual type. It is baffling that the scenes, when female protagonist wears the male one (he is a living suit after all, look at the synopsis) are left out, but readers are fed simple pantsu-shots instead. Not to mention that with a girl who is the dick of the relationship in any possible sense and goes around naked a lot, pantsu-shots don’t feel like any sort of arousing transgression. Then there is also purely mindless fanservice, best demonstrated by a reoccurring frame, where they talk about something and suddenly a panel shows the female character’s giant thigh gap with visible vagina outlines, her word bubbles on top, just pointing upward. It doesn’t follow the male MC's pov, and nothing happens with the aforementioned vagina, aside from the fact that it’s suddenly more important than the conversation, so I am not sure why I should bother reading it. It’s heavy stuff too, with nipples always outlined and clitoris hinted through panties.

The incessant need for titillating material has already brought the female MC’s character to ruin, she’s been reduced to a psychotic nymphomaniac (acting crazy for the sake of crazy), which doesn’t bode well for the manga progression: the male MC is yet a non-character (he’s just got to the brooding part), and it’s her motivation which had to be the focus of the first part of the story.

The oft unnecessary fanservice is stalling, robbing the series of its momentum. By the 12th chapter there’s been plenty of sexual teasing, but we know nothing of the characters’ living conditions or interests. The world of monsters is being built bit by bit, but because of the padding the process is slow.

I am not sure about the supposed tactical approach to fighting, it doesn’t seem so clever lately. To be frank, even my positive stance on the art changed, I am perfectly fine with impressionist and untidy manga styles, but human anatomy here gets seriously messed up, and I am getting increasingly disappointed by how boring the unusual is portrayed. The art is not so good from the fanservice point of view as well – it’s not conventionally pretty, it displays a strange fascination with saggy tits, and the heroine’s bust size shifts from frame to frame (would be confusing to fap to, I suppose).

I’ve wanted to review this manga for a while, but in the end I have to write not what I hoped for. I guess, I am venting, sorry. Let’s wrap it up. So:
can I recommend this manga currently? It can be useful for those looking for very specific fetishes – living fursuit, girl entering her male partner, abusive teasing from female partner, saggy tits. But to a broad reader – no, it's borderline readable, but currently a mess. I allow for the possibility that it may improve to some degree, but I am hard pressed to imagine how the damage could be undone.

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Poll: Gleipnir Chapter 71 Discussion MegamiRem - Nov 26, 2021	4 replies	by HibiChika »» Feb 15, 10:58 AM
Poll: Gleipnir Chapter 70 Discussion MegamiRem - Oct 21, 2021	6 replies	by HibiChika »» Feb 15, 10:34 AM
Poll: Gleipnir Chapter 62 Discussion Marinate1016 - Feb 19, 2021	8 replies	by HibiChika »» Feb 13, 1:46 PM
Poll: Gleipnir Chapter 60 Discussion FANTOMX - Jan 9, 2021	8 replies	by HibiChika »» Feb 13, 12:40 PM
Poll: Gleipnir Chapter 59 Discussion Stark700 - Dec 12, 2020	5 replies	by HibiChika »» Feb 13, 12:13 PM

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