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I initially started reading this series due to the fact that it was a New York Times bestseller, and I'm glad I did! I'm not one for fanservice usually, but the series is just so entertaining, I really don't mind it, and actually kind of like it in this series.

I can agree about there getting to be too many monster girls and more will certainly come. Its not that I don't mind there being lots of characters, with the addition of more girls, we lose focus on some of the others, which can be a bit of a problem when my favorite character constantly gets pushed to the side.

It's a fun series, albeit very trashy, but it revels in that label, and is all the better because of it.

I really enjoy this series for the character interactions and seeing how monster girls would simply exist in society, and of course all the nudity. But then, it's not like there's really any kind of driving plot, it's a slice of life series. Some of the best chapters were just them doing normal things, but the abnormal accentuated by their non-human qualities. Adding on too man characters does become and issue when ones you don't care about so much get too much focus, but the author does a good job of trying to keep everyone involved and on screen.

Unlike Centuar's Worries, there's quite a bit more variety of monster in this series, digging deep into the encyclopedia. Since it's a bestseller and does well in Japan, it's only a matter of time before it gets an anime.

I've... been cheating a bit on this one, reading ahead on scanlations, and so far, that means another addition to the harem (though she's a bit more subtle and ambigious about her attraction than the other girls.)

I like this manga, but I have some problems with it.

1. The whole thing where the girls -- yes, there are also supposedly male monster people, but I've yet to actually meet any of them -- aren't allowed to move outside on their own outside of special cases. This creates a bit of an iffy undertone of dominance, even if this male lead is kind of a pushover in this case. While this makes sense in SOME cases; like, sadly, Miia, who is prone to lashing out at people for being rude, and severely hurting her host on several cases. But it creates this situation where the monster people are completely at the mercy of their hosts' whims. Sure, it's also illegal to abuse the monster people, but if that's the case, I would very much have liked seeing what happened to spoiler[Rachnera's host family, who sold her to a rather despicable excuse for a man].

2. Why did they have to make it a harem? This is one case where I would have welcomed the ridiculousness of so and so many identical brothers somehow finding themselves subliminal girlfriends, like in Oyakado's former work whom I'm pretty sure played a large part in the creation of Monster Musume; the "Living with..." series.

Come to think of it, I do remember male monster people; the orcs/pig men in one of the side stories centered around the all-female SWAT-ish team of special agents. That was a fun little distraction that I hope the manga uses more often in the future. spoiler[Their dealings with the stalker case and the presumably addition to the harem aside.]

Oh, and Meroune's fetish is hilarious. The next upcoming volume did a great joke reference on "My Little Mermaid" centered around that fetish, which got a good laugh out of me.

Northlander wrote:

I've... been cheating a bit on this one, reading ahead on scanlations, and so far, that means another addition to the harem (though she's a bit more subtle and ambigious about her attraction than the other girls.)

I like this manga, but I have some problems with it.

1. The whole thing where the girls -- yes, there are also supposedly male monster people, but I've yet to actually meet any of them -- aren't allowed to move outside on their own outside of special cases. This creates a bit of an iffy undertone of dominance, even if this male lead is kind of a pushover in this case. While this makes sense in SOME cases; like, sadly, Miia, who is prone to lashing out at people for being rude, and severely hurting her host on several cases. But it creates this situation where the monster people are completely at the mercy of their hosts' whims. Sure, it's also illegal to abuse the monster people, but if that's the case, I would very much have liked seeing what happened to spoiler[Rachnera's host family, who sold her to a rather despicable excuse for a man].

2. Why did they have to make it a harem? This is one case where I would have welcomed the ridiculousness of so and so many identical brothers somehow finding themselves subliminal girlfriends, like in Oyakado's former work whom I'm pretty sure played a large part in the creation of Monster Musume; the "Living with..." series.

Come to think of it, I do remember male monster people; the orcs/pig men in one of the side stories centered around the all-female SWAT-ish team of special agents. That was a fun little distraction that I hope the manga uses more often in the future. spoiler[Their dealings with the stalker case and the presumably addition to the harem aside.]

Oh, and Meroune's fetish is hilarious. The next upcoming volume did a great joke reference on "My Little Mermaid" centered around that fetish, which got a good laugh out of me.

They made it harem because its just not practical to have a man with a 100 identical brothers. Even if you get around it being possible for a human to have that many kids at once, the story wants to interact the various monster girls with each other in addition to the main character, which would get logistically tricky if they all lived in separate houses with separate brothers.

Besides at its heart its harem, even his other series, the identical brothers I think is almost more of in universe joke anyway. After what would be the easiest way to satisfy every girl in a harem, split the main character.

Harem is also just the easiest way to explore each of the girls, which was the entire point of the comic strips and of the manga, to get through as many MGs as you could even if they only make a single chapter appearance. There's hundreds of MGs, so you'd need more mangaka making more manga to showcase them all. No one's going to mistake this manga as anything but a humorless and sexy way to delve into the MG fetish as the main driving point, which is why these characters as normal humans would be kind of uninteresting and overused archetypes; but they got non-human parts so it's all fresh and new. It also helps that Miia is neo-Lum (who'd also be a MG, technically) and Cerea is a Tsukiumi-clone, and I dig both of those characters.

Last edited by Snomaster1 on Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:39 pm; edited 1 time in total

While I have few problems with "Monster Musume" overall,one of those problems is a major one. I think that both this one and "A Centaur's Life" gives out way too much information on their fantasy creatures'...uh plumbing. I don't think it was needed and extremely unnecessary. It's a subject best left to our imaginations on how this stuff works. There are some things that better left unknown.

the setup, while a bit wonky, does make for an interesting shakeup. It is a way to talk about cultural exchange, racism, and interracial relationships (though admittedly the author doesn't do it enough). I also like how the races picked aren't the generic moe types; instead he uses more offbeat ones like a lamia, a harpy, a centaur, a slime girl, etc.

A furry's wet dream

Nah, furries like fully furred animals that take on bipedal stances and gain human digits. Monster girls are more of a mix with more human features, several of them straight out of different mythologies. You wouldn't normally think of a centaur or a mermaid as a furry.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:

Nah, furries like fully furred animals that take on bipedal stances and gain human digits. Monster girls are more of a mix with more human features, several of them straight out of different mythologies. You wouldn't normally think of a centaur or a mermaid as a furry.

The accepted definition has been pretty broad for awhile now.

Alt.Fan.Furry Frequently-Asked-Questions Sheet
originally by Jordan Greywolf
Updated by Lynx ([email protected]) as of January 18, 2003

The basic definition for a "furry" is an anthropomorphized animal
character. In other words, an animal character given human-like
attributes, such as sapience and often a humanoid form. The term "furry"
is a misnomer, as a creature does not need to have fur to be "furry" in
this sense. Other terms sometimes interchangeable with a "furry" in this
sense are "zoomorph", "morph", "anthropomorph" or (debatably) "funny
animal".

The core definition of a "furry" seems to include basically humanoid-formed
creatures with animal faces, fur/scale/feathers/whatever, and often
appropriate tails, wings, claws, etc., able to speak, and with a human-like
personality, though quite often with "quirks" hinting at the real-life
animal upon which the character is based.

A broader definition will sometimes include other odd creatures that simply
have some sort of animal features in their makeup. Such would include
mythical creatures such as centaurs, manticores, satyrs or harpies, all of
which have human faces though more-or-less animal-like bodies. This
broader definition might also include the human-like characters that appear
in some Japanese animation that have an animal tail and ears, but otherwise
look about as human as any other anime character.

The "broader definition" makes any Spice and Wolf fan into a furry, then. It even means a playboy bunny outfit applies. I disagree, furries have animal-like faces to me, like a muzzle or snout.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:

The "broader definition" makes any Spice and Wolf fan into a furry, then. It even means a playboy bunny outfit applies. I disagree, furries have animal-like faces to me, like a muzzle or snout.

Hey it's their fandom; I don't define it for them.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:

The "broader definition" makes any Spice and Wolf fan into a furry, then. It even means a playboy bunny outfit applies. I disagree, furries have animal-like faces to me, like a muzzle or snout.

QFT for my own sanity and penis.

All jokes aside Monmu is an amazing read for a slightly horny (straight) man or a curious woman that likes the female form. 90% of most characters are human in personality and as humanoid in body as an elf would be in fantasy or a Vulcan in scifi anyway (just a few alien bits for flavor). In my opinion revulsion depends on what animal traits would be considered sexy in humans vs not. Having an actual furry as a best friend has taught me that just like other fandoms they vary per person. I am NOT a furry at all and love Monmu (And Thundercats and bunny girls and catgirls for that matter). Seeing mammalian traits that we find familiar might be offensive or sexy. Reptilian, Avian and even fantasy traits will throw anyone off a bit, but that familiar humanoid anchor helps anyone transition mentally to the character being lovable and for lack of a better word, human. You don't have to be a psychologist to get the vanity and even absurdity about the book for fun reading without getting to deep into the human condition.

@enurtsol

That and suddenly labeling the book in one category just because it might disgust or disturb you is something we shouldn't do in our own community. We've got outsiders/ politicians to judge us for that. To each their own bro/sis.

Saphiro01 wrote:

@enurtsol

That and suddenly labeling the book in one category just because it might disgust or disturb you is something we shouldn't do in our own community. We've got outsiders/ politicians to judge us for that. To each their own bro/sis.

QFT. Let's not judge things by their fetishes, let's judge them by their quality. We wouldn't have thought a show like Koi Kaze could be good, now, would we?

Speaking of quality, I'm surprised by how much meat there seems to be in this series. I expected it'd be nothing but exploitative monster boobs. I'm starting to see how it managed to get into the New York Times Bestseller list: you can only do so much with boobs and sexy monster girls.

Isn't this Seven Seas best selling title too?

And sort of along the lines of boobs and monster girls, Love in Hell (Jigokuren) v.3 was released last week, completing the series.

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REVIEW: Monster Musume GN 1 & 2