Does this sound familiar? A teenage girl with a sense of being disaffected and socially dislocated, one day discovers that there's a whole supernatural world right under her nose, and becomes involved with a hot werewolf and a handsome vampire. It's not just Twilight that uses that setup, although it probably remains the most famous example of the plot in the teen literature space. (But believe me, it gets adult usage, too – just ask Anita Black or Sookie Stackhouse.) I mention it here because in the character notes, creator Akira Kanō does specifically reference Twilight when it comes to heroine Ema's creation…because they wanted to make Ema as un-Bella-like as possible. That means that despite some similarities, Outsiders is actively trying not to be a Twilight knock-off, and for some readers, that will be reason enough to give this a chance.

Unfortunately, while this has good intentions and some interesting elements, the overall book is a bit of a mess. Ema, who lives with her older sister Yuko after having lost their parents an unspecified amount of time ago, has taken it upon herself to be as pro-justice as a high schooler can be. She has a collection of weapons like tasers and crossbows (no guns, it seems), a semi-vintage motorcycle, and a GPS tracker installed on her sister's phone. The story opens when Yuko fails to come home on time from a work party; Ema immediately opens up the app on her phone and sets out to figure out where she is, heavily armed, of course. When she does find her sister, she also finds Tamaki (vampire) and Taiga (werewolf), who are fairly blasé about having been discovered. That's because Tamaki assumes he can erase Ema's memories with his “mage eyes,” something which I don't have to tell you he fails at. Unable to shake the persistent teen, Tamaki instead opts to hire her (and her sister). We're meant to be unsure if this is intended to keep her close so he can keep an eye on her, or if it's because he finds her attractive.

Three-quarters of the way through the first volume, we learn that Tamaki is three hundred years old and Taiga is in his mid-30s. Although neither of them looks like it, that may give some readers pause, because it's very clear that the story is trying to set up a love triangle between them. Tamaki at one point remarks that by vampire standards, he's a child, but it's still a bit tough to swallow, especially when he seems to hit on everything with breasts that crosses his path. (Admittedly, that's a total of two people in this volume.) But Ema is very definitely sixteen in her thoughts and actions, and that makes the trio at least a little uncomfortable, with the end-of-volume addition of a boy her age not doing much to assuage things.

Kanou's take on werewolf and vampire lore is decently interesting, albeit not different enough to stand out. Vampires are known as “Aeternitas,” with “vampire” being something of a pejorative, and they can only be killed by ingesting werewolf blood. Werewolves function more like shifters than traditional werewolves, meaning that they can take on what's essentially a furry form at any time, with the full moon merely serving to enhance their powers, or, in the case of one of Taiga's cousins, make it harder to hold onto their sanity. It shows a real effort to make the mythology the author's own, but this is stymied by the greatest issue shadowing this volume: a lot of it simply doesn't make narrative sense.

The flow of the story is choppy, and we aren't given information reasonably or intuitively. Bits and pieces that are intended to be intriguing are just thrown at the reader. Character motivations are unclear, and the reason these two grown men are letting a teenager tag along with them isn't made to feel natural or necessary. It's almost worse because we can see the creator trying so hard; there's just a sort of disconnect between the reader and the author that keeps the story from being as good as it ought to be.

The art fares a bit better, although the best is unmistakably the color art for the cover and ad for volume two. This is a book that would have benefited from a larger trim size, because Kanou's detailed art feels cramped here, like the pages are full to bursting. Excessive use of tone gets in the way as well, sometimes making it difficult to figure out exactly what we're looking at or how bodies are positioned in space. Pages with larger panels look better because the art has space to breathe; small panels make it almost impossible to grasp what's going on.

Outsiders is a book that should have been better. Ema's not a bad heroine, and both Taiga and Tamaki are at least a little interesting, and the hook at the end of the volume, which implies that Ema's always been close to the supernatural underbelly of Tokyo, is solid. It's the sort of book where I debate whether or not I want to read more of the series, and I think my ultimate conclusion is, “if I find it at the library.” That's a good rule of thumb for this volume, too.