Overview

So here's the question. You get killed saving a hot blonde EGL, only to be resurrected as one of her servants; whereby you're expected to protect her from all the bad things that go bump in the night...and I do mean every single monster conjured by the human psyche. Oh, and you're only semi-immortal, requiring daily sessions of feeding on her blood to stay alive. What do you do? WHAT. DO. YOU. DO?

Hiro just found himself in this situation and he's still not too sure. Fortunately for him, he damn near fits the definition of a harem anime protagonist, and can barely think at all. Also fortunate he doesn't qualify as the main character...that honor is reserved for the aforementioned blonde EGL, who happens to be a princess of the monster world, heir to awesome powers when she matures, in the middle of a fight for succession to the throne, and probably one of the most intriguing characters to step out of anime in quite some time.

Review

The odd thing about a lot of these reviews is that often times one winds up doing a lot of comparison between mediums. This is especially true of anime, which often times winds up being based on games, novels, manga, radio dramas, or some combination of these story telling formats. To be perfectly honest, none of those formats are immune to the comparisons of the others; often times with proponents of one denigrating one or more of the others. This is especially true when the storylines deviate excessively from whichever one came first, or if one of the other takes on the story proves superior to what came before. It gets especially brutal when there are roughly equal numbers of supporters between separate formats to provoke a fan war on forums, mailing lists, and review sites.

What’s all this got to do with Kaibutsu Oujo? Only the fact that last season’s anime had adapted Kaibutsu Oujo’s first five volumes of manga into a twenty-four episode TV series. After watching it, and reading the original manga, only one real conclusion can be determined:

I’ve read the first two volumes of manga released here on this side of the pond by Del Rey, and I’ve managed to acquire Japanese language scans of volumes three and five. I can say that the anime generally followed the storyline of the manga pretty faithfully all things considered. However, there are a number of damning flaws that make one wonder who was the fucking liberal soccer mom tree hugger SISSIE that adapted it for TV.

This is, first and foremost, a book about monsters and a succession event between members of their ruling family. This is out and out war between these children and teenagers, with only one allowed to survive and ascend to the throne. As implied, there are rules of engagement concerning this event; for example, though the royal child may have servants and protectors, no armies are allowed. Again, however, these are monsters…the things that go bump in the night. Vampires, Werewolves, shit from the Cthulhu Mythos, you name it, and it probably shows up. The very stuff of nightmares, this is going to be one brutal bloody monster mash; don’t forget the Doritos and the case of Mountain Dew.

In the manga, that’s exactly what it is. We’re talking some of the most brutal nasty beatdowns I’ve seen in awhile. To give you an idea, at one point the main characters of Kaibutsu Oujo are attacked by Werewolves that had been given semi-immortality by another member of the royalty. After they were defeated, the series’ main character (arguably the main character, I should say), Hime, tosses them in a room, and proceeds to shoot them with silver bullets until they stay dead…this takes several hours and you actually watch a good portion of this in the manga.

There is also the way in which the royalty bestow their ‘gift’ of partial immortality upon willing and non willing subjects. Whereas in the anime, it is still true that the subject has to be dead, in the manga the royalty actually feeds their subject their own blood rather than the ‘flame of life’ you see in the anime.

This leads nicely into what I believe is the anime’s most damning flaw. Damn near every single bit of blood, every death, every piece of brutality, fanservice, and whatnot had been written around, edited out, or just plain not shown. It’s like Disney got ahold of this story and turned into one of their fucked up derived animated musicals. Here, also, I disagree with my partner in crime. While he contests that the anime never took itself all that seriously as one of its greatest strengths, I contest the humor was still there in the manga even though it was blood and death by the gallons. There was no need at all to remove it.

Then there’s Hiro, the anime spineless wuse whose eyes you actually watch most of the story through. In the anime, they went out of their way and used great effort to amplify this boy’s pussiness and lack of personality…not to mention lack of intelligence to achieve a character of absolute uselessness (which makes his actions in the last part of ep 24 rather out of character...but ballzy, REAL ballzy). He fights some Werewolves with a broom, for example…and he’s not Fist of the North Star by any stretch of the imagination. True, he gets a far more dignified initial death at the beginning of the anime, but that doesn’t even begin to excuse what they did to him. In the manga, the boy actually ‘changes’ when his mistress is in danger, becoming stronger and faster, with certain cosmetic changes such as hair and eye color to denote his new abilities. He’s also not a complete imbecile, and grabs sharp pointy bludgeoning things when attacked rather than the sissiest little weapon they could slap on him. Seriously, what was done to Hiro in the anime is nothing short of a literary crime.

Let’s get to the story now. As stated before, this is a story about the war of succession between the younger members of the monster royalty for the throne of the monster realms. We start this off by Hime coming to some unknown suburb in Japan to set up her residence in a mansion on a hill that her father left her. Enter Hiro, the soon to be perished anime wuse, from whose eyes you see most of this story. He had come to this town to stay with his sister, who had found employment as a live in maid…her employer turning out to be Hime, only to wind up run over as Hime comes over a hill. This story represents one of the strangest forms of story telling I’ve seen. I’d like to say it is two concurrent stories, but it’s really not once you get into it. A set up like this is typically in use for a typical harem anime, but this story is not about Hiro in the least. Hiro’s effect on the entire situation is that of a man who takes orders, not the person around which the series rotates. That particular role is reserved for Hime. In fact, I’d say while there is a certain affection for the boy by a good portion of the girls (yes, girls…like I said, this screams Harem Anime setup), you really can’t tell except in a couple of cases, if it’s anything more than that…and this is true for the anime as well. Mostly it’s about Hime gathering allies, information, and fighting off whatever monster(s) of the week is sent by her siblings to try to kill her. See, she doesn’t want the throne, but really doesn’t want to die either. However, since there can be only one left standing at the end, she finds herself without any choice, but to fight…or die. There are also the other monsters which see advantage to this infighting, and wish to take what they can from it for themselves.

The art style is clean and attractive, and the panels give you a perfect idea of what actions are being taken by who. I note this only because I’ve seen a lot of comics and manga in recent months that, though they have incredible art, you can’t tell what’s happening from panel to panel without mentally filling in the blanks or getting out a magnifying glass. There’s no problems reading this manga, which is a damn good thing.

The characters are an odd assortment of monsters and humans with various quirks and both functional and dysfunctional personalities. If nothing else, the story is certainly imaginative in that respect.

I think I’ve said enough about Hiro already. However, if the boy actually grows a set, starts showing something called ANGER and HATRED rather than that mindless drooling stare I see through most of the series, i.e. if he becomes more like Ash Williams, then all will be forgiven. In fact, if he realizes the true advantage and power of what Hime had done to him by giving him partial immortality, he’ll be one of the most respected male characters in all of anime. At the moment though, even in the manga, if you were to call him worthless, you wouldn’t be too far from the truth…though he’s far more useful in the manga than the anime. Seriously though, would it kill these authors to put in a guy who is USEFUL? I mean, who wants to BE like this guy? Who thinks he's worth emulating...worth looking up to? Give me a hero for a change..........okay, bad joke, I know.

Hime is the main character and one of the princesses of the monster royalty. All the royalty share the common traits of blonde hair and red cat eyes, and she is no different. She always wears the same style black EGL dress, making one wonder what, if anything, she wears to bed…mmm…Hime in the buff…. Anyway, she has one of the best poker faces I’ve ever seen, often times making you wonder if she’s serious or not when she says something. This is because her sense of humor is…unique to say the least. She’s not above teasing Hiro, but at other times, you have to wonder if she’s serious about some of what she says and does with the female vampire, Reiri. Even when she grins, you just can’t tell; that coupled with her ability to grab any weapon from thin air, her martial prowess, and strategic thinking, makes her a force to be feared. Oddly, she’s still only as strong and durable as a human female, so she often has to take a back seat so that one of her servants can fight for her in some of the more…destructive fights.

Riza Wildman, a half Werewolf (she can only turn her arms into wolf arms) showed up shortly after the series began to avenge her brother who was killed by Hime when he attempted to assassinate her. It was then revealed to Riza that, though he was Hime’s servant, he attempted her assassination because one of the other royalty had shown they could kill Riza at any time they wanted. It can be assumed that when her brother was killed, the royalty in question ceased monitoring Riza as there was no further gain to be had in doing so. Once this realization was impressed upon her, she found herself serving as one of Hime’s protectors until such time as she could find the royalty truly responsible for her brother’s dishonor and death. It should be noted that nothing formal has been drawn up between Hime and Riza, but the effect is still the same. Admittedly Riza isn’t the strongest of Hime’s protectors, even if her strength is greatly enhanced by the full moon, but she doesn’t lack for determination, courage, or just bloody minded meanness when fighting.

One of the few things that the anime did better than the manga was introduce Reiri, the female vampire, earlier in the story and fit her quite well into it. It’s not until the second volume that you meet her in the manga. Reiri’s initial mission is to drink some (if not all) of Hime’s royal blood…the same blood that has the power to grant partial immortality. I’m not sure yet what effect that would have on a vampire, but I expect that will be revealed in volume 6, as it was revealed at the end of volume 5 that a vampire has Hime’s older sister imprisoned, and her blood on tap…literally; there’s a spigot in the side of her neck! Her initial plan to turn Hiro into a vamp and use him as a probing attack backfired greatly, when, in one of the biggest differences of the manga and anime (and, IMNSHO one of the anime’s biggest fuck ups), Hime allowed Hiro to feed on her to keep him alive, and then in turn, tasted his blood which allowed her to track down Reiri in her coffin. After Hime spared Reiri’s life, Reiri became one of Hime’s biggest informants and unofficial guardians. Another of the biggest differences between the manga and anime, is that in the manga, Reiri has a big problem with her skirt flipping up which makes her the series’ girl for fanservice. Also, she and Riza tear each other to shreds when they fight, which is in stark contrast to the anime in which you barely see them ever fight…though the animosity is still there.

Flandere is Hime’s personal maid and android bodyguard. She looks like a small child, and in what seems to be normal for androids of Hime’s world, she can only speak with the word’s “Fuga” though Hime seems to understand her just fine. Her personality seems to be very basic, and is directly tied into serving and protecting Hime. While the strongest of Hime’s servants, she’s not really all that skilled as she lacks a battle program in contrast to her sister mech, Francesca, who serves Sherwood, the younger sister of Hime, in the same way.

Sawawa is Hiro’s older sister, who is a live in maid at Hime’s mansion. Completely oblivious, this zaftig young woman has no idea what’s going on around her, or if she does, is completely unbothered by it. She eats parfaits by the gallon, and I swear she puts it all in those voluptuous bouncy bosoms she has on her.

Sherwood is Hime’s younger sister, and after a small scuffle, the two had formed an alliance to pool resources, and stay alive against their other sibling’s attacks. Having been saved by Hiro in that small scuffle, she actually fed him her blood to save his life, making custody of Hiro something of a dilemma. The only female character to actually openly have romantic affections for Hiro, she adds to the general chaos, but is a useful ally when the shit hits the fan…and it does…often.

There are several other characters that you meet, each one unique; many both familiar and just a hair alien as one would expect monsters to be. Some are monsters of the week, and others turn out to be long term threats, allies, or something completely different.

There’s really a lot going on in this story, and it’s credit to the author that he’s able to keep it as coherent as he does. I actually enjoy the manga quite a bit more than the anime (if that wasn’t blatantly obvious, heh) though it’s release here in the states appears to be on the slow track forcing one to try to find scans, or if not that, then order the raws if possible.

Overall, this is a fun story. Nothing overly complex, even with all that’s going on, as what’s going on ties very neatly into the overall premise of the book. This is probably the reason the author is able to keep all that’s going on straight in the story; he keeps the main situation very simple. The characters flesh out the book rather nicely, and though one would think this leans towards a harem setup at first glance, it fortunately avoids that abysmal trap like a plague of Insecticons. Still, it is one gory book, with blood, death, and Evil Dead type humor abounding. So if you find that’s not your cup of tea, then you may want to avoid this title. On the other hand, I can certainly recommend this to anyone else.