Harpies and a Ninja!
Creative Staff
Story: OKAYADO
Art: OKAYADO
Translation: Ryan Peterson
What they say
Eita Touga, a seemingly normal high school student, is secretly the heir apparent to a distinguished line of ninja. Unfortunately for the Touga Clan, Eita has no interest in taking over the family business. More interested in the virtual reality of video games than real life, Eita has sequestered himself to a life of digital bliss. That is until one fateful day, a mysterious harpy girl kicks in the door to his family dojo and spirits Eita away to a world full of monsters and mythological creatures. Can an unwilling slacker of a ninja like Eita help the denizens of another world stave off an invasion by a technologically-superior empire?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Eita Touga is a high schooler who comes from a long line of ninja. Sadly, he doesn’t much care for the ninja life-style and would much rather play games. Despite this, when being picked on by bullies at school, Eita somehow manages to make himself stand out by taking one down with ease—and possibly on accident.
When he returns home, we’re introduced to Eita’s grandfather, an old man who takes on the classic archetype of the perverted old teacher. You can think of him as a less powerful and not as cool Jiraiya of the Sannin. Eita’s gramps complains that Eita has been corroding his brain by playing video games, and that if he wanted to play games, he should be playing dating sims instead. Gramps further states that it’s because Eita spends so much time playing games that he’s still a virgin. Naturally, this angers Eita, who tries to get his video game console back from the old man. He’s not successful, and it doesn’t matter anyway, since their training is interrupted by a young woman who’s been searching for Eita.
Going by the name Aero, the young lass turns out to not be human at all. She’s a harpy. She has come in search of Eita to request his aid in saving her people, the people of the Re-Verse, from the Gigas, which are like giant monster robots. Their conversation is interrupted when one of those Gigas attacks. Fortunately, while Eita might be a loser, he’s still a ninja. He handily defeats the Gigas. Then he’s taken to the Re-Verse, the world where Aero comes from.
One thing that’s important to understand about this manga is how thin the plot is. It’s a plot that’s so stereotypical of most harem/shōnen series that one can immediately identify the real plot: The gathering of Eita’s harem and the deliverance of fanservice. Being someone who can appreciate a good fanservice series, I’m not turned off by this. While the plot is reminiscent of other manga, there’s a certain charm in keeping things simple and light hearted.
After Eita is taken to the Re-Verse, he’s introduced to several other harpy characters. The only one who is important is Captain Jawea, who I’m guessing becomes a part of Eita’s harem. She comes across as a strong and hot-headed character, but after losing in single combat to Eita, we see that there’s another side to her… that of the stubborn child who doesn’t want to lose and cries when she does. After the challenge, the harpy village is attacked by a giant Gigas. At first, Eita is going to leave everyone to their fate, but he eventually decides to go back and help defend the village because of plot reasons.
If there was one downside to this manga, it’s that Eita’s character doesn’t feel very cohesive. During his introduction, he immediately identifies himself as someone who avoids conflict even at the cost of his pride. However, during the battle at the harpy village, he turns around and fights when, according to everything we know about him, he should have run the other way and never looked back. Of course, Eita’s brother said that he’s someone who can “never turn down a call for help,” but Eita’s brother is the only one who said that. What’s more, we’re not given any reason for this change of heart. I suppose we could say it’s because he felt sympathy for Aero and believed they had bonded, but that’s a threadbare excuse at best.
In Summary
The first volume of 12 Beast was a decently entertaining manga. The artwork is solid, the action is nice, and though the plot is lacking, I don’t really think this story needs to have a strong plot to be entertaining. While this manga series doesn’t have the charm of Monster Musume, OKAYADO’s other manga series, I can say that this was an overall enjoyable first volume.
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: C
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Seven Seas Entertainment
Release Date: April 14th, 2015
MSRP: $12.99
