“May I Come In?”
Creative Staff:
Story: Akissa Saike
Translation: Stefan Koza
Lettering: Annaliese “Ace” Christman
What They Say:
A new series from the creator of Rosario+Vampire with artwork that’s beyond this dimension! Chloe dreams of being an actress, but her path to success may be closed as she’s now twenty-eight with very little to show for it. However, she does happen to have a special occult body type!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Its been a while but there is finally a new series from Akihisa Ikeda, the creator of Rosario+Vampire and he is using the penname, Akissa Saike, for this series. This series shares a supernatural theme as its predecessor. It sets to differentiate itself by focusing on an adult woman attempting to become an actress. This chapter runs at 87 pages a bit long for the first chapter but the art is worth reading this series. Its a bit weird that this series is going to be read left to right but the request was made by Akissa Saike
Evil spirits escape from their hell prison, Abyss, and travel to Yokohama. An actress heading nowhere in her career, Chloe Love, has one last chance to get an audition. She meets with the producer, Sudo to interview for his movie. She takes the interview with extreme positivity until bad luck strikes. Sudo gets taken over by one of the spirits. The spirit isn’t satisfied with Sudo’s body and would rather have Chloe’s body because she is a spirit medium. Chloe defends herself and ends up kicking Sudo’s possessed body and getting the attention of everyone else at the studio. She is guaranteed to get fired from her agency.
Chloe’s backstory is a typical tragedy story. She comes from the slums and has to defend herself constantly as a child. She had a bat covered with barb wire. It’s a bit scary to picture a child with a barb wire covered bat. She sees a billboard with a beautiful woman promoting a lipstick and wishes to be like her one day. She is snapped out of her daydreams by spirits attacking her. The spirits almost managed to take over her body until she is saved by Kai Iod. He is attracted to Chloe because he views her as a child as proclaims himself as a lolicon. He then finds out she is her favorite star and wants to take a selfie in the middle of a battle. He also wants to take over her body because he has difficulties maintaining his power in the human world.
Spirits don’t know when to give up and attack Chloe again on her train ride. She calls upon Kai to save her from these threats. Kai attempts to save her but his power isn’t enough to deal with multiple humans. Chloe and Kai merge to exterminate the evil spirits. Chloe has a riveting outfit as she transforms. It’s a bit alluring but Chloe can make it work in her battles. Kai turned into a scythe with a humorous design.
In Summary:
This manga has picked a premise that is great for the short term future but I wonder how long can the story run with it. The characters made a great first impression. But there are some questionable choices with their depiction. Chloe is enjoyable as a character and her growth in the series will make for a good read. She has the strength to defend herself against the mundane aspects fo the world. There are times where she has to play the damsel in distress as she deals with the supernatural. I’m a bit more frazzled by Kai Iod. He is going to be more responsible for producing dark comedy in the series. But I am a bit unsure if the comedy that will come out of him will be accepted in this era. He reveals himself as a lolicon. There is more than meets the eye to him. He is the type of character who will have some revelation that will make people fall in love with.
The artwork in this chapter is fantastic. There is a wide range of facial expressions that are bewitching. The character designs are gorgeous. The monsters are a bit lacking but they can deliver on creating a sense of horror and grotesque. I am a bit surprised that Akissa Saike can draw a beautiful world and can keep it for such a long chapter. This is a biweekly series so I wonder if Akissa will be able to produce drawing at this level for so long.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A+
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Teen
Released By: Shonen Jump
Release Date: July 13, 2020
