Folk Tail Tonakai by Tohko Mizuno

I'm happy with how my one-shot experiment turned out for this holiday season. I hope it doesn't seem cheap to just do a bunch of short reviews like this but its a crazy season and I'd hate to run out of time and not post anything at all. Thank you all for visiting my blog, and I hope to get one more review for the year of 2015 posted. Until then, I'd just like to say:

♪On the twelfth, and last day, of Christmas My Manga Malady gave to me...♪


Folk Tail Tonakai by Tohko Mizuno

Art and story (c) Tohko Mizuno

Genre: Shojo
Length: One Chapter – 49 Pages

           The art of this manga is spectacular, and it'd have to be considering the premise. The faces are easy to understand and connect with. The body proportions are also well done, and the clothes add to the character of each person as well as fit on the body. The main character's hair is always dramatically flowing around her face, and the others, well, lets just skip to the description so you can understand fully what I mean about the art.
           Kokoro's mother and father have recently passed away in a car crash, and amid the rumors that it may not have been entirely accidental, her great uncle has decided she needs to announce a fiancee to settle the family business now that she is the only heir. Only, Kokoro seems to suddenly only see people with animal's faces! What could be causing this, and how can she pick a fiancee when she doesn't even recognize anyone among the monsters?
           I already gushed about it in the art and had to skip ahead just so I could gush some more, see, everyone but the main character starts out with an animal's head instead of a humans and the way the animal heads and the bodies go together is amazing. They are all in perfect proportion, and further the characters in fun as well as foreshadowing ways. The clothes and mannerisms also lend to the character's choice of animal as well. I wasn't so sure about this one, it has such a bizarre premise and I wasn't sure it was Christmasy enough for the season, either, but it quelled all my fears despite a being a little wordy at times. It is manga like this, with such an interesting hook that its amazing the mangaka can then pull off a story based on it, let alone make you like it, that makes me love manga so much. I mean, my favorite manga is based around a man who is literally made of rubber, and it works so wonderfully, but when you sit down to think about it, its rather strange. The range and imagination of manga has such a huge scope, its a wonder. Anyway, this manga was a delight to read, even though it is bogged down in mystery, and it has a happy ending. Perfect reading for the season.


5/5 Art and story were both interesting and well put together.