Hatarake Kentauros by Est Em
Genre: Shojo, Slice of Life
Length: One Volume – 8 Chapters
The art work is simple and yet detailed, there's nothing fancy in the clothes or the hair, but it gives off a complete look. It also has a bit of a sketchy look to it, as well has having rather empty backgrounds, but this seems like a characteristic of Est Em's style and those two things really have no bearing on the overall impression of it. The hair and the clothes also have a sleek modernness to them, and the clothes fit on the body shapes well. For the most part this manga is all men, and they have lean, muscular bodies. The faces are very expressive, which lends very well to the humor, I feel like half the laugh comes from the very well drawn facial expressions. This is the second Est Em manga that I have reviewed, so I think I mentioned it the last time, but there is one thing that bothers me in the art and that is the eye 'bags' (? this seems like the best way to describe them) that define the inside corners of the eyes and under the eyes can be distracting. I know that it is a style, but its just like when there are blush lines all over the face, its just something I have to work past. Over all, its very enjoyable and, dare I say it, sexy art.
What if centaurs came out of the wilds of the world and wished to integrate in to human society? This manga shows their rather normal lives a few years after the mythical creatures have fully joined the workforce.
From the mangaka that made udon sexy, is a manga about centaurs living in modern society. Now, if you looked up Est Em you'd find that most of the work is actually of the Yaoi genre, and while Udon no Hito didn't have much of the Y-vibe, Hatarake Kentauros does. I think I mentioned it in another post a while back, but this type of "vibes" is rather common in manga, (in fact, there is kind of a whole culture based around this feeling) though it can be a little distracting sometimes. Fair warning, is what I'm trying to say. Moving on to the actual review… Hatarake Kentauros, which I think translates to 'Working Centaur' is a manga with four chapters containing a story about one particular centaur named Kentaro, and four more about various other working centaurs. First off, when reading this, the copy I had left the word centaur in it's Japanese, 'kentauros' mostly, in my opinion, to see the pun of Kentaro's name more than anything else. I think a footnote explaining it would have been better though, if only because I'm a stubborn American and I'm used to 'centaur.' That is just a minor personal grievance, though. Actually moving on to the review…! I loved this manga, not as much as Udon no Hito, but its a fun look at stereotypical human life with someone who has a horse body. The centaurs look so life like, its almost embarrassing seeing one with out a shirt on. The stories themselves are humorous and the thought of society accepting the mythical is taken in a realistic feeling way, on both sides. I know some people find slice of life manga boring, and, even with centaurs, they would probably say the same for this manga, but the easygoing and downright normal way everyone behaves makes for a great read. It's funny in that same mundane way, as well, making for an easy and entertaining read. It completely takes all the fantasy out of half human, half horse people, and builds a society out of that. This gets a full five out of five just for having a centaur as a salaryman, truthfully, but Est Em's way of making things feel realistic brings the whole thing to another, wonderful level. 5/5 A quick, fun read about horsemen.
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| Speeding, centaur style. |
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