Manga Review- Getting Cute With Monster Girls, Centaur No Nayami

Centaur No Nayami is a shoujo manga about a group of girls growing up together and going to highschool. They play sports, have fun with family, babysit and go on school trips. In most ways, they're very typical girls in a very typical slice of life manga. However, the big difference, is they are all monster girls! In this universe human evolution took a sideroad that lead to monster people being the dominant species. Centaurs, Angels, Satyrs, Mermaids and even Serpentines populate this world. Aside form that, it's a lot like our world now. Kids go to school, they do after school activities and deal with life's every day struggles. That includes racism. This series is amazing in a lot of ways (great art, amazing character designs, cute clothes) but one thing that really got my attention was how well thought out the universe was. Racism in this universe has been a long standing problem, with some monster species even enslaving others in the past and justifying it based on physical difference. The characters in the story deal with prejudice on a fairly regular basis and that makes them and their world all the more real.

The story also deals with some less heavy hitting issues, like body image, family pressure and making new friends. The other thing that I simply can't not mention is the art. I have never seen monster girls so well thoguht out. Everything from modified school uniforms for different species to dealing with how a centaur goes to the bathroom, all extremely well done. It really makes the world more believable, and the anatomy, even when it's outlandish, all seems to make perfect sense and it's clear a lot of time and thought went into it.

The series isn't yet completed but there are a lot of volumes out in stores and available online. If you like monster girls, slice of life stories or just shoujo manga in general, I highly recommend this series. 

Read it HERE