Feb 12, 2025
Usagi Drop 2: Fantasyland Boogaloo (sort of, but it's a shorter one-shot so it's over quick)
I just realized that the aspect of incestuous raising of a child is woven into the fabric of Japan's literary classic: Genji Monogatari. Therefore, whatever insular form of society (nobles particularly enjoy this type of debauchery, and eventual deformity in their children to preserve a bloodline is simply a byproduct) normalized this type of flaw is now reaping the reward of making bad choices in the present era.
The story is divided between a lengthy first part where a non-magical wizard summons a human child from the human world through a
...
magic portal, all in order to eat her heart to gain magical powers. Knowing that if you care and put more attention into things like cooking, you create a better product, the wizard believes that caring for a child over time will make the heart more powerful, therefore stronger magic. So you get to see what happens over that time, the child is stalked by other demons trying to eat her but through powerful stares and the presence of the main wizard, they back off. We later learn that the wizard is part of a noble family of powerful witches and wizards and is sort of laughed at for not having powers.
Up to now, all good, the character design is cute, with a slight vibe of 2000s western animation in the wizard with the lanky and bendy character motion. The small girl is a cute, fluffy kid. And for positives, the vibe shift between the cute versus the creepy demonic creatures is absolutely a high point, it's a drastic contrast as the demons look Lovecraftian, and you even get to see the main wizard's demonic form and it's a treat. For the first part, I thought, oh this is Yattara (other manga currently running in Shonen Jump) in a fantasy world, cool, I can get down with that.
In a twist, the wizard decides to send the child home, if you want to read, there's a pivotal moment of growth around this part that, if the narrative would end here or the story ends differently, this would be a cute 7/10, nice job author, keep workin. But no.
Time skip, 15 years, the human child has now grown to be the same-ish age as the wizard somehow, though visually it looks like the design they give semi thick young woman, particularly of the yandere variety. The yandere is madly obsessed with the lanky, timid wizard and they get so close to kiss and the manga ends with some sort of musings on twisted love/obsession.
That's it, it just closes on that scene. No indication on how the human was able to bring the wizard out of cryosleep into the human world, no further plot development or explanation. Just cringey, obsessive stared and heart designs on the yandere girliepop with the cutesy aesthetic, this is definitely aimed towards an audience of the goon variety. I loved the comments section on the app and their continuous usage of "gooner slop," love that vocabulary evolution.
So yeah, the artist of the work really developed an interesting aesthetic sensibility, mixed in some Mieruko-Chan elements of creepy demon designs, added the usagi drop weirdness and gave us a nervous and meh protagonist when encountering a woman, whereas he was more confident in the wizard world.
I only give it positive points for the decently interesting first part of the story, and loses me everywhere else. 4, which is MAL's way of saying "bad," which it is, because this is one of those stories where the ending absolutely does obliterate what it had going on, because it's so short.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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