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This has one of the funniest first chapters I have ever read, it had me in TEARS with how bad the writing is. So we have this 15 old girl, who is filthy rich, and falls in love with the dullest, most basic 15 year old male protagonist. Her reason for falling in love with him is that she saw him delivering newspapers...and thought he was just so diligent and hard working.

No i'm not joking this is actually the exact reason she gave when asked why she loved him. This is hilariously bad writing, and i'm convinced the writer has never actually spoken ... to a woman before because that is the funniest and most deranged shit I've ever read in my life. I'm used to manga saying the female protagonist fell for the male protagonist because "he's just a nice guy" or something along those lines, but this is just so much worse. Like this guy was just working his part time job and this rich girl fell so hard for him that she spent 50 million yen on him to force him to marry her, like that's so hilariously unbelievable that I could not bring myself to take anything beyond the first chapter seriously.

I HIGHLY recommend reading the first and second chapter for yourself to get a good laugh and then dropping it after. Everything else is sub-standard, self-insert, fantasy fulfillment, and there are better manga for that anyway.

So, let me get this straight, there's a family of "cat girls" who turn into literal cats during the night time. They need to...have sex with someone before they turn 18 or they will turn into a cat forever... The main girl is 17 and is, at least, 15 years younger then her love interest. (You find all this out pretty early not really a spoiler)

...what?

All of the cute interactions, all of the interesting relationship dynamics, all the cute art is absolutely tainted by the author's creepy ageplay fetish that he has forced into this story. To be clear, NOTHING, in this story requires ... the girl to be 17 and the guy to be 30+ the story and dynamic could be exactly the same if the girl was 20 and the guy was 25. The weird plot point about having sex before maturity could easily be changed, or the ages could be modified, and nothing would be different about the story.

Also if any of you try and bring up the age of consent in Japan as a defense for this story I will slap you. Even by their cultural standards this age gap is creepy. A fact that is acknowledged SEVERAL times in the story, and the author even has the balls to JOKE about it as if it's a comedic element of his story and not just weird.

The whole cutesy romcom vibe of this manga is absolutely ruined by this. Every time you see a cute, romantic or wholesome moment instead of enjoying it you'll immediately feel gross instead. You can't even try and just forget this plot point because another character reminds the main girl she has to fuck before turns 18 like twice a god damn chapter. There are way better manga that achieve what this one is trying to do without being creepy, please just go read those instead.

Yofukashi no Uta is an excellent coming-of-age story that uses interesting, unconventional characters to explore its core themes. Questions like "What does it mean to love someone" are directly explored, and other themes like "fitting in" and "masks" are indirectly explored as well. The two main characters, Nazuna and Kou, are incredibly charming and unique, and it is captivating to watch them explore the themes of this show through their interactions. Side characters regularly appear, and though they're less charming then the two protagonist, the interactions they have consistently lead to believable and interesting growth of the two main characters.

... ...and then there's everything after chapter 50.

Now I'm guessing that the author of this manga had not really planned the story any further then chapter 50 (The "detective" arc). All of the sudden the story starts to shift away from Nazuna and Kou. Their relationship takes a backseat to these long (50+ chapters) story arcs about side characters. However, unlike before, this doesn't seem to result in any character growth at all for our two main protagonist. Not only that, but the themes that were being explored before seem to just be...abandoned. The simplicity and allure the story had is quickly replaced by heavy action and long, dry dialogue scenes. Nazuna and Kou's relationship takes a backseat, and honestly, it kinda seems like the author just peppers in some random scenes where they are affectionate as a sort of "bait" to keep you reading. As these scenes rarely amount to anything more then just a "sweet moment".

None of these changes makes the story inherently bad, the story arcs themselves are interesting enough, and the action and plot development is quite engaging.

If you're interested in this series for the romance between Kou and Nazuna, i'd recommend stopping around chapter 45-50. As there is minimal romantic development between them for the next 80 chapters. If you're interested in this series for the vampires, then I think you'll really enjoy all the chapters currently released and should definitely give it a read.

At the time of writing there are 138 chapters in the story.

Tasogare Otome X Amnesia is, ironically, a series that is fractured and torn apart by its desire to have as many genres as possible stuffed into it. This unfortunately leads to a much weaker, distracted story that leaves much to be desired, and a lot of potential unfilled.

Genre dissonance

Tasogare Otome X Amnesia considers itself a horror, mystery, romance, and at times, a comedy. The show attempts to be all of these genres at once, but suffers horribly in its attempts to make all these genres work smoothly together. The Horror aspect in this show is pitiful, at best. The humor and jokes are well ... written and made me laugh, but end up taking any tension or fear away from the rest of the plot. The mystery presented can barely be called a mystery; when you are presented with pieces of the puzzle the main character immediately explains how it fits into the whole picture. The show leaves little room for the viewer to come to their own conclusions. The romance between Yukko and Teiichi is enjoyable, and the primary reason I continued to watch the show to the end. The romance is believable and interesting, but this is probably because their romance is given more attention than almost any other aspect of the show, and the other parts suffer for it. I really think this story would have shined if the horror and comedy aspects had been dropped entirely, and instead focused on the mystery of what happened to Yukko and the romance between her and Teiichi.

Thematic and episodic discontinuity


The multiple genres are not the only things that clash in this show. Throughout the show a consistent theme appears in almost all the episodes. All the horrible and bad things that happen in this show can be traced back to people. Peoples fears, and superstitions take hold and lead them to horrible actions and conclusions. All the ghost stories can be explained by people's fears and superstitions blinding them from the truth. All the terrible crimes committed in this show are because of people’s fear and superstitions leading them to hysteria. In the end, there's nothing supernatural, it's all just fear and paranoia…

Except…for Yukko.

Yukko is decidedly a ghost, and supernatural. So it seems silly to me that this theme about how nothing supernatural is occurring and it's just people's fear is being pushed when THERE IS SOMETHING supernatural occurring. While this is a minor gripe for me, it just adds to this show’s overall lack of cohesion. A Bigger problem for me was the cohesion between episodes. Especially in the early episodes, entire episodes would pass without advancing the plot or characters at all. Often episodes would end, and the next episode would begin as if the previous events just never happened. This show has a horrible habit of introducing side characters in an episode and then NEVER mentioning them again. I can think of 4 side characters off the top of my head that literally appear for an episode and have no consequence on the story as a whole. I really only felt like the main plot was advanced in the first two and last 3 episodes, and the rest of the episodes could’ve been reordered without consequence.

Art and Character

After all of this complaining I would like to take a moment to shine a light on the best parts of this show. The art design for this show is absolutely stunning.The show is unafraid of using bright vibrant colors, that are often contrasted by shadows and darkness. I adore the way the art was done in this show, and I’m glad that risks were taken as it definitely paid off. While personally I did not find Teiichi interesting, I found the interactions between him, and the other three characters, to be an enjoyable experience. I found the romance between Teiichi and Yukko to be touching and sweet. I wish more focus had been put on these two, and also the friendships of the three living club members. The interactions between all these characters is really what drives the show forward, and is what kept me watching to the end.

I would like to take a moment to mention the ending of this show. I will try not to spoil it, but the final episode of the series is basically a 20 minute interaction between Yukko and Teiichi. It is sweet, heartfelt, and believable. It was a beautifully crafted moment between two lovers and was definitely the highlight of the show...

Until the last two minutes of that episode. Look, I’m all for happy endings, but the last two minutes of that episode was a punch to the gut. It made the rest of the episode mute, it felt like a prank. Why have all that setup and emotional tender moments when you were just gonna pull a “SIKE” at the end? It honestly felt like the writer was forced to make the ending happier. It just doesn't seem like that's how the story was supposed to go out.

I think this show was so close to being something really nice. But overall this show has the worst lack of focus I have ever seen. It is fractured, it doesn’t gel nicely with itself, and it just seems confused. A real shame too, with a little more focus and direction I think this story would’ve been a hidden gem, but instead it’s an unfortunate mess. That gets completely carried by its character interactions and art.