A young girl spends her days waiting for the return of a family member who abandoned her long ago. Under the care of a kind beast, she lives hidden from the humans who would kill her for her standing.
TL;DR Review
This was such a hauntingly beautiful manga! The slow pacing allows readers to get a look into the young girl’s life as the mysteries surrounding her are introduced one by one. As the story goes on the theme of innocence vs fear of the unknown comes into play, shifting the story into a darker territory.
Author
Genre
Demographic
Manga status
- This series is complete in Japanese at 11 volumes.
- This series is complete in English at 11 volumes, or four omnibus volumes.
Japanese Title
とつくにの少女.
Publication information
- Japanese publisher: Mag Garden.
- Japanese imprint: Blade Comics.
- Japanese digital platform: MagComi.
- English publisher: Seven Seas.
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Series Description – Seven Seas
In a land far away, there were two kingdoms: the Outside, where twisted beasts roamed that could curse with a touch, and the Inside, where humans lived in safety and peace. The girl and the beast should never have met, but when they do, a quiet fairy tale begins. This is the story of two people–one human, one inhuman–who linger in the hazy twilight that separates night from day.
Review – Spoilers for Volume One
I absolutely adored the art in this volume! The amount of effort the mangaka put in to create the dark and apocalyptic, yet somehow still cozy, atmosphere is very apparent. The way they chose to use negative space was absolutely brilliant, as was the way they chose to use heavy shading when focusing on the darkness of the world.
The story starts without little explanation, showing a young girl living carelessly with a horned figure. While the figure warns her of the dangers of the outside world, the girl seems to be just a little too young to fully understand. While their relationship is never fully explained, I like to think of them as a father and daughter type duo.
Most of of this volume focuses on the two of them as they live in seclusion. As the pacing is incredibly slow, the primary focus of this volume is their relationship. We get to see how the two of them cope with their individual circumstances. The girl, abandoned by her family, believes that they will be coming back for her soon. So, she spends every day with the figure passing the time until they eventually return to her. The figure, seemingly once a human, spends his days trying to help the girl to the best of its abilities despite knowing she’s been abandoned.
Now while the story is slow, there is quite a bit of plot and strife introduced in this volume. There is something resembling a plague making its rounds through the world, turning people into monsters. It’s spread by touch, and is so feared that armies kill refugees on sight to take out any risk of spread. This is where the manga gets its title from, as the girl is from the “outside country”, the country where the plague is apparent.
The stark difference in how the story moves when it’s focusing on the girl and her companion versus the army from the inside country was jarring.
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