Monster Tamer Girls: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes

Manga Details

• Author: Shimazaki Mujirushi
• Author’s other works:
  • Contributed to the Gakkougurashi! Anthology Comic: Kai anthology
  • Houkago Collage Note  - 31 chapters
  • Nina wa Papa wo Ansatsu Shita webcomic that’s going on
  • Sannensa which was 3/74
  • Lotta other stuff
• Run dates: Jun 24, 2014 to Feb 12, 2016
• Chapters/Volumes: 2/13

About the Manga

• Plot
  • Ion (ee-own) Hidaka and Sora Misumaru are two school girls who attend a monster taming academy. The monsters in this world are photosynthetic and are highly responsive to the singing of young girls. Their first task on the Monster Taming Committee is to take care of the monster out behind the highschool, who Ion names “Blue,” and when she sings to it she causes a “biotorrent” a monster reaction that causes them to make vague good things happen.
  • The two then meet Tsukiko, the chair of the monster committee, and Koto, her friend/maybe girlfriend who graduated high school early and now works as a researcher cuz she’s real smart. A little lizard dude tags along with Tsukiko and the next day he has grown massive and clings to the high school. He turns rock solid, which humans believe means a monster is dead, but when Ion sings he breaks out of his shell, revealing that he’s turned into a cool dragon with wings. Tsukiko names him “Happy Freedom Bird”

Popcorn David

• We’re then introduced to Kyouko Saegusa, a world famous monster tamer who saved Ion when she was a little girl, who shows the girls her new monster, a creepy octopus that i really just want to get out of this fucking manga and away from these children.
• Thankfully a huge water bubble monster arrives and the octopus jumps into it, thankfully leaving these girls and I for good.
• The girls travel to a monster sanctuary to try and help a monster going on a hunger strike by avoiding the sunlight. It turns out the monster saved Sora when she was little and she’s able to give it back its will to live.
• Then an old man thinks a monster is his son and he dies don’t worry about it it doesn’t matter to the plot even though it’s the best chapter

Popcorn Zander

• A particularly massive monster nicknamed “pointy-sama” reveals itself from underneath the school and the students start making wishes to it. Ion starts noticing that a very young girl keeps hanging around it. Her name is Nonoka and she is actually dying in a coma but is somehow able to connect with pointy-sama in an undefined way. There’s an aurora, pointy-sama shrinks down, and Nonoka wakes up unless that part was a dream sequence, I’m still not sure.
• At last there is a time skip; Saegusa is the chief of monster research and Ion is a new official tamer.
• Characters
  • Ion Hidaka
    • Shy
    • Loves and names Blue
    • Sings to him
  • Sora Misumaru
    • More energetic
    • Loves monsters but has failing grades
  • Tsukiko Miyama
    • Chair of the monster tamers committee
    • Second year
    • Researcher
    • Likes monsters but they don’t like her
    • Kinda bitchy
  • Blue
    • The monster
    • Makes flowers
    • Looks like a vagina from behind
    • Sumo wrestles
  • Kotomi Justine Kagurazaka
    • Researcher but is in graduate program despite being a teen
    • Dating Tsukiko
  • Kyouko Saegusa
    • Last monster charmer
    • Good with monsters
    • Doesn’t like her title
    • Jordan: Saved Ion when she was a little kid
    • Jordan: Student teacher
    • Jordan: Says she can’t sing right before singing

Why it failed

• The dialog feels a little weird like all the complaints get resolved super fast
• I feel characters have weak motivation, like I guess it’s supposed to be kind of making taking care of monsters as whatever but it’s still not quite there
• All the teenagers with giant boobs is very weird
• Art is well drawn but very safe and kind of stilted, I don’t feel a lot of energy
• The world isn’t explained very well, I know an exposition dump would have sucked but it needed something, like perhaps show the research lady giving a talk about monsters
• There seems to be no character development of the MCs, in fact they kind of are dropped for the secondary MCs
• Takes waaay too long to get to interesting stuff like the monster city in chapter 8
• Jordan: It’s tough to tell these girls apart a lot
• Jordan: Not much really goes on and it isn’t as funny as things like azumanga daioh or lucky star
• Jordan: What the fuck was that story with the little girl like I’m not sure I can really wrap my head around it still.
• Jordan: The rocks never mattered

What it did well

• Art is good
• Seems like a fun change of pace vs other kaiju manga
• Original premise
• Def picks up midway through when I feel the author is trying to use his best ideas
• I enjoy that blue sumo wrestles
• Jordan: It’s adorable
• Jordan: The story with the old man and the monster was legit pretty good

Where it could have gone

• I think a 4koma would have been a better format as the series kinda doesn’t have a lot it wants to do in its pages but needs to still be 16+ pages on a topic
• Focus on just the two main girls, I wanted to spend the first 2-3 chapters learning about the world and the girls before introducing a shitload of characters

Misc Thoughts

• Why do manga always call something a color but not utilize their color pages for it
• Thank you for not making the tentacle monster part weird
• Did this series have a yuri overtone or na

Final Verdict

• Six Word summary
  • David: Monster, Monster, Monster, Monster, Blossom, Blossom
  • David: Wrecks cute idea with bad execution
  • Adam: How to train your nuclear metaphor
  • Twolfwood: Cute girls befriending monsters, love it
  • Tucker: Monsters stole these girls’ distinguishing features
  • Zander: Very calm girls, very calm monsters
• Flop or not
  • Flop
  • Read girls last tour or kaiju 8 if you wanna see smash
• Is this the best/worst series we’ve talked about