Common-Sense Monster Volume 2 Review
Itou is a human who just wants to be ‘normal’. When she discovers that a fellow classmate, Takahashi, is actually a monster in disguise who is able to walk easily among humans, Itou begs for Takahashi’s help. She agrees, but only if she gets to eat Itou afterwards, which Itou happily agrees to, as long as she’s able to live ‘normally’ for a short while and spend time with Takahashi. However, the twisted love story becomes a love triangle when their teacher, Niehara-sensei, is also revealed to be a monster who has great interest in Itou. They’re a shape shifter, who took the form of their former teacher and now plans to turn the whole class, except Itou, into monsters as well during the class trip. Can Itou stop them long enough to get what she wants? Or is she outmatched this time?
The second volume of this dark yuri series has a different vibe to the first volume; the opening volume felt like a boiling pot of monster horror, with Itou always within reach of an eldritch-like monster who wanted her dead. But now that that particular danger has subsided, the one that takes its place is different. Itou and Takahashi’s relationship always feels very one-sided; it’s clear that Itou loves Takahashi and wants to be with her, regardless of her monstrous nature, whereas the monster using Takahashi’s skin is only putting up with Itou to gain a new skin when her current skin begins to rot.
But a new dynamic of Itou and Nie-sen offers an alternative to this love triangle (for the preview of Volume 2 at the end of Volume 1 they call it a ‘bizarre love triangle’ so that’s why I’m calling it that). Nie-san quickly warmed up to Itou the moment Itou clocked on to their true nature and revealed their plan to transform the classroom into monsters. They see Itou’s quest to be ‘normal’ as silly; at the end of the previous volume, they reveal that being normal is ‘not getting in people’s way’, saying that Itou herself is actually a monster as she doesn’t either care or understand why her actions or words can brush others the wrong way, or be seen as abnormal. But instead of demonising Itou, Nie-sen embraces Itou as she is and wants to make others into monsters who will admire Itou for who she is. Nie-sen even calls Itou their ‘saviour’ as it helps Nie-sen’s feelings of depression about constantly having to change their face and body just to survive, with Itou being the only one to see through it. It’s an interesting take on the love triangle, and allows for relatable character drama, despite the volume being about murderous monsters. Even though Nie-sen challenges Itou’s world view, Itou disregards Nie-sen’s words and plans to stop their scheme to kill her fellow students and Nie-sen continues to show affection (in a way only a monster can) towards Itou. But the volume ends rather abruptly during the school trip that is set to be the decider for the class’s fate. As it doesn’t stop midway through a fight or revelation or anything like that, it’s a rather flat conclusion to the book, despite the juicy content inside.
Art by Shinobu Shinotsuki continues to be excellent, with sharp use of shadows and monstrous designs to keep the horror vibes throughout the book, despite it not containing much horror content. I think the cover isn’t as strong as the first volume, though; the first volume had a reflection of the logo at the bottom in what looks like a pool of blood, alongside a reflection of Takahashi’s true form. On Volume 2 however, the repeated use of the logo just looks like a mistake? Maybe it was going for a light reflection effect, but it doesn’t look neatly placed.
The translation by John Neal continues to be a fun read with some nice translation notes at the end, I would have liked some notes however on the various nicknames that Itou gets across the book; in English they’re two words (Japanese and English) awkwardly smashed together. I would have liked to have known if it was a pun in the original Japanese that they had to translate directly, or if it was something else.
Common-Sense Monster continues to be a thrilling horror manga with interesting character developments and entanglements that could decide Itou’s fate very shortly. I look forward to the third volume, due out in August: the conclusion to this interesting story.
Our review copy was supplied by Yen Press.
