MISC. MANGA, *Monster Musume

With Monster High oddly becoming the hot doll fad of tween-age girls, Monster Musume takes it to the anime level with some really obscure monsters and turning them into hot ecchi babes! By "Okayado", this was his first big hit, and is fan service galore for the furries, but does have something for non-anthro fans.

The existence of half-human/half-animal monsters labeled "liminals" have been made public, and now some have moved into the world while living with a host family, which is similar to an exchange student program. Miia is a lamia(or snake girl)that moves in with local Japanese boy Kirihito, who in true harem genre fashion doesn't have either of his parents around. Miia has fallen for him big time for some reason, and takes every chance she can to try and seduce him, despite the somewhat approval of their government liaison, the leggy Ms. Smith. Later on, Kirihito gets even more monstrously sexy additions to his harem house of horrors, the ditsy harpy Papi, the buxom centaur Centorea, and the female slime Suu. There seems to be some interesting social situations like where some clearly American tourists are talking smack about Miia in front of Kirihito and he defends her honor, but its mostly a lot of situations with Kirihito getting caught between the monster maidens totally naked.

I appreciated the effort put into the art style, and the sympathetic tone given for each of the monster girls as being strangers in a strange land, but ultimately Monster Musume is one big harem manga bonanza. Granted, it adds a little more to the mix with supernatural sirens instead of technicolor-haired schoolgirls, but you won't find too much in the development of any real plot here.