While those of you who read this blog will have noticed, I watch a fair amount of anime. What I don't do a lot of, however, is read manga. I used to, back in my university days, but it's fallen somewhat by the wayside. I thought I'd try and get back into it, and the best way of doing that seemed to be looking at new series.
Now I'm obviously aware that scanlations mean that a lot of these aren't really "new", but I'm going to focus on the releases of the first official translations. And the manga of the day is about a young girl living alone in the forest. (She does have a dad, but he's gone off exploring. They don't say what for, but I'm going to guess either insulin or entrance codes to some sort of survival bunker.)
See, this is, perhaps obviously from the title, a post-apocalyptic world, which contains monsters. Like the spider of the title. Luckily the spider is more than a little docile, moves in immediately, and the girl and her spider spend most of the volume cooking food and learning to play nicely together.
It is unrelentingly cute, in a world that is most likely incredibly bleak just off-screen, with feral wolves and the need to scavenge for food (and a cliffhanger that hints at quite a bit more plot).
The art is reasonable, though some of the face work occasionally feels a little bland, and a lack of backgrounds in some panels does leave some pages looking a bit too minimalist, but it mostly seems to suit the style of story.
I'm not entirely sure why, but it also acts as a cookery book, with a few of the different meals that are mentioned in the story being given as recipes. Perhaps one to try a different day.
All in all, a nice tale about a surprisingly comfy world. Will be nice to see more of it.
Tagged: Manga Drama Fantasy Supernatural Friendship