The Girl From the Other Side and Love on the Other Side

This review will cover two works from Nagabe, one pretty well known and beloved - the other more obscure and more infamous. Starting with the first one.

The Girl From the Other Side

I loved the look of this manga from the first time I saw it but knowing it was nearing its end I decided to wait until it got finished and completely translated. I don't like reading manga that's not fully out - I can't keep up with the new chapters and I easily get detached from it. The artstyle fits the dark fairytale-like story and setting.

The premise is really simple - a little child was thrown out of her world for being "cursed" and a cursed monster took her in. Soon after the little girl starts getting chased by knights and monsters and the two try to stick together. There's more to it, but I'll stick to the basics without going into details. In that way we have a dynamic that's really common in fiction imo - a kind hearted giant and a fairy, a monster and a young girl, the beauty and the beast, a grumpy dude stuck with a kid learns how to love and mellow out, hell, Monsters inc has that very dynamic. You get my point. I was surprised to see someone in MyAnimeList reviews say this work tried to ride on the coattails of The Ancient Magus' Bride, when such a trope is extremely common in fiction, for better or for worse... Unlike The Ancient Magus' Bride where that trope is romantic, here it's clearly based on a father-daughter dynamic, and in my opinion, it's executed really well without any creepy undertones. The only similarity I suppose, would be the head of the monster which is goat inspired in both cases, but it's definitely not a feature that didn't exist before.

I think the story flew well and kept me pretty interested until the last two chapters, when it kind of got a bit convoluted. There was a bit too much exposition crammed in the last volume and because of that I think the ending didn't impact me as well as it could've. Still, this was a really sweet and enjoyable creepy story, both the monster and the little girl were loveable characters and their dynamic was neat. There were no silly misunderstandings, and the moments they shared together were endearing. I wish the plot took breaks more often for the slice of life aspect instead, honestly.

Love On the Other Side: A Nagabe Short Story Collection

Remember how I mentioned earlier that the dynamic between the monster and the little girl was executed really well, without creepy undertones? Well... I can't say the same here! MonsterxInnocentBeing is clearly Nagabe's shtick, and that's fine I guess. But sometimes this "love knows no bounds" theme that can be applied to the Beauty and the Beast type of story also starts applying to age... or species... or family relations... and then it gets a bit weird! I want to say I didn't mind the more furry relationship stories, where the animal was more human like. Mayonaka no Waltz, a story about a vampire that looks like a bat but believes is a human and a human girl that loves him was quite sweet, and possibly my favourite, although I don't really support giving into your partners delusions irl lmao. But then there are two stories in particular, one that is basically grooming 101 and the other a PedophiliaxBestiality 2in1 deal that I found quite uncomfortable in comparison to how sweetly they're portrayed! Nagabe enoys exploring power dynamics, clearly. Regardless of the creepy themes, all the stories are sfw and not explicit.

A lot of people mentioned how this collection of short stories soured their opinion on The Girl From the Other Side but I don't really share the same sentiment. Clearly Nagabe is capable of portraying a multitude of different relationships that explore the same dynamic in this short story collection. It doesn't have to mean that the little girl and the monster in his most popular work now have a mandatory creepy undertone to it. And it doesn't really seem like the stories were made for the purpose of sexual gratification or anything. It's true men are usually more depraved when it comes to stuff like this so maybe I'm just being naive! Sometimes you just know but this time I truly don't know. Oh well...