Title seems to be based on the sound effects monoke make when they fight per tucker
Author: Gen Oosuka
Author’s other works:
Golem hearts bb
Been doing 5 different one shots that didn’t become series
Was an assistant for Tabata of black clover fame
Run dates: Nov 29, 2021 to Aug 29, 2022
Replaced Red Hood or Neru so we’ve now covered every series that started when they were canceled, Maxybee is very proud
Was replaced by Tokyo Demon Bride
Chapters/Volumes: 36/5
About the Manga
Plot
Jordan
Mononoke are invading the human world. Mononoke are just demons who eat people btw. Dora Sasaki is a really strong guy with a mom who was killed by one. Because of this he wants to become a samurai working for the Izanagi corps and save people from them. Unfortunately he lacks any spiritual energy which is the only thing that can hurt them, meaning he can’t fight. Luckily while trying to save a kid from one, he meets a tiny adorable shapeshifting Mononoke named Kusanagi. When Kusanagi transforms into a sword, Dora is able to use his crazy strength to kill the evil Mononoke and save an elementary school.
Kusanagi doesn’t eat people which means he’s hungry and weak but also very sweet, and Dora bonds with him immediately. However, after saving some samurai from getting eaten, the two are discovered by Ginchiyo, a career focused Izanagi member who gets Dora to help her in exchange for paying his rent.
Dora, Kusanagi, and Ginchiyo take down some small fry when they face off against the Hanya Gyuuki, a powerful Mononoke who killed Dora’s mom. Dora is enraged but Kusanagi calms him down because he doesn’t want him to get hurt pursuing vengeance. The two save Ginchiyo who’s not doing too well, and manage to defeat the big Hanya, but uh oh, a way more powerful mononoke named Hidehisa rips open his stomach and steps out. The trio’s lives are saved by Heisuke Ujii, a powerful samurai officer with a chip on his shoulder. Hidehisa escapes and kills a bunch of people oh well.
Ujii decides not to kill Kusanagi and instead brings everyone back to Izanagi HQ. Ujii is arguing with Ginchiyo’s dad who runs the place in order to save Kusanagi’s life until Dora walks in and the two are so cute together that her dad says to let him live for now. Ginchiyo is gone for most of the series after this. She’s training or something.
David
Dora is then confronted by Toda, who used to get his ass kicked by him. However, now Toda can use spiritual energy and explains the power system to Dora which I guess no one did before. Kusanagi then manages to replicate it, allowing Dora to lose one of the things that made him interesting. Also they meet a nice samurai named Ichiya.
Flash over to the big bad Mononoke who are hanging out just killing a bunch of kids and one samurai. They hatch a plan to draw out samurai officers and kill them alone. The Izanagi troops then deploy to where the bad guys are. Dora and Touma defeat an alcoholic mononoke cuz Dora and Kusanagi learned to fuse. Meanwhile Ujii defeats a mononoke who posts thirst-traps and that Hidehisa dude from before, but their boss Kanbeh escapes and uh oh they have a mole on the inside.
Dora teams up with Naotora Kamiizumi, a samurai officer who has a maaaassive crush on Dora to the point where she stalks him. They wind up hitting it off and Naotora kills an octopus mononoke like it’s nothing.
Then a big mononoke is summoned by a human. He knew Kusanagi in the mononoke world and took advantage of how sweet of a boy he was to kill his friend. He tries to do it again but Dora snaps him out of it. Naotora and Dora manage to defeat it but not before it steals some of the Dora/Kusanagi fusion energy which was stolen by that Kanbeh guy from before.
Meghan
Then the author got told the series was getting canceled so we meet Goki Tsukahara, the guy who made the Izanagi corps in the first place. A long time ago he was training in a dojo with a fellow student who was stronger named Hanzo Miyamoto, and- say it with me: Goki got selected as the master and Hanzo got so mad he turned to dark magic. He summoned all the mononoke so that’s why they’re here. The Izanagi headquarters are built on top of the immortal mononoke and Hanzo wants to get it back. Then the mononoke lay siege on the HQ, using Dora’s energy to pierce through a barrier I forgot to mention, and kill some beloved officers. You remember that traitor from a while back? Well that was Ichiya but it wasn’t really. He was just possessed and Dora saves him pretty easily.
Hanzo releases the immortal mononoke and fuses with it. Mr. Tsukahara blinds Hanzo but it made him so tired that he dies. Dora then uses his and Kusanagi’s merged powers to strike Hanzo’s glowing weak point, reducing his HP to zero and killing him. Unfortunately all the mononoke then have to go back to their world including Kusanagi aww :(
Then they start cleaning things up and Dora wants to be a cop, the end.
Characters
Dora Sasaki
No powers
Dumb and strong kinda guy
Mom was v supportive
Mom killed by mononoke
Kusangi
Good monoke or whatever
Feels like a pochita ripoff
Kinda realizes it?
Ginchiyo Yagyu
Female hunter
Wants a promo
Disappears during the series
Rich parents
Fucking disappears lmao
Heisuke Ujii
Sauske
Super samurai
Rodney Dangerfield just wants respect
Says what he's thinking lmao
I think he's the best character and is kinda funny
Touma
Emotionsss
Hot blooded
One sided rivalry with mc
Shield
Naotora kamiizuni
Crazy hair
Excentric
Likes compliments
Stalker
Senior officer
Is she wearing the JJK uniform?
Kanbeh
Fox guy
Only recurring bad guy lmao
Hanzo Miyamoto
Mummy guy
Actual big bad
Load bearing boss
Winds up being an example of the single most ancient manga trope. A trope so old that it hasn’t been used in a while.
Why it failed
This series is just bland city
Art is ok
Nice having a protag that finished hs lmao
It just seems kind of lazy having the one good lawful good monoke
There's a weird tonal disconnect in the nature of the monsters vs the world itself it's like a pg vs r rated world that I feel doesn't seem unique just more bland
I feel the pacing of the humor is bad, like the punchline is told in the same panel as the joke for a comedic reaction so it had no time to breath
Ultimately this series has the sin of being forgettable
I dislike when the mc completely disrupts the power scale of everything else and only they can defeat bad guys now
The series doesn't really explain the why behind characters personalities besides the mc drive to be a police officer
Minor nitpick but having a character talk from the neck can make the speech bubbles kind of confusing. I think having a monoke-specific bubble would have helped
I really dislike the dosan stuff, like Kusangi can’t be that fucking stupid and it feels like he’s had no character development
What it did well
Competent female MC
I like the monoke designs
The art while generic is consistent and well detailed
I really liked kusangi asking if he’s just a tool for revenge
I respect people actually died in monoke attacks
This series has nothing going on besides fighting monoke
I will give some partial credit for it knowing how tropy it is but not full marks as it's still tropy
It has a few minor in-between moments after the major arc that are nice but not enough ofc
The final arc when he burned through his ideas is pretty good
Where it could have gone
It’d have been nice to see the monoke guy have some villainous side or some downside to him rather than him just being good all the time
More art variation his base art style is so bland but he clearly can draw differently that looks pretty cool
Have the samurai not be paid well and talk about actually acab shit, like yes even in this world
Since the monoke doesn’t need to be a sword he could have a lot more variability in his combat
See more inner turmoil about is dora another human just using Kusangi based on his simple nature. Make this series like what if yoko taro made a action manga
Firmly establish the villian hierarchy sooner or have more independent agents this hur always a bigger fish thing is kinda lame
I’d have been really cool to have Kusangi be a cultural interpreter for everything, like he explain their behavior in a way they’d never understand before
Misc Thoughts
I can’t tell to what degree this is homage vs ripoff of every other manga
The lesbian assistant was unexpected but was unexpected
Man a lot of characters in this series have low self esteem
Maxy Bee thoughts:
Is it awkward that a former assistant of Yuki Tabata does a series about a hero with no powers and how actually that’s a good thing? Even down to the absurd physical strength.