EROMANGA
HALL OF FAME

Mizone has built a career on drawing women who are not human. Monster Smash stands in the hall as the single volume that shows the full span of that work, reaching across the yokai of Japan and the creatures of Western myth.

Its nine stories concern love between human men and non-human women: a mermaid, a snake princess, an oni, a dullahan, an akaname, a centaur, a rokurokubi, even an alien. It is a monster-girl collection in the cross-species genre, and no human woman appears in it. Many of the plots are earnest romances in which a heroine ashamed of what she is crosses the barrier between species.

Readers point first to the unusual choice of species. The designs never stray far from the human form and the faces are expressive, so several readers recommend the book as a way into monster-girl stories. The stories are praised as carefully built, turning strangeness into charm, as in the tale of a centaur office worker who keeps being turned down and her junior colleague.

It is the second print collection by Mizone, who debuted in book form in 2015, and the first with Bunendo. Its core is the four stories of Jingai Musume-tachi no Seijijou, a digital-only release, with five more added; that digital edition is in the hall as well.

The Japanese original, Bakemono Ecchi, appeared in print in March 2018. Four months later FAKKU published it in print in English, and a French edition, Monster Girls' Party, followed later. It ranks 87th in the commercial hall, the highest of the artist's five hall works.