-Written by: Krystal & Kelly

Krystal's Review

The first thing that attracted me to Slasher Maidens was the cover. It features a bada** chick who looks like she just finished kicking butt. I am a huge fan of strong female characters (both literally and figuratively), so this book intrigued me. What turned me off was the description of the main male protagonist, “a proud pervert.” I immediately assumed that this manga would be like every other male-based fan service book that I’ve come across since starting at Right Stuf: crude, female demeaning, trash. The feminist in me was screaming, but the cover looked so enticing that I decided to give it a try, and I’m happy I did. I honestly loved this book. It had a lot of B.A. female characters, creative fight scenes and comedic prowess.

The book starts off with a little background on Asuma Sudo, our main character and “proud pervert.” Asuma explains that as far back as he can remember he has been a perv. He says it himself, he only sees women as sex objects and is basically trying to find new ways to be the ultimate perv. That all changes when he sees a mysterious girl from a local boarding school walk past him. He is immediately smitten and for the first time wants to get to know a girl beyond just her bra size. He then mysteriously gets an invite to enroll in the school (just a reminder, this is an all-girls school) and he happily accepts the invite in the hopes of meeting the woman of his affections (also the dude is still a perv, so how could he say no). What seems like a horny teenage boy’s dream come true quickly changes when it turns out the school is actually a secret government military base built up of teenage girls, called Slasher Maidens, trained to fight kaijin. Kaijin are people who transform into monsters after getting strong murderous urges. The girls all have memento’s from very dangerous dead kaijin that allows them to harness the energy from the spirits of the previous owner and gain their powers and abilities. The only problem is that if the spirit gets too much control it can take over the girl wearing the memento and become a new threat. This is where Asuma is expected to help. It turns out Asuma is actually a Kaijin, but instead of murderous urges, he has ones of lust that give him abilities, such as speed and rapid healing. Asuma is expected to basically get the possessed girl out of her trance by doing some sort of sexual act on her to evoke a less murderous emotion.

I know this still sounds super pervy and gross, but I promise you the manga really isn’t as bad as it sounds. One thing I really liked about this manga was that the woman didn’t just accept that they would have to be defiled by Asuma in order to not get possessed. They were grossed out, expressed their displeasure of his pervy nature and really didn’t like the idea of a pervert having to save them, or anyone besides their team having to save them. You also get to see Asuma’s evolution from seeing every woman as a sex object and instead seeing them as people. The best example was when one of the Slasher Maidens, Funabashi-san, gets possessed by her memento’s spirit and Asuma is tasked with “waking her up.” He has the chance to do whatever he likes to her, but he recently found out she was suffering PTSD from an experience with a man when she was young . Instead of doing something dramatic, he just gets really close to her and breathes on her, instantly waking her up. I was surprised by his actions, seeing as he had permission to do whatever he wanted, but he thought about his teammates past trauma and didn’t want to make it worse, even if it was used to save lives.

While the book does still have a sexual undertone to it that a lot of these types of books have, it doesn’t make the female characters personality centered on getting the man. They were all very interesting, had personalities that weren’t stereotypical and could take care of themselves. I loved the idea of the mementos and a lot of the kaijin they were from were very reminiscent of killers from horror films. There were references to Freddy Krueger, Hannibal Lecter and Leatherface. It was a really cool idea and the author executed it very well. The fight scenes were amazing. As someone who loves a good death scene, this manga did not disappoint. The girls were all amazing and the grotesque nature of the monsters and the horror throwbacks of the girl’s powers made some great scenes.

I really didn’t realize how much I enjoyed this book until I finished it. There were some sketchy parts that I wasn’t super fond of and my main complaint was that Asuma should have gotten smacked upside the head a couple of times for being gross, but other than that it was a really good read. I’m looking forward to the next manga to come out and for the story to continue.

Kelly's Review

Given my taste for shonen anime, Slasher Maidens was a good read. While the manga is good it plays on a couple anime tropes and ideas from other anime, which can make it feel generic. The idea that your power is determined by your weapon and how it can overcome you feels like a common trope in a couple of different anime. Another trope is the chosen protagonist with a special power. I can’t say that using this trope is bad, many original anime use this idea, it seems similar to Noir’s powers in the light novel, The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter.

This manga is good, I can’t find anything to complain about other than it is full of anime tropes, which isn't necessarily a bad thing if you enjoy them. I would recommend this manga to someone who likes a shonen with some fanservice. Reading this feels somewhat similar to Chainsaw Man (with the powerful pervy protagonist and coworkers he’s lusting after), so if you are a fan of that then this one would be a good fit.