Night of the Beasts Vol. 1

Let me put this out there. I am all for strong female heroines. Female empowerment? Yeah, I’m all over that. But it’s one of those things that shouldn’t be forced too hard. And unfortunately for Night of the Beasts, that’s very much what it feels like.

The most unfortunate part of this particular piece of manga is its lost potential. Aria’s the local “bad girl” in school. No one messes with her because she’s not afraid to put a foot forward and beat the ever-living tar out of anyone who crosses her path. She stands up for girls who can’t seem to stand up for themselves – one of the many points that just seem to strike the wrong chord. Life goes awry for her when she meets Sakura, a dashingly handsome young man with a terrible secret. Sakura is possessed by an indescribable evil, one which can only be suppressed by Aria’s touch. If Sakura doesn’t want to risk becoming an uncontrollable killing machine, he needs to have Aria by his side to suppress his inner demon.

I like the concept. I really do – I think it could have been taken somewhere amazing. But Night of the Beasts just seems to fall short. The relationships between characters seem cheesy and forced, the violence appears random, and the world has no depth to it… I just can’t find anything substantial to sink my teeth into. The art is okay, but nothing phenomenal or unique. The whole of it is more of the same, and it never seems to go anywhere – it makes it very difficult to talk about, let alone review.
Now, I’m willing to say that I may be more disenchanted with this as it seems like an almost exact copy of Her Majesty’s Dog, and I happened to have read that novel first. Even so, Night of the Beasts just doesn’t appear to have anything unique enough, jaw dropping enough, or suspenseful enough to keep me interested. The characters are bland, the art is average, and the story’s just not going anywhere interesting anytime soon.

There are a slew of little things that bother me too. Sakura hitting on Aria after stating she’s a blood relative, the total disregard for every other female in the series, the fact that the single strong female consistently falls out of character, the whole “I’m going to blatantly dance around the plot” approach the author takes… It simply seems unpolished and it is as if it’s just not well thought through.

On a whole, Night of the Beasts is another sub-par piece of manga that just doesn’t deliver. It had a lot of potential, but this title is just another pass for me. I feel a little bad for the author, as it seems like she was really excited about this project. Sadly, it just doesn’t hit home. Maybe next time, Chika Shiomi. Maybe next time.