Manga/Centaur no Nayami (A Centaur's Worries)

(jap:セントールの悩み)

So, I'm wondering if anyone has heard of this little gem. While three volumes are out in Japan, the translations for Volume one (and some of volume 2) of it have only come out recently. The cover image of the first volume is here: [1]

Scans are available in the usual places, by the way.

One can technically call it a monstergirl manga, but it's more like an alternate reality, where instead of humans we have monster people (satyrs, angels, imps, centaurs, and there's mention of mermaids). Take note that they're all called "humans" anyway.

For a cute SOL story, there's a LOT of world-building going on in the background. There's a bit of political and racial undercurrent going on as well — Chapter 4 riffs on Obama for example, while Chapter 2 explains just why even casually riding on a Centaur's back is a BIG no-no. Then there's chapter 5.5...

edited 5th Oct '12 8:09:50 PM by MyssaRei

Monstergirl series tend to have only the girls be fantasy creatures. This just seems to be straight out xenofic as far as races are concerned, which is an interesting twist.

I think that racial difficulties are quite a bit more justified here than in other series. These are different species trying to exist under one umbrella and there are differences that aren't as easy to resolve.

edited 5th Oct '12 8:23:36 PM by Recon5

It also goes on how each species were treated differently in history depending on where they were. The Japanese centaurs for example, were samurai cavalry, and as such were looked at with honor and respect (Himeno's family is from a lineage like this), while in Europe they were apparently treated as mounts/slaves by the Angels in the middle-ages.

NONE of this is at the forefront though, as the series focuses on Himeno's daily life with her friends as they muddle through highschool and puberty in general.

edited 5th Oct '12 8:36:35 PM by MyssaRei

Hey, it's less realistic if the series doesn't have random people demanding special treatment or compensation from the current members of a race/species that wronged theirs in the past.

No issue at all in a Slice of Life series but things would get interesting if that was brought up sometime.

A better question is if the series can manage to get into the biological nitty-gritty without coming across as pandering.

edited 5th Oct '12 11:44:52 PM by Recon5

Read it. It is surprisingly good. It is very well crafted, you can see how much thought the author dedicated to the worldbuilding. Most of time, when someone wants to used monster people and similar, they go solely for the exotic or for the cute/sexy without thinking too much about how these people would actually work, how would be their everyday issues. Here, the author not only did think on it but literally build a story around it. The story does a good job mixing in a natural way both issues familiar to us as issues that only make sense for monster girls.

Even if one doesn't like this type of story, this manga is a worth reading if only as an example of a well thought up "modern fantasy" world.

Btw, Myssa, you said there are 3 volumes out in Japan. Can I infer a "so far"? I mean, is it a complete series or an on-going?

edited 6th Oct '12 12:09:32 AM by Heatth

It's ongoing serialization in Comic Ryu, but its 3rd volume only came out recently: [1]

All the extant species shown barring the Antarticans (who are reptiles) share a common ancestor, and as such can interbreed — in chapter 5 for example, we see an example of this in the Class Rep's family. The class rep herself is an angel, but her triplet younger sisters are catgirls because her father is a catguy. Also her baby/youngest sister is an angel too, which I guess comes from their mother's side.

Chapter 0 actually deals with the possible difficulties of different species pairs having children, where it mentions that pairings between Angels and Centaurs have a high chance of birth defects, hence the government stepping in and giving Angel/Centaur couples medical insurance just in case a difficult birthing happens.

edited 6th Oct '12 8:35:29 PM by MyssaRei

New chapter translated. At the rate they're going, they're going to catch up with the rest of Volume 2.

So, the worry for the chapter is... Hair. To be specific, Himeno's massive fall of hair, which is turning into a danger to her friends (as Nozomi soon finds out one windy day). What follows is a look at teenaged expectations on haircuts (like how Nozomi sees growing her hair long as a pain, and how Hime sees it as an expense her family might not like), and yet another hint of the Crapsaccharine World nature of the setting (Class Rep mentioning that appearing without a halo actually needs a MEDICAL CERTIFICATE, or else the fact that its missing might make it seem that she's been the target of hate crimes).

edited 7th Oct '12 4:44:02 PM by MyssaRei

This looks amaaaazing. I've never seen a centaur in manga/anime before. There's even a unicorn person!

Although...the "down there" conversation is pretty weird...and then the "let's compare" scene, even if it doesn't actually show anything...this is way too ecchi. Does it get graphic?

edited 7th Oct '12 5:27:38 PM by Ruise

Loves feel-good animation a whole lot.

This chapter by the way reinforces the idea that Himeno's goofy dad is a bit of a book nut, who still goes out of his way to buy books despite the fact that the family still has loans to pay.

Nope, not at all. It's all goofy cute fun between friends. There IS an undercurrent that the world isn't all nice and peaceful (believe me, the worldbuilding is impressive for a SOL series), but it never comes to the forefront.

Oh, and Hime is a treasure. Truly.

edited 7th Oct '12 5:29:18 PM by MyssaRei

The outfits designed for a centaur are really special...I've also never seen a centaur or horse wearing clothes other than a blanket.

You're right...they even separate track events by species rather than gender. (Still must take even longer than regular track meets, which are already long.)

edited 7th Oct '12 6:22:39 PM by Ruise

Loves feel-good animation a whole lot.

Again, a LOT of thought was obviously put into details like that. Pay attention to the after-chapter notes, for example... There are stuff like how clothes have holes as a default for tailed people, and how it used to be the domain of older people but sort of filtered into all kinds of clothing even for teens and children.

edited 7th Oct '12 5:46:28 PM by MyssaRei

Huh, actual Xenofics are rather rare when you think about it....

Depending on how busy Sengoku Collection keeps me, expect a small page for this gem soon. Unless someone beats me to the punch that is.

P.S. Kind of struggling with coming up with an introduction to the nascent page. And honestly, the summary up on many of the online reader sites... don't quite cut it. Mmph.

All caught up, and it really is adorable. I like the six-legged horses and sheep. And there are even non-humanoid/just-barely-humanoid races, although they still haven't integrated into society outside of Antarctica (serpantines) or the jungle (those newt-people). And apparently, centaurs are evolved from apes and not related to horses, it's just brushed off as convergent evolution. And there are camel-centaurs in the middle-east (must be super tall). And the costume design is still the jewel in the crown.

My only points of confusion are that I wouldn't figure a centaur could easily go down stairs, and how does Himeno never go to the bathroom at school? Even if her digestion really doesn't work like a horse's (if it did, toilets would have to be insanely powerful).

Oh, I think she could go if she really needed to. I'm just surprised she hasn't. And she did give a very good hygenic reason for worrying about her weight.

edited 8th Oct '12 9:01:53 PM by Ruise

Loves feel-good animation a whole lot.

Himeno can't go without Mr. Steppy. It's kind of a childhood crutch that she couldn't let go of even as a teen, kind of the original Security Blanket.

I'm constantly amused at Himeno worrying about her weight myself, when anyone who likely isn't a centaur wouldn't notice anyway. Oh, and she's likely one of the most justified examples of Huge Schoolgirl ever.

edited 8th Oct '12 8:59:36 PM by MyssaRei

Page is set up. Kind of tired to do much work on it aside from the intro, but hey, it's a start. Feel free to add stuff to it.

Nice work. It is lacking Cross Wiking, though. I will work on that latter today. Wiki Magic is much more difficult if people don't find the page.

Also, I would like to remove Crapsaccharine World from the page. It doesn't fit, I think. The manga's word is a simple Like Reality, Unless Noted. It makes no pretense of being more peaceful and ordered than your average Japanese town. Similarly the out world doesn't seem any worse than the Real Life.

Go wild. Kind of working on half-steam here, so some entries might not fit in hindsight.

You say that, but you beat me to the punch. I expanded the Like Reality, Unless Noted a bit, though.

edited 9th Oct '12 10:25:55 AM by Heatth

The fact that Himeno is essentially wearing sneaker horseshoes got a chuckle out of me. She seems a bit dense sometimes, though.

Just read the last translated chapter. The comments about faces sure are confusing. Probably because the anime style. I guess the mermaids are not "Asian" looking*

, despite being also Japanese? And of the regular characters, Kyouko is the one of the most "Asian" characteristics.

Combined Summer/Winter chapter! I love the clothes in this series, really I do.

Well, this chapter confirms at least the Schoolgirl Lesbians status of Akechi and her friend. And poor, POOR Nozomi. Mistaken for a boy.

Kind of worrying how an armed soldier seems to be guarding the threshhold of Mermaid area. As for mermaids... Wouldn't it be more accurate to call them dolphin people?

That aside, the dialogue between the friends shines once again. Particularly this particular gem:

(Sees mermaid being carried by her catguy boyfriend)

• Himeno: I wish someone would carry me like a princess.
• Nozomi: You'd have to date a CRANE (the construction machine)!

edited 9th Oct '12 4:58:14 PM by MyssaRei

I did not notice that soldier guy or the tank*

. Huh. Maybe Crapsaccharine World isn't that far off. I would keep looking for now, though.

Also, btw, between the lesbian couple and Nozomi*

measuring her arm during the crane comment, I wonder if the manga will take a Yuri turn at some point. Oh, well, I don't care either way, though it is probably best if the focus don't suddenly turn to romance.

edited 9th Oct '12 4:58:37 PM by Heatth

Interesting how the Mermaids refer to everyone else as "Mountain people" (Might be a translation convention), and how interactions between them is kind of rare (makes sense to me). Which makes the mermaid and her boyfriend later on pretty surprising.

As for Yuri, take note MANY people found out about the series when it was first posted on a yuri website. Doesn't seem to be the case though, but that won't stop people from seeing what they want...

Oh, and another interesting thing was the legend that the "wings" angels have evolved to keep them warm.

edited 9th Oct '12 5:19:49 PM by MyssaRei