As we all know series that choose to explore dark subject matter and have a very outthere artstyle or general aesthetic can be a mixed bag. Either you get something emotionally touching that makes you say to think an author dared to touch upon this so tastefully... or you wonder how come the creator hasnt gone to jail or gotten mercilessly bullied off the internet yet. Thankfully this series falls into the former category. Despite all the body horror occasional gore and lots of fetal imagery at its core its a story of two oddballs with sad backstories a seemingly immortal little girl who knows not of concepts like family or parents and a freaky humanoid that eats just about anything and can make one piece of bread appear out of thin air everyday wandering through a weird oftentimes cruel world in pursuit of as it turns out almost right away the same person. In this setting people can become wizards and wield unimaginable power but theres a catch no matter how kind their intentions are their form will be warped in some way. They get extra eyes morph into giant bugs become deer with several extra human heads as antlers...you name it. No two wizard designs the author came up with are the same and theyre each delightfully strange in their own ways. I especially loved the design of a flowerthemed witch whose visorlike petals regularly wither revealing a grotesque array of extra eyes unless she consumes strange eggs provided by another similarly freaky magic user. The art in this manga is a rare case of where at least in my opinion it keeps getting better the longer the series goes on. Not only do you get the aforementioned strange wizards and delightfully freaky residents of various cities and villages our protagonists visit along the way but the cities themselves look plenty freaky themselves too regardless if theyre a strange circus or mostly empty fields and deserts each location featured within has a uniquely bizarre charm that keeps you guessing whats next. A lot of it feels very picturebookesque too despite how morbid the world can get it still has this dreamy feel that fills you with childlike curiosity of its residents and architecture alike. Best I can describe some of the mangas locations is a mix between places youd see in either American McGees Alice game the classic RPGmaker game OFF and trinkets found on illustrations by the relatively obscure yet insanely talented author/artist Walter Moers most notable for his Zamonien book series. If you liked any of these things years ago or got into them recently delighted if you did even in the 2020s or are like me and your sense of aesthetics is stuck around 2009ish safeedgy media I think this will be up your lane. Without delving into too many spoilers and briefly coming back to what I said in the first paragraph I also thought it was interesting how the author decided to handle a character thats very very strongly implied to be a pedophile as well as exploring why their victims were hesitant to escape them and allowed their abuse to continue. I dont want to spoil their arc but Ill say this I think its impressive when an author crafts a character thats both extremely loathsome and weirdly pitiful at the same time while putting a lot of emphasis on how warped a person can get when someone with a certain kind of power over them plays too much of a role in their life. And seeing how said person with power ends up as a direct result of their own actions felt strangely cathartic. Additionally this is also borderline spoiler territory but what the author tried to say about how our cravings influence our lives was pretty thoughtprovoking too. I dont find myself genuinely pondering some sort of deeper philosophical conundrum after reading a manga with funny monsters in it yet this one certainly has me doing that and best of all the way the author slips in this underlying food for thought is very nonbanal. Undoubtedly a side effect of how wonderfully showdonttell the manga gets at times Quite a few big reveals are given to you by actually seeing what happened rather than having the characters infodump for a whole page. A dying art in manga these days... Summarizing if youd like to read a beautifully drawn manga with some morbid visuals yet a surprisingly cute story with lots of showdonttell and the best kind of dumb humour here and there this is perfect for you.