I decided to check out 'Dear NOMAN, Vol. 1' after reading and adoring the mangaka neji's other work, 'Beauty and the Beast Girl'. I'm glad I did, for 'Dear NOMAN, Vol. 1' is hugely entertaining, well written and well drawn.
I wonder, will it be made into an anime? It has as much potential as any shonen title.
Young Mashiro Unohana is shy, kind, helpful and small for her age (think like a female Yugi Mutou, except without the extreme hair). She lives with her mother, and she can see ghosts. Of people, of animals, and other, mythological creatures, later referred to as nomans. One ghost she can't see is that of her older sister, whom she writes letters to, and who has supposedly moved on to the other world.
One day Mashiro is attacked by a noman - ghostly creatures, animals or humans of varying levels and sizes that're unable or unwilling to move on - and is rescued by a mysterious crow lady named Bazu. An accidental and hilarious kiss binds Bazu and Mashiro together as servant and master respectively. Mashiro is offered membership to the Boundary Preservation Society, an organisation, secret from ordinary humans, which works to hunt down nomans. Not wanting herself or anyone else to feel dreadful loss and grief again after what happened to her sister, Mashiro accepts. And she'll help out in more compassionate, and less violent and blunt, ways, in which to ease nomans into the next life, moving on from the past.
This leaves Bazu very irritated indeed, with the goody two-shoes "squirt". But she'll grow to respect and love Mashiro, not as a "master", but as a partner, a friend, a deep soul companion. Theirs is a bond of mutual feeling...
So think 'Bleach', 'Soul Eater', 'D.Gray-man' and 'Shaman King', with an all-female cast and yuri flavour, and you have 'Dear NOMAN'.
One thing which struck me the most is that, for something that is labelled a horror manga, 'Dear NOMAN' isn't scary. Not really. It can be achingly sad and touching, but it is also tremendously funny and witty.
Mashiro and Bazu, who could not have been any more different from each other (they're not even the same species), work so well together. They effortlessly bounce off of one another in personality and dialogue, and they have awesome chemistry.
The writing is cleverer than you'd might expect. I adore every character in 'Dear NOMAN'. It's a beautiful and sweet action yuri manga. Never mind the generous endowments drawn on the adult females; like with 'Beauty and the Beast Girl', at least there's no cleavage!
I heartily recommend this worthwhile manga.
Be warned, though: cruelty to animals by human hands is present. The manga is acutely sympathetic towards those poor creatures, and pets.
Final Score: 5/5
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