Reviews
(4.22/5)Engaging story. Language is very approachable even for a newbie.
I loved the Shadows House anime but the manga is a bit advanced for me. When I saw this by the same author I immediately decided to try it, and I'm glad I did.
As other reviews will tell you, the basic story is about a young girl, koko, living alone in a mansion with her cat, kuro. The mansion and the surrounding neighborhood are beset by monsters - everybody seems to be able to see them except koko. She is protected by kuro, who obviously is a bit more than the normal cat. I don't want to give away more. :)
The language is very approachable, even at my level (N4-N5), and I'm picking up new vocabulary. The sentences are short and there's a good amount of Kanji. The lack of furigana is a little annoying but not insurmountable. In one way, it's actually an advantage - I scan the pages into images for reading on my iPad, where I can actually select words or phrases. Furigana can confuse the selection.
As for the story, I find it very engaging. It might be intended for a very young audience but there are some complex, even dark themes, and I find myself looking forward to reading in order to find out more.
And the art is superb, with almost half of each volume in color.
Simple, short little intertwined stories set in a world besieged by monsters
This is the story of a small little girl called Coco living alone in a mansion and her strange monster-cat Kuro. Throughout the manga, we discover, bit by bit, the strange fantasy world besieged by monsters that they inhabit. We also get a glimpse into the backstory of the side characters, so this volume feels a little like a collection of short, interlinked, stories that serve to give us a better understanding of the inner workings of this world and its people.
The further you progress through the chapters, the earlier in time you go. This is a bit of an unusual story-telling method but I didn't find it confusing. Sometimes, it almost felt like I was reading different versions of the same story. That impression is reinforced by the fact that the "sub-stories" involving Coco pretty much all start with 「私はココ。クロの飼い主。」
Despite the lack of furigana, this is a very accessible manga, even for beginners. The grammar is very simple. All the sentences are short and straightforward and mostly follow very simple structures like "I am X", "I do Y", "It seems like Z". Even though, the book is written is by the same author as Shadow House, the language difficulty is way way easier here. I don't have the stats to back it up but I feel like if you know the top 1k words, N5 and a bit of N4 grammar, you'll have a good coverage.
This first volume is focused on exposition and world-building so it's not packed-full of action. If you like slower-paced fantasy, I think you'll enjoy this nice little story.
Kuro is about a little girl, ココ, and her cat, クロ. It's a.. strange story to say the least. ココ lives alone in a large mansion, in a city which is surrounded by monsters. And we only slowly discover the workings of this world in a series of chapters that work backwards in time. It's dark, but with no real large narrative. I never fully got into it... mostly just confused haha, but it's very different which is refreshing.
For a language learner, this is an awesome first book if you can find a version with furigana (the linked version does not... if you find one, please add it!). Even for me, this was my first try without furigana and it was great for that purpose. The language is quite standard, pretty small vocabulary and seems very natural, with plenty of little slang aspects here and there, but not overwhelming at all.
Overall, this is a great beginner manga.
Interesting story using simple language (sans furigana)
I was very happy to find something horror-adjacent that's accessible to me at my current level. 黒 tells an interesting story using common language, and it does so without using furigana (which is a pro to me, as I often find myself reading it even when I know the kanji). The combination of it being interesting enough to want to keep reading and its highly accessible language makes this a great series for Japanese learners.