Somali i strażnik lasu #1

Somali and the Forest Spirit #1

by Yako Gureishi, Jacek Mendyk (Translator)

Ten świat należy do stworów najprzeróżniejszych gatunków i kształtów. Ludzie zostali niemal doszczętnie wybici i grozi im rychłe wyginięcie. Pewnego dnia los łączy golema - Strażnika Lasu i ludzką dziewczynkę. Oto historia ich wspólnej podróży. A także opowieść o budowaniu więzi między przedstawicielką wymierającego gatunku i tajemniczym opiekunem dziewiczej puszczy, który dla małej towarzyszki staje się ojcem.

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Comics, Adventure, Seinen, Slice Of Life

178 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2015

Reviews

[Bookishrealm]

This was slightly weird but also endearing and the artwork is immaculate! I’m glad I caught this early before too many volumes begin to release. I’m excited to see where this series takes Somali and “dad.” ❤️

[Shannon]

This gets 5 stars just for the art alone. The character and creature designs, the landscapes, the towns - they're all absolutely stunning and incredibly detailed.

Somali is a human pretending to not be and she travels with a golem whom she calls "Father." Golems are tasked with watching over the forests but this one leaves his to try to find humans he can safely leave Somali with. Humans are rare in this world and the other creatures have taken over so even asking where to find humans is a risk.

I love Somali in her little hoodie with horns - she's pretending to be a (very cute) baby minotaur. The golem is also a very interesting character and it's great how he learns from Somali.

I only wish I had found out about this series a few years in the future because the number of volumes released now just aren't enough for me.

[Marquise]

[Jen]

Wasn’t really into the whole “apocalyptic future where humans are almost completely dead and hunted by the creatures who took over, yet SOMEHOW a human girl is found in the MIDDLE of NOWHERE and a father-figure non-human has decided to bring her back to her kind”. Read it already in another manga and it stunk.

This one looked better, not sexualizing an underaged girl at least, but I read up on the series and apparently the author had to stop at six volumes for health concerns, so no ending.

So thank you Titan Books for a copy of this from ALA Annual Philly 2024, it just isn’t working for me.

No stars given as I didn’t read enough to give a fair star assessment.

[Mehsi]

A golem, a child, and a travel through their world, fraught with dangers.

I was attracted to the cover, those details! It reminded me a bit of Hakumei to Mikochi and Mushishi combined. And I can say now that it is absolutely wonderful.

We have two characters, a golem, he is supposed to watch a forest somewhere, but, for reasons we find out in a later chapter he is on a quest to help out Somali, the little child. I really quite liked the golem, he was an interesting character and I loved how much he cared for Somali. Though it made me laugh at times as he is discovering what feelings are and at times he is quite awkward as he doesn't know how to express himself.

Then there is Somali, a tiny child, I am still not sure if they are a girl or a boy. Everyone is calling them a she/her, but they just look like they could be both. :P Thankfully, reading comments from other people they are also a bit confused.
Somali is a human child, and needs to be disguised (though I am not sure how in heavens name that disguise works) as this world is now full of non-humans, who don't mind hunting for the left-over humans and eating them. Yep. Wonderful world right?
I love how gluttonous the child is. Even if it is a new dish they will try it out and eat as if their life depends on it.

The world is just gorgeous and with each page we see more of this wonderful world. Well, wonderful if you are non-human. As I said humans are hunted and killed. We get a little history lesson quite early on in which we learn that at first the human and the non-humans didn't know about each other's whereabouts but then the non-humans were discovered, and so the contact between the two began to flourish, but sadly that didn't last very long, as people felt distrustful of each other (non-humans found the humans too hard to please for instance, while the humans were being mean about the scales/other strange things that the non-humans had on them) and thus the war started. Given that you know that humans are hunted now, I guess you know how it ended. :|

Each chapter brings new characters from a little oni who makes medicine to an old man living in a dying forest. With each character we learn something new about the world, about those who inhabit it, and also more about the characters we are following in this world. I can't wait to see what the next chapters will bring, and if Somali ever will find their parents or if they will be discovered.

The art is just gorgeous, be prepared to squee and get lost in this beautiful world that you really don't want to leave.

All in all, I found a new series that I will continue to read. And I would recommend it to everyone who is fan of Mushishi or other beautiful adventure manga.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Melcouettes]

j'ai beaucoup aimé ce premier tome. l'histoire m'intrigue et les dessins sont splendides.

[Lindsay]

Too much slice-of-life for my taste.

[Nav]

Too quick for me. It's the first volume and the golem is already feeling and admitting to emotions?

[Sinai C.]

Beautiful art - very, very detailed. Almost Ghibli-esque I would say. I'm not sure if it was the translation or what, but the story didn't draw me in

[❄ Pixelflocke ❄]

In diesem Fantasy-Manga wird uns eine sehr ungewöhnliche Welt präsentiert: Die Menschen sind vor langer Zeit nach einem Krieg mit den Anderwesen fast vollständig von der Erde verschwunden. Seitdem wird die Welt von Fabel- und Märchenwesen aller Art bevölkert. Die wenigen verbliebenen Menschen leben in ständiger Gefahr, gejagt, versklavt oder sogar verspeist zu werden.

Zu Beginn der Geschichte trifft ein Golem im Wald auf das kleine Menschenmädchen Somali. Fortan reisen die beiden gemeinsam und versuchen, weitere Menschen zu finden. Auf ihrer Reise begegnen sie den unterschiedlichsten Anderwesen. Doch sie müssen stets vorsichtig sein, denn Somali darf nicht als Mensch erkannt werden.

Der Zeichenstil ist wunderschön: extrem detailliert, sodass man unglaublich viel entdecken kann. Irgendwie erinnert mich dieser Manga auch ein bisschen an Nausicaä, auch wenn die Geschichte natürlich eine ganz andere ist.

Noch ist vieles unklar. Ich bin gespannt, wie die Geschichte um den Golem und Somali weitergeht und welche Geheimnisse sie in dieser außergewöhnlichen Welt noch aufdecken werden.

[Erin Cataldi]

This was such a cute little start to a series. The art is beautiful and it's such an adorable cozy fantasy. I am not always the biggest fan of manga, but this was such a cute premise and I love the artwork. Humans have been hunted almost to extinction and goblins, spirits, ghouls, and witches rule over all. When a golem discovers a human child he makes it his mission to track down her parents or other humans. The golem doesn't have much of a life left to for, so he may as well leave his forest and go on one final quest. Wonderful. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

[Sarah AK]

Very cute and cozy, but definitely more "slice of life" than I usually like (which is not my favorite subgenre). That said, I'll keep reading, because why not? Kinda feels like Girl From the Other Side meets Frieren meets Nicola Traveling Around the Demons' World (which I'm also reading right now).

[kaitlphere]

The combination of an awkward guardian and a small girl with a secret reminded me of The Girl From the Other Side. The two travel around looking for other humans and making friends. So far this is very wholesome.

[Valentina]

Ne parlo su Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF4gk...

[Izzy]

So ein schöner Manga. Der Plot ist sehr spannend und die Zeichnungen sind ultramega detailliert.

[zuzanka]

ślicznie wydana manga, rysunki są piękne, oddające klimat tego świata. polecam!

[Lizzieb123]

This is so precious and the art is everything! I LIVE for a cozy story with parent/child dynamics with a caring but clueless parent. This is about to take up my whole brain

[Lil Bookish Dragon]

This is one of the sweetest things I’ve ever read. That art style is beautiful and the story is so heartwarming and well thought out. I read this in one sitting and I cannot wait to read the rest of the series!

[Stella]

Nice artwork, strange story so far. Basically humans are an endangered species and it's pretty much their own fault for not being able to get along with anyone who is different?

[Dee]

4.25 ⭐

[Mara]

Somali and The Forest Spirit is a cozy manga following a golem and a lost human child as the golem tries to reunite the child with other humans in a whimsical world filled with strange creatures.

The manga makes good use of show-not-tell with intricate panels showing Somali and the golem's journey. The landscape and fantasy architecture is drawn in painstaking detail, though it occasionally feels like the characters are blending into the background. I almost wish I had read this digitally instead of reading the physical volume, so that there would be a higher contrast between the drawings and the white of the page.

Overall, this first volume offers an interesting premise with a cozy vibe, though there are references to morbid fates befalling the missing humans of the world. I wonder if the story will continue on a lighter note or slowly draw the reader into a darker story.

[Zaz]

The world was quite interesting with humankind hunted or eaten, while "monsters" were the main population. The bestiary was varied and interesting to look at and I also really liked all the details for the buildings, clothes and backgrounds. The two main characters worked well with a little girl and the golem, their relationship was cute and what happened to them was simple. I enjoyed their travel, even if it wasn't the strong point of the volume.

[D.T. Henderson]

This is such a cute premise, but it's not keeping my interest.

One lone daddy Golem tries to find the humans again to take care of little Somali, a human child he found. This Golem has no human features about him, physically or emotionally-or so, he thinks. As he cares for the girl, his emotions expand as well.

[Marianne]

What spectacular, detailed, and fine artwork! So beautiful that I can compare it to "otoyomegatari" or "a bride's story" by Kaoru Mori. Impressive! The storyline pulls you into insightful character insight! It is really a slice-of-life, fantasy genre and pulls me to the story indeed!

[Luke]

Art was nice, but the story just felt unfocused and aimless. Also translation stood out as a little wonky for me, which is not something I generally notice.

[Adrian]

One day, a human traveller stumbled upon a village of the fantastical beings. The traveller-was surprised by their appearance! And they by his. However, the fantastical beings warmly welcomed the traveller. Moved by it, he spread the story of these beings.

Thus they gradually started to interact with one another. However as time passed, some started to say things like this:

"they are so creepy."
"why do some of them have many eyes and others have snake-like scales?"

Also, others started to say:
"they're so annoying."
"they are weak but short-tempered, bossy and obstinate."
"why are they so grumpy?"

Such words spread like fire and they started to fight. And soon humans lost. The fantasticals started capturing surviving humans to satisfy their greed. It was later called human-hunting and the world changed.

With my last tipsy visit to Worlds Apart in Liverpool only yielding one volume of Moriarty the Patriot, Vol. 4, I thought it would be rude to not make use of the 3 for 2 offer. As such, I picked up the first volume of two other series to try and find another obsession.

This one grabbed my attention due to having a Siúil, a Rún: The Girl From the Other Side, Vol. 1 vibe and due to its message of humans being almost extinct due to their lack of respect for nature.

Unfortunately I found it rather confused. You are thrown straight into the story with little back history and a timeline that jumps forward leaving more questions. The premise is sound, it just didn't work for me. 3 stars.

[Anna C]

Art : 5 stars
Character : 3 stars
Plot : 4 stars
Storytelling : 4 stars
World building : 5 stars

3 stars because it's only beginning, author needed at least 1 volume to build the world which is reasonable. However, as a whole, it's a 5 stars material, highly recommended to read. Those stars for art, plot, etc are for whole series.

This feels like alternate universe story which is a lot more to it than meets the eye.
So, it's a world where there's human and non-human creatures, and they tried to coexist at first, but failed, so there's war, and human species became scarce after that. Human is human after all, they always judge first, they can't tolerate abnormalities, it's like their first instinct, their self-defense, it's in their gene. They just have to be supreme.

Reading this manga will make you feel ashamed with yourself. Looking at those non-human creatures is like looking at animals in our own world, if they look like monster or abnormal a bit, we crush them before they can crush us, we eat and use weak and meek animals too for our own purpose, as with same species who aren't normal or doesn't follow our standard like LGBTQ, we also try to crush them, just because they're different, not to mention the race who doesn't share same color, same religion, etc. People always said they don't/never judge, but actually they always unconsciously judge, whenever and wherever they see/hear something, they just don't want to admit it, they want to feel better about themselves, there it's again, the feeling of being supreme. Well, aside for self-introspection, this manga provides food for thought. Of course, non-human creatures aren't saint either. Just like human, there are good and bad non-human creatures as well.

[Luana]

Beh, come primo volume non è stato affatto male. I disegni sono veramente bellissimi e sono curiosa di vedere come evolverà la storia e, soprattutto, questo strano rapporto che lega la piccola Somali, un essere umano, e il golem, di norma un guardiano e protettore di foreste sacre, che lei chiama "papà". Infatti, è stato proprio lui a trovarla abbandonata nella foresta e a decidere di intraprendere questo viaggio alla ricerca dei genitori della bambina, o comunque di altri esseri umani che possano prendersi cura di lei.
Il problema è che, in seguito alla disfatta nella guerra contro gli altraforma, la maggior parte degli esseri umani è stata uccisa: i pochi sopravvissuti si nascondono per evitare di fare una brutta fine (infatti, il golem non ci pensa nemmeno di andare a rivelare in giro la vera genia della bambina).

Punto di forza della storia è sicuramente il rapporto molto particolare che si viene a creare tra due personaggi così diversi. Infatti, se Somali è un concentrato di sentimenti e sensazioni (oltre ad essere un pozzo senza fondo quando si tratta di mangiare), i golem non provano alcun tipo di emozione (che sia entusiamo o paura, gioia o tristezza). Eppure, notiamo i primi segni di un interessante cambiamento. Nella sua innocenza la piccola lo chiama "papà" e in fondo non è poi una definizione così sbagliata, visto il modo in cui lui si prende cura di Somali, in cui la protegge e in cui la tiene per mano mentre vanno alla scoperta di questo vasto mondo.
Non vedo l'ora di leggere il secondo volume per saperne di più.

[Arsnoctis]

Il soggetto di questo manga mi ha ricordato molto The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, A Rún, Volume 1 senza averne lo stesso aspetto onirico. Noto che sono stati importati in tempi differenti, ma sono stati pubblicati quasi contemporaneamente. Indubbiamente il segno dei due è agli antipodi e questo contribuisce a differenziarli sotto alcuni aspetti.

A chi stia cercando qualcosa di simile alle avventure di una bambina abbinata a una strana creatura, credo questa possa risultare più concreta dell'esempio precedente. Tuttavia il prezzo di copertina di questa copia e le similarità con la serie di Nagabe che ho imparato ad apprezzare, mi portano a pensarci con calma. Come lo avete trovato?

[Rebo]

I had read the first chapter of this for free ages ago and had always meant to read the series but never got around to it. Then recently I watched the anime. It was so enchanting; one of the best anime for relaxing I’ve seen in a long time. So I decided to try the manga, and it’s part of the comixology unlimited so I decided to read it.

The anime made a lot of changes from the manga. One of the most interesting is to me how different the conflict with humans is portrayed. In the anime, it’s very much “humans are evil, narrow minded beings who destroy everything they don’t understand.” While I don’t disagree about human nature as a whole, the manga is much more about how the issue was on both sides, but humans lost bc of how weak they are in comparison.

That’s by far the biggest difference (other than rearranging some things and characters so they worked better in the anime). I’m curious to see what else is different.