This is such a find! A sad and beautiful story about a little human girl and a monster, who takes care of her, living together in a forest, because… Don’t want to spoil anything, don’t know enough yet, but I urge you to check this out, at least for the art, if nothing else - it's lovely and it's unique. Also there’re plenty of things to talk about besides retelling the plot.

The second name of this manga is Siúil A Rún (Go, my love), the name of an Irish song, also sad and beautiful, about a lover, who left for war, and about the wish for safety. I’ve already mentioned “sad” twice, editorial remarks on the first pages of this manga say the same, and it’s not an overstatement – there is this calm, all-engulfing feeling of fragility and impermanence in the everyday (initially everyday) actions of the heroes, that we witness. It may be ok, but it’s a small light in the night, will it last? You know it won’t, the time runs out as you mark it. As seasons change, things will end, the flowers of today will wither.

It’s not that I can say much besides metaphors about the plot anyway. There’re only 4 chapters, and a lot of time has passed since the last. So why write a review? I know that the more advanced members of Mal scoff upon such things, but I do want more people to know about this manga, the available chapters are substantial (>30 pages each), and I was so impressed, that even if this manga flops or disappears immediately, I’ll have good memories left (so I kind of just wish to share a good thing). Also it’s worth to mention that this work seems to follow the delayed exposition pattern: we start with a closed-off point of view, focused on the immediate small events of the life of the main heroes, and there is effort to make the little girl’s days normal, so it will take time to learn the secrets of their world. It looks though that there will be violence, there’re topics of death and fear of otherness already present, and there is a scary curse.

Delayed exposition stories have failed me before, this I confess, and I have a small fear that this may go the “evil humans, misunderstood monsters” route or ends prematurely (I’ll update the review then), but so far the premise seems to be well thought-out and powerful, there’re hints on an important flashback, and a new character is lurking around.

The biggest problem for this manga is that it outwardly overlaps with popular Mahou Tsukai no Yome: this is another Mag Garden publication, that is female-oriented shounen and has a tall horned male monster taking care of a human girl. But internally Totsukuni no Shoujo is very different, I say it as a person, who doesn’t like Mahou Tsukai no Yome for the strange relationships it offers, and absolutely loves this. For starters, there’s no romance or even a possibility for it between the main characters in Totsukuni no Shoujo - the age difference is too big, so it has a parent-child dynamic (or, more specifically caretaker-child, a bit colder), secondly, it's much more scary, and, lastly, the plot looks like something more focused. So, in short, only characters look the same, and maybe the curse aspect, that can be seen as magic.

Talking about characters: we have a sweet good little girl, an ideal child, no surprises here, and a big wendigo-like monster, who is surprisingly inhuman, not only in appearance – for example, he doesn’t eat. The biggest mystery lies within him, but it seems that he also has experience, but not knowledge, so it will be a journey of discovery for both. I think that both mains are likeable, and there is not too much doting, which is good.

The art is amazing. Since there’s no other manga by this author translated, I checked the author’s profiles on mangaupdates and pixiv. It looks like he likes to draw anthropomorphic animals (mainly male figures with animal heads) and monsters. This is what makes me worry about the plot, and I also am not yet sure if people well be drawn well, on the other hand it gives hope for good monster designs.
Most of his work on pixiv is very good smooth digital art. And the art in this manga is stylized, but it also has this painting or illustration feeling, that sets it apart. It’s soft, but it isn’t made of long flowing strokes, but instead is sculpted with small strokes, reminiscent of line art. There were a couple of hard to read panels, but mostly it’s readable and pretty. The forest is especially well done.

All in all, I have high expectations for this manga. High worries too – it needs to become more tense and epic later, and female-oriented works tend to underachieve in this regard. I am also unfamiliar with other mangaka’s works, so it is hard to say how he handles stories. On the other hand, even the few available chapters are a treat, so I will be content I've found it in any case. And if the rest is good, this will be a contender for 9/10.