Youichi Abehttps://anilist.co/staff/108865/YouichiAbes one of the few mangakas that I follow that I can concretely state that Ive loved every single thing hes made. 440https://i.ur.com/vGMX7Fn.png Hes one of a very few people if like I see theres a new work of his out I will drop everything else Im currently doing to read it. Theres just something about his artstyle I just absolutely adore. And then add on to the fact that he does horror and its just an immediate perfect storm of yeah no of course this is one of TGGs favorite mangaka. https://i.ur.com/cbvb1SQ.png I unironically gave his series about peniseshttps://anilist.co/manga/103839/SorewaTadanoSenpainoChinko/ a 99 out of 100 and looking back on it I actually like that series more even now that time has passed since I first read it and was just flabbergasted at what I was reading. Anyways before that series and the other Youichi Abe manga Ivehttps://anilist.co/manga/85540/DaidaiwaHantoumeiniNidonesuru/ reviewedhttps://anilist.co/manga/98732/ZansatsuPonytail/ there was Vanilla Spider. Which is Youichi Abes oldest manga apart from Shoujo Kidan Makorahttps://anilist.co/manga/45692/ShoujoKidanMakora/ which I believe never got concluded because of course the magazine it was published in died... which seems to be an unfortunate trend for Youichi Abe as the same I guess happened for his fishbowl serieshttps://anilist.co/manga/68111/ChimoguriRingotoKingyobachiOtoko/ but that at least got continuedhttps://anilist.co/manga/86269/BloodDiverRingoFishBowlMan/ in another magazine. Plus Vanilla Spider itself has a rushed albeit not terrible ending. In my opinion at least. Vanilla Spider is an action horror manga about aliens. One day a giant spider web covers the sky above the city and parasitic creatures called Elevators start coming from the web and taking humans as hosts so they can eat other humans. 440https://i.ur.com/RyA965t.png A high school boy named Tsujitsuji Amedome meets another alien being that calls himself Tsuda who wears human suits. Tsuda decides to recruit Tsujitsuji for not only can he see these monsters that are coming from the spider web but he has no presence meaning he can effectively sneak up on them. So Tsuda gives him a metal rod with a faucet attached to it for Tsujitsuji to slaughter Elevators with. And before Im even able to ask why a faucet Youichi Abe Tusda just basically bluntly says because its so weird that its cool. https://i.ur.com/V6rbssG.png And I really have no comeback against that but then like seven to eight years later in Youichi Abes penis mangas afterword hes like... https://i.ur.com/i43jQQ5.png Wait the facuets are... wait... wha I really really like Tsujitsuji. 440https://i.ur.com/wV2Clr4.png I like early on how he thinks hes become like this action hero after being an invisible presence all his life and this newfound confidence is basically immediately brought right back down. 440https://i.ur.com/Fj1XpOH.png I like how eventually he realizes that being this action hero that Tsuda has pushed him into being fucking sucks and isnt fun. The more he thinks about it the worse the gig seems. Especially when it finally clicks in his head that these monsters WERE once human. So he finally just breaks down and cant stop seeing his hands drenched in blood. 500https://i.ur.com/NfHKC2w.png If its done well I really like when a protagonist becomes completely fucking disillusioned with everything theyve been doing. It works for Tsujitsuji especially because his entire motive for getting into all of this was to just protect the girl he liked who everyday he would stalk make sure she would get home safe every day after school. Instead hes used as a tool of slaughter. Which is fun 440https://i.ur.com/4rLnmFV.png Granted another character who Im not sure I even talk much about for the sake of spoilers kind of helps him get back on his feet. As much as I like Tsujitsuji I think I like Tsuda either as much or more. 440https://i.ur.com/CV9iadS.png Without a doubt the one thing I do genuinely dislike about Vanilla Spider and this is most likely thanks to the rushed ending is that there wasnt something more with Tsuda. Like with how extreme he was in getting Tsujtsuji to keep helping him it really felt like he had the potential to pull out the twist of actually Im the true antagonist or something. Though generally its really hard to fully trust an alien that goes around collecting the skins of killed Elevator hosts which he then proceeds to use as outfits. 440https://i.ur.com/fhDzbUM.png Conclusion Unfortunately theres not much more for me to say on Vanilla Spider. 440https://i.ur.com/0TqY2Cx.png Without crossing into spoilers that is. Which I dont want to. Its really weird and cool read it. It was really odd reading Vanilla Spider after Youichi Abes other manga. Because the other ones are just so much weirder. Vanilla Spiders weird but its still basically just Youichi Abes take on an action manga. But given how much I absolutely love Youichi Abes artstyle and gore this was perfect for me and thus is a 10 out of 10. 500https://i.ur.com/EO7XzUW.png