Ah wolves. Theyve been used in stories and media since the beginning of time. Its not hard to see why: Wolves are cool scary violent and badass. Why do you think the famous fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood has stuck around for over hundreds of years? Lots of books shows and video games feature wolves in some capacity. Some manage to use them well others...not so much. Regardless wolves and even Little Red Riding Hood in general are many goto inspirations for a lot of stories we know of today Beasts of Abigaile being the most recent attempt to use both for the sake of its story. I have to admit I had low expectations going into this one and while I do feel some parts could have been explored more or done better I really like this manga. I kinda wish I had read this when I was in middle school or high school because it deals with themes of discrimination classism bullying and kindness something I and many others can really relate to though whether youre able to handle the often melodramatic and even violent way it portrays them is another story. Yes dont let the cutesy sparkly shoujo style artwork fool you because this manga is straight up violent The story centers around Nina Tsukishiro a young Japanese girl who recently moved to the fictional European country of Ruberia to live with her aunt and uncle for a while. After having endured vicious bullying at her previous school shes determined to start fresh and make the most out of her new life. But when an escaped convict from the prison fortress Abigaile bites her she finds herself sprouting wolf ears and a tail It turns out the convict Roy is part of a halfwolf halfhuman race called the Luga once the indigenous people of Ruberia. All Luga are imprisoned in Abigaile hated tortured and abused for their very existence and trained for a life of slavery under humans. Because Nina suddenly has wolf ears and a tail thereby making her a Luga in appearance shes shipped off to Abigaile and treated the same way as the other Lugas. Its a dogeatdog world here and Nina has to do what she can in order to survive in this terrible place which has plenty of its own ugly secrets under their rose gardens. If youre expecting Beasts of Abigaile to be a cute sweet fluffy shoujo romp featuring cute girls and sexy bishie wolves Though the manga does have them this isnt the manga for you. Beasts of Abigaile is extremely dark and violent both in its themes atmosphere and storytelling especially when exploring the Luga their hierarchy system and how theyre treated. The characters regularly get abused beaten tortured whipped ripped apart or thrown in dungeons for things like disrupting class or even just because youre the weakest and smallest out of them. The Luga all act like wolves and the manga makes no attempt to sugarcoat or romanticize their behavior. The Luga form packs with strict hierarchical ranks they fight for dominance they rip each other apart claws and fangs and all blood is always shown without the slightest hint of censorship and the Luga have an insatiable grudge against humans after the latter killed their families and enslaved them ten years before the story begins. All of this forms the entire back bone of the series and it can get really intense at times. Even so thats no reason to not check this manga out because the story is extremely compelling and intense often leaving you wondering whats going to happen next. Plus the art is still pretty stereotypically shoujo with soft sparkly detailed eyes everybody having poofy hair the kid characters being cute chibis and so on. Theres lots of large eyes soft lines and shading and detailed backgrounds. The manga even has some characters have 70s shoujo style faces and Jojo faces during certain scenes which make for some pretty cute comedy considering the intense nature of the story. But the mangaka also adds in some fairy tale references in the story such as having some Lugas wear red hoods and carrying woven baskets when theyre out and about picking flowers Mostly in the first chapter and theres a lot of rose imagery and motifs. The staff of Abigaile are all evil and predatory in their expressions and body language and are based on the woodcutter/huntsman in the original fairy tale. The fact that the Luga are subject to the huntsman is a good thematic twist on things. Im a little conflicted on the characters. Nina the protagonist is thankfully not your typical swooning shoujo girl whos onenote and whose only purpose is to be cute and get with the love interest. Nina is bold brash doesnt take crap from anyone calls out bullcrap even though it gets her into trouble and isnt going to let people walk all over her. She even willingly fights bullies and abusive teachers with her fists and karate skills. When was the last time a shoujo protagonist actually took control of her own situation and actively tries to fight against her oppressors? Shes impulsive and reckless so she gets herself and others into trouble a lot which prevents her from becoming a one note Mary Sue. The other main character Roy I dont have the same praises for. Hes pretty much the typical abusive love interest who hates Nina but at the same time wants to make her into his property only showing bits and pieces of compassion near the end of the story. Since hes part wolf it he gets quite physical with her and I really couldnt bring myself to root for him. The other characters such as his brother Giles the omega Poe and the crossdressing Lugas in Ninas pack fall somewhere in between. Honestly I think Poe is the best character and I think Nina should have been paired up with him because out of all the characters in the story not only is he the nicest and sweetest every moment he has with Nina is really sweet heartwarming and adorable. Why couldnt he be the main love interest instead of Roy? My only other complaints about the manga are that the teachers and prison guards are all stereotypically mean and abusive with nothing else to them save for one character and...well the mangas really short only four volumes long. I really wanted to read more of this manga and learn more about the world the characters reside in and how the Luga originally came about. From what Ive heard the manga was supposed to be longer but it got cut short so Spicasan had to rush to wrap things up. But even in light of that the mangas still very good. The storys always moving at a steady pace the characters are reasonably flawed but fun to follow the twists are pretty well done the art is nice to look at and it really stands above a lot of the more cliche shoujo manga that plague the industry. I certainly like it. Overall if you want a genuinely engaging shoujo manga that doesnt make you want to vomit try out Beasts of Abigaile if you can.