Like I said in our 2020 Eye on Manga post, I’ve been excited about the Cosmo Familia manga for a while now. It’s created by Madoka Magica artist Hanokage, features magical girls, and has a cutesy art style as well as some dark themes.
After surviving the first half of this dreadful year, I finally had time to sit down and read the first volume. The manga is about a girl named Amakawa Alice, who has lived by herself ever since her mother and live-in servant disappeared 6 years earlier. In their stead, Alice guards the family’s home and fights cute alien creatures called Cosmofs that have overrun Earth. The problem is that the Cosmofs belong to Alice’s mother, so she doesn’t want to physically hurt them, even if they are causing pandemonium. In fact, everyone knows that Alice’s mother had something to do with the Cosmof invasion and harbor unbridled hatred toward Alice and the Amakawa family.
It’s a very interesting concept, one that has a lot of cuteness and creepiness like I wanted. Unfortunately, the manga also gave me a lot of confusion as well. Instead of focusing on one thing – like the Cosmofs, Alice as a character, or Alice’s family history – the first few chapters move very quickly and jam in too much information in a short amount of time.
There’s time travel, multiple new characters, fight scenes, and doppelgangers…which could have possibly worked if they weren’t shoved in the readers’ face all at once, with little to no explanation. Unanswered questions pile up fast, leaving the reader too puzzled to enjoy the story. I think Hanokage was trying to make an attention-grabbing beginning, but the pacing is so uneven that it created the opposite effect.
Things do slow down later and there is less chaos, making the manga a little more enjoyable. However, there is still a lot to be confused about, and the bad taste from the first few chapters lingers throughout the course of the manga.
Aside from the story itself, I’m not crazy about the characters. Alice’s personality isn’t very defined, which could be due to the rushed writing. Maybe she is closed off from living by herself for years or having the whole world hate her for her mother’s mistakes. Even so, her personality was very bland. The other characters aren’t that much better – nothing stands out about any of them. There is one character that does have a strong personality, but it’s exaggerated to the point that they aren’t believable.
The most notable part of this manga, for me, is the art. I already love Hanokage’s art style from their previous work. It’s classic. I can’t see it without thinking of Madoka Magica. The style is cutesy yet a little rough around the edges, and I love it. The way the Cosmofs are drawn is really adorable. It’s just that…we really don’t get to see a lot of them, at least not in the later chapters. The plot moves on and rarely shows the Cosmofs which wasn’t just disappointing art wise; it was disappointing story wise too.
Despite its weaknesses, I am curious to see what happens in the next in Cosmo Familia, especially since Volume 1 ended in a cliffhanger. Hopefully, I will have my questions answered. From what I understand, this is Hanokage’s first manga as both artist and author. Their lack of writing experience is probably what caused the flaws in the story, which is totally understandable. It is a really great concept, and it does have tons of potential. The execution just needs a lot of work.