Monster Collection: The Girl Who Can Deal with Magical Monsters - Volume 1

Reviewed by Von Jared Omo
July 1, 2007

Artist: Itoh Sei Author: Itoh Sei (Original concept by Yasuda Hitoshi) Publisher: CMX Manga Website: Click Here

Kasche Arbadel is one of the most gifted students in her Summoning School, as well as one of the most reckless. Her skills in summoning monsters surpass the others’, but she makes careless mistakes, causing devastation to her surroundings.  When an ancient relic capable of enormous power is stolen, Kasche’s teacher sends her in pursuit to see if she is capable of becoming a master summoner of monsters. During this journey, Kasche encounters the bandit who stole the artifact. The bandit later tells Kasche that he was hired by a sorcerer who wants the relic in order to unlock the Encyclopedia Vernum, which enables a person to summon the most powerful monsters. After Kasche is victorious in the fight between the two of them, she decides to keep him prisoner where she can keep an eye on him. Later that night, Kasche and the bandit (later known as Cuervo) are attacked by a Lamia, a beautiful female creature that is half vampire and capable of turning her lower body into that of a snake. Kasche realizes that the Lamia, later known as Natasha, is under control of someone else. After Kasche breaks the controller’s hold on Natasha, Kasche becomes the new controller of Natasha and decides to bring her along on the journey. Kasche also decides to hire Cuervo to assist her, and to prevent him from committing more crimes.

The storyline of the manga is a little weak. From Volume 1, the reader can probably tell that the manga will not contain too many plot twists or any hard-to-follow stories. The characters are pretty straightforward, with few mysterious pasts. Kasche’s character is introduced so easily that the reader can pick up her personality quickly, making her actions very predictable. Cuervo, on the other hand, may have somewhat of a mysterious past as to when and how he became a bandit. Despite the weak story and plot, the humor and perverted moments in the manga are sure to make the reader laugh. The illustrations are very well done, but some of the illustrations contain adult content which gives the manga its Mature rating.

Monster Collection is directed more to fans of pure entertainment rather than those in favor of compelling plot.  The fight scenes are drawn nicely and the enemies are portrayed as gruesome and violent. The perverted moments in the manga are worth the read as they give the manga a more humorous touch. While watching Monster Collection, I kind of felt like I was watching a Jackie Chan movie, in a good way. If you are interested in mangas with entertaining fight scenes, humorous situations, and perverted moments, I recommend you read Monster Collection.