May 24, 2025
Mushi Musume, or Insect Girl, is another example of why "found family" stories feel forced unless there's clear intentions within the storytelling and a clear destination for where it will end. This manga unfortunatley, as much as i like it, fails to do either of those and it suffers for it.
We start with a mother and her daughter in the woods who looks like any ordinary family but we soon come to learn they are anything but ordinary. Yuren, the daughter, bumps into a young man named Mashiro who is in the area to hunt mimushi, these dangerous insects that have an insect and human
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form. If you put two and two together it's obvious that the mimushi he's hunting is likely the mother and they planned to battle in out, however since the mother was already sick they decided to wait until she passed to sort of shield Yuren from seeing her mother brutally murdered. After Yuren's mother has passed, instead of Mashiro killing her off and being done with it, he gives her the alternative to live in her human form and takes her into his care so she gets acclumated with human society. That's basically chapter 1 in a nutshell.
It actually starts off promising from this point as you quickly begin to see how naive Yuren is about the conflicts between humans and mimushi, and that naivety is what tugs at Mashiro's heart strings looking at what should be a dangerous enemy but comes off as a sheltered child, and it causes further conflict when he brings her around other humans who know her true fate. The questions of instinctual violence divides those in charge of what to do with the girl and it soon spirals as no one really seems to have a firm hold of the situation. That's actually a biproduct of the mangas main issue, pacing.
The pacing in this manga goes from-intense training with Yuren to controll her mimushi bloodlust- to very dangerous experiments- to full blown infiltration fights- to large scale civil war disputes and escape attempts. After about chapter 3 the throttle is at 100 non-stop, which some might like but it detracts from the understanding of those fighting on either sides. So you're left after these events thinking "what was the point in all of this to begin with?". Without going into too much detail they don't properly convey the interest of each side or the individuals we see fighting. We only know that Mashiro wants what's best for Yuren and she sees him as her only "family" in return. Everyone else and why they are so adament in killing each other is completely unknown. It's like they skipped 20 chapters of introductions and dialogue and setup and went straight to war. I personally found it jarring and by far the biggest issue with the story so far.
Other than that though, the characters we have been properly introduced to are very likable and easy to root for. There is a lot of morally ambiguous actions they take but the more you get to know them the more it starts to make sense, and so in the same vain i'd say the portrayal of established characters was done well. Also i liked the action and fighting. It looks a bit clunky at times (mage magic works inconsistently) but overall the fighting pages popped off to me and i enjoyed them quite a bit.
It is a solid 6.5 to 7.5/10 series. Doesn't do anything jawl dropping, no earth shattering plot or world building, no stand out brilliantly written characters. That being said it is fun to read and does enough to keep you hooked so long as you can overlook certain flaws.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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