Title: A Centaur’s Life (Centaur no Nayami)
Genre: Slice of Life, Fantasy, Supernatural
Publisher: Tokuma Shoten (JP), Seven Seas (US)
Artist: Kei Murayama
Serialized in: Comic Ryu
Original Release Date: November 5, 2013
Official Site
Title: A Centaur’s Life (Centaur no Nayami)A Centaur’s Life is a manga that represents one of the supposed trends in the industry: monster girls! So when I decided to take a chance on one, it had to be this one and not Monster Musume, which seemed to be ecchi, harem pandering potential at its finest. And yet, the preview of Monster Musume included in this manga managed to be a lot funnier than almost all of A Centaur’s Life. That’s because aside from the pilot and the last chapter, this was thoroughly forgettable, with entirely too much of nothing going on with some really poor artwork.
Kimihara Himeno is a high school girl. More specifically, she’s a centaur high school girl, who ends up going to school with friends who happen to have horns, wings, tails, you name it. Basically, this is a world where animals and creatures exist, but despite that being the case, they also present their own challenges. And in this manga, we see those challenges: from Himeno having to take part in a play, to her friends attempting to exercise, to her mom having to take care of her and her dad, even at their advanced age. While they may not be human, being a creature can be just as tough, and we get to see that all play out.
A Centaur’s Life, aside from Chapter 0, for some of Chapter 1, and Chapter 4, managed to be thoroughly mediocre. Once I got over the fact that the characters were creatures, it’s literally just like every other slice of life in existence. That ultimately means the situations and where they’re put in have to be good to great to sustain my interest. Chapter 0 wasn’t terribly funny, but it was interesting (or maybe diabolical) in the sense of what exactly does a mythical creature have to worry about when it comes to their sexual parts (a lot obviously). Chapter 1 got my attention when Himeno passionately kissed her friend Nozomi, and by the end of the chapter due to various circumstances maybe Himeno started to like that (ok maybe not). Chapter 4 ultimately worked because Himeno’s mom is just awesome. That is all.
Other than that, this managed to make me go to sleep. None of the activities/stories that happened to be in this volume felt well executed or interesting at all. So yeah, Himeno’s friend Kyoko has some issues with her stamina…and Himeno can run really fast but can’t do track and field because there are other centaurs faster than her and she sucks at sports… She also manages to have a part time job but she’s not supposed to have a part time job…
Maybe it’s because when I think of well paced slice of life that’s cute and interesting I think of Yotsuba, but this volume managed to feel aggressively passive in its interactions and the times it went for comedy. Not aiding the cause is the drawings. It feels way too rough, and boy does it look all digital. That’s not a problem in of itself, but when you notice the awkward faces, the lines around the characters, the positions they happen to be in, it starts to add up and turn out to be a major detriment. This is a big problem with A Centaur’s Life, since that almost effectively took me out of the work. It had some hits, but a lot more misses, and when you have that, you can count on me not being interested in reading more than this.
