Wait.

I can’t say much about this manga

but if you want to read it know this:

it is 18+, not safe for work.

Enjoy.



Woohoo, let’s go!

Hoshi no Ponko to Toufuya Reiko (星のポン子と豆腐屋れい子, Ponko of the Stars and Reiko of the Tofu Shop) is a single-volume, three chapter comedy manga written by Ohara Shinji (小原愼司) and drawn by Tony Takezaki (トニーたけざき). The series begins in a typical gag manga fashion with a pair of siblings stumbling across a weird animal/alien that speaks with a weird verbal tic (in this case, “pon”), from there they learn that the alien — Ponko — is a saleswoman from outer space! She says she wants to sell their family some of the wondrous things she offers, but the kids can’t afford the prices and they’re mostly concerned with hiding Ponko as a pet from their parents. Ponko loves their shop’s tofu! And alright that’s enough bullshit, this series is also a horror manga that over and over attempts to defy you.

Did you click the link? Then, you know this series literally wastes no time revealing its true nature. Judge this book by its cover: it is a story that plays with standard tropes of the “silly slice of life alien joins the family” genre while actually being a very twisted and dark, disgusting manga.

This is a farce, of course. The series, with its cover (and emphasized with the first thing you see when you open the book) is trying to get your attention at once by making you think “something is going to go wrong”. Even when we see Ponko’s first act:

it’s quickly established that there’s something fucked up about her. Shortly after this, and hearing that this run down tofu restaurant couldn’t possibly afford any of her company’s products, she also begins saying that they can easily get some of her items in exchange for hahise. She repeats, hahise, hahise — Earth is abundant with great hahise — and you should start thinking that hahise is probably not as simple to part with as Ponko lets on.



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If any of this intrigues you, you should go and read this manga. You can complete it in an hour or two, depending on your reading speed.

I would ultimately describe Hoshi no Ponko as “crazy” and “fun”. It goes places, and while you can probably safely guess where it’s going in chapter 1, chapters 2 and 3 are full of sudden turns. With that said, I can’t really say any more. The review is over.

I hope this author/artist duo works together again. The artist managed both “speeds” of this series very well, and the author is obviously imaginative. I really do want to see more.

Hoshi no Ponko to Toufuya Reiko can be purchased from Bookwalker (guide), CDJapan, honto (guide), or ebookjapan Again, enjoy. See you next time.

