Kigurumi Guardians by Lily Hoshino
Lily Hoshino takes her experience from Mawaru Penguindrum and puts it to good use in her very own absurd, surreal magical girl series.
One day Sasakura comes home to find an animal mascot named Ginger living in her home. Her family willing accepts this as an experiment conducted by her school, and sure enough when she arrives to school the next day two other students have their own mascot companions. The student council president informs them they are chosen warriors who will protect people’s hearts from The Puppet Guild. The mascots can transform with a kiss into handsome warriors of their own to aid the heroes in defeating the evil invaders.
Kigurumi Guardians does a great job of mixing things up. The mascots are giant, human-sized, and they are the ones who transform instead of the warriors. There is a clear sexual charge to just about everything without the series exploiting the characters. An unease to the setup is palpable, you know right away that nothing is what it seems. Despite that, everyone in the series readily accepts the bizarre in a way that makes you as a reader just roll with it.
I found myself thrown off, then quickly on board, with this delightful, strange, and funny series. Kigurumi Guardians is both familiar and fresh. Lily Hoshino’s sleek and sharp artwork elevates everything in the series from the humor to the beauty of the student council president and everything in between.
~kate
Reverse Thieves 