12 Beast

12 Beast
Cover of the first Japanese volume
トゥエルヴビースト (Tueruvu Bīsuto)
Genre	Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Manga
Written by	Okayado
Published by	Fujimi Shobo
English publisher	‹See Tfd› ^US Seven Seas Entertainment
Demographic	Shōnen
Imprint	Dragon Comics Age
Magazine	Age Premium (2014 – 2015) Monthly Dragon Age (2015 – present)
Original run	May 9, 2013 – present
Volumes	4

12 Beast (Japanese: トゥエルヴビースト Hepburn: Tueruvu Bīsuto) is an ongoing Japanese action adventure shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Okayado.^{[lower-alpha 1]} The series is published by Fujimi Shobo in Japan, and by Seven Seas Entertainment in the United States.

Summary

Touga Eita is a highschool student and video-game otaku. He is the heir to the Touga style Ninjitsu, and he has never kissed a girl. All this changes when a voluptuous girl with wings and taloned feet named Aero appears and calls on Eita to help save her people-the harpies of Re-Verse-from the merciless onslaught of giant robot monsters known as Gigas. Aero revels that she was sent to find him, by his missing brother. Eita will follow his newfound harpy friend into a whole new world, filled with monster girls and fantastical creatures beyond his wildest dreams.

Characters

• Touga Eita (刀（とう）牙（が）衛（えい）太（た） Tōga Eita): A teenage boy who just wants to be left alone to play video games. His grandfather is a ninja who trains him him every day in order to have him inherit his dojo, despite he refuses to do so. Tough suffers from a severe inferiority complex, due to his elder brother seducing every woman he comes into contact with. After beig summoned to Re-verse, he obtains a gauntlet from Asterio that has the power of fusing with any of his companions, to increase his powers.^[2]

• Aero (エアロ Earo): A female Harpy who asks Eita to help her save her world, taking him to Re-verse and becoming his first traveling companion. ^[2] She is the first to fuse with his gauntlet, providing him with extreme speed and strength.

• Jawea (ジャウェア Jawea): A female Harpy war leader who has her doubts about Eita, but joins him nonetheless as his second traveling companion, and eventually comes to trust him. During the battle for the fish-people's village, she lost her right wing and decided to leave Eita's party. It should be noted that before leaving she exchanged email addresses with Eita.

• Asterio (アステリオ Asuterio): A female Minotaur and master blacksmith who forges a new gauntlet for Eita and later joins him as his third traveling companion.^[3] When she fuses with his Gauntlet, she grants him the ability of metal remolding.

• Steela : A Sea witch, with the lower half of an Octopus. She joins them and provides them with transportation in the form of her house, a huge hermit crab, whose shell functions as her house. She sleeps in a jar.

• Flake : A member of the werewolf clan, and the fifth addition to Eita's gang. Flake is the werewolf clan's strongest lone wolf, due to the fact that she hunts alone, resulting in her feared reputation, this is actually a facade, and she is really just very shy. She attempts to start a conversation with Eita when trapped in a cave, but only distances herself.

• Kouki Touga : Eita's elder brother, his endless womanizing is what ends up turning Eita into a recluse. Not wanting to inherit his grandfather's dojo, he left a year before the story begins on a "worldwide-girl experiencing trip". It is revealed that he actually came to Re-verse, his current location is unknown.

Release

Okayado launched the series in the June 2013 issue of Fujimi Shobo's shōnen manga magazine on May 9, 2013.^[4] When Age Premium was shut down on July 9, 2015, the series was one of five titles transferred to Monthly Dragon Age.^[5] The chapters have been compiled into four tankōbon volumes as of June 2016.^[6]

North American publisher Seven Seas Entertainment announced their license to the series on July 30, 2014.^[7]

Volumes

No.	Japanese release date	Japanese ISBN	English release date	English ISBN
1	November 9, 2013[8]	ISBN 978-4-04-712932-0	April 14, 2015[9]	ISBN 978-1-626921-77-1
2	September 9, 2014[10]	ISBN 978-4-04-070173-8	July 7, 2015[9]	ISBN 978-1-626921-78-8
3	August 8, 2015[11]	ISBN 978-4-04-070664-1	February 9, 2016[9]	ISBN 978-1-626922-61-7
4	June 9, 2016[12]	ISBN 978-4-04-070918-5	December 13, 2016[9]	ISBN 978-1-626923-12-6

Reception

On Anime News Network, Rebecca Silverman gave volume one an overall grade of C, calling the story generic and textbook. She found the art to be interesting and that the characters distinctive, comparing the series to Okayado's Monster Musume characters. ^[2] Also on Anime News Network, Lynzee Lamb listed the series at number four on a list of "7 Manga for Monster Girl Lovers".^[13]

Two volumes of the English translation have made it onto the New York Times Manga Best Sellers list:

• Volume 2 stayed for one week, debuting at number 3.^[14]
• Volume 3 stayed for two weeks, debuting at number 3.^[15]

See also

• Monster Musume, another manga series by the same author

Notes

1. Okayado is the pen name of Takemaru Inui.^[1]

References

1. Green, Scott (22 August 2015). ""Monster Musume" Author Draws Characters Cosplaying as Voice Actress' Other Roles". Crunchyroll. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
2. Silverman, Rebecca (April 26, 2015). "12 Beast GN 1". Anime News Network. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
3. 12 Beast Chapter 6
4. 「モンスター娘」オカヤドがWEB連載、亜人種少女も登場. Natalie (in Japanese). May 9, 2013. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
5. "Age Premium Online Manga Magazine Shuts Down". Anime News Network. July 8, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
6. "12BEAST". Fujimi Shobo (in Japanese). Retrieved August 18, 2015.
7. "Seven Seas Licenses 12 Beast, Servamp Manga". Anime News Network. July 30, 2014. Retrieved August 18, 2015.
8. "12BEAST 1". Fujimi Shobo (in Japanese). Retrieved August 18, 2015.
9. "12 Beast". Seven Seas Entertainment. Retrieved August 18, 2015.
10. "12BEAST 2". Fujimi Shobo (in Japanese). Retrieved August 18, 2015.
11. "12BEAST 3". Fujimi Shobo (in Japanese). Retrieved August 18, 2015.
12. "12BEAST 4". Fujimi Shobo (in Japanese). Retrieved May 28, 2016.
13. Lamb, Lynzee (March 28, 2015). "7 Manga for Monster Girl Lovers". Anime News Network. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
14. • "Best Sellers - Manga". The New York Times. 2 August 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
15. • "Best Sellers - Manga". The New York Times. 6 March 2016. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
    • "Best Sellers - Manga". The New York Times. 13 March 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2016.

External links

• Official website at Fujimi Shobo (Japanese)
• Official website at Seven Seas Entertainment
• 12 Beast (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia