The Girl from the Other Side: Siuil, a Run by NAGABE

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Other creators involved in the making of this manga include: Translating by Adrienne Beck and Lettering by Lys Blakeslee

Content/Trigger Warning: Death, talk of sacrifice, minor violence, minor witch hunt themes, talk of abandonment.

“Once upon a time there lived a God of Light and a God of Darkness. The God of Light gave happiness and prosperity to all her peoples. But the God of Darkness liked to come and steal that happiness away, playing tricks on everyone.”

The Girl from the Other Side is a sweet, sometimes gloomy, but engaging fairytale. We follow our two main characters, a little girl in all white called Shiva and a humanoid horned beast in all black called Teacher. They live together is a small cottage in the woods, in an abandoned town in The Outside, in a world that’s been divided into two. A world where it has been divided into Light and Dark, Good and Evil. We have the Light side or The Inside which is made up of the humans or the people of the God of Light and then we have the Dark side or The Outside where you have the cursed, people turned into crazy beasts who hunt mortals, bring death and destruction.

I adored this first volume to the series! It truly does set things up for volume two (which I’m super eager to get and will hopefully be acquiring soon!). As I mentioned previously, we have two different parts of this world. We have the Light side or The Inside and then we have the Dark side or The Outside. The people of the Inside fear the Cursed Ones (otherwise known as the creatures of the Outside). So they end up surrounding their towns (their major cities and not villages) with these great walls to keep the Cursed Ones and their curse out. They even have a type of militia that is ordered by their kind to protect the people and destroy anything the curse has touched (even if that means people within their own walls).

As we quickly discover, even though these major cities have these giant walls to protect the people within and condemn anything on the outside to the world they made, but we learn that on the outskirts of one of these city walls, there’s an abandoned village with a cottage that houses an oblivious little girl (Shiva) and her “guardian”, Teacher. We learn that Shiva is eagerly awaiting the return of her “Auntie” and we also learn bits of the responsibility Teacher has put on his shoulders by taking on the task of looking after Shiva. To say things are hard would be an understatement. When a mysterious cursed one shows up, followed by dead bodies, and soldiers scouting the woods…things can become quite challenging for the oddly cute pair!

“Rage drove the God of Darkness mad. He transformed his punishment into a curse and spread it to others.”

This is probably one of my most favorite volumes to any manga series that I’ve read. This first volume gives such basic world building and establishment two our main characters. The world building is refreshing enough, but what really intrigued me about this manga was the beautifully aesthetic artwork! It was really sweet fairy tale quality in it. Not to mention the beauty the woods and the abandon village where out main characters lives, it’s from an impressionist painting. It gives similar vibes to The Ancient Magus Bride and I just swoon over tales like these. These type of manga, you can’t help falling in love with them, the characters, the world, and everything happening within it. If I could live within the pages of this manga, I would never want to leave. The swooning hype is real.

One thing I do want to point out is the extension of the title of this book. It raises some questions because no connection is really established within this volume and I haven’t read the rest of the series yet. The subtitle, Siúil a Ruin, is a traditional Irish song, sung from the point of view of a woman lamenting a lover who has embarked on a military career. It is not clear yet what connection this has to the story, but I will just bet it is relevant. I like the song, so hope to gets clearer.

Siúil, siúil, siúil a rúin
Siúil go sochair agus siúil go ciúin
Siúil go doras agus éalaigh liom

I wish I were on yonder hill
‘Tis there I’d sit and cry my fill
Till every tear would turn a mill
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

I’ll sell my rod, I’ll sell my reel
I’ll sell my only spinning wheel
To buy my lover a sword of steel
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

I wish, I wish, I wish in thee
I wish I had my heart again
And they may think I’m not complete
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

Siúil, siúil, siúil a rúin
Siúil go sochair agus siúil go ciúin
Siúil go doras agus éalaigh liom
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

And let me just say this, my frustration and level of anticipation is at an all high with this volume and here’s why. For starters, what else is in that little book Teacher has?! I have to know! For some reason, authors do this thing where they’ll introduce an object and there’s no further detail about it in the rest of the book. This happened with ACOFAS by Sarah J. Maas (and if you read this book then you know the exact object I’m talking about because it bothers you too!) and now it’s happening with this book where we get introduced to this journal Teacher reads from and then it gets cut off! I have a mighty need to know more details from this journal/book and the significance it has to how this fairy tale unfolds! Then we have that ending! I’m not going to get into any details, but that ending was really intense and shocking. I wasn’t even expecting something like that to even happen. I knew this book was going to set the scene for volume two, but I was never expecting a twist of an ending. The way it’s delivered after a traumatic event, that was a really nice touch and it makes the reader eager to get the next volume (I know I’m eager for the next volume!).

“If even a bit of the curse clings to you… You’ll be transformed into a hideous creature.”

Overall, I adored this first volume of this series very much! There’s great potential for this manga series and I’m eagerly anticipating this fairy tale to unfold soon! There’s also a chance that this manga series can take a turn for the dark, creepy, and possible more content warnings for in the future so if you do find yourself picking this manga series up then definitely keep that in mind. This is also a really easy world to fall in love with so don’t be surprised if you end up like me who’s investing in the whole series! Also, this would make for a great read during the fall season! Perfect for chills!