The Girl from the Other Side: Siuil A Run by NAGABE

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Please note, this is going to be a manga series review!

🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 1 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 2 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 3 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 4 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 5 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 6 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 7 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Content/Trigger Warnings: Violence, graphic injuries, decapitation, impalement, death, talk of sacrifice, attempted sacrifice, abandonment, witch hunt themes, kidnapping, mass murder/democide, trauma/PTSD, grief, loss of a loved one, torture, and more!

After many, many requests… I am finally do a full series review of The Girl from the Other Side! Dearest readers, if you have been with me for a while then you’ve probably seen me mention this series a lot. Whether you have seen me talk about this manga series on my blog or on IG, you know that this series took me by storm. I love this series with my whole heart and soul, I recommend this series to everyone I come in contact with, and honestly, I can’t stop talking about this series. Plus, the eighth volume in this series just released in the U.S. on March 17th, 2020 so I figured now would be the perfect time to gush about this series!

The Girl from the Other Side follows two main characters; Shiva, a young girl in white and Teacher, a humanoid beast in black. Both live in a split world between the Inside and the Outside. Those who live on the Inside are told to never venture to the Outside and should they find themselves on the Outside, hope and pray the curse won’t touch them. Though our two main characters are never allowed to touch, they share a unique bond that keeps them tethered to one another. But when Shiva’s patience has finally ran out, she leaves to find her grandmother. Only in these two realms, you never know who you can truly trust.

For starters, let me say how excited I am that this is being adapted into an anime series! This manga series is very underrated and I wish more readers were picking this series up. To hear that it has been picked up for an anime series, the actual blessings! Secondly, if you’re a fan of the manga series or the anime series, The Ancient Magus Bride then you’re going to fall in love with this manga series. The relationship between Shiva and Teacher have a lot of similarities to Chise and Elias. So let this be the reason why you pick this series up!

Okay, if that didn’t convince you on why you need to pick this series up then let’s talk about the world building. Though the world may be black and white, split into two realms, the way this world is built and how the side characters are all portrayed are anything but black and white. The world is established through an old legend where the God of Light punished the God of Darkness, transforming the God of Darkness into a terrible monster. But the God of Darkness allowed his rage to consume him and turned his punishment into a curse to spread to others. So the God of Light banished the God of Darkness to the Outside, splitting the world into the two realms, the Inside and the Outside. I love a world that’s built off a legend or folklore. It just makes the world even more unique.

Then we have the way all the main and side characters are portrayed in this series. The side characters are all painted in a morally grey light, yet their intentions come off as malicious. As for our main characters, they’re the most morally grey in this series. Their personalities develop as the series continues and we really see how they mirror one another. We all know that I love morally grey characters because they are the type of characters that resemble the most realistic traits of humanity. I think this series does a fantastic job at showing all these different personalities and truly shows how complex thoughts and actions are when there’s no straight forward answer to a problem. I really loved it and I loved the way the character development is shown in this series.

And of course, I would be an absolute fool if I didn’t mention the art style. Each panel is unique and really sets the mood at times. I remember when I first opened the first volume and how quickly the art captured my attention. The tone in which every shade of white, black, and gray sets everything up to be mysterious or leave you wondering what will happen next. I truly could live within the pages of this manga series. They’re so aesthetically pleasing!

The story-line is probably one of my most favorite pieces of this series though. I found it was really easy to get wrapped up in everything happening and wanting to find out more. The author does a really fantastic job on ending each book on a cliffhanger that makes you want to pick the next volume. We also receive little bits of information that make you want to unravel the mystery of how everything will come into play later on. I’m excited for future volumes to come because I have so many questions and I can’t wait to see how everything will paint the big picture for us.

Overall, I truly hope more readers will be picking this series up. Other than myself, I haven’t heard many people talking about this manga series. It completely boggles my mind! This series is such a slow build, slow burn and I love every second of it. I think the story-line is absolutely fantastic and I think if you’re like me, you’d want to obtain the whole series in one go too! There will never be enough words to convey my thoughts and feelings about this series. I truly love it and I can’t wait to see what they do with the anime adaptation! If you’re looking for a series that’s dark fantasy, has a slow build story-line, prophecies, and little pieces slowly unraveling then you definitely need to pick this series up!