Guillotine Bride Vol. 1

Ryuunosuke Dazai is a solid student with a passion for body building and a helpful nature, but has a fairly uneventful life. That is until  a doomed dragon-girl lands out of nowhere, freshly escaped from incarceration and fleeing the death penalty - as she begins to make her escape, she's confronted by Ryuunosuke's classmate Abara, who turns out to be another "mythical girl", and the only way she can survive the encounter is if the brave young man... weds her.

It's certainly a break-neck opening chapter, all bulging biceps and cute girls in peril, helped a great deal by some fantastic artwork that's clear in both lines and direction. All too often action manga can be hard to follow, but all credit to the book, despite the large scale destruction and fast pacing, everything is easy to follow and enjoyable to read. 

As the book progresses, we get the background of the "mythical girls", cursed young women inhabited by a spirit that, left uncontrolled, could destroy the world. Already turning, Rinne Irako, the Dragon Mythical girl, had been captured and sentenced to death by beheading on the orders of The Calamity Research Institute, which also happens to be run by one of Ryuunosuke's Class President Ranko Akeda. 

As events settle, Rinne and Ranko move in with Ryuunosuke in order to observe Rinne's powers and the effect of the "Soul Wedding" which now binds the young man and the mythical dragon girl. We move from monster girl action to harem comedy in four chapters, so I'm unsure of exactly which line the books will take going forward. It has the feel of Rosario x Vampire, with vampire girl Abara sparring with Rinne constantly over Ryuunosuke's affections. There's some fun dialogue between the two - Rinne has confessed her love already for her buff saviour and even gone so far as to allow him to touch her dragon parts, a fact she rubs in Abara's shocked face, but despite the romantic competition, the two seem to become friendly, sharing many opinions and even arranging hang outs away from Ryuunosuke.

A twist set up for future books is that Rinne's overwhelming power is only now kept in check through her link to Ryuunosuke - should anything happen to him, the restraint would be shattered and Rinne would once again become a threat, which makes his survival The Calamity Research Institute's priority. The question is... who's coming?

While I feel I'm probably past my prime for harem series, I did enjoy much of Guillotine Bride. Certainly it looks incredible, I adore the artwork, and the translation is skillfully written to bring out the softer side of events as well as the punchy catfight dialogue and titillating scenes that bring our protagonists together romantically. Sure, tonally it really is all over the place, but like Tenchi Muyo, the wit is there to carry it all through and provide a memorable slice of manga action.

Time will tell as to whether or not the series will continue to skillfully shift between world-ending menace and romantic tribulations, but so far so good in a fantasy romance that has enough bite to make it stand out from the crowd.