Freaks

"You're my little brother. I'm your big sister. Family protects family. Isn't that obvious?" A strong-willed but otherwise normal girl raised by the church protects her bullied brother, who is meek and sweet but has a monstrous appearance due to their mother's fatal deal with a demon. Can she protect him against the church itself? Freaks has a somewhat sketchy, even unpolished look to it, but this works in its favour; Takaki makes sparing use of screentones, so the heavy use of black ink is distinctive and appealing. I have mixed feelings about the character designs; Abel's hulking and monstrous appearance is an excellent contrast with hissweet little brother personality (think Alphonse Elric, but demons instead of alchemy), but Cain's look is so blatantly 'sexy nun' inspired it borders on cliche. She gets an image upgrade toward the end of the oneshot, though, which is quite cool-looking even in the inappropriate miniskirt. The plot is interesting, although a touch predictable. Twins with opposing personalities, the visually inhuman one abused and bullied for his differences. That said, the church angle is interesting, and the protagonists are likeable. The big ol' plot twist isn't hard to see coming, but it's still well executed and satisfying. To be frank, this oneshot's biggest weakness is that it wasn't picked up for serialization. I would have loved to read a dozen volumes of these weird twins and their adventures!