Mistress Fortune

Arina Tanemura's manga are best known for it's beautiful artwork, interesting plots, quirky characters and tragic romances. Each of her stories always have something good to offer, and Zettai Kakusei Tenshi Mistress Fortune (MisuFo for short) is no exception...even if it is on the more "relaxed and fun" side. MisoFo is a one-shot manga, meaning that it isn't meant to be a long, tear jerking love story like some of Tanemura's previous works. No, MisuFo is meant to be something that you pick up and read just to pass the time- but that doesn't mean it has to be bad for you to do so. Thestory is rather simple, but still interesting; A young girl has Psychic powers and works for the government to help rid the world of Aliens with her cute bishonen partner. The catch? She just happens to be in love with said partner, but her work makes it hard for her to confess her undying love. One of the things I like about the story is how much she does with it. You see everything from the heroine forced to keep her job a secret to her wishes being granted in the worst way possible. However, these points in the story are a bit cliche and the story gets kind of boring at times, only to be quickly brought back by a comedic scene or a romantic one. As for the Art, it is nothing short of amazing. I have never disliked any artwork that Tanemura produces, so this might be a little biased. Still, anyone can tell just how much work she puts into every panel. The character designs are lovely and the action scenes are very well done. The area Tanemura shines most, though, is the romantic scenes. As always, they are top notch, but sometimes they blush a little too much, haha. It is a shoujo manga, so that is to be expected! The characters are fairly average. The main cast is very small (only 4 real characters of importance), but my personal favourite has to be Giniro. He's a pervert, but is also very kind and funny. Kisaki, the main character, is basically just your typical shoujo girl, but has large breasts to add a comedic effect. She isn't really anything too special though. Then their's Ebo-Ko, one of the Aliens that is now the duo's pet of sorts. She is the character that adds the most comedy to the story, and even if it's not always really funny, it's enough to put a smile on my face. The last major character is Gunjo- basically Girino and Kisaki's boss. He's lighthearted and feminine, but can also be a bit of an annoyance to our young Psychics in love. My enjoyment for this manga was fairly average. I knew I would like it because it was created by my favourite manga-ka, but putting that aside it was just your average manga, only with a bit more spunk. Overall, if you want to sit down and have a quick read that won't bore you to tears and are into the shoujo genre, Zettai Kakusei Tenshi Mistress Fortune is a good book to pick up.

I’ve actually been a big fan of Arina Tanemura for a long time, ever since I started reading manga. But as an adult, it increasingly feels strange to read her works. In many of her stories, the 14-year-old protagonist is often sexualized, and there are frequently characters who show interest in her in an inappropriate way – which becomes even more problematic when the age difference between the characters is extremely large. In one of those character is , 25-year-old side character who finds the 14-year-old "cute." Personally, I can’t simply ignore things like that, especially because such age differences are often portrayed as positive orat least as acceptable. It’s simply uncomfortable and creates an inappropriate dynamic that I find problematic. Nonetheless, one has to acknowledge that Tanemura has a talent for beautiful drawings, and the story itself also had sweet moments. However, this problematic aspect unfortunately often overshadows the rest.

Before I explain what I didn’t like about ‘Mistress Fortune’, I will say I enjoyed the concept of this manga and I wish it was a lot longer. It was rushed and cramped together, but this had a lot of potential otherwise. I would’ve loved to have seen more aliens and other psychics collaborate with the main characters, and see history and futuristic events with the PSI Organization that recruited the main characters to begin with. I know Arina Tanemura intended to keep this as a short story, but it could’ve been better executed, especially without sexual elements. Which leads to my next point: Idon’t think this manga aged well regarding how sexualized Kisaki (FMC) was in the entire story. She’s also a minor. It’s one thing to have two teenage characters having banter back and forth, when it’s written well, but sexualizing Kisaki was overdone in every chapter. There was no need for Giniro (MMC) to use her “DD” cup size as a staple of their relationship. Giniro would put so much emphasis on her breast size even when he talks to the grown adults in the story about them; like, why was this boy given a pass to talk like that? And the adults just accepted it? The fact this manga was written by a woman shows how desensitized and “normal” this kind of dialogue was in the 2000s. This is not something young readers should consider “normal”. This manga would not fly by as easily if this was written in 2026. If you’re able to read past the uncomfortable sexualized elements, this is still a good story to check out. I could only hope that if Arina Tanemura makes a continuation of “Mistress Fortune” down the line, that it would be more appropriate to our current times with better world building.