I'll admit that it's a bit of an oddity – OKAYADO's harem comedy Monster Musume is already rife with fanservice and largely functions as a slice-of-life story about everyman Kimihito's forced coexistence with a variety of hot monster girl “exchange students,” dealing with the basics of living with a lamia, feeding a centaur, and coping with a bird-brained harpy, among other things. It also already makes the most of all of its opportunities for sexiness, so you'd think that a spin-off series of short stories by different mangaka wouldn't necessarily be needed, or even have much new ground to cover. By and large, it really doesn't – the situations the new authors put the girls in aren't that far a cry from what might happen in the main series and there's actually a bit less fanservice than in Monster Musume. But if you're already a fan of OKAYADO's surprisingly fun series, this does have some tidbits to add to the overall tale.

The most obvious difference here is that most of the guest authors really like Manako, the cyclops. At least half of the fourteen short stories revolve around her, from her concerns about people being afraid to look her in the eye to trying to babysit Papi. Since she is such an underutilized character in the main series, this really does add to the overall world by expanding her character somewhat, although everyone seems to agree on the basic quiet quasi-incompetence of her personality. (“Clumsy cute” would probably be a better descriptor.) By far her best story is “Home Alone with Manako-san” by Tottori-saQ, where everyone else goes to the hospital with a mysterious illness and Manako is called in to make sure that Papi doesn't do anything too foolish. Needless to say that's harder than it appears, and the resulting pages are both cute and funny. This is also one of the stories to get a full-color introductory page, and there's a sweetness to Tottori-saQ's color art that's really appealing, especially in Manako herself.

Another particularly strong piece is “Being Dirty Does Not Suit You” by kurokawa otogi. This is a Mero focused tale about how bubbles from shampoo can clog her gills and cause her to nearly drown. Kimihito goes through a variety of attempts to solve the problem – including a few more prurient ones slyly suggested by Mero – before Rachnee solves the problem with slightly a-typical common sense. The hijinks are very much in line with OKAYADO's original while still feeling somehow more innocent (although not too innocent) and the story gives a sense of completion that some of the others in the book lack. Most of the shorts do try to tell a full story within their allotted pages, between 13 and 5 typically, but not all of them succeed; both kurokawa's and Tottori-saQ's do. Of course, some of the mangaka don't even try, opting instead for four-panel gags that are unrelated to each other, such as “Monster Girl 4-Koma Theater” by kenkoucross. This runs the gamut from funny (Rachnee spinning a scarf out of boredom) to less witty, such as Cerea resting her heavy breasts on the table to relieve her back pain, while other authors tackle selfies, photoshop, and video games.

The art is all quite consistent both with OKAYADO's original style and each other – there really aren't any stand-outs in terms of being completely unique. The most different is aruse yushi, who has a softer, rounder style than the rest, but overall there is a nice sense of continuity in the art throughout the volume. Of course, if you're looking to see how different artists all draw the same character, this is likely to be more of a disappointment than a bonus, so it really is a bit of a double-edged sword. To assuage some of that potential upset, however, Seven Seas has packaged the volume with three postcards drawn by OKAYADO, one of each of the three original monster girls: Miia, Cerea, and Papi. All three are ecchi without being tasteless or over the top and don't increase the price of the volume, which remains uniform with other Seven Seas releases. It is a bit shorter than the norm, but the postcards and the inclusion of color pages in the middle of the book do a lot to make up for that.

Monster Musume: I ♥ Monster Girls isn't likely to have much draw for those who aren't already fans of the series. It certainly doesn't stand by itself at all, requiring reader familiarity with the main cast through volume seven and the basic premise of the series itself. But if you are a fan of OKAYADO's work, whether that be casual or serious (or if you just think Manako gets shortchanged in the main books), this is a fun, light read. At its heart it really is a fanbook that made the jump to “real” publication, and it definitely does read like one, but if importing doujinshi isn't an option or you simply enjoy them, this is worth checking out…but only if Monster Musume is one of your preferred series.