Neil Gaiman writes that "Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda take Eastern and Western comics storytelling traditions and styles, and create something wholly their own" and so help me, I could totally see it! It had fantasy elements similar to European stories with manga style art (especially some of the kawaii characters).
Then a blurb from an Entertainment Weekly writer states that "Monstress is dark, intense, and builds worlds in a way that doesn't focus on holding your hand" and that too played on my interpretation. I struggled at times to get what was going on and if not for that insightful review, I'm afraid I may have guilty of writing off the book as too difficult or even worse, convoluted. But it really wasn't. It was just rich. And more often than not, the world's mysteries came into focus.
Besides the manga leanings, Takeda's art is beautiful in other ways as well. Her use of intricate patterns and dark colour schemes complement the world and tone superbly.
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