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12 Beast
12 Beast
12 Beast
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12 Beast
Cover of the first Japanese volume
トゥエルヴビースト
(Tueruvu Bīsuto)
GenreComedy, fantasy[1]
Manga
Written byOkayado
Published byFujimi Shobo
English publisher
ImprintDragon Comics Age
Magazine
  • Age Premium (2014 – 2015)
  • Monthly Dragon Age (2015 – 2020)
Original runNovember 9, 2013 – September 6, 2020
Volumes7 (List of volumes)

12 Beast (Japanese: トゥエルヴビースト, Hepburn: Tueruvu Bīsuto) is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Okayado.[a] The series is published by Fujimi Shobo in Japan, and by Seven Seas Entertainment in the United States.

On September 6, 2020, Okayado announced the manga has been canceled due to multiple reasons.[3]

Summary

[edit]

Touga Eita is a high school student and video-game otaku. He is the heir to the Touga style Ninjitsu, and he has never kissed a girl. All this changes when a voluptuous girl with wings and taloned feet named Aero appears and calls on Eita to help save her people-the harpies of Re-Verse-from the merciless onslaught of giant robot monsters known as Gigas. Aero reveals that she was sent to find him, by his missing brother. Eita will follow his newfound harpy friend into a whole new world, filled with monster girls and fantastical creatures beyond his wildest dreams.

Characters

[edit]
  • Eita Touga (刀（とう）牙（が）衛（えい）太（た）, Tōga Eita): A teenage boy who just wants to be left alone to play video games. His grandfather is a ninja, who wants him to inherit the dojo (despite his refusal to do so), and trains him every day. Touga suffers from a severe inferiority complex, due to his elder brother seducing every woman he comes into contact with. After being summoned to Re-verse, he obtains a gauntlet from Asterio that has the power of fusing with any of his companions, to increase his powers.[4]
  • Aero (エアロ, Earo): A female Harpy who asks Eita to help her save her world, taking him to Re-verse and becoming his first traveling companion.[4] She is the first to fuse with his gauntlet, providing him with extreme speed and strength.
  • Jawea (ジャウェア, Jawea): A female Harpy war leader who has her doubts about Eita, but joins him nonetheless as his second traveling companion, and eventually comes to trust him. During the battle for the fish-people's village, she loses her right wing and decides to leave Eita's party. Before leaving she exchanges email addresses with Eita.
  • Asterio (アステリオ, Asuterio): A female Minotaur and master blacksmith who forges a new gauntlet for Eita and later joins him as his third traveling companion.[5] When she fuses with his gauntlet, she grants him the ability of metal remolding.
  • Steela (スティーラ, Sutīra), also known as The "Witch of the Deep" (深海の魔女, Shinkai no Majo): A Cecaelian sea witch, with the lower half of an octopus. She joins them and provides them with transportation via a huge hermit crab, whose shell functions as her house. She sleeps in a jar naked.
  • Freki (フレキ, Furēki): A member of the werewolf clan, and the fifth addition to Eita's gang. Freki is the werewolf clan's strongest lone wolf, due to the fact that she hunts alone, resulting in her feared reputation; this is actually a façade, and she is really just very shy. She attempts to start a conversation with Eita when trapped in a cave, but only distances herself. They later escape with the golem. When Freki combines with Eita's gauntlet, it allows Eita to control and utilize smoke.
  • Theta: A golem that Eita and Freki find inside the cave they are trapped in. It is revealed that she made the cave after her mechanized suit was damaged. She asks the pair to help her repair it by giving her materials that can be absorbed by the suit. She joins Eita and Freki after they are rescued. Soon after, she sheds her mechanized suit and reveals her true form, a small girl with large metallic hands, before proceeding to help Eita take on the Divine General Vajra and its pilot, Hunter.
  • Kouki Touga: Eita's elder brother, his endless womanizing is what ends up turning Eita into a recluse. Not wanting to inherit his grandfather's dojo, he left a year before the story begins on a "worldwide-girl experiencing trip". It is revealed that he actually came to Re-verse, but his current location is unknown.

Release

[edit]

Okayado launched the series in the June 2013 issue of Fujimi Shobo's shōnen manga magazine on May 9, 2013.[6] When Age Premium was shut down on July 9, 2015, the series was one of five titles transferred to Monthly Dragon Age.[7] The chapters have been compiled into seven tankōbon volumes before being cancelled.[8]

North American publisher Seven Seas Entertainment announced their license to the series on July 30, 2014.[9]

Volumes

[edit]
No. Original release date Original ISBN English release date English ISBN
1 November 9, 2013[10]978-4-04-712932-0April 14, 2015[11]978-1-626921-77-1
2 September 9, 2014[12]978-4-04-070173-8July 7, 2015[11]978-1-626921-78-8
3 August 8, 2015[13]978-4-04-070664-1February 9, 2016[11]978-1-626922-61-7
4 June 9, 2016[14]978-4-04-070918-5December 13, 2016[11]978-1-626923-12-6
5 April 8, 2017[15]978-4-04-072243-6September 26, 2017[11]978-1-626924-45-1
6 April 9, 2018[16]978-4-04-072666-3June 26, 2018[11]978-1-626928-00-8
7 June 8, 2019[17]978-4-04-073210-7April 7, 2020[11]978-1-642750-10-2

Reception

[edit]

On Anime News Network, Rebecca Silverman gave volume one an overall grade of C, calling the story generic and textbook. She found the art to be interesting and that the characters distinctive, comparing the series to Okayado's Monster Musume characters.[4] Also on Anime News Network, Lynzee Loveridge listed the series at number four on a list of "7 Manga for Monster Girl Lovers".[18]

Two volumes of the English translation have made it onto the New York Times Manga Best Sellers list:

  • Volume 2 stayed for one week, debuting at number 3.[19]
  • Volume 3 stayed for two weeks, debuting at number 3.[20]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

12 Beast

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
12 Beast (Japanese: 12ビースト, Hepburn: Tueruvu Bīsuto) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Okayado. The series was initially serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Age Premium from May 9, 2013, to August 2015, before transferring to Monthly Dragon Age where it continued from September 9, 2015, until its conclusion in the August 2020 issue. Collected into seven tankōbon volumes by Fujimi Shobo, the manga blends fantasy adventure, comedy, and ecchi elements centered on humanoid beast characters. The story revolves around Eita Touga, a high school and reluctant heir to a ninja clan with a passion for video games, who is suddenly summoned to the alternate world of Re-Verse by Aero, a voluptuous warrior. There, Eita joins forces with various beastkin races, including catgirls and other mythological creatures, to combat an invasion by massive known as Gigas, drawing parallels to dungeon-crawling RPGs. Okayado, best known for his earlier work : Everyday Life with Monster Girls, infuses 12 Beast with his signature style of humorous, fanservice-heavy depictions of monster girls alongside action-packed battles. Published in by starting in 2015, with the final seventh volume released on April 7, 2020; the English edition faithfully reproduces the original artwork and has been praised for its lighthearted , though mangaka OKAYADO cancelled the series in September 2020 citing mental health pressures from deadlines. Despite its cancellation by author OKAYADO after 37 chapters in 2020 due to mental health issues, 12 Beast remains a notable entry in the and genres, appealing to fans of upbeat fantasy .

Premise

Setting

Re-Verse is a parallel serving as the primary setting of 12 Beast, a fantastical realm populated by various beastman tribes collectively known as the Autana, who coexist in relative harmony across diverse landscapes such as aerial pueblos for harpies and cavernous domains for golems. These tribes include harpies, minotaurs, cecaelians, werewolves, golems, lamiae, and others, each embodying mythological inspirations with unique physical traits adapted to their environments. The beast tribes maintain a societal structure organized around tribal clans, fostering inter-tribe dynamics through alliances and shared cultural practices, though individual clans exhibit distinct hierarchies—such as nomadic packs among werewolves or forge-based communities for minotaurs and golems—allowing for cooperative defense and resource sharing in times of peace. Each tribe possesses innate abilities tied to their heritage, including flight and aerial agility for harpies, brute strength and endurance for minotaurs, regenerative aquatic manipulation for cecaelians, heightened senses and pack tactics for werewolves, and earth-shaping durability for golems, which enable harmonious coexistence but become crucial for survival during conflicts. These capabilities can be enhanced through fusion with the Beast Fang Gauntlet, a magical artifact forged from the ancient Masquerade Metal alloy that maintains its form indestructibly, allowing a user to bond with a beast companion by absorbing their magical essence via contact with their "heart," thereby granting hybrid powers like razor-sharp claws and boosted speed from a harpy fusion or a massive hammer arm and amplified strength from a minotaur. This equilibrium is disrupted by the Gigas, massive mechanical robots that invade Re-Verse as relentless exterminators of the Autana tribes, deploying advanced weaponry such as lasers, conductive fluids, and self-repair mechanisms in coordinated assaults to conquer and eradicate the beast world. The Gigas represent a technologically superior threat, piloted by enigmatic controllers and constructed from durable alloys akin to the gauntlet's material, suggesting ties to a long-forgotten advanced civilization that predates the current inhabitants.

Plot summary

The manga 12 Beast follows the high school student Eita, a self-proclaimed and reluctant heir to a , who is accidentally summoned to the of Re-Verse by the Aero during an invasion by the technologically advanced Gigas Empire threatening the Autana tribes. Armed with the Beast Fang Gauntlet, a device that allows him to merge with beast companions for enhanced combat abilities, Eita adapts to this new reality by recruiting allies from various tribes to form a resistance team aimed at repelling the Gigas forces while searching for his missing brother Kouki. His journey emphasizes forging unlikely human-beast alliances amid cultural clashes, as Eita applies his modern knowledge and gaming strategies to navigate the tribal territories and escalating battles. The narrative arc unfolds across multiple volumes, beginning with Eita's initial summons and team-building efforts, such as alliances with harpies and minotaurs, to establish a core group of companions. Mid-series shifts to adventurous exploits in and domains, where the resistance confronts Gigas incursions in diverse environments, highlighting themes of and unity. Later volumes delve into challenges like repairing ancient golems and resolving personal subplots involving familial ties, building toward broader confrontations with the . Throughout, the story maintains an action-adventure tone infused with humor and dynamics among the companions, punctuated by dynamic -themed combat sequences that blend Eita's heritage with the world's fantastical elements.

Characters

Main characters

Eita Touga serves as the protagonist of 12 Beast, a high school student and avid who is the reluctant heir to the Touga ninja clan. Transported from to the of Re-Verse by a summon, he applies his knowledge of modern video games and strategic tactics to real-world combat scenarios, often treating battles like levels in a game. Eita wields the Beast Fang Gauntlet, a powerful artifact that allows him to merge with his beast companions, granting hybrid forms such as enhanced flight via wings or boosted strength from physiology; this fusion mechanic amplifies his heritage, including Touga-Ryu techniques, making him a versatile leader of the central team despite his initial reluctance and toward his missing brother. Aero, a bold and energetic harpy warrior from the Autana beast tribes, is the one who initially summons Eita to Re-Verse to aid her people against invading forces. As a core member of Eita's team, she provides and high-speed maneuvers in battle, with her fusion granting Eita temporary harpy wings for flight and claw-based attacks like Ravenshoot. Her personality—outwardly brash and short-sighted with a poor memory, yet deeply loyal to her tribe and jealous of Eita's attention to others—adds dynamic tension to the group, while her enthusiasm for ninjas stems from tribal legends. Jawea, the proud war leader of a harpy tribe, joins Eita's group early on after he helps defend her people, offering strategic leadership insights drawn from her battle-hardened experience. Though she eventually departs to focus on her tribe's needs, her temporary enhances the team's aerial capabilities during fusion, providing flight boosts and boomerang-based combat support. Valuing honor above all, Jawea wields a battle with precision and embodies a determined, that motivates Eita's growth as a fighter. Asterio, a towering standing at 7 feet 6 inches, brings immense physical strength and crafting expertise to Eita's core team as a reliable, gruff ally. Her demeanor belies her role in forging weapons and armor , and when fused, she endows Eita with metal manipulation abilities, transforming his gauntlet into hammer-like forms for devastating and Hammer Casting strikes. Despite her obliviousness to her revealing attire, Asterio's steadfast support underscores the team's emphasis on unity against common threats like the Gigas. Steela, a cecaelian sea witch known as the "Witch of the Deep," joins as the fourth companion with a flirtatious and enigmatic personality that masks her cunning magical prowess. Specializing in underwater navigation and -based sorcery, her fusion enables Eita to traverse aquatic environments and deploy deceptive ink clouds or binding tentacles in combat, expanding the team's versatility beyond land-based battles. Her mysterious allure often leads to comedic interactions within the group dynamic. Freki, a shy scout from a lupine , contributes stealth and sensory enhancements to the central team, initially struggling with social interactions but growing more confident through bonds formed during missions. Her abilities include control over smoke and shadows for infiltration, and fusion with Eita unlocks Wolf Pack Rush techniques, creating illusory alter egos for multi-angle assaults. Named after Odin's wolf, Freki's development highlights themes of personal growth amid the team's adventures. Theta, a childlike designated ϴ-0038 with a metallic body, is repaired by Eita early in their journey, joining as the sixth companion with an innocent, curious personality that contrasts her stoic, machine-like self-description. Her fusion provides exceptional durability and manipulation powers, allowing Eita to summon barriers or seismic strikes, while her occasional attempts at humor and subtle concern for the team foster emotional depth in the group.

Supporting characters

Kouki Touga serves as Eita Touga's older brother and a recurring in the series. Also a ninja by heritage, Kouki arrived in the Re-Verse world prior to Eita and established himself as a savior to the Autana beastmen race, forging alliances among their tribes. His presence provides occasional aid to Eita's group during key conflicts, while his unexplained earlier arrival adds an ongoing layer of mystery to the narrative. The Gigas represent the primary mechanical antagonists, functioning as a of emotionless drones that invade the Re-Verse. Operating as a hive-mind entity, these invaders deploy adaptive weaponry and swarm tactics to target the Autana races, driving much of the series' battle sequences and forcing Eita's team into defensive fusions and strategies. Their relentless pursuit underscores the technological threat opposing the beastmen's primal societies. Among the Autana, various tribal leaders and minor beastmen figures appear in specific story arcs to either assist or oppose Eita's companions. Harpy elders, such as those from Aero's clan, offer guidance and during evasion from Gigas forces, emphasizing the harpies' role in and . warriors, including chieftains from labyrinthine territories, provide brute strength in alliances or serve as formidable rivals in territorial disputes, highlighting the diverse inter-tribal dynamics within the beastmen society. These peripheral characters influence progression by revealing cultural lore and temporary pacts without joining group.

Publication

Serialization

12 Beast began serialization as a one-shot chapter in the June 2013 issue of Kadokawa's digital magazine Age Premium, released on May 9, 2013. The full series launched in the same magazine on November 9, 2013, and continued bimonthly until Age Premium's discontinuation after its August 2015 issue. Following the shutdown, 12 Beast transferred to along with four other titles, with its first chapter in the new magazine appearing on September 9, 2015. The series, written and illustrated by Okayado ( of Takemaru Inui), maintained a bimonthly schedule in while Okayado concurrently worked on his primary series , serialized in Monthly Comic Ryū. This parallel commitment contributed to the extended but irregular pacing over the run. On September 6, 2020, Okayado announced the series' conclusion after 37 chapters and seven volumes, opting against a hiatus despite editorial discussions. He cited multiple factors, including struggles with anxiety, diminished confidence in his artwork, and perceived pressure from his editor to prioritize wrapping up , which exacerbated his mental health challenges during recovery. The 's nearly seven-year run thus ended on a creative decision to avoid prolonging an unfinished story.

Volumes

The manga 12 Beast was compiled into seven tankōbon volumes by Fujimi Shobo, an imprint of , in . These volumes collect the serialized chapters, with each typically containing four to six chapters, and include color pages and bonus illustrations by author Okayado. The English-language editions were licensed and published by in , maintaining the original right-to-left reading format and uncensored artwork as per the Japanese releases. No other international licenses have been announced as of 2025.
VolumeJapanese Release DateEnglish Release DateChapter Breakdown and Focus
1November 9, 2013April 14, 2015Chapters 1–5: Introduces the summoning of beast companions and the protagonist's first fusion abilities.
2September 9, 2014July 7, 2015Chapters 6–9: Explores encounters and ancient artifacts.
3August 8, 2015February 9, 2016Chapters 10–14.5: Focuses on deep-sea explorations and alliances.
4June 9, 2016September 13, 2016Chapters 15–19: Centers on the sea witch recruitment arc and hunts.
5April 8, 2017September 26, 2017Chapters 20–24: Covers boundary decisions and forest pursuits.
6April 9, 2018September 25, 2018Chapters 25–29: Highlights the arc and ancient battlefields.
7June 8, 2019April 7, 2020Chapters 30–37: Concludes the main storyline with final confrontations.
The English editions feature by Okayado and are available in both print and digital formats, with no digital-exclusive releases or adaptations noted in the volume publications.

Reception

Critical response

Upon its English release, 12 Beast volume 1 received a mixed review from Anime News Network's Rebecca Silverman, who assigned it an overall grade of C in April 2015, praising Okayado's artwork for its attractive designs and detailed backgrounds while noting similarities in humor and fanservice to his earlier work . Silverman highlighted the distinctive characters and comedic elements, such as the short memories of the harpies and protagonist Eita's gaming obsessions, but criticized the story for relying on formulaic tropes like an ordinary with hidden talents summoned to another world to fight a vague threat. She also pointed out the slow pacing and lack of excitement, suggesting the narrative felt textbook and failed to sustain reader interest beyond the initial setup. The series' ecchi and harem fantasy elements, including themes of fanservice and , have been noted as appealing to fans of the , while reviewers have faulted it for generic storytelling and pacing issues that prioritize visual appeal over depth. In a 2015 feature on for monster girl enthusiasts, Lynzee Loveridge ranked 12 Beast fourth out of seven recommendations, commending its upbeat tone and action-oriented fantasy adventure where the protagonist recruits various beast characters like mummies and minotaurs to combat mechanical threats. Loveridge emphasized the variety of monster girls in dynamic roles, contrasting it with more slice-of-life entries in the subgenre. Reviewers have observed that 12 Beast features female beast characters in active, collaborative roles in combat, though the emphasis on fan service often overshadows deeper storytelling. Overall, the manga has garnered mixed reception as a lighthearted ecchi fantasy series, with strengths in Okayado's visual style and character designs outweighing criticisms of narrative innovation, and it has not received any major awards.

Commercial performance

In the United States, volumes 2 and 3 of the English-language edition of 12 Beast achieved commercial success by appearing on the New York Times Manga Best Sellers list. Volume 2 reached #3 for one week in July 2015. Volume 3 also peaked at #3, charting for two weeks in February 2016. The series experienced modest circulation in during its serialization in , a magazine with an average print run of around 30,000 copies in the . This visibility was bolstered by creator Okayado's prior success with , a New York Times bestseller that established his prominence in the genre. In the English market, reported steady sales for the series, with all seven volumes remaining available in both print and digital formats as of 2025. 12 Beast appealed primarily to fans of and subgenres within fantasy , helping to strengthen ' lineup of similar titles. The lack of an adaptation constrained its potential for wider mainstream exposure beyond print and digital audiences. Following its cancellation in September 2020 due to the author's health issues, the series stayed in print internationally, maintaining a niche following.

References

  1. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/SHJ/12-beast/
  2. https://myanimelist.net/manga/51315/12_Beast
  3. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-09-08/monster-musume-okayado-cancels-12-beast-manga/.164558
  4. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=16211
  5. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2249493/okayado/
  6. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-07-30/seven-seas-licenses-12-beast-servamp-manga/.77138
  7. https://sevenseasentertainment.com/books/12-beast-vol-7/
  8. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/TwelveBeast
  9. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/12-beast/gn-1/.87447
  10. https://isekai.fandom.com/wiki/12_Beast
  11. https://sevenseasentertainment.com/series/12-beast/
  12. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/TwelveBeast
  13. https://alchetron.com/12-Beast
  14. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-07-08/age-premium-online-manga-magazine-shuts-down/.90189
  15. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-09-08/monster-musume-okayado-cancels-12-beast-manga/.163785
  16. https://twitter.com/okayado1215/status/1302563914115211264
  17. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-list/2015-03-28/.86269
  18. https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2015/08/02/manga/
  19. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-02-26/new-york-times-manga-best-seller-list-february-14-20/.99143
  20. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-03-04/new-york-times-manga-best-seller-list-february-21-27/.99421
  21. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-01-17/2010-japanese-manga-magazine-circulation-numbers
  22. https://sevenseasentertainment.com/about/awards/
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