All of my reviews contain spoilers for the reviewed material. This is your only warning. This is a review of a work whose current publication status is ambiguous. Facts and opinions within are subject to possibly change. In brief Kuroki Yodomi no Hedorosan Hedoro The Black Sludge as its sometimes unofficially localized is the story of an artificial girl made from mysterious black ooze from the Sea of Okhotsk. This girl Kraunessa is made to be a white knight a helper of people but she is born into the world with no real experience. She is in essence left to follow her instincts and not much else. Kuroki Yodomi no Hedorosan is the story of where those instincts lead her for good and for ill. The mangas author Imitation Crystal is a name rarely brought up even among those in the know about obscure mangaka. Even folks like Dowman Sayman or TSUBANA are comparatively wellknown. IC is still a doujinka in spirit and indeed Hedorosan seems written first and foremost with an audience of one in mind IC themselves. To wit: the storys winding writing makes the entire thing seem like a series of only looselyconnected stories that simply happen to take place in the same area and to some of the same characters. Kraunessathe titular Hedorosanis the most consistent element. This is even sort of true of one of Imitation Crystals other popular relatively speaking manga Game Club. Here though the major traits of their work: winding inuniverse conversations about morality creeping surges of deep black emotions and a general sense of the unfairness of the world are put to a greater end. Its never a wise idea to try to psychoanalyze someone based on their work so I will phrase lightly and say that if it turned out to be that Imitation Crystal struggles or had in the past struggled with depression or similar issues I would be unsurprised. A lot of Hedorosan is surprisingly bleak given the comedic tone it takes early on this is still a series mind you that makes a running gag out of its protagonist munching on soap bars. Take for example the arc of Ms. Rimon. Rimon is a character introduced comedically and her story is the kind of thing that a school life 4koma would play for gags. Initially introduced as a teacher with a spunky cando attitude whos popular among the students she seems like a pretty typical addition to the cast for this sort of thing. However its soon revealed that Rimon does not actually work for the school that Kraunessa and her friends attend. Investigating they learn that she lives alone in a small house cluttered with motivational posters on the wall. Even here you can see the setup for a simple dichotomysomeone who outwardly spends time encouraging others but has a personal life thats falling apart. Astoundingly the real reveal is actually even worse. 880https://i.ur.com/E76pEjt.png 880https://i.ur.com/7BzihlJ.png 880https://i.ur.com/byt6PQr.png Cheery Rimon has been living her life in a dream actively deluded that she became a teacher as her home essentially crumbles around her seemingly without her really even knowing. Even if the series was operating on as basic a level as trying to be an edgy take on a stock sliceoflife series which its not thats pretty damn dark. At arcs end she wakes up. Disappearing from Kraunessas life her school and the narrative until...well well get to that later. This is the comics general structure such as it is. Kraunessa attempts to help someone in her life and fails to do so violating both her designated status as a white knight and failing on a personal level. All the while an occultic subplot about the grimoire that was used to create heran evil book comically named The Cookie Cutter that can steal and give human naturewhirls in the background. Kraunessa eventually falls into something of an existential crisis. Unable to figure out how to exist on her own terms. Shes unable to reconcile her desire to help people with her apparent inability to do so. Eventually she joins the Bother Club a group of three other characters which as a minor sidebar includes a Catholicraised gyaru named Gomorrah puzzle that one out who devote their lives to inconveniencing other people. She tries to spoil the school pool using her ink powers and when she does so her classmates are overjoyed one must assume Gym is an unpopular subject at this particular high school. She cant be evil correctly either. 880https://i.ur.com/NevFZDG.png Then in the second half of the Bother Club arc were reunited with Ms. Rimon under dire circumstance. 880https://i.ur.com/oQqY4Eu.png 880https://i.ur.com/5Ae5lGq.png Incredibly she manages to save the suicidal notteacher and its here that the manga finally reveals its hand and makes plain what the point of all this is. Returning home that evening Kraunessa asks her creator why she was created out of sludge instead of a more pure substance like cream or candy. In response that character sings a song. Its quite a long thing but the core lyric is right here. 880https://i.ur.com/5ViHQaE.png Idealsno matter what they are selfless or selfishcannot sustain a person on their own something we all eventually learn growing up. Much earlier in the comic a somewhat farcical story about how a King Burger survived when his idealistic friend the White Knight did not by prioritizing his own wellbeing as well as that of others also ties into this theme. The song to give the manga all the credit it deserves hits like a flick to the forehead spelling it all out for idiots like yours truly who benefit from the obvious. Given Imitation Crystals status as a completely independent operation its not even entirely clear if the story of Hedorosan is complete or notthe most recent chapter at the time of this writing ends on something of an ambiguous could go either way sort of note. Yet barring some kind of complete 180 its an easy recommendation few works of art use their toolset to convey whats ultimately a very simple theme so well. And if you liked this review why not check out some of my others here on Anilist?https://anilist.co/user/planetJane/reviews