DNA Doesn’t Tell Us [Review]

Brittany Vincent June 24, 2018

DNA Doesn’t Tell Us is another fun, silly romp through the world of “monster girls,” and it may have the strangest premise to explain the existence of sexy half-human monster women. It seems one day animals throughout the world suddenly started transforming into human girls, just like that. One day, they were grazing as sheep in a field, and the next moment, poof! They became humans scrambling to cover their private areas, staring down at the sheep they used to be. Surreal.

That’s what happens to bighorn sheep girl Youko, who is taken in by a kindly old farmer and ends up working on the farm, tending the non-humanoid sheep. When the farmer is unable to provide for all her needs, he sends her to Animalium, a girls’ school for the “new life forms” that have been popping up all over the place—transformed golden retrievers, gorillas, cats, you name it—so they can be educated and studied at the same time.

At Animalium, Youko meets another species of sheep, a wolf, a rabbit, and other animal girls. They all share traits with the animals they once were, and some of them have trouble maintaining their new human forms. Youko’s herd mentality kicks in when she hangs out with other sheep, and she’s overwhelmed by the desire to follow the Merino sheep Fuwako. The manga is devoted to gags based on the idea that these newly human animals can’t control themselves very well and are having difficulty adjusting to becoming people, but with a hefty sprinkling of lewd imagery.

DNA Doesn’t Tell Us manga If monster girls aren’t your thing, you may not find much to enjoy about DNA Doesn’t Tell Us, as it relies heavily on cute yet erotic drawings of the characters and lots of “poofing” back and forth between forms. It’s impeccably drawn, but know going in that this is primarily a fanservice manga.

Despite its wacky premise, DNA Doesn’t Tell Us is a lot like other monster girl series, with plenty of comic hijinks and excuses to show the characters’ nude human forms over and over, as well as more innocent interactions between the different animal types. It’s enjoyable to get to know the various moe characters, and it’s a great light bedtime read while settling in for the night. It’s not challenging, it’s not going to win any awards, but it has a lot of heart and a lot of animals who randomly transform into girls.

publisher: Seven Seas
story and art: Mintarou
rating: T

This story appears in the August 2018 issue of Otaku USA Magazine. Click here to get a print copy.