Shed that Skin, Ryugasaki-san! follows the titular character, a lizard girl who occasionally sheds her skin and her relationship with the odd Yugami-kun. The review will be looking at the first two volumes of this comedy published by Kaiten Books.
This manga is written and illustrated by Kazutomo Ichitomo, who has worked on other titles such as Handyman Saitou In Another World and VS, Versus Earth. The English localization is by Andrew Hodgson, who has worked on a number of manga, light novels, and visual novels. We had a lot of fun reading his translation of My Dad’s the Queen of All Vtubers?!
Story Start
Shed that Skin, Ryugasaki-san! uses its first scene well. The protagonist Yugami sees Ryugasaki in her underwear, drawing in the readers who like a bit of fanservice from the go. Beyond that though, it shows her cracking skin and a close-up of her lizard-like eyes. It emphasizes right away that she’s different.
Yugami himself certainly isn’t normal. While fully human, it’s his personality that’s more than a bit twisted, rather than his physiology. He has a strong interest in Ryugasaki – or rather her shed skin and other reptilian quirks. This is to the point that he has been secretly collecting her skin to make a model and outright admits that it turns him on.
Ryugasaki surprises him by sneaking into his home and sees the model. She asks him a question; wouldn’t he prefer the real her?
Despite his odd obsession with reptiles, Ryugasaki likes Yugami. This begins her struggle to get him to see her as a girl, instead of focusing on her shed skin and other reptilian features.
Girl Likes Boy. Boy Likes Lizard.
The protagonist of Shed that Skin, Ryugasaki-san! is a pretty nice guy. We see him being kind to people, helping an old lady, and selflessly protecting Ryugasaki at his own expense. It’s just his odd fetish that gets in the way.
It’s often used as a joke, but Yugami is seriously obsessed. It starts with collecting shed skin, but we see him buying tools for his model on a ‘date’ and often focusing on the reptile aspects to the point of ignoring decency. We do see Ryugasaki make headway though. It’s interesting to see him slowly become more aware of her as a girl, while still feeding his obsession.
Ryugasaki is obsessed too, though it comes off as more normal. She clings to him, lets him inspect her body, and talks about a future where they’re married. As time goes on, she seems to start to accept his fetish a bit more too.
While I enjoyed it, I did feel that it was starting to get repetitive seeing similar situations repeat. Chapters are pretty short, with most being around five to ten pages long. Many of these followed the same basic ideas. There is some progression – we can see signs of change in their relationship, particularly between volume one and two. Some chapters do bring in new elements that add to the story. It’s just that a lot of it did feel like repeated gags with the occasional scene based on a lizard fact. There are some serious moments and touching scenes, but they feel rare.
As volume two closes, we do get to meet some new characters. As the volumes so far have mostly focused on the two characters, I’m curious if this will add a new element and take things in a different direction.
Art
One thing that Shed that Skin, Ryugasaki-san! doesn’t shy away from is fanservice. It’s not everywhere, but there are certainly some pretty detailed panels where Ryugasaki’s underwear is on display.
Beyond that, it’s a mix of detailed and less detailed panels throughout. I particularly liked some that focus on Ryugasaki’s eyes, with their third eyelid and slit pupils.
Verdict
The concept of Shed that Skin, Ryugasaki-san! is rather unique and I certainly enjoyed it. With that said, it didn’t blow me away. My interest started to wane around the end of volume one and despite enjoying volume two, it never really kept me hooked. I still hold out hope that the introduction of the new characters may shake up some of the repetitiveness and make volume three more exciting, but we’ll have to wait and see.
WAIT FOR SALE ON SHED THAT SKIN, RYUGASAKI-SAN!
Want to read something else? How about checking out the Dr Stone: Reboot Byakuya manga? Or our visual novel reviews?
Many thanks go to Kaiten Books who provided a review copy of this title.
A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
