 It's been six years since Amakawa Alice's family disappeared, and the cute but destructive creatures called Kosmoffs invaded her world. Alice has been holding down the fort, fighting wild Kosmoffs, and protecting the humans who have survived in the hopes that her family will someday return. Hey everybody, welcome to another installment of A Week in Gictim here on YouTube, Geo here, and today we're talking Kosmofamilia, Volume 1. First, I want to give a big shout out to the folks at Seven Seas Entertainment for making this review possible. They sent this book my way to review, and I am very excited to talk about it because it looks wacky, fun, and vibrant, and that is a recipe for success in my opinion. That's the type of book I like to get into. What the heck is Kosmofamilia all about? In a nutshell, without going too overboard with the details, Kosmofamilia is this wacky story about these characters dealing with a cute but deadly invasion of these creatures called Kosmoffs, and they started out as these alien looking creatures, but when the protagonist's mother disappeared, all these alien creatures ran away, and what soon happened was that they somehow turned on everybody and started destroying property and destroying landscapes and eventually destroying homes and all that stuff. So at the center of this story, we find the character of Amakawa Alice. She is trying, and current present time, she is trying to locate her family. They were told that they would come back, but they haven't. They've disappeared for the past six years. Meanwhile, the world has turned on this family and have accused them of villainy and being sort of the originator of this alien invasion, if you will, and all these Kosmoff alien creatures ravaging the planet. Alice was told to wait for her family's return, and that's what she's doing. However, she can't help but feel distressed and depressed at what's happening. She's missing her family, and everybody is taking out those frustrations misguided, because through Alice we learn that it's not the family's fault. It's not her mother's fault, but yeah, she's having to take the, you know, the world to anchor, I guess, on her shoulders of them accusing the family of doing all that stuff, and they're constantly harassing her. However, the interesting part of this introduction for the story is that the town where our hero resides has a line of defense against the Kosmoff, and it turns out to be Alice herself, and somehow has this cool looking scythe weapon that she's seen in the cover, so I'm not really spoiling anything, and she's taking out all the Kosmoff alien creatures, which is really funny that they look extremely cute and adorable. You would think it'd be ugly looking zombie type monsters or something grotesque, you know, to vilify, but to have something cute and adorable sort of confuses the perception of what villainy is supposed to look like, I don't know, just some immediate ramblings I guess on my head, but the character of Alice, she's the line of defense in her town, and she's quite the abled badass taking care of these alien creatures. So what soon follows without really spoiling or getting too into the story is sort of this anime-ish version of, or in this case manga I should say, my bad, this manga-esque version of an Alice in Wonderland type event filled with time-traveling hijinks, adorable monsters, super-powered magical girls, dark fantasy elements, you see where I'm going with this. Cosmo Familia's mangaka, it is Hanokage, who did the manga adaptation of Madoka Magica. So I do see a lot of elements from that series into this Cosmo Familia manga, aside from the Madoka, you know, the magic world stuff with the super-powered abilities and whatnot, but it plays with perception of what you think the story is about. There comes a point where the character saves an individual and that individual sort of blows the lid on this exposition on what the story is going to be about and how there's this force that's looking for her mother, sort of this police force if you will, and that leads into some time-traveling hijinks that I won't reveal what happens when that occurs, but it also opens the gate for the future of this manga title. I have to be completely honest with you guys, the first couple chapters, I was a little confused. I didn't know what the heck I was reading, I mean I understand the basic premise, it's simple enough, but I was confused because everything was a little bit too hectic and rushed at the beginning. It's not until you get to the final portion of this book when the time-traveling starts where you start learning what is really happening, you know, the plot forms a little bit better and you know where you're headed and you understand how this title involves magical girls and supernatural aspects which I thought was really interesting and I cannot wait, I really do want to pick up more volumes of this series just to keep following the series and to see if Alice can find her family again. We do get hints of that but nothing's concrete, we're thrown a lot of red herrings and we're trying to decipher as we're reading just what these creatures are and how is her mother's involvement the catalyst for all the craziness in this manga because you do see some type of body enhancements later on and some really kick ass character designs towards the end. But yeah, I'm intrigued, you know, part of what I said that it's a little bit hectic also has to do with the fights, the fighting in this series or the action scenes I should say, the action scenes in this manga, they're a little bit all over the place and it was for me at least it was a little bit hard to follow, it all felt a little claustrophobic and cluttered and later volumes when everything winds down you start understanding everything a little bit better and you start realizing who the characters are, some of them actually kind of look similar to each other so it can be a little bit confusing for new readers I guess but the overall structure is there, you're going in on this magic ride of strange creatures and sci-fi elements filled with magical girls, it's a, I like it, it's an acquired taste, it's not my immediate go-to genre when it comes to manga or anime but I'm excited, I think it's a fun kooky title with a very interesting premise that you're able to take the magical girl concept and mix it with sci-fi and action stuff, battle shonen elements and whatnot, I think it lends itself for a very fun read for readers of all ages. The idea of Alice is really interesting, I like her dilemma and ongoing quest to find her family and she's neither too bummed out nor too high energy, she's just wanting to get her life back and will do whatever it takes and it lends itself to some really cool character exposition I guess. The art like I mentioned for the most part is very clean, concise, the action can be a little bit claustrophobic and cluttered but it looks fun and energetic, there's a kinetic ferocity to the slices and stuff like that, especially towards the end, there's a final starting fight towards the end which I thought looked really good and well choreographed compared to the beginning where you're seeing a lot of bubbly effects and slicing through like the cosmos, one of them I believe was sort of like an elephant looking thing so there's a lot of circular drawings in the first panels of this manga but it looks cool, I dig it, it's an interesting monster design if you will or character designs for the enemy and obviously when you have time travel and magical stuff you know that you're in for a wild ride and nothing is what it seems so I'm very much looking forward to that. Well I really enjoyed Cosmo Familia and I am looking forward to more volumes to unravel the mystery of just what the heck is going on with these alien creatures and Raika Alice's mom. Have you guys read Cosmo Familia? Let me know in the comment section down below and if not recommend me your magical, your favorite magical girl series, that's not Sailor Moon, no please cause that's the go-to answer for a lot of people, your favorite magical girl manga or anime and your favorite time travel story, why not, I'm very interested in finding out. I want to give a big shout out to the folks at Seven Seas Entertainment for making this review possible, thank you so much, I am beyond thrilled at the opportunity to get to experience these manga volumes and share my thoughts to the world and to whoever wants to learn about these fine books. So yeah do check out Cosmo Familia if you can, it's a pretty interesting, fun title. As always guys, thank you for liking, commenting, subscribing and being a part of what we can geek them here on YouTube. You can of course follow me on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that fun stuff. I've got to go, I've got more stuff to read and review so I will catch all of you on our next episode.