surprisingly wholesome?

i'm always SO wary of reading this author's works because even though they're such a talented artist and writer, the very bleak nature of their horror makes me wanna spiral lmao. i went into this expecting to be Heavily Depressed by the end of it, but it ended up being a lot more uh... wholesome? than i thought? probably the most wholesome of all their works LMAO like cmon.... the incubus that eats rapists' hearts also used to work in a hospital and gave comfort to kids <3

of course since this is a horror manga, there are copious horror elements, but what i loved was how in the beginning they lead you to believe that the monsters/demons would be these "heartless" (haha) villains but in actuality, the villains were the fanatics ruthlessly hunting them (the werewolf family... ugh my heart breaks thinking of those poor kids :( ). in the end, all naruko and manuel truly wanted was to be happy and even though the ending is more on the bittersweet side, i can rest easy knowing they'll have each other <3. just such a good read.