A Strange and Mystifying Story (Japanese: この世異聞, Hepburn: Kono Yo Ibun) is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Tsuta Suzuki. The manga was published by Libre Publishing. It was initially licensed in North America by Digital Manga Publishing, which released the first three volumes through its imprint, Juné.[1] After Libre ended its publishing agreement with Digital Manga Publishing in 2016,[2] the manga was licensed in 2017 by Viz Media under its Boys' Love imprint, SuBLime.[3]
It is about a man who is sick with a disease cursed to affect all of his bloodline who summons a therianthrope, his family's guardian, to heal him.
Holly Ellingwood of ActiveAnime praised the 'quite striking' design of the therianthrope,[20] and enjoyed his background story in the second volume.[21] Michelle Smith found the background story incongruous with the otherwise "crude" presentation of the therianthrope in the rest of the series.[22] Leroy Douresseaux praises the "slow burn", the "anticipation of consummation" in the work, and compares the story to Danielle Steel's fiction.[23] Danielle van Gorder praised the character development, especially of the secondary characters, and the manga artist's easily distinguishable character designs.[24] Van Gorder found the second volume "a bit disjointed", as it jumps around in time, showing the progress of the characters' relationship.[25]
