Hynavian

Instead of girls with mechanical bodies, Variante has a girl with a biochemical body. Houshou Aiko is a regular 15 year old girl who’s apt at playing the piano. One day she returns home only to find her parents dead, mutilated by a monster known as a “Chimera”. Her problem is that she’s supposed to join her parents but she awakens in the morgue alive and healthy, hence, becoming an interesting test subject of research purposes.

Though she lives, she has a Chimera arm that can look normal but can be an offensive or defensive weapon. The Chimeras are too powerful, they’re unstoppable and hence the “goody” researchers and the people at the top decide to use Aiko as a weapon; to battle the Chimeras. The male protagonist, Sudou, becomes her goody big brother who watches over her and acts as her emotional anchor.

Variante is a “dark” story where the unscrupulous nature of humans are portrayed and where technological and scientific abuses are common. Aiko fights to find her place in a dehumanizing society, where she’s feared and ostracized by the ones she has contact with, and she struggles for Sudou’s attention among all the chaos. Hence while reading, I can’t help but point out the few similarities that it shares with Gunslinger Girl.

It’s categorized as “Mature”, “Mystery” and “Horror” probably because of the gore and supernatural elements involve. We don’t see Chimeras around and you’ll be wondering how she get that Chimera arm of hers. The Chimeras also make a gory mess of their targets in the manga (mutilation, beheading, limbs ripping, etc), definitely not for readers who cannot stomach bloodshed. Overall it’s a good read if you’re looking for an action cum suspense manga that’s short but touch on human emotions.