A splendid series about a blind deaf mute girl doing her best while telepathically conversing with her seeing eye dog.

Helen ESP is a supernatural slice of life manga by Katsuhisa Kigitsu, the creator of another series called Franken Fran. As Franken Fran ended up one of my utmost favorite manga, I went into this sole other fully translated Katsuhisa Kigitsu manga with some pretty high expectations.

And thankfully, despite not being of the horror genre and being quite dissimilar to Franken Fran in general, my expectations were pretty much met. Even if I didn’t necessarily think that was going to be the case at the start. I can’t stress this enough, even if your opinion of Franken Fran isn’t quite as luminescent as mine is, that manga is bursting at the seams with content.

Sometimes literally. As in... well, it's a very gory series... that was the jok

I don’t know why I thought that this wouldn’t be the case with this one as well when I saw it wasn’t horror, but my worries were completely misplaced. One of the key similarities that Helen ESP does possess is that just like Franken Fran, the entire series is centered around one character.

#Helen Takahara La Guido#

This series is centered around a once perfectly ordinary girl following a terribly tragic car accident, and her day to day life now that she has lost her sight, her hearing, and her speech.

But as life changing and horrible that car accident had been, she also soon found that this event did not simply cause her to just lose things. She gained something as well.

Various supernatural abilities, commonly referred to as ESP. The most common form of her power that’s present throughout the entire series of course being capable to telepathically speak with her seeing eye dog, Victor. She of course has numerous run-in’s with various spirits and supernatural beings throughout the series, some of which are friendly, but of course some that are incredibly dangerous…

I don’t wish to continue bringing up Franken Fran, but on the expanding “Katsuhisa Kigitsu morality chart”, if Fran Madaraki is a chaotic neutral character, Helen is most certainly lawful good through and through. The differences between the two protagonists are wonderful.

Helen helps pretty much everyone she meets for free, Fran not only charges you but also there's a pretty decent chance you'll regret seeking her help the moment you find yourself on the operating table.

Despite the tremendous misfortune she’s befallen, Helen remains a warm pure-hearted girl who is more than willing to help even strangers for nothing in return. Even when it's somebody telepathically communicating to her in the dead of night.

Even if it’s a demon. Even if it's a strangely large hulking delinquent who got into so many fights that one of his victims returned armed with a crossbow. Even if it's a flower fairy that increasingly becomes more and more selfish to the only person who can see it and thus protect it from say, a storm. Even if it's a boy who's fallen into a coma after being caught in a fire and after meeting Helen ends up trying to convince her to follow him to the world of the dead and suggests that even after recovering from her accident her life has no worth and she'll be unable to find happiness

...Okay, she wasn't actively trying to help in that last instance, but getting smacked with the full weight of Helen's continually growing powers ended up causing the boy to actually wake up from his coma. Even while absolutely furious after having some of the worst stuff said to her in the entire series, Helen can't stop helping others.

But this series isn't solely just episodic stories about Helen helping various people and beings. We of course get glimpses of the accident that robbed Helen of her senses and her family, as well as the unfortunate and immediate aftermath of it. As well as Helen's initial struggles towards rehabilitation...

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She even starts going to school again partway through the series, which is nice. It's always nice for a character to actually undergo deserved personal growth. But I think hands down my favorite part of this series is definitely Victor, Helen's seeing eye dog.

Which is odd because I'm very much not a dog person.

His relationship with Helen and his worried reactions to some of the recklessly selfless things she does throughout the series is great. Or when he becomes worried that Helen will be burned at the stake as a witch if the world finds out that she's able to fly.

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...Oh, and also, because this is a Katsuhisa Kigitsu manga and we had to have an insect chapter, Helen also at one point becomes embroiled in a war between two opposing nations of ants after having sold both sides valuable military tactics and ideas.

#Conclusion#

Could it be argued that I like Helen ESP as much as I do because I'm biased as a result of how much I absolutely love his older (and now resurrected) series? Yes. Does that change anything? Nope.

As far as I'm concerned, Helen ESP is as good as Franken Fran and due to the fact that they aren't of the same genre, I don't have to feel conflicted over liking both equally. Additionally, the existence of Helen ESP gives me the ability to recommend people who don't like gore/horror a Katsuhisa Kigitsu manga.

Which is pretty cool. As I just said I like Helen ESP as much as I do Franken Fran, there is of course only one score I can give it.

A 10 out of 10.

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