Variante is a horror manga by Ikura Sugimoto. When Hosho Aiko is killed, she should be dead. Instead, she wakes up three days later in the morgue, with a shiny new monstrous arm. Quickly confronted by the monster that killed her parents, she learns that this arm is perhaps the only weapon in the world capable of cleanly handling the creatures.
Of course, this makes her very interesting to a certain government-funded company that is dedicated to keeping the monsters covered up, and cleaning up after them.
Having seemingly everything robbed from her, Aiko must decide whether she wants to die as a specimen, or live fighting the monsters, and her resolve is constantly put to the test as conspiracies and, ultimately, the truth behind the monsters is revealed.
This manga provide examples of:
- And I Must Scream:
- It's implied that Chimera are completely aware, but are in extreme pain and unable to control themselves.
- Nana was kept alive for fourteen years after she was shot.
- Body Horror: Aiko has a freaking monster arm that eats small dogs — and the arm is really tame compared to most of the rest of the series. The Chimaira are pretty much predatory Body Horrors.
- Broken Bird: Hiromi Sudou and Hosho Aiko are both examples of this. Aiko learns towards the end of the series that she was adopted, and that her biological father was a chimera who inadvertently killed her biological mother when he first started to transform. Her biological father also inadvertently transformed, killing both Aiko and her adoptive parents, in the very beginning of the series; her miraculous resurrection is due to her biological father being unable to accept his own mistakes and atoning by bringing her back at the cost of his own life. It is also revealed that Sudou wears the headband to conceal a scar on his forehead, that he received when his first love, a young runaway who turns out to be a chimera, lost control and transformed, nearly killing him. He was forced to shoot her in order to save himself and everyone else in the area. This is introduced to explain his protectiveness of Aiko and unwillingness to give up on her. Of course, it is also later revealed that the chimera girl, Nana, survived the gunshot and was kept alive and experimented upon, forcing Sudou and Aiko to find her and free her by killing her.
- Extreme Doormat: Aiko pretty much lives her entire life trying to please everyone around her. She gets better by the end.
- Heroic BSoD: Aiko goes through quite a few. The biggest one comes after she discovers that chimaera are humans.
- Hope Spot: Just when you think Aiko will have a friend to support her through all this madness, Sachi dies.
- Lovecraftian Superpower: Aiko obtains a monstrous arm that can mutate further (her arm ate a dog). She uses the arm to fight monsters.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: By way of memory recollection. Aiko's real father was a chimera and the one that killed her real mother and adoptive parents. His arm grafted itself to her to protect her.
- Unsound Effect: "Reach", "Grab".
- Waking Up at the Morgue: This happens to Aiko in the first few pages, three days after her death.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The chimeras used to be humans. This revelation triggers Aiko's above Heroic BSoD.