Katlaya Rising
Maria Mediarito
Edited by Aria Villafranca
WEBTOON
Katlaya de los Kalyes just wants to live a beautiful life with a beautiful wife. Unfortunately for her, she’s stuck at the bottom of a (literally) stratified town in service to the god Amihan, where monsters roam and people can barely afford the healing crystals that cure the “frenzy infection” the monsters cause. One fateful day, a new kind of monster appears in the sky above Pilipit Town… and when Katlaya tries to bring it down, their fates become intertwined.
To call Katlaya Rising a Filipino lesbian Chainsaw Man is definitely oversimplifying both comics, but it’s also the easiest way for me to pitch it to people who would absolutely love to read this comic. Katlaya and Denji from Chainsaw Man have several key things in common: 1) They’re fighting monsters to work their way out of extreme poverty with the power of excellent action scenes 2) They love beautiful women and 3) The beautiful women they love use fact 2 to manipulate them.
The first half-season of Katlaya Rising consists of 22 episodes, four of which are titled after each woman that “proposes” to Katlaya. In a religious society where women who insist on loving women are called “wastes of wombs”, four women declare to Katlaya how much they love, need, or care for her… but none of that love is pure and uncomplicated. Isang is still grieving the loss of her husband and child, but she needs Katlaya to continue to help her take care of the kids in the orphanage, so she uses Katlaya’s love for her to keep her close. Sibol sees Katlaya as a means to escape Pilipit Town for good. Himig, Katlaya’s ex, has been so beaten down by what they’ve endured she no longer believes they have a future, together or at all. And Mau, the thrice-divorced rich-girl wild-card, claims to have fallen in love with Katlaya at first sight… but who knows what her real plans are?
Reading each of the proposal chapters made me think of Denji’s iconic line in the “Reze Arc” part of Chainsaw Man: “Everyone wants Chainsaw Man’s heart, but no one cares about Denji’s heart!” Everyone wants something from Katlaya, but no one cares about what Katlaya wants. Katlaya herself seems more than willing to put her “beautiful life with a beautiful life” dreams aside to keep fighting monsters for Isang and the orphans’ sake. Even when the opportunity to try something else arises, she hesitates, chained by the obligations others put on her. This is a lesbian harem story where the girl Katlaya decides to follow won’t be just a girl, but a representation of a way of life Katlaya might choose.
Mediarito does a beautiful job of literalizing the metaphors and themes at play in this story: Katlaya’s frantically beating purple heart is depicted in chains when she’s feeling emotionally trapped, and her outfit, both before and after Mau’s makeover, features a chain belt. Pilipit Town is also literally built on a mountain, with the rich people on the peak and the poor folks at the base and outskirts. Civil servants in Pilipit wear earthy brown tones that contrast well with the neon pink Mediarito uses to color blood– a decision that reminded me of the Dangan Ronpa video game franchise, and which adds a lot of color to an otherwise fairly neutral-toned comic. Rich-girl Mau stands out from the characters in Katlaya’s social class with her cool blue fit and pale skin. All of the major characters are easy to tell apart from each other, which is absolutely crucial in a vertical scroll comic.
The character designs, environments, and monster designs all fit together harmoniously, which is rare for vertical scroll comics. Mediarito doesn’t appear to rely on premade assets– or, if she does, she uses them much more subtly than most creators. Pilipit Town feels like a real, lived-in world, which shows how skilled Mediarito is at building it.
And the fight scenes are exciting and easy to follow!
Katlaya Rising is a comic that made me think, “finally, a good lesbian WEBTOON Original on this green app,” a thought I have not had since Mage and Demon Queen ended serialization in 2023. It’s beautiful, it’s fun to read, and it has depth! There’s themes! Religion, and power, and poverty, and lesbianism! Please read this comic and then talk about it with me!
