The individual series were not originally conceived as an ongoing story but were later revised to form a connected trilogy, which was published as a single volume by Shogakukan in 1986.

[4] He sought to create a story that subverted this motif by depicting a mother as a monstrous rather than loving figure, drawing inspiration from the snake-woman of Okameike Densetsu.

Yamabiko Shimai is a series of stories set in Nara in which sisters Satsuki and Kanna are confronted with various paranormal phenomena that originate from legends associated with the region.

[9] The Yamabiko Shimai version of Hebi Shōjo also has a happier ending, in which Yōko is turned back into a normal girl with the help of Satsuki and her friends.

"Snake Woman: Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater")[11] The Shogakukan edition modifies the artwork and dialogue of the stories to make them into a connected trilogy, most notably altering the setting of the series and Yōko's fate at the conclusion of Reptilia (Hebi Shōjo).

[9] Shogakukan republished Hebi Onna in 2005 as part of Umezz Perfection!, a complete collection of Umezu's works to mark the 50th anniversary of his debut as a manga artist.

[12] In this case, the transformation concerns that of the "monster that dwells in us",[12] which novelist Hitomi Kanehara describes in her postface to a collected edition of the series as a "mysterious being, unable itself to explain its behavior, which sets up a dark and troubled atmosphere, and has something repulsive about it.

[16][20] The snake-woman is a yōkai with serpentine physical and behavioral characteristics, including skin covered in scales and a deformed mouth filled with sharp teeth.

Critic Stéphane du Mesnildot argues this tendency introduces a feminist dimension to the snake-women figure that makes it representative of "the dark side of femininity, and very often, its revenge on an unjust and authoritarian masculine society".

[12][18] The girls who serve as the protagonists of the stories are drawn in a style typical of shōjo manga of their era: influenced by the art of Macoto Takahashi, with basic designs that emphasize their beauty, innocence, and purity.

[21] Their design starkly contrasts that of the grotesque snake-woman; this was a visual innovation for shōjo manga, which at the time almost invariably depicted only cute and beautiful characters.

[16] Scared of Mama was a critical and commercial success upon its release, and its popularity is credited with prompting a boom in the production of horror manga in the late 1960s.