The Wallflower Mini Review (manga/anime)
September 30th, 2007 by Lianne
PG-16 for sexuality and other shoujo stuff; official series website
A shoujo manga about an “ugly” (read: perfectly gorgeous but unpolished) girl who happens to live in an awesome house. Enter four spectacularly beautiful boys who wish to live in that house, but on one condition: turn that “ugly” girl into a proper lady. Sound bad? It is, for the most part. I like the message that beauty is nothing but attitude and presentation, both because it’s true and because it reflects the Japanese motto of “anything can be achieved through hard work,” but the rest of the manga is a mess. The mangaka tries to cram in too many fan-conscious shoujo hooks and then somehow justify that with unique flourishes of her own, but most of her flourishes are too strange or awkward to be really good. The Wallflower feels like the result of some halfway decent artist reading far too much shoujo far too quickly. There’s also an anime for this show known as Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (“Perfect Girl Evolution”), and I think ADV bought it for a North American release. I’ve never seen it, but the character designs–already pretty creepy in the manga–reach new levels of terrifying in the show. For God’s sake, when your pretty boys look like they’re from a world either off in space or under the sea, you have a problem.
Educated impression: Don’t bother unless you’re addicted to shoujo. (Lianne)
I actually had fun reading this anime. I like the characters that were included. Some plots maybe too much to be real but i think that’s what this manga is all about, the fantasy world of a regular teenage girl. BTW Am no teenee. Maybe ‘am a shoujo manga addict.
i think the mangaka just forgot what her manga was supposed to be about after the first few volumes.
My friend makes me read all her stuff, and no matter how hard I tried, I could never understand what was going on!!!! !!!!!
It reminds me of Ouran High School Host Club in that way, but I think that story is better (although I can’t be sure)
Oh man, have the mangaka finished this series yet? I remeber finding this before it even came into american book stores and I loved it from the start….but then it fell incredibly boring after a few volumes. You know how sailor moon has the monster of the day (episode) premise? Well with this it starts off with the plot, then it dwells a little in the background of the characters/sub-chars and then after you know a partial bit about the characters then thats when you get a filler chappy after filler chapter. Its funny, yes,(and especially with sunako covering her eyes from the beautiful bishis) but after awhile it gets redundent and you wish the main guy would just come out with his feelings already for the “ugly” girl.
Did show this in a anime? Because I’ve been hearing that its been showing… If it is can you tell me where to watch it because I can not find the website for this.
I completely agree with michelle.. I’ve been reading the manga and i’ve read up to Chapter 52.. it just feels so repetitive.. and it feels like it drags on way too long. i dont mind things dragging on, but this one is just too much =/
I just can’t help but hope the author has the courage to bloody well end this soon – after 98 (!) chapters of the main bishie saying “My friendship with this gorgeous but creepy girl does NOT mean I want to bone her” and his friends insisting otherwise,I’d be more than happy for her to say,”Fuck it,they’re BOTH asexual. And they live happily ever after.”
That’s in Perfect World. In reality,this looks like it could keep going and going and going… D:
I started this, thought it was entertaining enough, but eventually got bored after so little changed with each chapter (or volume!). Does it end well? I think I’ll just skip to the end and get my closure.
I love this anime/manga, for the fact that it’s never ending tsundere-ness keeps me wanting to come back for more.
My favorite part of shoujo is the feeling of first attraction, for the fact that this is the sweetest part of any relationship. You might not many things about the certain person, but you have the feeling that you must get closer to this person and explore what person has offer.
In Sunako Nakahara’s case she is frighten by being around the “smexy” Kyouhei Takano. She is only frighten for the fact that he seems to be perfect in her eyes and she is not.(That’s only what she thinks) As for Kyouhei he only sees her as “unlady-like” and mostly scary. Slowly, the two begin to see that they are not what each other sees them as.
They see each other as a person rather than what everyone else sees them as.
Yes, it is long and you think they would hook up already, the authors ability to keep the two in denial about the whole “love thing” is bittersweet. Some of us fans enjoy the unknowning feeling of what love will bring us next. Others see it is too upfront. I still will find this manga to be one of my favorites
Believe it you not, I truly adore this manga and I am no true shojo fan, I like things like S-CRY-ED, Samurai Champloo, and Trigun…not in the genre of form of romance.
Sometimes parts are over done and the art is not my favorite but there are good aspects to this manga as well. One was already noted, beauty is not looks but presentation. There are more like, Sunako being an equal to the obvious male lead, instead of always depending on him (which does happen) she an defend herself physically and when it comes down to it, verbally as well. It is not some weak girl looking for her man to drop in and rescue her all the time, she can handle herself. Another good point to this manga is the growth in characters, none of the main characters change for the person they have feelings for, but magically enough, they do change because different interaction bring forth new thoughts or another unforeseen standpoint.
Personally, I don’t think this series had dragged on too much. In some parts I agree that it does drag on but in others I feel it was resolved far too quickly! I feel what makes me the most annoyed is how the chapters in a volume are chopped up. It goes through other problems of other characters at the wrong time for my taste. On the other hand, I like that the female lead doesn’t take the spotlight in every chapter as I know can happen in regular shojos.
Now a last defense to the redundancy, I appreciate it. Look back through the chapters, how many times did Sunako nose bleed? Look through the recent chapters, how many? It’s called proof of character growth. I don’t think it is a typical shojo, I’ve tolerated only a few of those with these usual antics with a strong male lead and weak female behind him. This series…are there moments of vulnerability on both sides? YES!! Do both rescue each other?YES!! There are forced shojo antics towards the Sunako and Kyohei but you know what, they handle them in unromantic ways which I appreciate. Sunko is not this delicate flower to cripple at the bottom of a shoe. She is a tornado, willing to tear down the foundation of enemies that block her path. And Kyohei, he is not some extremely rich, powerful, high class, and all knowing man; just a gorgeous guy with a big appetite.
In short, if anyone took the time to read this (to be honest I didn’t even reread because I’m lazy), I like this manga. It shows the growth of humans through interactions, it displays a proud sense of what beauty should be, and it is a shojo, but it is unique compared to the ones I’ve/ seen/read/skimmed. They throw usual shojo antics into the wind and create their own! (Beautiful and ugly weirdos need some love’ns too! ) It doesn’t start off with this girl needing love, she could function as a spinster and be content. It is more about accepting yourself because then you can accept others around you.
Blah, I’ve said quote enough. T_T