Wallflower Vol 15

[meganbmoore]

I think Tomoko Hayakawa was actually trying to work in some serious character development a few times there. Talk about disconcerting. Sunako making friends is actually interesting. Event though the manga doesn’t make a big deal over how much she’s changed since meeting the boys, she definitely has. She actually has normal friend beyond Noi-chan. Fangirls, even. I have to wonder, though, what was up with the end of the first chapter. You have Sunako go through all that growth and decide to cut her hair…and the next chapter it was like nothing….SUNAKO CUT HER HAIR! IT BROKE MY BRAIN IN A WHOLE NEW WAY!!!! I HAVE NOT RECOVERED YET!!! Seriously, she looked awesome, but Sunako and short hair is just a major cognitive dissonance. Also, it made her look like Ranmaru and Takenaga’s love child, and this isn’t the kind of manga where that kind of thing happens. Of course, it went back to normal after.

The last chapter, with Sunako going to a reunion of her Junior High classmates and being shunned by them, and meeting the boy who called her ugly were interesting. On the one hand, it, like the first chapter, showed how far she’d come, but her classmates’ reactions were just odd. Not to mention the boys being so calm when the boy called her ugly again. Usually, that makes you dead to them. Then again, he already was, so I suppose they were just waiting for her reaction. On the other hand, the chapter was also chock full of the entire cast being shippers and talking about how much Kyohei is in love with Sunako and his denying it and/or keeping quiet. And…uhm…even if I dislike a pairing (though if I dislike a pairing-or any important relationship-I usually just can’t be bothered to continue with it…) I tend to love those scenes. Like many things in manga, I blame that on Samurai Deeper Kyo. Then, of course, there’s Kyohei and Noi-chan animosity, which I always love because, in any other shoujo, either they’d be the main pairing, or she’d be the evil popular girl chasing after Kyohei and harassing Sunako, instead of Sunako’s number one fangirl. (And a Kyohei/Sunako shipper…)

The chapter with Yuki’s little brother and sister was…cute? I adore Yuki and think he’s an absolute doll, but he simply isn’t as interesting as the other characters. I did very much like Noi-chan deciding to take Ranmaru’s princess to a host club to “educate” her about what Ranmaru’s really like, only to be trailed by a terrified Takenaga, worried about his Noi-chan in such a place…and then Ranmaru running after them to save Takenaga once Takenaga got stuck working there. Ah, Ranmaru, one day, it shall hit you like a ton of bricks, and everyone else will cackle over your downfall. And then, of course, Takenaga/Noi-chan is always darling. They may not be destined to one day take over the world like Kyohei and Sunako, but they, too, are love. 

 

Comments

[wingstodust.livejournal.com]

lmao the random character development that happens out of nowhere!! I remember when they started to like, giving everyone backstories and etc amidst the crack and plotlessness of it all. It was like, woahhhh, where did that come from?

It's like that for her art too. You get a gazillion pages worth of blank space and blob chibi things and lazy art in general, and BAM ome pagespread of gorgous gothicness that comes out of no where. To be honest, the art thing really bothers me. The fact that she can clearly draw so beautifully but doesn't bother making the effort to draw nicely every time makes me wanna cry. I'd give anything to draw nicely. Anything.

If I didn't love Kyohei/Sunako (both as a couple and as separate ppl) so much, I may possibly have ditched.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah...she just randomly throws in extreme character development...then forgets the next month. I mean...SUNAKO CUT HER HAIR! That's extreme. And then it went away.

The art...I dunno. Somehow, the randomness of it works for me.

But yeah, every once in a while, I get a bit annoyed, and then there will be an avalanche of something Kyohei/Sunako, individually or together.

[wingstodust.livejournal.com]

I KNOW!! I alwaysssss forgive it due to the power Kyohei/Sunako has over me. One minute I'd be like, 'why am I still reading this' then Kyohei and Sunako come along and I'm like squeeeeee and some tiny, left over rational part of my brain goes like 'oh, that's why'

[geckophobe.livejournal.com]

I thought I would completely love that manga/anime, but I barely got started (I think I read a few chapters and watched two episodes) and I was so irritated I quit. I don't know, so much pissed me off, partly the art, but mostly the message you get right off the bat that these fabulous boys (who I thought were too pretty to be attractive) would be her friends and champions IF she completely changed her looks and personality. Ugh. I wasn't willing to give it a chance because the surface of it turned me off, even though I usually like rags-to-riches and damsel rescued by princes kind of drivel. :P

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Ah, but pretty soon, the "changing" her is just lipservice, and they're her friends and champions no matter what and have no real interest in changing her, they just occassionally make halfhearted gestures at it because they're supposed to. In that area, its more about (on both sides) looking past the surface(their prettiness, her weirdness) and accepting someone for who they are.

Also, she has fangirls. Not because she's pretty and perfect, but because she's who she wants to be and doesn't let the expectations of others and what she "should" be shape who she is.

It isn't really "rags-to-riches and damsel rescued by princes" so much as it's the princes figuring out she's fine just the way she is, and they kind of like that (even if it does scare them.)

[may-flyer.livejournal.com]

I wanted to like The Wallflower, but I couldn't really get past the art style. I read the first couple of volumes and had trouble differentiating between the boys in a lot of scenes. Plus the characters often seemed sort of stiff and posed.

Does it get better by volume fifteen?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The art is...different? I don't know. I don't put nearly as much emphasis on the art as others do. Unless the art is beyond amazing or really turns me off at a glance, I'm more about story, character and entertainment before art.

As far as better by vol 15....well, I'm fairly obsessed with it. But then, i liked it from the start.

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

I'd say that if you don't like Wallflower by about Volume 5, you probably won't ever like it, because it tends to be much the same in every volume. (Not to say there isn't character development or backstory, because that does happen at random intervals.) And I'd totally agree that it is not a story about making Sunako over; it's about the pretty boys accepting her - and moreover, liking her - just the way she is. In some respects she's become a more open and confident person, but in others the weirdness just gets... weirder.
About the hair-cutting - I was actually just assuming that it was a wig over her own netted-up long hair. But then, I was reading a different translation to you; was there a comment to the effect that she'd lopped it off?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yup. It's about looking past first impressions and personal biases to see the real person inside. The guys have also changed through knowing Sunako. Before, they were more just people who hung out together. Now they're friends who back each other up.

The US edition actually said nothing about what she did with her hair, but since her long hair has always been a shield to hide her from the world, and the chapter was about her getting past that, it made sense for it to be a haircut.

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

That's it in a nutshell. Normally makeover stories drive me crazy, because they're all about superficial appearances (while trying to say they're about the inner beauty of course). I like Wallflower in the same way that I like 'Nobuta wo produce', because that is not the story they're trying to tell.
Hmmm, she's still got her long hair in Volume 16, which I read the other week. So it can't have been a haircut after all