Perfect Girl Evolution, vol. 1 (2024)

Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies

831 reviews41.4k followers

April 26, 2014

When the going gets rough, it's time to turn to manga! Allow me to pimp out one of my favorites series of all time.

The Wallflower has long been a favorite manga series of mine, it's got beautiful artwork, absolutely gorgeous men (HELLO REVERSE HAREM), a grumpy, evil, and seriously dark heroine (you can probably tell I like her), and surprisingly enough for a reverse harem...just the right amount of romance. It's fucking adorable. There is no love triangle, despite the reverse-harem premise.

**note: Manga is read right to left :)

The Summary: Four absolutely gorgeous young men have got the opportunity of a lifetime. They're going to get to live in a gorgeous mansion free, for three years...there's just one caveat: they have to turn the mansion owner's niece into a charming, lovely young woman. It sounds pretty easy, after all, these guys are some seriously skilled guys. They're handsome, they're popular, they've got young women swooning at their feet. What could be easier?

Well, as they say...famous last words, because this is what they've got to work with.

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Meet Sunako. Acne-scarred face. Greasy, unkempt hair. No sense of fashion. A love for the dark and supernatural (there's a skeleton in her room).

Needless to say, the guys are absolutely fucking horrified at their challenge.

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Sunako's not exactly happy about sharing her home with these...creatures. THEY'RE SO FUCKING BRIGHT. THEY'RE SO HANDSOME. SHE DOESN'T WANT THIS. Sunako just wants to be left alone in her darkness with her skeletons. Handsome men? So what? Go away. Great. She can't even eat outside of her room now.

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The guys are nice, well, most of them. There's Kyohei, Takenaga, Yuki, and Ranmaru. They're bent on charming Sunako...well, most of them. Some are more..blunt...than others.

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Sunako's not happy about this, she doesn't want to be transformed, she even tries to run away...but the guys are unexpectedly kind, and she's neither as...murderous...

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...nor completely talentless, as she seems. SHE CAN COOK. And, the apparently heartless Sunako is capable of an apology.

Sunako isn't ugly...she just needs some work. Actually, a lot of work and polishing. Underneath all the grime, she's fairly presentable. At times.

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But does Sunako want to change? Why is she so resistant? It's an impossible task, but if anyone's up to it, it's these four.

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And man, this book is worth reading to look at them alone ^_^

Sunako: Quite the opposite of the beautiful, charming, adorkable manga/anime heroine.

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Sunako is dark. She is obsessed with death and murder. She loves horror movies like Friday the 13th, and spends her entire day watching them. She keeps anatomical figures in her room (and even has a coffin). She is anti-social, she is resistant to change, she just wants to be left the fuck alone.

Sunako wasn't always like this, she was once a normal person, wanting to be beautiful, wanting to be loved. Something happened in her past to make her change into this creature...and it's up to these four guys to bring her out of it. Sunako isn't purely apathetic, she is quite capable of defending herself when she needs to. She's skilled in martial arts, and she's not afraid to kick some ass to defend her friends.

Kyohei: The tough guy, the bluntest of them all. The rest of the guys are there to comfort and pamper Sunako to get her to snap out of it. Kyohei takes a different approach. He's not afraid to give it to her straight. He's not afraid to hurt her feelings, he tells Sunako she's being stupid when he sees it.

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He understands her most, and he defends her most. Their relationship is a complex one. If anyone can bring Sunako out of her shell, Kyohei and his take-no-prisoners approach proves to be the most effective.

Takenaga: The sensitive ringleader, Takenaga Oda.

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He is handsome, gentle, and kind. He is the most considerate of Sunako's feelings, and always seeks to be the peacemaker among them all. He especially tries to coordinate the peace within the household (as well as try to prevent Sunako and Kyohei from killing each other). He's the faithful counterpart to playboy Ranmaru, Oda is dating a beautiful girl (Naie/Noi depending on translation) who is as beautiful as she is kind. Oda is also there to comfort the childlike/overly sensitive Yuki when Sunako scares him so much that he starts crying.

Ranmaru: The playboy, the trickster, one who is willing to go to dirty lengths to get Sunako to listen to him ^_^

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Yuki: The most androgynous of the four. He's the shortest, most child-like, and most prone to bursting into tears.

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Overall: A beautifully-drawn, very well-written manga with interesting characters and an unusual heroine. A highly enjoyable play on the My Fair Lady trope.

And in case you guys needed any more enticement to read this:

Perfect Girl Evolution, vol. 1 (14)

Note: I do own the translated volumes of the manga. The scans from this review are taken from an online scanlation site.

    all-time-favorites manga

Mir

4,921 reviews5,251 followers

May 5, 2018

Well-executed but incredibly shallow comedy about four cool and attractive teen boys who can score free rent if they transform the socialite landlady's grubby, horror-loving niece into a "lady". I was really hoping for some reciprocity, like she decides it's okay to have friends and comb your hair, but the guys realize that looks aren't everything. Sadly, it so far seems to purely reinforce the all too prevalent social pressures on girls to obsess about their looks. You are happy watching horror movies alone? No! That's wrong! You must want to have dates and popularity or you are abnormal! It's not enough to look okay (despite everyone calling her ugly, the main character seems normal and just isn't trying at all) you have to work to be prettier. Diet! Wear make-up! Tweeze! Spend too much on clothes! To be fair, it isn't much more liberating for boys: being cool and attractive the main thing, personality doesn't count for much, and you can treat girls like crap as long as you're cute, they will want you anyway.

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But as I said, it is well-executed. The art is decent and the writing is fun and funny. I liked the main character's conversations with her anatomical models and horror characters, and her outbursts of angry ass-kicking of people who push her too far. I only wish she would beat up the people who man-handle her and try to forcibly cut her hair etc.

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Kids, you look fine. Believe me.

    graphic ya

Rayne ♥

197 reviews45 followers

April 18, 2021

I watched the anime and I found it very enjoyable, the art style in the anime is really bad but in the manga it's beautiful. I found some faults though, like some of the characters in the manga look much too alike, in the anime it was much easy to decipher who's who, but in the manga tanako and the other guy (I forget his name) looked identical and it was difficult to tell who's who. I still enjoyed it though and will be reading on.

instagram | goodreads

    i-watched-the-anime manga

Kay

197 reviews417 followers

August 21, 2014

One of my favorite manga series ever! The best way to describe The Wallflower is bizzaro and effing hilarious.

It's the story of a gothic, agoraphobic, slasher movie fanatic named Sunako who busts into nosebleeds whenever she sees beautiful men (i.e. Creatures of Light). Her social circle is limited to her beloved "dolls" (a skeleton named Josephine, and two anatomical figures named Hiroshi and Akira. One day, her dark and horror film filled life is turned upside down when her aunt recruits four beautiful boys (i.e. Creatures of Light) as tenants in her mansion. Unbeknownst to Sunako, the aunt secretly offers free rent to the boys if they are willing and ready to make over Sunako into the beautiful, glamorous lady that she could be. And boy, do they really need the free rent! Too bad Sunako is determined to fight to remain in her dark, twisted shell, which is pretty scary when the girl exudes negative energy like The Grudge and can roundhouse kick you into tomorrow like nobody's business.

Tomoko Hayakawa has a whacked out, belly achingly funny sense of humor--and the result is this clever series that twists common horror tropes into comedic plots. Definitely recommended for anyone who likes manga or funny reads.

    a-little-noir comix-and-mangaz japan

Coco

1,096 reviews548 followers

April 20, 2017

Tiene los toques cómicos que me encantan ^.^

    2017 mangas

bipasha

288 reviews186 followers

April 29, 2014

Deficits All Expectations. Sigh. 2.5 wasted stars:(

Perfect Girl Evolution/ The Wallflower is about an “ugly” (read: perfectly beautiful but unpolished, the boys have partial blindness perhaphs) girl who happens to live in an awesome house. Enter four spectacularly gorgeous(um, no, not really) boys who wish to live in that house, and chance on a lucky opportunity by the landlady to live rent-free in the palacial mansion, but on one condition: to turn the wallfower, who is also the niece of the perky landlady, into a proper lady, befitting of the spacial residence. In three years. Easy? Not really. Especially when our girl, Sunako, is a agoraphobic, horror flick fanatic, and introverted recluse, whose face hasn't seen the light of day since years. Literally.

Enter four angelic boys(Radiant Creatures Of Light) giving rise to explosive nose bleeds and fainting fits, in our Sunako. How hard can it be with four(opinionated, pretentious, and vain) fashionistas working on specimen001? Well, hard. They need something more. Like a miracle. Well, miracles.

Start, Makeover of the Century.

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Well, its not, for most of the 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 manga tries to cram in too many fan-conscious clichés and hooks and then somehow justify that with unique flourishes of its own, but they turn out to be awkward or really steange at best. The Wallflower feels like the result of some halfway decent artist reading far too much shojo(that's the term, i think) far too quickly. There’s also an anime for this show-Perfect Girl Evolution. I’ve never seen it, but the character designs–already pretty sub-standard and fake 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.

The girl is not unreasonable though, hiding herself in her room, with only slasher gores for company, she has a past, with her own assortment of skeletons in the closet.(Again, literally.) But that reason is vapid, she's just a girl living in her past, unable to move on or leave her pity-party because of what one guy said two freaking yeats ago. Yeah, she's dumb. (But she can kick ass{lots of them} and does know how to murder her fish, so...not bad, S)

The boys, our airbrushed 15-year olds(yeah, right) are the most haughty, noses-in-the-air and fake personalities I've ever come across. They're self righteous, unrealistic, asinine, elite club members, who I don't give a rat's ass about.(cough, excuse me)

And of course, then there are the caricatured "teen mean girls". Tell me, if a girl is conscious about her looks, is that really so bad? And if a guy calls a girl ugly, scary, horrific and creepy, often to her face, shamelessly, is it justified? I am new to this entire genre so maybe I'm wrong and I don't know jack, but this is just wrong and redundant and denigrating.

In ways, maybe it was funny, with intersperses of belly aching laughs, but I'm not touching the next book, so you can go figure.
Its not awful, but verily, it could be loads better.
And definitely not so tacky, for sure. I was hoping to love this, but what the hey. Maybe reading this after Death Note, did vitiate it.

Sorry, K, I really tried. :"(

    coverfuckd

Diane ϟ [ Lestrange ]

254 reviews

May 6, 2010

This manga is CUTE.. haha

Wallflower manga Review

"Story & Playability"
Wallflower also known as Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge has a story line that is not something too extrodinaire but something that assumes and an everyday life but with a twist to it. At first when Kyohei and Sunako meets each other (along with Takenaga, Yukinojo and Ranmaru) for the very first time they seem totally incompatable but gradually as episodes come and go they seem closer to each other than any other pairings in the manga. When the two first meet, they are incontrolable and ungiving but bit by bit, Sunako softens up to Kyohei at lets him enter her space as they have similar likings such as horror movies anc ecetera but both are unknown to their similarities.
Occasionally, Takenaga and Noi (A girl who likes Takenaga) get into a few scraps themselves when Noi finds trouble confessing her feelings to Takenaga. Likewise for Takenaga, he too finds it hard to confess and sometimes Kyohei likes to get in the way to annoy Noi.
Yukinojo being a scaredy-cat is quite fearfull of Sunako but steps up when a friend is in need.
Ranmaru, the play boy enjoys dating married women and has a moral not many like. But when his eyes are set on a girl, his love for her is complicated and he himself does not know but it never falters.
The main storyline is full of suspense and emotion espically the antics of Kyohei and Sunako. Hilarious beyond words.
Overall, I think the storyline and the characters are fantastic. It keeps you stuck to reading the same page over and over again. Not too magicial but a manga with loads of fun, laughter, peace and joy.

GRAPHICS
The art is one thing i love. The hairstyles have been modelled for which makes the hairstyle really amazing.
The drawing is quite realistic espically the eyes, hairstyles and poses. The chibi parts are rather cute, not too much details but really cute and original. I like the realistic touch of the drawing finding easier to daydream about how the characters would look like in real life. Since there are loads of Chibi Sunakos, i look forward to the parts when Sunako is drawn in human like form. Most of the times protecting someone or with Kyohei. The hairstyles are similar yet different but i find it rather easier to differ character from character as each has their own individual styles which is what i like about the manga other than the storyline and the character design. The life-likeness of the characters make the story really enjoyable to read. The parts where the characters are supposed to animate seems as if the pictures are really moving the way that Tomoko has drawn them. The art quality has stunned me speechless.

SOUND

Gomen! There is no sound in manga only dialogues ^^

The dialogue between the characters are very natural as if a human were speaking except its on paper. Each has their own unique style in their speech. You can differ them easily by their speech as each has their own unique individual dialogue. The genre of the manga matches the dialogue really well. Its not in poetry but in simple yet suspense dialogue which makes the manga even more intresting to read.

FUN
There are loads of humour in Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (Wallflower) as they get into quite alot of scraps and terribly humourous situations. The concept of it being an everyday life manga is very good as it does not exaggerate but has a very adventours touch to it. The main storyline is full of suspense and emotion. I find it a very enjoyable manga and will never regret reading it. The presentation all in all is very good and worth reading. The storyline, art and the dialogue is very good and very like-like.

    2010-reads manga-graphic-novel☺ reviews

Kayla Brunson

1,552 reviews268 followers

January 4, 2024

This was all over the place! Maybe if I read it back when it was released, I would have liked it better. Probably not, but at least I finished it. I'm not a fan of the art and don't really feel the need to continue reading more volumes.

    disappointment manga read-in-2024

Jessica-Robyn

581 reviews45 followers

July 11, 2014

Life lesson from The Wallflower #1:
When reading about ridiculousness and prettiness one should always be humming this: http://youtu.be/Ye7PIyIcCro
Your Welcome. XD

First exposed to The Wallflower through seeing the first couple episodes of the anime I found the story and art style to be interesting but most importantly it was funny, over the top, and seemed to be coming from completely out of nowhere. I'm glad to see that this correlate even more so in the manga.

It took me a bit longer then I expected to get into the story which I contribute to the abruptness of the first few pages introducing you to the characters and the story by literally dropping you in mid-conversation. Since these pages don't really give you much context it took me a bit to adjust to what was going on and who each character was even though I had some previous knowledge of what I was supposed to be seeing. But getting past this, by the time I was done the first chapter the story was in full swing and everything started to come together in a funny and bizarre story of Sunako and her strange, forced interactions with four "creatures of brightness" who are now living with her after years of hiding from the world with her plummeting self-esteem and increasingly psychotic personality.

Things get mapped out for you pretty quickly and the back and forth of,
People: "You just have to try harder to be pretty or else you'll be ugly forever!" Sunako: "adhfjkadhfjlahd! NOOOOOOOOO! Die! *nose bleed*"
occurs throughout each chapter giving you short moments to show that on top of her damaged interior she really is quite pretty.

A brief final moment to talk about the guys in the story, you're first given there names through their conversation (which is very confusing) and a small glimpse of their shallow outlook and personalities but nothing really beyond that. If one wasn't the main possible love interest for Sunako and another didn't have black hair they would all just start to blend together. I'm thinking that this will improve as the manga progresses, once the story is fully established they will hopefully start to take on some distinguishing factors and given back-stories that might make me actually care about them as characters.

Overall this was a laugh out loud read that isn't to be taken to seriously. :) I'm eagerly looking forward to reading through the series and seeing where this goes and how the characters come to develop beyond being "oh so pretty" :D

*starts humming*

    manga

Dana

108 reviews13 followers

October 24, 2008

I loved it!! So bizarre...cross-dressing teenage boys...agoraphobic, slasher film-obsessed girls... sex-for-hire auction posing as posh host club...I mean, when will the madness end?!? I can't wait to read volume 2!

#ReadAllTheBooks

1,219 reviews88 followers

March 11, 2013

This review is kind of representative for my feelings of the series as a whole. I'd stopped reading around volume 16 because I got tired of waiting for something to happen. I'm somewhat OK with series that are supposed to be zany Ranma 1/2 type series where it's supposed to be a zero hour setting where it's more about getting in repeated madcap adventures than telling a plot line. I just got a little bugged because at times this series would progress in the plot, then have Sunako regress almost to her original state because they wanted to keep the series going. It just got too repetitive and after a while, stale. The general feel of the chapters grew to feel more like they're trying to drag it out as a cash cow ala DragonBall than any actual need for volumes. This was one of the issues of Ranma 1/2 at times, come to think about it.

This isn't an awful series and I'm up to volume 8 as of this review and I can see why I originally liked it and why others liked it. I'm also starting to realize why I stopped buying it. This is a decent enough series, but get the volumes from the library first and read up to volume 10-12 before really investing in buying the volumes. It's good, but I don't know that I'll read beyond what my friends and I have of the series.

Mizuki

3,188 reviews1,339 followers

April 25, 2014

Me and my manga-reading aunt both love this series.XD

Crazy plot, crazy setting and equally crazy sense of humor are at work here. And the four pretty boys are much more than just eye-candies, though the mention of their huge army of fangirls and those fangirls' extreme behaviors are always oh-so over the top.

Outside of the manga itself, the author Tomoko Hayakawa's undying love for the Japanese Visual Kei male rock star Kiyoharu is just equally hilarious! She loves him so much that she basically based her male lead on him, and Kiyoharu also ended up singing the Opening and the Ending songs for the Wallflower anime series.XD

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I love Sunako's character because she is so...ME. *LOL* I mean I basically share the same hobbies with her. Even though I have no fantasy about four hot boys hanging out with me at once.

I also like that the four boys eventually (partly) accepted Sunako for being herself instead of pushing her to be the perfect lady like her aunt would have desired.

    manga

Degeorgetown

37 reviews1 follower

February 17, 2011

I tried to read this because I'd heard such great things about it, but I hated it. The art was ugly, I couldn't tell one boy from another. The main character is extremely unlikeable. She tries to murder one of the guys with scissors and everyone is cool with it, no one thinks she needs psychiatric help. I quit reading in disgust after she befriended a serial rapist because they were both "misunderstood". Waltz Tango Foxtrot doesn't come close to describing my reaction.

Isabella - SnooRegrets

518 reviews110 followers

August 15, 2023

Currently re-reading an old favorite of mine, ah the nostalgia. Some parts did NOT age well

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Lauren

294 reviews33 followers

June 14, 2015

This manga first drew my attention simply because I fell in love with the character designs. Save for a few problems (two of the main guys look a little too much like each other for me to have an easy time telling them apart) that is the strongest thing the manga has going for it. The story's relatively straightforward. It's the Beautiful After All type of story. I don't get morally offended by that type of story the way some other people do, and I'm willing to have fun with it. However, the writing needs to be up to par. This series doesn't have Ouran's (the manga I see it compared to the most) zaniness, nor does it have Clueless's wit. It is overly reliant on a few running gags that frankly weren't terribly amusing the first time. I'm not sure if this is just a case of first-issue weakness and it'll get funnier if I give it some time or not, but unless someone strongly recommends I give it another chance, I think I'm going to leave the rest of the series be. There are a lot of manga and books out there, and I only have a limited amount of money to spend. I'm not really sure that continuing to read this series is a worthy investment.

    fiction graphic-novel humor

Angela (Angel's Book Nook)

1,639 reviews930 followers

September 26, 2020

I really like this series. It’s entertaining!

    4-stars books-i-own

Jen13

152 reviews6 followers

April 8, 2022

Pygmalion vibes. I think Sunako is very cool just the way she is. Hopefully this is the understanding all the guys come to, but I really doubt it.

    manga

Verónica

321 reviews12 followers

October 10, 2020

Entretenida y divertida, para pasar el rato. Por ahora seguiré con ella.

Kaitlin

73 reviews16 followers

August 20, 2013

This is one of those mangas that makes you think that Japan must be a pretty messed up country.

I tried to get through this manga about 3 times before I actually finished it. It was recommended by someone because I love Ouran HSHC and Fruits Basket. I was really excited to read it too when I first picked it up. I assumed by the description that it was some teenage variant of My Fair Lady. I was wrong! I'm really not a fan of the art at all, I'm more used to art by Bisco hatori and Natsuki Takaya. I think the author was going for a "realism" look or something. Though, the one thing I did like was they way she drew eyes. Very pretty. The only reason I picked up the book for a 4th times was because I started watching the anime show based on the series. To my surprise I kind of got into it and started liking the characters. So here we are...I actually finished it this time.

This book was...how should I word this?..."quirky". There were a lot of weird elements.

1) Sunako was an interesting heroine. Sunako has an obsession with anything dark, creepy, and gory. Her skeleton named Josephine weirded me out too. I hate anything occult, especially skeletons (they freaking creep me out. Seriously. If a horror movie has skeletons I lose my shit! haha). So you can see why I might be turned off by this book.

2) Sunako squirting blood from her nose when she gets overwhelmed by looking at all the "creatures of light"...aka: her four beautiful housemates and Noi, a female character.

3) Sunako's obsession with killing her housemate Kyohei. At one point she is standing over his bed with a knife, and in another scene she creeps into his room with rope with the intention of strangling him. What?

4) The boys' sex appeal. The 4 main boys in the story are all 15 but somehow are super sexualized by the other characters. Ranmaro seems to have many "mistresses" and when I was watching the anime, he even was hooking up with an older married chick. Ick! Kyohei was even kidnapped by a Host Club (I honestly thought Host Clubs were a made up phenomenon by Bisco Hatori and her "Ouran High School Host Club" Series...after some research I found out I was wrong!). No 15 year olds should be considered sex objects. I may be somewhat biased towards this because I'm 23 and thinking of 15 y.o. as "Sexy" just seems creepy.

Despite all its flaws, the story had enough good points to warrant my continuation of it. It was pretty funny and had it's sweet moments. Hopefully the story continues on a pleasing path.

    comedies dafuq-did-i-just-read manga

P.P. Rahayu

Author1 book36 followers

April 15, 2024

Perfect Girl Evolution Vol. 1
by Tomoko Hayakawa

5 out of 5 stars

Baca ulang di tahun 2020

To be honest, I still really like to reread this manga. I love how Sunako-Kyohei's development. At the end of the day, they are just cute together.

Actually, the main message that delivered by Hayakawa is really good. No matter what other people said to us, especially the negative one, we shouldn't be that much affected. If we aren't wrong, why bother, then?

================================

Aku lagi kangen banget baca komik ini. Akhirnya, aku baca komik ini lagi. Ini udah ketiga kalinya kayaknya. Meskipun begitu, aku tetep ngakak waktu baca komik ini. Iya lah. Kelakuan kelima orang itu kocak banget. Nggak bisa nahan ketawa deh.

Pertama, aku mau bahas covernya. Sebenernya keren sih. Iya lah, yang jadi cover kan Kyouhei. Tapi kenapa juga bajunya kayak gitu? Kurang garang menurutku. Huhu. Ahh, tapi Kyouhei tetep cakep kali.
Kedua, penampilan Sunako di awal kemunculannya bener-bener istimewa. Iya lah. Sebenernya kan Sunako cantik, Cuma nggak mau perawatan.

Ketiga, Penggambaran Sunako kalau jadi mini, itu lucu bnaget dan ngegemesin. Apalagi, biasanya ekspresinya itu bikin pengen nimpuk. Aduuuh. Lucu banget.

Keempat, kalau keempat cowok cantik itu pakai baju yang normal, mereka kelihatan kece banget. Emagod, ini ceritanya masih lima belas tahun tapi penggambarannya udah kayak delapan belas tahun.

Kelima, Di sini ada adegan yang waktu Kyouhei sakit dan akhirnya dirawat sama Sunako—terpaksa sih emang. Tapi mereka sweet banget kalau jadi pasangan. Ahh, so sweet.

Intinya, komik ini lucu, bikin ngakak, so sweet dan bisa menyebabkan oembaca ketawa sendiri malam-malam. Haha.

Lex Mori

70 reviews15 followers

February 19, 2013

I don't have too much to say about this book. I found it brand new for $1 at Barnes and Noble, so there was no way I could pass it up. Especially with a storyline as interesting as it seemed on the back.
The truth is that this book didn't leave me with much to say. For something that was so fast-paced, it didn't really go anywhere. Just when I thought there'd be some sort of self-realization or progress with Sunako, the story would start over at square one. In this sense, it really went way too back and forth for my taste and with minimal settings - the boarding house and the school - I literally felt like it took me nowhere, making me feel almost trapped.
I was hoping to see more improvement in the relationship between Sunako and Kyohei, though maybe that's the shojo enthusiast in me. I also wanted to see more of Yukinojo, Takenaga, and Ranmaru's individualities shine through more, because, for the most part, at some points, they'd literally all blend together and there was no real reason to even give thought to their characteristics. My last issue was that I expected more details when characters' faces were supposed to look different, case and point, when we can see Sunako's face, she's supposed to look a bit ghastly without makeup on, but at most points, there's barely even a face drawn on her person or she doesn't look much worse than when she is wearing makeup.
Overall, while the concept is unique, the execution fell flat for me. There wasn't much to look at, the story went nowhere, and, as usual, while I will continue onto the next volume to see if it redeems itself, it didn't leave me craving more. 3/5 stars.

    books-i-had decent-not-great

Luna's Little Library

1,420 reviews211 followers

December 4, 2016

Overall series review (mostly) 4 Stars - so far, I’ve still got a few to go…
Additional: Like most long running series there are some duff chapters/volumes

Sunako is my spirit animal. Only she’s not an animal of course… we’d be ideal friends if both of us came out of our caves long enough to interact.

I re-started The Wallflower series this year and it while I do think it’s too long (36 book total) and doesn’t actually develop much past its initial plot. I also like it for this reason. In a way The Wallflower is comfy for being familiar.

Sunako adores horror, hates the light and struggles with people (especially the ‘beautiful creatures’) and has a chocolate addiction. Society rejected her and she decided life was better in the darkness. Only her aunt wants her to re-join so the tenants (the most popular boys in school) are tasked to give her makeover.

The things that I love about The Wallflower are that Sunako is just as much a hypocrite as the so-called society that rejected her. She constantly judges people by appearance. The boys, while playing to their looks, love Sunako for who she is and defend her. I feel like I should have more issues with the ‘transformation’ part of the story but every time Sunako gets “made up”, she returns to her original self by the next chapter. So much of this story is about being ok with who you are.

Yes a lot about this series seems to fall in predictable tropes and it is repetitive but somehow it still works. And just FYI, the art is stunning.

    manga

Nick

259 reviews21 followers

September 11, 2008

Overall Rating: B
Synopsis: A Shōjo comedy/romance manga created by Tomoko Hayakawa. At the beginning of the manga, Sunako Nakahara confesses her love to a boy, who utterly rejects her and tells her she's ugly. As any reasonably young person would do, Sunako then discards all traces of her femininity, and retreats into odd and morbid hobbies, such as collecting skulls.

Fortunately, Sunako's aunt owns a mansion that four gorgeous boys live in (huh?). Apparently, the boys pay rent to live in the mansion, and the aunt offers them free rent if they give Sunako a Pygmalian-esque makeover, and she becomes a "perfect lady". The boys set to work, and hilarity ensues.

Often, Sunako is shown as an exaggerated version of her true self that looks like a female version Cartman from Southpark. Will these gorgeous boys succeed? Will Sunako's inner beauty shine through?

I passed over The Wallflower several times before checking it out. I'm not a huge fan of the art, but I love the ridiculous plot so far. This works pretty well as a comedy/romance Shōjo, and I'm interested in the characters. The series is ongoing, so I'm not sure how long they can keep the plot interesting, but I'll definitely be reading it for awhile. It has a lot of potential.

For more manga and anime reviews, please check out Hobotaku.

    manga

Tracy

584 reviews12 followers

October 6, 2008

Yesterday, I broke down and bought Volume One, since B&N was out of Charlaine Harris's vampire series' books I was looking for. Anyway, it was worth the wait (and the cash). (Except now I have to buy volumes 2-17). I love the drawing/ art style and the story is amazing. The series is about a girl named Sunako who has shunned all things beautiful (including caring about herself) ever since the first boy she told she loved called her ugly. Two years pass, and Sunako's aunt decides she needs help making her niece into a respectable young lady. She finds four extremely attractive 15 year old guys to live in her boarding house and says they can stay rent-free for 3 years ... if they succeed in transforming Sunako. Sunako doesn't want to change and would much rather hide behind her bangs and never see her own face again. She prefers anatomical models and graphic horror slasher movies to real people, and has a nose bleed everytime she sees an pretty "creature of the light" person. It's a really cool series about self-esteem told in a realistic and also a magical way. I enjoyed the first book and can't wait for the rest and the anime DVDs (okay, I'll probably have to wait along time).

    books-i-own boy-man-masculine-tales friendship

Tani

1,153 reviews22 followers

April 22, 2017

I recently bought all 36 volumes of this manga at Boston Anime, so I'll be working my way through this series! I've been watching the anime and am almost finished with that, but I'm sure the manga goes way past that, so I'm really excited. This first volume introduces Sunako and the other main characters. If you've seen the anime, it's pretty close to that, but more serious. The anime is seriously crazy at times, so I kind of appreciated the more serious feel to this. (Don't get me wrong, things are still pretty crazy. It just feels a bit less so.) I will say, the adjustment to the art style is pretty rough, but it's growing on me. I feel like the manga also has a bit more of a romance feel than the anime, even so early on, which is nice. I actually ship Kyohei and Sunako pretty hard. I'm really excited to make some progress on this!

    2017-comics female-author manga

Rakisha

481 reviews23 followers

May 28, 2008

Blood. Ghosts. Creatures of light! No, this isn’t a vampire-horror graphic novel. This is a wacky story about 4 hot guys with a mission to turn their landlady’s homely neice into a stunner, so they can get free rent. But when the poor thing looks like the girl from the movie The Ring, do the boys even have a chance? You’ll have to read the rest to find out. You’ll be laughing and cheering through out the whole series.

Brooklyn Teen-central

97 reviews4 followers

March 8, 2010

Reviewed by delil1 (TCRC)

Bishonens (super hot, teenage guys) Kyouhei Takano, Takenaga Oda, Yukinojo "Yuki" Toyama, and Ranmaru Morii all live together in the mansion of miss Nakahara. when her niece moves in she gives the boys a choice they could start paying full rent or they can turn her niece the gothic loner Sunako Nakahara into a lady. witch leads them into all sorts of wacky situations and accward positions in there atemp to make her into whay her aunt wants her to be.

    boys delil1 drama

Mark Corpuz

1 review4 followers

Read

September 8, 2012

I'm waiting for this. I don't like only in manga. I watched yamato nadeshiko when I was grade 6 student and that was years ago. And it happened that I watch it again today and OH I FELL IN LOVE.. what now? it's 2012 and yet there's still no new season. Yes, Yamato Nadeshiko is still on going and we can read manga online but what the hell!! What can i do with a book?? IT'S NOT EVEN MOVING! THE CHARACTERS ARE NOT MOVING. in short, THERE IS NO EMOTION!! I miss the voice of Kyohei Takano >_<

Cara Loughlin

13 reviews1 follower

March 21, 2008

I wasn't too sure about this manga at first because the art style is different from what I usually like (the main character usually appears in her little chibi form). But the story is hilarious! Goth girl vs the pretty boys.

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Leah

1,153 reviews56 followers

July 23, 2008

I am not a shoujo fan in the slightest. I haven't a clue what made me read this series, but I couldn't be happier I did. YNSH is absolutely hysterical (although chibi!Sunako appears a bit too often for my liking).

    genre-humor manga-manhwa
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