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Reviewed by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane I've been looking forward to Butterflies, Flowers coming out in English ever since I first started reading about it on Twitter, for the simple reason that it's a new josei title. (It's being released under VIZ's Shojo Beat imprint, but josei--manga for older-than-adolescent female readers--is so underrepresented in North America that there often just isn't an ideal imprint for it, so that's where VIZ generally puts it.) It wasn't until I actually laid hands on a copy of volume 1 that I realized I had essentially no idea what it was about. Butterflies, Flowers, it turns out, is about the unlikely (or unsurprising, depending on your perspective) potential romance between Choko, the daughter of a once-great family that's now fallen on hard times, and Domoto, the director of the company where she finds work. As her boss, Domoto takes an inappropriate (on several levels) and unappreciated interest in Choko, constantly finding fault with her and showing every sign of being willing to cheerfully work her into the ground, but she soon discovers the reason for his interest in her: he was one of her family's servants when she was a little girl and he was a teenager, before her family's fortune crumbled. And though you'd never know it from his initial behavior towards her, it seems he still thinks of her very fondly. With his secret revealed, Choko and Domoto's relationship is transformed--but only when they're not at work. After hours, Domoto sees himself as still being indebted to Choko and gladly waits on her, whether she wants him to or not, but at work he shows her no mercy. While Choko tries to reconcile these two sides of him, she quickly discovers that her childhood adoration of the older boy she once called "Cha-chan" hasn't faded, and is rapidly transforming into love. Much as I adore shoujo manga, it's a nice change of pace to have main characters older than eighteen. Choko is smart and has a good head on her shoulders. She can be intimidated as she learns the ropes at her new job--and tries to deal with Domoto's attention, regardless of which way he's treating her--but she also steps up to the plate when circumstances require it. As for Domoto, he's still a bit of an enigma, but he takes his dual roles as Choko's boss and servant seriously. The supporting cast is fun, too; I think I already have a soft spot for Choko's younger brother, who can't quite let go of their family's now-faded glory days, and I like Domoto's friend Suou's ruthlessly practical streak. There's a lot in this volume that I enjoyed, and I hear rumors that it gets better in volume 2, so I'm already very curious about that. So far, the story covers fairly unsurprising ground, but for the most part it covers it well. The humor is (unsurprisingly) skewed for an older audience than most comedic romance manga I'm familiar with, and not all of it worked for me; overall, I found the book quite funny, but I found that some of the material (including the first scene, which convinced at least one reader I know to put the book right back down) crossed the line between being risqué and offensive, which I thought was a shame. The story and overall humor are engaging enough that those few lines scattered throughout struck me as pointless and jarring. I wouldn't say I'm completely hooked on this one yet, but as I say, I'm really looking forward to seeing where it goes from here, and I'm delighted to see a new series targeting an older demographic. Volume 1 of Butterflies, Flowers is sold shrink-wrapped and includes one page of translator's notes. Review copy provided by VIZ Media. Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
1 September 2010
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