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Reviewed by Dan Polley Sunako Nakahara leads a fairly difficult life in Tomoko Hayakawa’s “The Wallflower.” She’s a high-school aged loner girl who lives alone with four guys in a house her aunt owns. This 12th volume follows Sunako through a series of shorter stories during which she finds herself in socially awkward positions that help to showcase her loner attitude. The best of the bunch seem to be the last two. In the third story, Sunako finds herself at high school getting prepared for the next school festival, a cosplay event. To ensure that she won’t wait tables, Sunako follows around town with a group of three girls from her school. It’s clear that Sunako isn’t a social butterfly as the group stops by a karaoke lounge and Sunako thinks that the trio has their own super-secret-private recording studio. But the interplay among those three and Sunako provides for a delightful read. The last story is also top-notch, as Sunako and one of her male housemates find that they are in desperate need of a job and continually screw up once they find one. The set-up to the storyline is quite enjoyable and something that does provide for a smorgasbord of hilarity. However, Sunako at times seems more dim-witted than loner, a fact that doesn’t do well to add life to the characters. Aside from that, however, the plot is enjoyable as Sunako is fun to follow and watch her mess up, even if it seems frustrating at times to watch her do so. The art is a bit simplistic at times, as Hayakawa portrays Sunako as a smaller, quicker-to-draw dollish creature that often looks out of place when drawn right next to other characters who portray more lifelike looks. But overall it’s well done and the differences in art can help exacerbate the differences in character’s personalities. “The Wallflower” is at times a bit bland, not seasoned enough, especially in the first half of this volume. But the second half more than makes up for the first’s shortcomings with better stories and characters who help them along by playing off each other. Comment on this review of The Wallflower v12 on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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