Customer Reviews

Walkin' Butterfly Volume 1

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

During Anime Expo 07' I saw the cover art for Walkin Butterfly on a poster and T-Shirt from far away and zoomed right to the Aurora Publishing booth to get it. I love the cover design with its pink color tone and sketchy illustration. To tell the truth, at first I just really wanted the T-shirt that had the cover illustration printed on it, and bought the manga "Walkin Butterfly" and "Hate to Love You" in order to get it, but I'm glad that the story turned out not to be disappointing in the least.

The story of "Walkin Butterfly" centers on the grittiness of the modeling industry. Unlike typical shoujo manga, not everything magically goes right and the heroine is not there only to meet a super-handsome prince and start an emotional romantic relationship etc...

This story is more of a growing-up story of sorts. The heroine starts out insecure of herself and her place in the world and gradually learns to be more comfrotable with herself as she is.

The modeling world is also not all glamour and sparkles. We see the hard work models have to put in, in order to succeed. Like any other occupation, one must fight their way through to success.

For those women who are really tall and feel insecure with themselves as women etc. I'm sure they can identify with the heroine as she is battling with her inner insecurities in deviating from the "norm" of what a woman should be. Though I am rather short in height, I also found myself identifying with the main character as nowadays, the idea is to be tall and thin.

In the end, I just find it very refreshing to find a shoujo story that has some roots in social reality today. Not everything needs to be sugar coated and sweet. Teh art is also very attracting with its sharp sketchy style.

This is my first foray into Josei manga and i think overall it was a good impression. I like the artwork and the character was compelling. But it brings to mind so many other mangas that i'm readin right now,as far as plot goes. Like Skip Beat, Swan I.N.V.U. She's trying to make it in the modeling world and aspire to greatness, but she doesn't get it right away and struggles and there's a mysterious jerk who inspires her to do better. Infact, it's basically the exact same as all of those. I think the major difference here is that the Author doesn't try to make the main character apologize for her strong, agressive personality. Like In Skip beat Koyoko is very tenacious and kind of scary violent but the she gets enrolled in this program to make her more loving and to squash her fighting spirit. This is not the same for our Heroine in Walkin' Butterfly and i can't wait to get more of it. The extras are very good, with an interesting like 4 page interview with the author.

My complaint has nothing to do with the content of the story as much as the production of the book it's self. they need to improve the binding it's hard to keep open and it doesn't bend easily. hopefully if the become more successful they will fix this problem the CMX also had and fixed.

I first liked the artwork on the cover and decided to take it. But while reading it, I grew more and more into the story of this young girl struggling to be someone. I can't wait to see what's awaiting her in the next volume!

I discovered this series when i went to the aurora publishing debut at Anime Expo '07the art and the plot are very refreshing while keeping true to shojo basics. i really enjoyed this first book, and i hope they keep it up :)

Lately, I've been nauseated by the overrated hype and juvenile bearings of shoujo. I find myself yearning for a good book I can become captivated by, without regretting my purchase. This is one such book. It is raw, without feigned or exaggerated emotion (ahem, shoujo...), leaving one with hope and a refreshing attitude towards life and themselves. Walkin' Butterfly is relative to all girls and young woman, revealing our frailty when it comes to our bodies and truly loving ourselves. I frequently feel ugly and awkward, and yet desire to accept myself. So it's like gazing into a slightly altered mirror, when reading this... my sole disapproval was the book's brevity; I wanted more at the end!

I picked this volume up on a whim. The plotline appeared interesting & I was intrigued by the way the manga was packaged. The company didn't go with the typical size & appearance that many of the companies use as a standard nowadays in manga. Within minutes of opening the book, I found myself engrossed with the storyline & characters.

The story follows a young woman (Michiko) as she struggles to discover herself amid her own insecurities with her height, appearance, & life. It's not until she accidentally stumbles across a young designer's (Mihara) runway show that she decides to enter into the world of modeling. While the premise of this has been done before (and done to death) in various guises, this is the first series that takes such a gritty & unapologetic spin on it. There's no "magic move", no "hidden talent that appears to save the girl at the last moment", no "love & friendship conquers all", & no cutesy-cutesy character development that abounds with so many series put out. (Not that any of these are a bad thing, it's just that they are so common & tend to be overused.) In fact, Michiko is downright terrible when she first takes on the modeling world & is frequently turned down for jobs. She trains, yet doesn't immediately become a whiz immediately. It's refreshing to see a series that makes the character actually work for what they want & it's even more refreshing that they actually make it a real possibility that the main character could fail.

Another refreshing point to this series is that the characters are b*tchy, somewhat unlikeable, but completely compelling. All of the characters have some sort of flaw to them & some are downright unlikeable, but strangely enough, you can't help but root for them as the series progresses. It's that these characters are so unapologetically realistic & unwilling to conform that you can't help but grow attatched to them. The artwork is also a nice change of pace, as the artist never falls into the stereotypical design that many mangas seem to have today.

Would I recommend this series? That's a big YES! In fact, I already have one or two people I'm planning on telling about it already. I would recommend this to fans of series such as Paradise Kiss, as this series strongly reminded me of it. (This is like ParaKiss's older & more mature sibling.) I would also recommend that once people are done with this series that they check out other manga by the author. All of her work is very well done & of the same caliber quality.

So in trying to transition from shojo manga to manga for an older audience I came across Walkin' Butterfly. And I have to say I did like the first book. I didn't love it but I liked it. It's reminiscent of Paradise Kiss and has a similar artistic style to Tramps Like Us. However after buying and reading the 1st book I realized that the 4th and final volume was never released in English. As a person who hates having incomplete series this really bothers me. So while I'm sure I could find it somewhere it is unavailable for purchase. So if you are like me and hate being left not knowing then I wouldn't suggest starting this series.

I must say that Aurora Publishing did a decent job, in my opinion, for their manga debut. Walkin' Butterfly is a great read, dealing with the insecurities of our main character, Michiko. The artwork is very stylish, or, "Chic as a Tokyo catwalk," as says the cover. While people seem to complain about 'plain lettering,' I think it was a good idea to keep the text plain to bring out the artwork in the book. I found myself often looking at the pages of art rather than the words, and having to go back so I would actually read. All-in-all, it was a great read, and I was very excited about the second volume.