Manga Review: Papillon Volume One

[Jason]

Title: Papillon
Volume: One
Mangaka: Miwa Ueda
Originally Serialized In: Bessatsu Friend
Licensed by: Del Rey
Genre: Shoujo

Poor Ageha has been living in the shadow of her super gorgeous sister, Hana, ever since the twins were in second grade. Thanks to her country upbringing - or so she tells herself - Ageha is plain, boring, and self-conscious; everything that Hana isn't. Finally, she's had enough, and plans to build herself up once and for all, no matter what Hana tries!

Sounds like typical shoujo fare, right? Pretty much. Everyone likes to see the plain girl finally have her day, or else nearly every romance novel ever written wouldn't be flying off the shelves as soon as they're stocked. Even better, this is a series by Miwa Ueda, manga-ka of Peach Girl. I really, really liked Peach Girl when it came out, both for Ueda's flowery-but-detailed art style and for lead character Momo's fiery attitude.

When I saw I'd have the chance to review Papillon, I was pretty darn excited. I thought if it were even half as entertaining as Ueda's previous work, I'd be in for a treat. I thought wrong; very, very wrong.

Papillon is so completely and totally annoying that I don't even know where to start. Though I suppose Ageha is as good a place as any, given that much of my irritation with the book comes from this little waif in the first place. The issue is not so much that Ageha is self-conscious. Everyone has their inner demons, right? The problem is with the level to which Ageha takes this self-consciousness. The book starts with the girl utterly loathing herself, and barely a chapter after a cute guy gives her some sort of pep talk to pick her up, she's back down in the dumps thanks to her complete jerk of a sister stealing the guy she's interested in.


Speaking of her sister, she's almost as unlikeable a character as Ageha herself. She's completely irredeemable thus far. At least in Peach Girl, where Sae occasionally got what was coming to her, not once do we see Hana get smacked by karma. No sir! In fact, on the same page she cries crocodile tears over breaking up with a guy, the boy Ageha is after - and even with at the time – immediately rushes to Hana's side to comfort her and rant on and on about how "No, Hana isn't easy" and how wrong he was about her this entire time. While, of course, Ageha stands on the sidelines.

Ageha never once makes even the remotest attempt to stand up for herself, going so far as to even leave Hana and the boy, Ryuusei, alone together on a date. Honestly, it's infuriating enough that I couldn't even finish the book. Ageha is so completely unlikeable that the only reason I want to see volume 2 is to see whether or not she redeems herself by some slim chance. I don't think it likely though, as flipping through the pages I stumbled across Ageha prettying herself up with some fancy clothing and makeup to make herself look like Hana. Given the book's 13+ rating, this is an absolutely brilliant message to send to impressionable young readers. The only way to feel better about "yourself" is to make "yourself" look like some tarted-up tramp.

Ugh. I can't even begin to say how disappointed in Ueda I am with this one. I hope to get my hands on the second volume soon to see where she goes with this, because even as terrible as Ageha is, I still have hope that this might somehow, somehow turn around. For now though, stay away from this one unless you're some kind of literary masochist. Even Del Rey's standard flawless translation and print work can't save Papillon at this point.

Reviewer: Kiara
Proofed and Edited by Lissa Pattillo