Manga Review: Papillon, Volume 4, by Miwa Ueda

Rating (Out of 5): 3

Publisher: Del Rey

Volumes: 8

 

Goodreads Synopsis:

SISTER ACT

Ageha used to live in the shadow of her pretty, more popular sister, Hana. But those days are gone! Now Ageha is confident, independent, and dating her hot guidance counselor, Kyû-chan. Everything is going great. That is, until Hana seeks help from Kyû-chan. Will she succeed in stealing Kyû-chan’s heart?

Review:

 

I've been trying not to put these reviews too close together, but I want to be able to read the next one, so here's volume four.

So the last one ended with 'Ageha' and Ryusei kissing. Ryusei freaks out a little and then they talk and she sweet talks him and they kiss some more before she reveals that she's actually Hana. (I totally guessed right.) (But, Hana was very good at being Ageha, which is a little weird. Because Ueda usually draws her as pretty obvious around guys, and while she was a little more 'seductive', or something, she was still very good as Ageha.) This has Ryusei freaked out, because he doesn't know how to act around Ageha and he's avoiding Hana. He talks to one of Hana's ex-boyfriends later, after moping and not knowing what to do with himself, and finds out that it's something that she's done before, and apparently does a lot. So he goes and freaks out on Hana, saying that she set herself up for it and won't open herself, and that he has feelings too, and all that. While Hana is talking to Hayato, and they do some more talking.

Previously to this, Hayato and Ageha have made up, and kissed, because she doesn't want to lose him, and he knows how upset she is about it now and all that. Anyway, so Hayato and Hana start hanging out more. She's talking to him about her problems, and how Ageha always seems more appealing after a while to the guys that she goes out with, which is why she pretends to be her, as she wants someone to only like her. Ageha starts wondering what going on with them, since they are around each other so much, even after school. Plus, she has this friend who can 'smell' it when people have just had sex, and she can smell the same scent on both of them. This is a little weird, but it mostly only pushes Ageha to overreact, and make a scene about them being around each other and having sex behind her back. The both of them resolve this for her, talking about this cologne that her friend smelled. This is a common occurrence, it seems. Ageha wasting time worrying about something before overreacting and then whatever it is being solved in a couple of pages. And she never seems to understand that she could just have asked about it instead.

Okay, anyway, so Hana and Hayato are still hanging around each other quite a bit. He has previously covered her from glass shattering, and then near the end he pulls out of the way of an oncoming car, after saving her from some pushy guy. And then she wraps her arms around him, wanting him to hold her. (This is ridiculous, because she totally should have seen the cars moving around on the road. They were moving before she started crossing it. Is she stupid, or did she want him to save her?)

And that's it for this volume.

This is terrible. And it's not getting any better. It's pretty much the same amount of terrible as it was from the beginning. And if I didn't already have the next one (the omnibus), then I probably wouldn't read it. (I think that might be a lie. Because, despite how terrible this is, I don't mind reading it. It is horribly stupid, and yet I can't seem to stop.)

Ageha isn't any better. We've got more insight into Hana, but I don't really feel sorry for her. She's pretty much done this to herself. Hayato I'm unsure of. Ryusei is still pretty pathetic, but I still kind of like him. Ageha's friends are alright, but we've only seem a little bit of them. Their family is alright. It's all pretty much the same. Which isn't a particularly good thing, but at least it's not worse, right?

Also, I'm still wondering if Kodansha is going to publish the next one. I will probably talk more about this on the next volume, since it is the last one released.