Papillon 4
Posted: January 16, 2010 Filed under: Papillon Leave a comment »Miwa Ueda – Del Rey – 2009 – 9 volumes
… I don’t know. There’s still a lot of back and forth. The only plot the series seems to have comes from Ageha thinking her boyfriend is cheating on her or otherwise being unfaithful. They make up from the incident last volume, but this volume involves a lot of Hana being together with him for counseling and Ageha not liking it. They aren’t together through the entire volume, but Hana seems to get more serious about it right at the end. Sigh.
To Papillon’s credit, Ageha also spends most of the volume believing in Ichijiku, which is unusual for this type of series, and I suppose is a good sign that the characters really are developing rather than going around in circles. Even with all the evidence mounting against him, Ageha still believes that Ichijiku wouldn’t cheat on her. And also to Papillon’s credit, the characters continue to take time out to have serious talks about their feelings and ways to change things they don’t like, which is also rare. When was the last time a character you didn’t like figured out the things that were unlikable about them and thought changing would be a good idea? And then sought help for how to do it? Papillon is still kind of trashy, but it does give good advice, at least, and it’s hard not to get sucked in no matter how much I hate the repetition. Or the fact that Hana is just another creepy Sae. We find out she does terrible things to her boyfriends to trick them into cheating on her, but we also find out why she does these things. I don’t think I would accept the weak excuse in another series, but in this one, it makes sense since she’s seeking to change it.
But yes. It’s Miwa Ueda, so I’m just going to go ahead and keep reading.
